Amidst NATO rumblings, the question is – how will the Trans-Atlantic survive? The answer may lie on the global strategic horizon.

On the global strategic horizon, the US continues to be Europe’s best bet, given their inherent overlapping values and interests, and the comfort derived from being historical partners. Lack of effective alternatives — structured differences with China and the limited global heft of other countries — limits Europe’s strategic choices. While the expectations of a future return to normal remain high due to their mutual dependence, Europe now is more aware of its strategic gaps and the follies of outsourcing its security. Strategic manoeuvring in the form of strengthening the European pillar of NATO, therefore, appears to be the blueprint for the future

Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security; it is up to us to guarantee European security.”

— Emmanuel Macron, President of France

We won’t let ourselves be pushed around time and again; we will act.”

— Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

These recent impassioned statements by the respective EU leaders reflect the increasing European disillusionment towards the US policies shaping the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) — an alliance that has been the mainstay of European security for half a century.

The fraying of this trans-Atlantic partnership, amid unprecedented American criticism of its European allies disproportionate “burden sharing”, is a symptom of the emerging US trend of looking at global relationship primarily through an economic prism.

US President Donald Trump has gone on record to call the European Union (EU) a “trade foe” which has been “unfairly taking advantage of America”. With politics and security being intertwined, these developments have cast a shadow on the value based trans-Atlantic security relationship.

Meanwhile, European push-back, in the form of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) that envisions Europe taking charge of its own defence, highlights a fundamental recalibration of the continent’s security mind-set.

Their emphasis on greater strategic autonomy, rooted in the fear of being forced to fend for themselves strikes at the very root of the post Second World War Western strategic consciousness.

As Europe and the US head towards unchartered territory, pertinent questions arise: What is the salience of NATO in the Trans-Atlantic partnership? What are the key emerging differences between the US and its European allies? And what are the core challenges that European countries face in their quest for greater strategic autonomy?

NATO’s enduring relevance

The American and European strategic consciousness has been shaped by a distinct modus operandi since the end of the Second World War. In return for rebuilding Europe (Marshall Plan) and ensuring its security (NATO), the US sought Europe’s support in its global projection of American power. This strategic bargain has allowed the EU to emerge as a technological and economic powerhouse while the US influenced the continent’s foreign policies and became the key pillar of its security. NATO, in this context, emerged as a vital instrument of trans-Atlantic mutual dependence.

More significantly, NATO ensures a strategic balance within Europe. The US, as a hegemon leading the organisation, suppresses the inherent tendency of European nation states to enter into a security competition and engage in a balance of power calculus with each other. Europe’s consensus on American leadership of the Western world vis-à-vis that by a European state reflects this reality.

From European perspective, the further the hegemon is from their shores, the more stable is the existing equilibrium.   

Strategic drift

Nevertheless, a strategic dissonance in the trans-Atlantic relationship has been festering for years. Taking European support for granted for pushing the US regional agenda in Iraq and the clandestine American surveillance of EU leaders have, in the past, shook the foundations of a trust based partnership. Even so, given their mutual dependence, Europe and the US have consistently found the sweet spot in their strategic outlook.

However, the tone and tenor of President Trump in questioning the very credibility of NATO has sowed seeds of doubt among the Europeans about American commitment and NATO’s reliability. The growing fissures in their shared strategic calculus, evident in their diverging positions on multiple issues, particularly where the European countries are vital stakeholders, have further muddied the waters.

These involve climate change, trade and tariff, migration, Iranian nuclear deal, American actions in Jerusalem, and threat from Russia. President Trump’s support for European political parties that endorse an-anti-EU rhetoric, meanwhile, strikes at the core of the EU integration model.

These developments, therefore, lay bare the inherent contradictions between America First and the EU multilateralism prisms. Having unflinchingly supported the US global leadership role, a growing perception of the US trying to undermine legitimate EU interests has led the Europeans states to seek a greater independent role in shaping their foreign and security policies.

It is, perhaps, not the Americans but the Europeans who feel they are being treated unfairly. The German Foreign Minister’s appeal to “build a sovereign and strong Europe” that will form a “counterweight when the US crosses the line” aptly reflects these sentiments.

This has resulted in a European clamour for forging a “new alliance of trade-friendly nations” – likely a reference to the non-Western world initiatives.

In this context, some Europeans view better economic ties with China as a hedge against disruptive American policies. Notably, a break in the trans-Atlantic unity is evident in the EU seeking to circumvent the US sanctions by setting up non-American monetary channels in order to keep alive the Iranian nuclear deal. Its success could challenge the status of the US dollar as the world’s principal reserve currency, thereby seriously undermining Pax-Americana.

Method behind the madness?

Given the salience of this mutually beneficial relationship, the ongoing friction is likely more nuanced than what meets the eye. Notably, none of the Trans-Atlantic partners have called for a complete break from NATO. In this context, President Trump’s insistence on Europe paying more for collective defence could be the US bargaining chip to gain concessions on reducing the American trade deficit.

Similarly, a stronger and more independent Europe allows the Europeans to build a balanced relationship with the US. Their “Europe First” rhetoric can compel the US to take European interests more seriously. As part of this posturing, the French President’s recent positive outreach to Russia can be an attempt to tap the institutional Russophobia in the US and to convey the message that Europe too has options in its strategic calculus. Not to mention, a strong EU also raises the continent’s global strategic profile.

Rhetoric vs reality of European strategic autonomy

However, in their quest for taking greater control of their foreign and security policies, the Europeans are confronted by multiple structural and functional roadblocks. These include lack of unanimity among its members on key issues, ranging from EU’s strategic outlook to migration, financial stability, weapons sales and emerging threat perception, and the growing Euroscepticism sweeping the continent. Decades of defence underfunding, especially on command and control and surveillance, due to their over-reliance on the American security umbrella has undermined a credible European conventional and nuclear deterrence. Any perceived weakness puts the continent in the crosshairs of Russian strategic calculus.

NATO is, in effect, a force multiplier without which the Europeans vulnerabilities are deeply exposed. The German Foreign Minister’s admission that the “organisation is indispensable for our security” highlights EU’s existing security dilemma.

Moreover, on the global strategic horizon, in its search for strategic partners, the US continues to be Europe’s best bet, given their inherent overlapping values and interests, and the comfort derived from being historical partners. Lack of effective alternatives — structured differences with China and the limited global heft of other countries — limits Europe’s strategic choices. Meanwhile, instruments of financial independence, such as making Euro the global reserve currency, which would mark true strategic independence are likely to have a long gestation period.

Consequently, the prediction of an end of the Trans-Atlantic partnership appears unlikely. As with its other global relationships, the ongoing friction has the imprimatur of President Trump’s disruptive America First policies. The US institutional mechanisms, though, appear to bet on the strategic relevance of this partnership, as evident by Defence Secretary Jim Mattis’s recent reassurance to Europe of America’s “iron clad commitment” to NATO.

While the expectations of a future return to normal remain high due to their mutual dependence, Europe now is more aware of its strategic gaps and the follies of outsourcing its security. Strategic manoeuvring in the form of strengthening the European pillar of NATO, therefore, appears to be the blueprint for the future.

(The writer is a Research Analyst at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi)

Writer:  Rajorshi Roy

Source: The Pioneer

On the completion of 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace (GEAP) in Latin America has decided to create a zone of peace on the Asian continent and come together to follow up of the Asian Relations Conference.

A remarkable initiative organized annually in Latin America by the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace (GEAP) is a conference entitled, ‘The Peace Integration Summit’ with the acronym of CUMIPAZ. Earlier this week, the 2018 Summit was held in Guatemala at which this writer delivered the keynote address. What is particularly significant about the GEAP is the fact that this body consists largely of academics and intellectuals, with a remarkable thinker Dr. William Soto Santiago, as the prime mover. The GEAP has very lofty objectives: “Work towards the improvement, welfare, happiness and peace of the human family and Mother Earth, promoting a global formation of the integral human being and the formation of activists for peace in the framework of universal values and principles, for the defense of Human Rights and the Rights of Mother Earth, through the development of programmes, projects and campaigns aimed at different areas in which humans operate and interact.”

Significantly, we have no initiative of a similar profile in Asia, which fortunately does not have conflicts such as those in several other parts of the world. But tensions are on the increase in the region, as manifested by the recent near collision between the US and Chinese naval ships in the South China Sea. Since Asia now has a growing nuclear arsenal, it is extremely important that we serve the future of humanity by creating an atmosphere and philosophy of peace that guides relations in this region. It was in recognition of this challenge, which Mahatma Gandhi foresaw, that India hosted the Asian Relations Conference during March-April 1947, with leaders from all across Asia as participants.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then the interim Prime Minister of undivided India, stated on that occasion, “Asia is again finding herself … one of the notable consequences of the European domination of Asia has been the isolation of the countries of Asia from one another…Today this isolation is breaking down because of many reasons, political and otherwise…This Conference is significant as an expression of that deeper urge of the mind and spirit of Asia which has persisted. In this Conference and in this work there are no leaders and no followers. All countries of Asia have to meet together in a common task.” The Asian Relations Conference was clearly a visionary initiative, which for several reasons has not been followed up in substance by the nations in Asia.

Perhaps a greater focus on the Asian identity and creating a region of mutual trust, connected by common concerns and objectives, is now extremely important. It would also be useful to recall that 40 years later in 1987, the Government of India held the Asian Relations Commemorative Conference, which also drew participants from all across Asia. One of the major outcomes of that conference was a consensus to coordinate energy policies across the continent. As a result, with the initiative of a remarkable Foreign Secretary, Muchkund Dubey, the Asian Energy Institute was established under the leadership of Dr. Ali Shams Ardekani, later the Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran, and this writer.

The Asian Energy Institute, which was a network of energy institutions across Asia, took up as its first challenge the development of a plan for a pipeline to transport the enormous quantity of surplus natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, India and later Nepal as well. This was an extremely attractive option because Iran had found large reserves of natural gas, and the Iranian Government was willing to provide attractive terms and low prices to Pakistan, India, and Nepal for gas supply over a long period. Unfortunately, this visionary initiative was blocked by mutual suspicions and mistrust. Had it been pursued Iran’s place in the global community would have been different and relations between India, Pakistan and Nepal would have been much healthier.

Now that we are in the year of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, India has a unique opportunity to give substance to the memory of that world apostle of peace. It would be relevant to create a zone of peace on the Asian continent and convene a follow up of the Asian Relations Conference during its diamond jubilee year in 2022. There are, undoubtedly, growing tensions which must be contained and will need to be channeled in the direction of peace, good neighborly conduct, and friendship. It would be extremely valuable to take the example of CUMIPAZ and draw on the academic community, forward-looking thinkers and activists in Asia and elsewhere who believe that human society in the 21st century must relentlessly pursue peace in this century.

Preparations should be taken in hand on Gandhiji’s birth anniversary in 2019 by the Indian Government with political leaders, captains of business, academics and think-tanks across Asia to organize a major event that must have an impact on the thinking and actions of societies across Asia so that we become a region of stable peace. In order to ensure that such an event is not merely a talk shop but results in crucial understanding in critical areas of human endeavor across the world and certainly in Asia, it will be useful to structure the diamond jubilee of the Asian Relations Conference into a set of very concrete areas of cooperation.

This means that the next four years have to be spent in an adequate preparation by which we not only ensure clarity in defining the areas where cooperation and constructive engagement would be essential but also involve major Asian leaders such as the presidents of Indonesia, South Korea and Kazakhstan, the prime ministers of Japan, Malaysia and Singapore and others in joining hands with India as partners in the conference.

Perhaps the best way to get started with this would be for a compact but diverse committee to be set up which may be given the responsibility of coming up with a clear plan of action to be debated and discussed by all the stakeholders. Once a plan is in place then action can be initiated perhaps by the middle of next year, which will allow three full years for an initiative of this nature, placing India at the center of peace in Asia. Also, this will be held as a fitting tribute to Gandhiji’s vision and commitment, which has even greater significance and relevance today.

(The writer is former chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2002-15)

Writer: RK Pachauri

Courtesy: The Pioneer

At least 43,000 people have been displaced after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian province earlier this week. Nearly a hundred people were killed and thousands of buildings damaged.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi last week was remarkable for the tragic scale of devastation it caused. The death toll has crossed the 1,200-mark and casualty numbers are expected to rise as many bodies remain trapped and voices of people crying for help can still be heard from the rubble of collapsed buildings. More than two million people have been affected and more than 40,000 have been displaced. The damage caused to the island’s infrastructure is massive. The quake, of a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter Scale, sent waves rising as high as six meters and the tsunami’s giant waves crashed into the shore they swept along with them all that was in their way. Sulawesi is a major island of the Indonesian archipelago and the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami will hit the country’s economy hard. For many, the tsunami brought back to mind memories of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean region which followed a 9.0 magnitude quake took a toll of 227,898 lives. While the current situation has not reached the apocalyptic levels of 2004, and the damage is limited to one country, the fact is that Indonesia is reeling under its destructive impact. Even as rescue workers are battling against time, massive looting of food and other emergency provisions has been reported.  International help, it must be pointed out, has been slow in coming and it is the Indonesian Government which is trying but not always succeeding in ensuring relief and rescue measures are in place and help is reaching those who need it most. Tales of individual courage — like that of the ATC operator who lost his life because he stayed at his post to ensure a passenger aircraft took off without incident when the quake struck — abound but are no substitute for coordinated disaster management.

The natural disaster, savage as it is, is not new to the island nation. Surrounded by volcanoes and prone to earthquakes/tsunamis, Indonesia remains like some other countries in the region woefully unprepared for a powerful earthquake. The country’s national meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG had detected subterranean tectonic movement and issued an earthquake alert but it failed to gauge its intensity. The tsunami warning too, many complained, came too late. To top it all, the country did not have adequate equipment and technological tools to conduct quick and effective rescue operations. Of course, accurate detection of impending natural disasters is next to impossible; even Japan, for instance, which is known to have one of the best systems to respond to such calamities, could not do much in 2011 when a 9.1 earthquake and tsunami struck its coastal region that left nearly 19,000 dead. The only solution, therefore, is to be better prepared. The disaster in Indonesia holds lessons in preparedness for all, including India.

Writer: Pioneer

Courtesy: The Pioneer

The Russian Government has been making self-defeating and clums actions by asking two poisoning suspects, from Salisbury, to explain their trip to the public. All these things are small indicators of how fr the rot in Putin’s remine the Government has gone.

Salisbury is a nice old English town with a fine cathedral, only an hour and a half from London by train, but it doesn’t see many Russian tourists in wintertime. It’s not as cold as Moscow, but Russians tend to prefer Mediterranean destinations for holiday breaks in early March — unless, of course, they are planning to kill somebody.

The person of interest in Salisbury was Sergei Skripal, a former member of the Russian military intelligence service, who started selling information to the British in the mid-1990s and was caught and jailed by the Russians in 2004. He was pardoned and allowed to go to Britain as part of a spy swap between Western countries and Russia in 2010, and he settled in Salisbury.

On March 4 this year, Skripal and his daughter, who were visiting from Moscow, were found semi-conscious on a bench in the street in Salisbury and taken to a hospital. They spend weeks in intensive care, and it was determined that they had been poisoned by novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent that falls into the category of banned chemical weapons.

A policeman who went to Skripal’s house was also struck down by the poison, which had been sprayed on the handle of the front door, but he also recovered eventually. Three months later a Nina Ricci perfume bottle that contained leftover, novichok was found in a charity bin in Salisbury, and a woman who sprayed it on her wrists died.

Britain accused Russia of sending assassins to kill Skripal and of using a banned weapon. It had no hard proof beyond the novichok, but Skripal was still helping Western intelligence agencies to understand Russian training and techniques, so Moscow had a motive.

Many people pointed out that it would have been foolish for Moscow to choose such a complicated method and risk exposure. Why wouldn’t it just hire a non-Russian hitman to do the job? But Moscow has done this sort of thing before: Russian agents, exotic substances, the lot.

Alexander Litvinenko, a member of the Federal Security Service, got into trouble after his investigation into links between Russian mafia groups and his own organisation made him unpopular with Vladimir Putin, the FSB’s head. Litvinenko fled Russia for Britain after Putin took over the presidency in 2000.

Litvinenko remained a harsh critic of Putin, and in 2006, Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy, both former FSB agents, were sent to London to kill him. CCTV images showed the killers with Litvinenko at a London hotel where they dosed his tea with a tiny amount of polonium-210, a highly toxic radioactive substance that would not normally be spotted because it does not emit gamma rays.

That was a reasonably competent operation, exposed only by bad luck. The 2018 operation was different. CCTV images, released only last week, showed Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, two 30-something Russian ‘fitness trainers’, making a brief trip to Salisbury on March 3, presumably to do a reconnaissance, and back to the town on the 4th to do the dirty deed.

But then it got weird. Putin publicly urged the two men to go on TV, and last week they appeared on RT, a Russian international news channel, to explain their brief trip (which gave them only 54 hours in England).

“Our friends had been suggesting for a long time that we visit this wonderful town,” said Petrov. They especially wanted to see Salisbury Cathedral, said Boshirov: “It’s famous for its 123-metre spire, it’s famous for its clock….” But they looked like heavies from Central Casting, and not at all like clock-tower enthusiasts. ‘Nekulturny’ (uncultured), as the Russians say.

Why did they only spend 30 minutes in Salisbury the first time? “It was cold.” (It was 10 degrees C warmer than Moscow.) Why did they take another train down to Salisbury the next day? “We really wanted to see Old Sarum and the cathedral.” (Old Sarum is an Iron-Age hill fort near Salisbury that was closed on March 4).

And on March 4 one of the CCTV cameras picked them up close to Skripal’s house and far from the cathedral or any other tourist attractions. Is Russia deliberately trolling the British Government to show its contempt? Probably not, because it has tried very hard to distance itself from the crime in other international venues. Did Putin’s regime put those two highly implausible ‘tourists’ on RT because it forgot that different standards of truth prevail elsewhere? Maybe.

But the likeliest answer is that these clumsy and self-defeating actions are indicators of how far the rot in the regime has gone. Elements of the system, like the Armed Forces (which have performed well in Syria), retain their efficiency and discipline, but corruption and incompetence rule elsewhere. The Salisbury debacle would not have happened 18 years ago, when Putin’s reign was new. It suggests that the regime is a lot closer to its end than its beginning.

(The writer is an independent journalist)

Writer: Gwynne Dyer

Courtesy: The Pioneer

When it comes to the connection between autoimmune diseases, cancer, and GMOs, there have been a number of studies and researches being done. With the reports, the leading producer of GMO, Monsanto, is on the run.

Once the bully on the block, Monsanto is on the run. Environmentalists will recall the early years of genetically modified (GM) crops when wind pollination contaminated the crops of traditional farmers and the company forced the victim, the farmers, to pay for patent infringement, an atrocity upheld by the US judicial system until the horrendous consequences of GM foods became too palpable to ignore.

Victims of Monsanto’s weedicide, Roundup, scored a major victory in July 2018 when a California jury awarded $289 million as compensation to a former school groundskeeper who is dying of cancer due to ingesting the chemical regularly while spraying. DeWayne Lee Johnson, then 42, contacted Monsanto after developing a rash, but was never warned it could cause cancer. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014. The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate (the key ingredient) as a “probable human carcinogen” in 2015.

In 2017, California added glyphosate to its list of chemicals known to cause cancer. The ruling will impact other cases filed by cancer survivors against Monsanto, which now have to be faced by its new owner, Bayer AG. Johnson’s legal team presented internal emails, showing how the company rejected critical research and expert warnings against glyphosate’s potential risks. Inspired by the verdict, Vietnam has decided to seek justice for victims of Agent Orange, used by the US military during the Vietnam War. Nguyen Phuong Tra, deputy spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, stated, “The verdict … refutes previous claims that the herbicides made by Monsanto and other chemical corporations in the US and provided for the US Army in the war are harmless. Vietnam has suffered tremendous consequences … especially with regard to the lasting and devastating effects of toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange.”

Agent Orange is a defoliant used to strip Vietnam’s thick forests; it poisoned the soil in large tracts, causing genetic deformities in generations of Vietnamese. Nearly three million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange between 1961 and 1971, when nearly 12 million gallons were sprayed over the jungles. Monsanto claimed the chemical was produced for and used by the Government, and that it was only one among nine wartime contractors who produced the toxin.

Amidst rising public awareness, an organisation called Moms Across America is agitating for a ban on glyphosate in all 50 States, in the wake of evidence that gluten foods and too many illnesses are linked to glyphosate and GMO poisoning. Activists point out that most European and many other countries have banned GMOs and Roundup as people and animals are becoming sick from herbicides/pesticides in the food, water and air. Europe is emerging as the next battleground. Reports suggest that the European Union could withdraw the licence for Roundup this year. Earlier, the licence was extended for five years, until 2022, instead of the usual 15 years. The lawyers involved in the California lawsuit claim to have revealing documents about Monsanto’s activities in Europe. Robert Jr Kennedy told Euronews, “…we have documents now in our possession, several hundreds of documents, that have not been declassified and some of those are explosive.” In Brazil, a federal judge in August 2018 ordered suspension of all products containing glyphosate until the Government reassesses its toxicity. As Brazil has used Monsanto’s GM soybean seeds and herbicide on a large scale for four decades, the decision is startling and unexpected.

Recently, the Public Library of Science (PLOS) published research showing that the DNA of GM foods can enter the human bloodstream intact and cause many health problems. Researchers collected blood samples of more than 1,000 participants; “the results indicated that meal-derived DNA fragments (which were large enough to carry complete genes) can avoid degradation and ultimately enter the human body’s circulation system”. Hungarian researchers observed that these are not just fragments of DNA but stretches of DNA which are large enough to pass complete genes of GMO plants (like soy, corn or canola oil) to humans.

In some blood samples, the relative concentration of plant DNA was higher than human DNA. The researchers noted that participants with inflammatory bowel disease and auto-immune disease had the highest concentration of the transgenic gene. Previous studies have indicated that GMOs could change the beneficial bacteria in the intestines and trigger auto-immune diseases and inflammation. Beneficial bacteria help with food digestion and protect the human body against foreign invaders. However, when the DNA of GMO foods enters the small intestine, it can alter the composition of beneficial gut bacteria and make the body unable to absorb real nutrients in foods.

Other studies suggest a link between GMOs and auto immune diseases. The researchers have observed that pigs fed on GMO soy and corn suffered from severe inflammation of stomach and intestine; female pigs fed a GMO diet had their uteri (uterus) enlarged by 25 per cent.

These studies refute the claims made by biotech and regulatory agencies regarding the safety of GMO foods. Independent scientists and researchers have long warned regulatory bodies and the biotech industry that GMO genes can be transferred from dairy and animal products to people. After years of denial, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has reluctantly admitted that DNA from food (GMO and non-GMO) could end up in animal tissues and milk and dairy products consumed by people. The critical issue is GMO, as it marries a bacterium, a microbial species, with plant tissue — a hybrid alien to Nature.

In Canada, meanwhile, authorities discovered a patch of an unapproved, genetically modified strain of wheat in the wild, far from the old Monsanto test areas. The crop was found on an access road in Alberta in 2017, after it survived the spraying of the area with herbicide. Tests by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency revealed that the crop was genetically modified and herbicide-tolerant; was never approved for commercial use or production within Canada; and belonged to a Monsanto GM wheat line (MON71200) which was used in multiple confined research field trials in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Canada and the United States. It was subsequently destroyed. But the fact that the strain got into the wild more than 100 km away from any known former test fields, and survived for nearly two decades thereafter, is a warning of the dangers posed by GM plants, whether food or non-food.

(The writer is Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library; the views expressed are personal)

Writer: Sandhya Jain

Courtesy: The Pioneer

The Malaysian Prime Minister called the bluff regarding the Chinese investments and rescued his country from previous deals, making a pathway for India to ease the worry regarding the concerns surrounding the Chinese presence around Malacca Streets.

At 93, Mahathir Mohamad’s political career has spanned over 70 years and the wily nonagenarian has returned as the Malaysian Prime Minister after an itchy retirement lasting 15 years. The statesman, credited with transforming Malaysia from an agrarian to an industrial powerhouse in his first term of 22 years, has ostensibly returned to ‘save’ his country from the wrath of the multi-billion ‘1MDB’ scandal, substantial parts of which were linked to the Chinese involvement. Mahathir’s successful electoral campaign, pitched against the ‘great-grandmother-of-all-scandals’, was seen as a possible roadblock to the growing portents of Sinosphere under the previous Najib Razak regime, who had started courting mammoth Chinese investments into Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have been on a relentless prowl to hook cash-strapped countries with its gargantuan Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to create uninterrupted routes, connectivity and infrastructure along both land and seaways. The Chinese juggernaut towards this proposed solidification of interlinkages has led to infamous belligerence and appropriations in the South China Seas and the ‘String of pearls’ ports that dot along the life-sustaining maritime passages. The approach of the Chinese efforts varies from the simple ‘cheque-book diplomacy’ of funding investments (eg Philippines), coercion (eg Doklam in Bhutan) to surreptitious ‘debt-traps’ (eg Hambantota port in Sri Lanka).

A lethal and irresistible combination of financial, military and diplomatic muscle is leveraged to ensnare and ensure the requisite Chinese footprint. Often, this Chinese footprint initially comes under the guise of civil facilities and infrastructure, which later morphs into the dual-usage (civil and military) platforms, as was done recently at the mouth of the strategically placed Djibouti base of the Chinese Navy. The sophisticated pattern of patiently luring the bait follows the generous soles of ‘unpayable’ Chinese investments, which are, thereafter, settled with certain compromises in the form of invaluable bases, arrangements and irretrievable alignments. Recently, this had led the old warhorse and one-time critic of the West, Mohamad Mahathir, to presciently forewarn of the Chinese tact as a new version of colonialism.

Malaysia and the southern tip of the Indian Islands of Andaman and Nicobar overlook and physically dominate the most sensitive and vulnerable chokepoint of Chinese nightmares in the Malacca Straits. This ultra-narrow straits host the busiest shipping lanes in the world with over 100,000 ships plying nearly 30 percent of the global trade. From a Chinese perspective, it sustains the ‘Chinese Dream’ fueled by trade and an unending appetite for energy sources. A potential doomsday scenario of a ‘choke’ in the Malacca Straits has led to two strategic actions: First, to attempt creating alternate corridors like the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) or rail-linkages with the Eurasian nations, all dovetailed under the BRI initiative. Second, to invest disproportionately in the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to create adequate energy buffer stocks to withstand any unforeseen disruption in these regime-sustaining seaways. However, given the best economic viability of the seaways as opposed to overland routes, the essential preference remains on ensuring the uninterrupted of these seaways by way of establishing strong Chinese footprints all along the route.

Given that only India and Malaysia have the maritime real-estate around these vulnerable Malacca Straits (as narrow as 1.5 nautical miles wide at the Philips Channel) both from a sovereign and military perspective, any untoward presence of the Chinese could upset the applecart of power balance. Currently, this area is relatively free from overt militarisation, given that the traditional Chinese naval muscularity is restricted further up in the South China Seas and the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Tri-Services Command has also adopted a defensive posture and build-up. However, the presence of Chinese warships could undo the equations as they are threatening to do so in the Maldives, or in the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, where the Chinese have acquired port control for a 99 year lease. Till the recent change in the Malaysian regime, amongst various investments that the Chinese were dangling was to invest $7.2 billion in the redevelopment of the Malaysian Malacca Port to a deep sea port (capable of handling aircraft carriers), a promise that could rival Singapore port facilities. This had the signature Chinese debt traps written all over it, which could ultimately lead to Chinese presence in these calm waters.

The sagacious Mahathir had to walk the tightrope of calling the bluff of Chinese investments, as also recognising the importance of maintaining cordial relations with its biggest trading partner. His first port of international call after assuming prime ministership was Beijing, where he was feted and honoured with the disconcerting realisation that Mahathir had personified the anti-Chinese sentiment and had to be charmed for future acquiescence. However, age hadn’t withered the blunt Mahathir who lost none of his chutzpah in declaring on Chinese soil, “We are not against Chinese companies, but we are against borrowing money from outside and having projects which are unnecessary, and which are very costly”, after he had announced the cancellation of three major Chinese contracts for an East Coast Rail Link and two gas pipelines, arguing the cost was inflated and the terms weren’t favourable to Malaysia. The Chinese are not known to take sleights of colonialism very easily but are cognizant of the fact that Mohamad Mahathir at 93 will be resolute on sovereign pride, independence and legacy that could militate against Chinese ambitions and debt-imperialism.

With a spiralling debt of $250 billion, declared concern on Chinese intent and non-issues with the existing infrastructure around Malacca Straits, Mohamad Mahathir may have inadvertently eased India’s own concerns on Chinese presence around the Malacca Straits. Even his remark that “free trade should also be fair trade” had unmistakable pointers of correcting the ‘China-first’ approach that dominated the Malaysian narrative. Mahathir will be welcomed into comity of the Sino-wary nations in the Asean region and will find alternate trading partners in the Japanese, Indian and Australian markets, who have their own long-term concerns and apprehensions with the formula of initial Chinese benevolence and its subsequent aftermath.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)

Writer: Bhopinder Singh

Courtesy: The Pioneer

It is not new to see the Chinese being absolutely brutal towards the Uighur Muslim minority, but the surprising fact is that why do they have double standards when it comes to questioning

Beijing?

Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 117-page report titled, ‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses — China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims’, which gave fresh evidence of Beijing’s “mass arbitrary detention, torture and mistreatment, and the increasingly pervasive controls on daily life,” in the restive Province. The US based agency affirmed: “Throughout the region, the Turkic Muslim population of 13 million, is subjected to forced political indoctrination, collective punishment, restrictions on movement and communications, heightened religious restrictions and mass surveillance in violation of international human rights law.”

The HRW report is based on interviews with 58 former residents of Xinjiang, including five former detainees and 38 relatives of detainees. Bloomberg, citing a United Nations’ assessment, had earlier reported that the Chinese authorities have detained ‘upwards of one million’ Uighurs: “As its mosques are shuttered and travel across its borders restricted, Xinjiang — once at the intersection of ancient Silk Road trade routes — threatens to become a black hole in President Xi Jinping’s effort to build new ones.”

The fact that China would like Xinjiang to be the hub of its mega project compounds the issue. The Uighurs being badly treated by Beijing is, however, not new. In a report dated May 1950, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) states: “On the pretense of suppressing guerrillas, the Chinese Communist troops have been going systematically from valley to valley, burning tents and looting cattle, thus depriving the inhabitants of the means of livelihood.”

Another CIA dispatch from January 22, 1951, affirms: “Muslims in Sinkiang [Xinjiang] are discontented with the Communist regime. Officially, there are no restrictions on prayers, but orchestras play for dancing at evening-prayer time to distract the young, and young men enlisted as soldiers have no time to attend religious services. Gatherings of more than four people are prohibited.”

Interestingly, the Chinese propaganda kept repeating that the Communists had come only to help the Uighurs and once their economy was on track, they would withdraw. Sixty-eight years later, the Turkic population is still waiting for the Chinese withdrawal.

Incidentally, the same CIA report asserts: “Propaganda in Sinkiang is stating that the Chinese ought to take the Ladakh airfield because the Americans intend to use it in their invasion of China via Kashmir and Tibet. The Ladakh road was closed in early December 1950.” It was probably part of Mao’s plans to invade Ladakh.

Last month, The Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), admitted that the party imprisons ‘extremists’, to educate them and reform their religious thoughts in Xinjiang. It was a rare admission.

Ma Pinyan, a research fellow at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences and vice president of the Xinjiang Prison Association, told the party tabloid that the state had invited religious experts “to reform the extremists’ thoughts. …in prison [they] need to transform their thoughts.”

Another ‘expert’, La Disheng, former vice president of the Xinjiang Academy of Governance remarked: “As a multi-ethnic region, Xinjiang has proven that prosperous development can only be achieved through ethnic unity, while ethnic conflicts and separatism may lead to disasters.”

Today, a large majority of the population of the restive Muslim Province is considered ‘extremist’. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Rian Thum, a historian who has been conducting research in Xinjiang, observed: “What does it take to intern half a million members of one ethnic group in just a year? Enormous resources and elaborate organisation, but the Chinese authorities aren’t stingy. Vast swathes of the Uighur population in China’s western region of Xinjiang — as well as Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic minorities — are being detained to undergo what the state calls “transformation through education”.

Since last year, a large number of studies detailed the proliferation of re-education camps in Xinjiang that appeared in the Western Press. China Digital Times, which collected information from different sources, explained: “Ever since former Tibet Party Secretary Chen Quanguo was installed in Xinjiang to replicate his perceived successes [in Tibet where he was posted earlier], Xinjiang’s re-education system alone grew to overshadow China’s officially-abolished re-education through labor system. …Individuals can land in the camps for reasons such as contacting friends or relatives abroad, worshipping at mosques, or possessing Quranic verses on their phones.”

Even the Chinese Press realises that the situation is grim. On July 6, The People’s Daily noted that Beijing has relocated “461,000 poverty-ridden residents to work in other parts of the region during the first quarter of the year,” in a bid to “improve social stability and alleviate poverty.” The report asserted that the Xinjiang Government planned to further transfer 100,000 residents from southern Hotan and Kashgar prefectures by 2019, to get employed somewhere else.

Yu Shaoxiang, another ‘expert’ at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told The Global Times: “Poverty alleviation in Xinjiang is more difficult compared to other places because, aside from poverty, Xinjiang also faces ethnic issues.”

In 2017, Xinhua announced “occupational education programs” covering 1.26 million people in Kashgar and Hotan, where 47,000 poor people found jobs while 317,400 individuals and 331 villages were lifted out of poverty. It is obviously an excuse in an area which is the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In June, Beijing had announced that the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region’s Government planned to teach “standard spoken and written Chinese language to all 2.94 million students during their free and compulsory education period.” Free and compulsory!

Is there a terrorist threat in Xinjiang? There is no doubt that China faces serious challenges not only from infiltration from its all-weather friend in the south, but also from the Syrian-trained Uighurs returning to Xinjiang.

It is, therefore, a legitimate concern for Beijing; some sources estimate that 5,000 Uighur jihadists were fighting in Syria. A Dubai-based media outlet reported that 10,000 to 20,000 Uighurs were supporting the Islamic State, mostly in Idlib Province.

Whatever the number is, the issue is that ferocious repression or forced assimilation, as it is happening today in the restive region, can only make the situation worse. The future of the Province is not bright, but the most surprising aspect is that Muslim nations around the world are keeping mum about the fate of their Uighur brothers and sisters; nobody dares to question China about its Muslim policy. Isn’t it amazing? This is called double standards.

(The writer is an expert on India-China relations and an author)

Writer: Claude Arpi

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Being temporarily active, the recent Bimstec Summit has come up with the hopes of economic integration. The grouping believes that economic integration based on enhanced connectivity holds key to success.

The recently concluded Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) Summit 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal, has robustly reiterated the idea of building a ‘multi-modal connectivity’ across countries surrounding the Bay of Bengal. The ‘Kathmandu Declaration’ emphasised on the need to build Bimstec as a more effective multilateral organisation for regional integration, wider economic cooperation and promoting multidimensional connectivity networks among member states.

The ‘18-point Declaration’ signed during the Summit also sought to address transnational challenges of non-traditional security threats within the region, like terrorism and violent extremism, and also the problem of organised transnational crimes. The deliberations and agenda of the Summit are poised to transform Bimstec into a more ‘effective multilateral organisation’ in the region, based on the promoting peace, prosperity and sustainable development.

Established in 1997 as the Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIST-EC), the grouping became Bimstec after Myanmar joined the organisation in December 1997 as a full-time member.

Later on with the joining of Nepal and Bhutan in February 2004, the grouping was renamed as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation or Bimstec. Despite being devoid of any ‘bilateral tensions’ among its member states, the organisation has made ‘slow progress’. Only three Summits were held – in Thailand (2004), India (2008) and Myanmar (2014) – in the last 20 years of its formation. This was mostly due to a lack of strong leadership and failure to identify the collective vision for the future.

However, after the establishment of its permanent secretariat at Kathmandu, Nepal in 2014, which happened after a after of 17 years, the organisation identified 14 priority sectors of regional cooperation and also signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2004.

The ‘geographical leverage’ of this organisation forms a prudent link between South Asia and Southeast Asian countries. This also finds direct resonance with India’s efforts to build greater regional economic engagement and partnership between its north-eastern region and south-eastern economies.

The scope for direct connectivity, anti-insurgency cooperation and potential access to energy resource areas has evoked India’s interest to make this platform active in the last years. India’s ‘renewed interest’ in Bimstec also finds convergence with the country’s foreign policy efforts to establish its ‘Neighbourhood first’ and ‘Act East policy’. It is also an outcome of the Brics-Bimstec outreach Summit held in October 2016 at Goa, India, where leaders from the member countries collectively pledged to work to make Bimstec stronger and effective.

On the 20th anniversary of this organisation, Prime Minister  Narendra Modi described Bimstec as a “natural platform” for India’s eastward engagement. In March 2017, India chaired a meeting of Bimstec National Security chiefs in New Delhi. This allowed India to take the leadership role based on the promotion of cogent economic interests for the region under the collective vision for growth and development for all.

For other member states, like Myanmar, stakes are high given its ‘strategic positioning and how Bimstec could be the possible gateway to Asean. It also allows augmenting wider economic cooperation between India and Thailand as key stakeholders in regional connectivity network. India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) Trilateral Highway is expected to boost trade and commerce between Asean and India and Bimstec, as a sub-regional grouping, forms concurrence with India’s ‘Look East’ and Thailand’s ‘Look West’ policy.

For landlocked countries, like Nepal and Bhutan, Bimstec holds the prospect for enhancing connectivity. On the other hand, for Sri Lanka, Bimstec provides an opportunity to engage with booming Southeast Asian economies. Nepal, too, under the new regime, is keen to build relations with India and other regional players. Given its position, Bangladesh remains the lead country for Bimstec, especially for cooperation in trade and investment, energy corridors and blue economy and climate change as well.

First, the Summit was important in seeking to build connectivity links in the region. The declaration underscored the importance of developing multi-dimensional connectivity in the region to enable economic integration for shared prosperity and collective development. To quote Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bimstec offers “a big opportunity” for strengthening connectivity in terms of trade, economy, transport, digital and promoting people-to-people linkages.

The Summit witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish ‘Bimstec Grid Interconnection’ to enhance energy cooperation in the region which has much hydroelectricity potential. Connectivity holds significance for Bimstec in terms of cooperation in areas like transport and communication, tourism promotion, flow of trade and commerce and also for the promotion of civil society linkages.

Second, in order to strengthen sub-regional cooperation on combating terrorism and transnational crime, the declaration reiterated to fight collectively against “terrorism, terror organisations and terror financing”. It called for a “comprehensive approach” to tackle the menace of terrorism and organised crime with the member states. In his speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the significance of the Bay of Bengal for security and development of all member countries.

Third, the declaration emphasised on a more “institutionalised and structural cooperation” among member states towards more effective and result-oriented functioning of the organisation. It sought to identify strengthening coordination among the law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies of the member states, holding meetings at the level of Bimstec Home Ministers and Bimstec National Security chiefs. To make the Bimstec more visible and prudent, regional organisation these are key positive developments.

The establishment of Bimstec Network of Policy Think Tanks (BNPTT) is a good step to build links between academic communities and knowledge network. On the economic front, we need to expedite the FTA process to boost intra-regional trade and commerce. The Summit also reiterated faith in multilateralism and emphasised to establish fair, just and equitable international order. The member nations called for effective implementation of the ‘Bimstec Poverty Plan of Action’ in line with the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development by 2030.

The grouping accounts for 22 per cent of the global population, and has a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.8 trillion. As we look forward to make it an enabler for regional cooperation, it must primarily seek to establish trade and connectivity across the region, based on common aspirations for growth, development, commerce and technology.

Connectivity holds the key for economic integration of this region and this must evolve based on identifying regional synergies and bottom-up approach. This process must also explore specific areas of cooperation among the member states, transforming the Bimstec into a much stronger organisation and driver to make this region a hub of economic activities and cooperation.

(The writer holds PhD from East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and teaches at the University of Delhi)

Writer: Abhishek Pratap Singh

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Several factors such as rising sea levels, climate change, shifting clay soil, and coastal erosion, – are threatening  and real in the city, but the city needs some actionable plans to get out of the worse situations.

If you had given Thailand the go-by for your holiday plans as an overexposed hotspot, revise the idea and make some new memories while you can. What’s tipping the new Government is the recent forecast suggesting Bangkok’s steady erosion by the sea and the doomsday effect eating into the spine of the tourism economy. It may sound scary but all those gigantic skyscrapers, racy nightlife, palaces, floating markets may just fade into obscurity like the mysterious lost city of Atlantis. While much of the metropolis is immersed under below sea level, the World Bank Report says that nearly 40 percent of the Thai capital will be underwater by 2030 due to changing weather patterns. Seas around the Gulf of Thailand are rising by four millimetres each year, which is beyond the global average, setting off alarm bells. This warning ironically comes in the middle of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that is being held in the city till September 9. In a fresh effort to flesh out the Paris Agreement, around 200 delegates are meeting to limit fossil fuel emissions. The city has progressed a lot in terms of greenhouse emission reduction efforts in the past two years but through this conference, Bangkok aims to pull down the numbers by an additional 20 to 25 per cent. Such is the seriousness that civil society, activists, commoners and students alike gathered at the Chulalongkorn University to offer suggestions on climate change mitigation. These proposals will be sent to the UNFCCC and finally reach delegates attending the conference.

Previous summits have only seen global powers or conglomerates talk of climate change as a real issue impacting everyday lives but this is for the first time local people have wrested their chance to be heard. Coastal erosion and  rising sea levels are not the only problem. Bangkok’s exploding population of 10 million and an overused tourist economy have meant a rapacious and illegal use of groundwater, something that is affecting the stability of sub-soil and vacuumising it, increasing the chances of a cave-in. As micro-climate aberrations happen all round, sudden cloudbursts and flooding could be menacing challenges for Bangkok, which in the worst monsoon-induced floods in 2011 had been submerged barring the business district. As the city sits on a flood plain, it cannot wait for policy and the Thai Government’s priority would be to set up adaptive and pre-emptive measures like restoring the city’s old canals as outlets, sinking dykes, downsizing city quarters and relocating offices to higher ground.

Writer: Pioneer

Courtesy:  The Pioneer

Simultaneous expansion of the scope of strategic partnership with Israel and efforts towards improving human development indices at home should be India’s priority.

In 25 years of full diplomatic contact between India and Israel, bilateral trade between the two nations grew from $200 million in 1992 to 5.02 billion in 2017. The figures exclude defence purchases. Over the past two years, mutual visits of Indian and Israeli Heads of State has resulted in several agreements but the one that should be the most exciting is on innovation and entrepreneurship. An ‘Israel-India Bridge to Innovation’ program was held from July 23-27 in India. Both nations are working together for the setting up of dozens of centres of excellence across India. Israel and India would be opening an innovation fund, under which the two countries will contribute four million dollar each annually for a period of five years to develop India’s innovation and human capital capability. Israel is fast becoming India’s innovation and human capital development partner.

It is critical for India to create opportunities for youth that can drive economic growth through innovation and entrepreneurship. India can learn a lot about the art and science of developing human capital from Israel.

Both nations should expand the scope of strategic partnership and work towards improving India’s human development index (HDI), which places Israel in the category of “very highly developed” among the top 20 nations. Israel spends five per cent of its GDP on innovation alone. This says something about its focus on people development. Israel today is home to eight of the top 500 world universities. Technion Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute and York Institute for Entrepreneurship figure among the best entrepreneurship development institutes in the world. The World Happiness Survey 2016 indicated that nations that emphasise people development are doing economically well. Israel’s high ranking on that scale is a living example. Israeli human capability development emphasises on soft skills, inquisitiveness, exploration and use of technology. This is an area where India can work closely with Israel to scale up its people’s capability towards sustainable economic growth.

Israel offers an interesting learning perspective in building human resource capacity, using a combination of training and technology. The exposure to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) at the age of 17 years is ground for potential entrepreneurship development. The idea is to give the recruits an overview of all major IDF branches so that they understand both technology and military needs. The connection between technology, people skills, innovation and resource optimisation is particularly fruitful. It provides the students a broad range of knowledge that gives them critical ability for analysis and problem-solving.

The 2017 NASDAQ-listed Fortune 500 startups report indicates that a large number of the listed CEOs have an IDF background. Every major technology organisation has a research and innovation centre in Israel to take advantage of the country’s talent. Training develops a cultural ecosystem of quality, discipline, health and fitness on which innovation is nurtured. This is achieved by handing them mission after mission with progressively minimal guidance, thereby enhancing their ability to think and act. Assignments range from the mundane to the strategic, from organising small conferences to penetrating a telecommunication network of a live terrorist cell. This ability to work on cross-disciplinary solution to military problems plays a vital developmental role. This diversity of experience and knowledge plays a key role in making the Israeli youth adaptable to change and drive enterprise innovation. Israel focused on developing human resource capability instead of focusing on ‘scoring and passing exam model’. It has evolved its own human resource development model based on its national priorities and needs to solve its problems.

In recent years, a large number of Indian scholars have opted to do research in Israel, and almost 10 percent of the foreign students in Israeli universities are Indians. India’s ability to create quality leaders at different levels for different spears will play a crucial role in India’s geopolitical standing. Quality of our talent pool will define our geopolitical standing.

India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development projects stated that this year, the number of youth in the age group of 15-29 in the workforce is 153 million. This number would rise to 156 million in 2020 and to 158 million by 2025. Defence industry in India will emerge as one of the major employers requiring diversity of talent and skills. Of the 14 million people that enter the workforce every year, barely two million are formally and professionally trained. A huge upgrade in skilling is an obvious requirement and Israel is a good option for India to collaborate for developing Indian talent. The current system of education, especially at the school and college levels, is not helping the youth to be more inquisitive, build a higher level of Emotional Quotient and develop social intelligence, and most importantly, a culture of discipline and patriotism.

During his India visit, Prime Minister Netanyahu had talked about a “T square concept” collaboration between Indian talent and Israel’s technological knowledge, pointing towards a great opportunity for both nations to work together to assist in the field of research and setting incubation lab for startups. Israel’s assistance in i-create in Ahmedabad is a right step in this direction. India’s human resource development approach needs to shift from passing exams and scoring marks to creative learning, by creating an ecosystem of analysis and problem-solving. An extensive focus on scoring marks and passing exams is a deterrent for developing the ability to think and analyse. The new ecosystem should include sporting activity, basic military training and inter-state student exchange programmes. Such exposure transcends social, economic and regional disparities, creating a pool of young talent to fuel national growth.

There is a joke that a terrorist organisation once sent camel dung to the Israeli Prime Minister as gift to humiliate him. Netanyahu, when he got the gift, sent a return gift. It was a computer chip with a note saying “any leader can only gift the best his people produce”. India and Israel are democratic countries with common strategic interests. They must collaborate for innovation and entrepreneurship development to play a vital role in shaping the world.

Writer: Anirban R. Banerjee

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Overcoming a number of hurdles, Sheedis of Balochistan and Sindh have an intriguing history that paved their path to becoming one of the country’s most prosperous and stable communities.

On August 13, during the Sindh Assembly inauguration session in Karachi, Tanzeela Qambrani, who is associated with the Left-liberal Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), became the first-ever Sindhi Sheedi woman to become a lawmaker in a Pakistani legislature. Sheedis belong to a community that has its ancestry entrenched in Africa. According to a 2003 feature by S Jayasuriya and R Pankhurst in Africa World Press, the word ‘Sheedi’ is derived from the Arabic word sahibi, which was used by the ancient Arabs for ‘respectable men’ of north Africa. Other etymologies trace it to the word ‘syedi’. Yatin Pandya and Trupti Rawal in their book, The Ahmedabad Chronicle: Imprints of a Millennium, write that the Sheedis first arrived in South Asia with the armies of Arab commander Muhammad Bin Qasim in 712 CE. They had joined Arab armies when the Arabs first conquered parts of Africa.

Even though today this community can be found in India and Sri Lanka, the largest concentrations of the Sheedi population is located in Sindh and Balochistan’s coastal areas in Pakistan. In his article, ‘Blacks of Pakistan’, K Kwekudee wrote that there are approximately 250,000 Sheedis living in Pakistan’s southern coastal areas, especially in Makran, Karachi and Badin. It is not known how many Sheedis accompanied Bin Qasim in the 8th century. But their population in the region greatly increased when, in the 16th century, Portuguese traders began bringing in slaves from Africa to be sold here to rich Muslims and Hindus of India.

Jeanette Pinto, in her 1992 book, ‘Slavery in Portuguese India’, writes that most of the early African slaves brought here by the Portuguese were from the Central African region and belonged to a large group of tribes called the Bantu. Pinto added that slaves, who managed to escape slavery, settled in various parts of India and a sizeable number travelled to Balochistan’s Makran coast, Karachi and other parts of southern Sindh. Here, they converted to Islam and became fishing folk or labourers. Some also joined the armies of Sindh’s 18th and early 19th century Talpur dynasty. Even though slavery was abolished by the British when they took the reins of power in India, 19th century British officer and author Sir Richard Burton, in his travelogues on Sindh, wrote that slaves in India were being brought in and sold even in the 19th century. According to Kwekudee, these batches of slaves were brought here from East African regions, especially Madagascar. In Makran, Karachi and other coastal towns of Sindh, these Sheedis too became fishing folk.

One of the largest concentrations of the Sheedis emerged in Lyari, one of Karachi’s oldest localities. They spoke Balochi but the language was tinged with many Swahili words. The Islam that they converted to was the indigenous strand of faith found in the sub-continent. It is a populist fusion of South Asian Sufism and rituals and beliefs adopted over the centuries from the region’s pre-Islamic faiths. For example, in Karachi, the Sheedis became devotees of Pir Mangu, who is a 12th-century Sufi saint who settled in an area of Karachi that had a sulphur spring and a large deep pond full of crocodiles. There are many folklores connecting the crocodiles to the Pir who passed away in the 13th century. Some ancient texts do hint about a holy man here who fed crocodiles. Burton, in the 19th century, wrote in detail about this legend and also witnessed a boisterous festival at the saint’s shrine here, participated by the ‘black people of Karachi’.

The crocodiles, Burton wrote, were fed animal meat and sweetmeats. The area by then had begun to be known as Manghopir. Over the years, archaeologists have found crocodile bones at the site of the shrine which are said to be thousands of years old. They believe that the reptiles were swept here by an ancient flood.

Some historians believe that the ritual of feeding the crocodiles was probably introduced by the Sheedis hundreds of years ago. They base this on what Marty Crump and Dante B Fenolio wrote in their 2015 book, Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder’s Fork and Lizard’s Leg: The Lore and Mythology of Amphibians and Reptiles. They wrote that, for centuries, people of Madagascar believed that crocodiles had supernatural powers. Thus, slaves brought here from the 16th century onward may have retained this belief when they came across the crocodiles of Manghopir. The Sheedis are mainly descendants of slaves brought to the subcontinent by Europeans from West and East African regions, mainly from the so-called ‘big lake area’ which is surrounded by countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Historically, the Sheedis in Sindh and Makran have remained working-class people and the areas they are concentrated in, such as Lyari, have suffered long bouts of violence, drug/alcohol addiction, poverty and crime. Politically, the community has been progressive. In Makran, the Sheedis have been voting for various Left-leaning Baloch nationalist parties and in Sindh mainly for the PPP.

However, due to deadly gang wars in Lyari that the PPP’s Provincial Government in Sindh failed to tackle, the area’s residents began gradually shifting towards various Islamic evangelical outfits that began to enter the area during the gang violence from early 2000s. Even though the radical Barelvi Islamic party, the Tehreek-i-Labbaik, managed to win two Provincial Assembly seats in Lyari during the recently concluded election, there is every likelihood that the area will continue to face the many economic, political and social problems that it has been facing for almost 200 years now.

But ever since the 1970s, many men from the Sheedi community (especially from Makran) have continued to find employment in the police department of the Kingdom of Oman. For decades, the police force of that country’s capital city, Muscat, has had large numbers of Sheedis from Pakistan. This has helped many men from this community to better their lot. They have managed to move to more expensive residential areas of Sindh and Makran and provide their children better education. However, about two decades ago, even those Sheedis who did not travel to the Middle East began sending their children to schools and then to colleges and universities. Consequently, they managed to transcend the many problems faced by the community and enter the country’s more prosperous and stable social and economic avenues. Tanzeela Qambrani is a stark example of this.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Writer: Nadeem Paracha

Courtesy: The Pioneer