1 - 7 February 2001
Issue No.519
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 February 2001 Issue No.519 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Aftershocks
TAKING their cue from the dramatic events earlier this month in the Philippines, boisterous Indonesian protesters have been calling for beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid to step down over charges of corruption. Angry student protests in Jakarta and other cities have been growing daily and gained momentum on Monday with the closed-door parliamentary discussion of the results of a special fact-finding committee investigating two scandals allegedly involving the president.
Wahid, Indonesia's first democratically elected president since the dictatorship of Suharto, has failed to jump-start the economy or improve relations with the nation's troubled provinces. Though the committee has been rejected by Wahid and his supporters as "illegal", if the parliament decides to accept the findings, it could lead to an impeachment trial for Wahid. More than 5,000 student protesters charged parliament on Monday, briefly breaking through the gates and clashing with riot police, who fired tear gas and warning shots at the crowds. Aside from strongly evoking the crisis that toppled Philippine President Joseph Estrada two weeks ago, the large-scale protests were also reminiscent of those that eventually ousted Suharto in 1998, as well as his chosen successor, B J Habibie.
Mini-manoeuvres
OFFERING the next, if not predictable, twist in the plot to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to justice, the deposed leader was admitted to a Santiago hospital last Friday after suffering what doctors say was a "mini-stroke." Human rights activists immediately called the hospital visit a stunt, claiming that Pinochet's lawyers would use it to back up their claim that the general is too ill to stand trial. After a haughty dance of elusion with prosecuting Judge Juan Guzman, Pinochet finally submitted to extensive medical and psychological tests earlier this month. Pinochet escaped extradition to Spain from England in 1999 when an English court ruled he was unfit to stand trial.
Doctors diagnosed the medical ailment as a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), a brief blockage of a blood vessel in the brain. The attack came only three days after Pinochet's first questioning by Judge Guzman on alleged human rights abuses during his 17-year-long reign, but on Monday Guzman showed that he wasn't scared off by the mini-emergency. He reissued the arrest warrant overturned by the Supreme Court for Pinochet to be placed under house arrest.
A small mistake
IN AN almost fantastical display of how a small matter can virtually unravel a well-crafted blanket of camaraderie, the resignation last Wednesday of Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson has put a vindictive sheen on the image of Tony Blair and his official spokesman Alastair Campbell. In an article published in The Sunday Times, Mandelson called claims that he personally inquired into the status of a passport application for a wealthy Indian patron "a small mistake [...] turned into a monumental disaster." Mandelson says that he was forced to resign in a moment of weakness, when he felt that the prime minister and other party members had brusquely turned their backs on him.
In a pitiless press briefing, Campbell allegedly took a wide step away from Mandelson, taking the Labour Party with him and leaving the beleaguered former Blair ally out in the cold. Srichand Hinduja, currently being investigated in India on corruption charges, donated £1 million to the Millennium Dome project in 1998, when Mandelson was in charge. Allegations that Hinduja traded funds for a British passport have been denied by both the businessman and Mandelson.
Prizefighters
THE RETURN of exiled former Peruvian President Alan Garcia to Lima on Sunday throws a new loop in the race for the shattered presidency. In the run-up to the 8 April vote, Peruvians are being treated to almost daily revelations of the corruption and back-room deals that marred the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, who was removed from office last November amid a growing scandal surrounding his trusted No. 2, the fugitive spy-chief Vladimiro Montesinos.
The election is quickly shaping up as a showdown between the charismatic-but-flawed Garcia and popular opposition candidate Alejandro Toledo, who is widely believed to have won the last election boycotted by international observers. Garcia's return to Peru follows a recent annulment by the Peruvian Supreme Court of corruption charges that had prompted Garcia to flee to Colombia in 1992. Though Garcia's 1985-90 presidency is largely associated with a disastrous blow to the economy and unprecedented hyperinflation, many people feel that Garcia's re-election bid will be boosted by being so removed from the Fujimori-Montesinos circle of woe. Though he has not yet launched his campaign, Garcia already commands 12 per cent of the vote.
Testing the waters
INDIA'S devastating earthquake in Gujarat coincides with the ongoing Kumbh Mela religious festival in Allahabad, where more than 10 million pilgrims are believed to have dipped in the Ganges on the astrologically auspicious "Royal Bathing Day" last Tuesday. Held every 12 years at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, as well as the mythical Saraswati, the emotional and communal 43-day gathering is a poignant counterpoint to the desolation and misery wrought by the carnage in western India.
Though festival organisers desperate to avoid stampeding have asked high-profile celebrities to refrain from attending the festival, one illustrious pilgrim made it through -- the Dalai Lama. The exiled Tibetan leader took part in a ceremony with a prominent Hindu leader, worshipping the Ganges by candlelight on the riverbanks before tens of thousands of viewers. The Dalai Lama told his perpetually attendant press entourage that he was happy to be taking part in the Kumbh Mela, but he was apparently not inspired enough: unlike many pilgrims far more frail than he, he declined a dip in the icy waters on the grounds that "It's too cold."
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page