Turkey: under the Sultan’s Daunting Shadow: New Age Islam's Selection, 09 May 2016
New Age
Islam Edit Bureau
09 May 2016
• Turkey: under the Sultan’s Daunting Shadow
By Lal Khan
• Dalits’ Dream Of Pakistan
By Tahir Mehdi
• Shoot the Messenger
By Andleeb Abbas
• Identity Politics?
By Huma Yusuf
• No Rules to Being A Good Mother
By Mita Kapur
• Disclose All Deaths In Custody
By Dr Fawad Kaiser
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Turkey: under the Sultan’s Daunting Shadow
By Lal Khan
08-May-16 853
The announcement of the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu’s resignation after 20 months in office amid deteriorating relations between the prime minister and the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, exposes the deep crisis of the Turkish regime and the state. While there have never been open squabbles between the two leaders, with Davutoglu largely appearing as Erdogan’s compliant devotee, disagreement surfaced on major areas of policymaking, economy, Syrian refugees and resumption of peace talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which Erdogan staunchly opposes.
Another major conflict was around publicly backed legislation aimed at tackling corruption. Erdoðan who had been embroiled in a serious corruption scandal that involved several government officials and his immediate family made sure the bill was withdrawn. However, the issue that pushed Davutoglu out of grace was his disapproval of Erdogan’s plans to move Turkey to a presidential system of government. Davutoglu had been expected to play a backseat role as prime minister as Erdogan pushed ahead with plans to make the largely ceremonial presidency into a powerful executive position. The resignation gives a free hand to Erdogan to appoint a more loyalist and compliant successor.
Davutoglu did not have sufficient support either in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) or among Turkey’s voters to challenge Erdogan. This was one of the reasons Erdogan chose him as prime minister in the first place. Erdogan would not have risked it if there was a chance that Davutoglu could take even one MP with him, as he needs the vote of every single AKP MP for his coronation.
The development comes at a time of increasing instability for Turkey, which is tackling an escalating conflict with rebels of the PKK, attacks by the so-called Islamic State, and an influx of migrants and refugees. Turkey is also in the midst of implementing a key deal with the European Union, brokered by Davutoglu, to limit the number of refugees flowing across its border in return for accelerated EU accession talks and financial aid. The future of that agreement, which Davutoglu was seen as having agreed with little input from the president, could be plunged into doubt by his departure.
The political uncertainty has rattled the financial markets. The Turkish lira suffered its heaviest daily loss on Wednesday, down almost four percent against the US dollar. The explosive rise of Turkey’s economy in the past years is one of the most fascinating yet deceptive growth stories. Since 2002, Turkey’s economy nearly quadrupled in size on the back of an epic boom mainly in construction that led to the building of countless malls, skyscrapers, motorways and ambitious infrastructure projects. The Sharifs in Pakistan are trying to ape Erdogan not just in his economic policies but also his unpopular ‘democratic’ practices. Like many emerging economies in the past decade, Turkey’s economy continued to grow virtually unabated with low interest rates through the global financial crisis, while most western economies stagnated.
Forbes wrote, “Ultra-low interest rates are, of course, notorious for creating temporary economic booms that are driven by credit and asset bubbles — a fact that was not lost on Erdogan, who vowed to make Turkey one of the world’s 10 largest economies by 2023. Loans to Turkey’s private sector have more than quadrupled since 2008, even though the country’s real GDP only increased by approximately a third and a good portion of that GDP increase was driven by debt.”
But even before Erdogan's dreams explode global financial markets are already dumping assets of emerging economies, such as Turkey. They have had plenty of reasons to sell Turkish assets and currency, which appear vulnerable in the face of growing instability triggered by political as well as military adventures.
Erdogan is attempting to resolve conflicts by violence, war and whipping up national chauvinism, spiced up with Islamicist overtones. Instead he has rekindled a seething yet relentless conflict with the Kurds by declaring a war against the Kurdish people, using political and armed wings of the PKK to crush Kurdish nationalists and impose his hegemonic rule.
Indiscriminate arrests of Kurdish political activists and bombing of PKK encampments on the Iraqi side of the border is going on unabated. Erdogan has declared large chunks of Kurdish populated territory as a military security zone. Erdogan’s NATO allies are fully aware of his double speak particularly with regards to his covert dealings and connivance with the Islamic State (Daesh).
Cengiz Aktar, a senior scholar at the Istanbul Policy Centre recently wrote, “Ill advised by a cohort of sycophants, he [Erdogan] is increasingly insulated from reality. He has become a sort of ‘untouchable’ and ‘unaccountable’, making decisions that put both the country and the region at risk...it means chaos for Turkey and more instability for an already insecure region. In sum, Erdogan is now part of the problem and no more part of any solution.”
Since the Gezi Park protests of the summer of 2013 and the corruption charges against the AKP, there have been several struggles of the workers and youth in Turkey ever since. The sultan’s ultimate wrath is directed at these workers and youth who have arisen again and again defying the repressive regime. Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary said: “The government seems to be intent on crushing unions and depriving workers in Turkey of their legitimate rights...this will seriously damage living standards.”
On last Sunday’s May Day, some 200 people were arrested as police used water cannon and tear gas to stop people from reaching Istanbul’s Taksim Square, a traditional May Day rallying point declared off-limits by the authorities. One man was killed when hit by the police water cannon truck. Thousands more took part in rallies at the officially designated venue in the Bakirkoy district of Istanbul and other cities around the country. With the economy nose-diving, government and state in disarray and the plight of the toiling masses worsening there is a seething revolt in the Turkish society. It is bound to erupt. When that happens the youth and workers shall move forward to transform society, ending capitalist misery.
Lal Khan is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/08-May-16/turkey-under-the-sultans-daunting-shadow
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Dalits’ Dream of Pakistan
By Tahir Mehdi
May 9th, 2016
A group of Pakistani Dalits in Mirpurkhas gathered at their town hall recently. They vowed to initiate a movement to assert their distinct political identity, and fight for their communities’ rights.
The word ‘dalit’ literally means ‘oppressed people’; it has been in use since the 19th century to describe communities that fall outside of the four-caste Hindu hierarchy. These ‘outcastes’ or ‘untouchables’ have been subject to horrendous discrimination, in all spheres of life, for at least the past 2,000 years.
As political consciousness in undivided India arose towards the end of the British Raj, a number of Dalit leaders emerged to formulate and push forward their own political demands.
Most prolific among them was Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who did not trust the upper-caste-dominated Congress with the political interests and aspirations of his communities. He made a strong case for a separate electorate for Dalits in the 1930-32 Round Table Conferences. The Muslim League had also made the same demand the centre of their politics.
Dalits’ political mobility continues to remain restricted due to entrenched caste barriers.
The Communal Award of 1932 accepted the positions of both, but Gandhi persuaded Ambedkar to agree to reserved seats for Dalits within a joint electorate system, rather than having Dalit voters elect Dalit parliamentarians separately.
The Government of India Act, 1935 included a schedule of castes that were subject of its specific clauses. The term ‘Scheduled Castes’ thus replaced ‘Dalits’ in official parlance. In Pakistan, the government also notified 40 castes as ‘Scheduled’ through an ordinance in 1957, which included Bheel, Kohli and Menghwar.
Dalits did establish a distinct identity — but their mobility within politics continued to remain restricted due to entrenched caste barriers.
Dr Ambedkar made it to the Constituent Assembly of India only with the help of fellow Dalit leader, Jogendra Nath Mandal.
Mandal, from East Bengal, belonged to the Namahsudra (an ‘untouchable’) caste. He was long associated with the Muslim League, and had served as a minister in the Suharwardy-led government of Bengal in 1946. Being a Dalit leader, he had found common cause with poor Bengali Muslims fighting against landlords and moneylenders, the majority of whom were upper-caste Hindus.
He supported the creation of Pakistan, and was made temporary chairman of the first Constituent Assembly. He served as a federal minister in the first cabinet.
Mandal’s elevation was perceived as a gesture towards Dalits, indicating that Muslim Pakistan would treat them better than the caste-plagued Hindu Congress. This gesture proved short-lived — and soon turned into a tale of betrayal.
In March 1949, a Dalit member of the first Constituent Assembly motioned to amend the Objectives Resolution to include ‘Scheduled Castes’ in the language which vowed to safeguard interests of minorities. Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar defended the original phrasing, arguing that specificity was not required; whether Muslim or Hindu, any marginalised community would be protected.
The amendment was turned down, which was a denial of the everyday realities of our society, where oppression is encoded into the caste system.
It became evident that Pakistan divides its population into two groups only — Muslims and non-Muslims — and that when it comes to sharing state resources and privileges, Muslims would benefit from their preferential status at the expense of non-Muslims.
Mandal resigned in 1950. If one is to trust the veracity of his resignation letter available online, he offered a scathing indictment of Pakistan’s failure to safeguard its minorities. He accused the rulers of extreme forms of discrimination against Dalits — including forced conversions and even mass murder. A dejected Mandal moved back to Kolkata. That is how Dalits’ dream of Pakistan turned into a nightmare. But the worst was yet to come.
Gen Zia introduced the separate electorate system, and allotted seats in elected houses to ‘Hindus and Scheduled Castes’. This collating of Dalits and caste Hindus not only stripped Dalits of the distinct political identity they had struggled for, it also pushed them back into the same Hindu fold, against which Mandal and the Muslim League had sided. Zia’s system was later changed, but the succeeding scheme continued to prefer upper-caste Hindus.
This resulted in rich caste Hindus obtaining ruling positions by using Dalits as their ladder. While there is little doubt that the rich in majority communities also get most party posts and parliamentary seats, in the Dalit context this has additional ramifications.
For example, the well-educated, upper-caste, Sindhi Hindus get admissions in higher education institutions on merit, and happen to occupy more seats than their proportion in the population. It makes sense for them not to demand quotas.
The absence of a quota, however, is against the interests of Dalits, who have a poor educational profile and seldom get good jobs. Their quota demands cannot make headway as long as their representatives belong to the upper-caste.
In matters of personal laws, the positions of Dalits and caste Hindus diverge on issues as important as divorce. Marriage cannot be dissolved according to the upper-caste code, but this is not so with Dalits. Upper-caste insistence that Hindu marriage law should not include a divorce clause has been a major impediment in its enactment.
The upper castes are a minuscule minority within Pakistani Hindus, and the vast Dalit electorate is all that democratically legitimises their politics. Yet, no sincere attempt to reach out to them has been made.
Community organisations formed by the upper castes have primarily charitable goals which, of course, do not include ‘annihilation of caste’. Their membership fees are often more than what most Dalits of Thar could ever pay, even with a loan guarantee taken for a lifetime of bonded labour.
Dalits complain bitterly that when an upper-caste girl is forcibly converted, caste Hindus parade the length of Sindh in protest, making headlines. Dalit women, on the other hand, suffer the same ordeal every day, but all they get from their community ‘leaders’ are empty promises.
The Dalit gathering in Mirpurkhas featured a large poster of Dr Ambedkar. Perhaps Mandal’s decision to call it quits on Pakistan was wrong. Pakistani Dalits will have to pick up the pieces of their broken dream, and start from where Mandal left off.
Tahir Mehdi works with Punjab Lok Sujag, a research and advocacy group that has a primary interest in governance and democracy.
dawn.com/news/1257165/dalits-dream-of-pakistan
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Shoot The Messenger
By Andleeb Abbas
08-May-16 536
It is the reverse psychology of the apple story of Adam. The best way to make anything much wanted is to ban it. A movie that would have at best done average in cinema has all of a sudden become the most talked about, tweeted about and watched movie. Maalik has been receiving free publicity worth millions. Electronic media, social media, civil society and talk shows are just about showing everything that the movie had to show.
Politicians and celebrities have jumped on the wagon and assemblies are passing resolutions in favour of it. Like every other reactive and knee jerk decision of the government this has become a parody of errors. Government instead of ensuring that nobody watches it has made sure that even those who would never bother about movies are also watching it.
The ability to hog limelight has many strategic vehicles. Scams, controversies, abnormalities and outrageousness are age-old techniques to increase the word of mouth. In the corporate world controversial advertising is a deliberate strategy. Some organisations actually plan to shock and provoke audience through suggestive advertising to the extent of getting banned with the rationale that when you stop human beings from doing something it becomes ‘a must-see’ object.
United Colours of Benetton, a very famous global apparel seller, for years, chose taboo topics in its advertising. Their advertisements would show a black woman with a white man with almost racial undertones and get banned within 15 days, but that would be after it became the talk of fashion world for the whole season, making black and white the ‘in’ colours to wear.
At other times, they showed headless, uniformed bodies of Afghan soldiers with blood splashed on their uniforms, and red would become the colour of the season despite bans on these advertisements. Madonna was famous for her ability to remain in news and reinvent herself every time her songs fell in the chart list. Her album Erotica was not really what its name suggested but it ‘managed’ to get banned for a while to make it a hot item.
The recent ‘super hit’ Taher Shah’s song Angel has created ripples all across the world. In the twitter world it was the top trend for days. The main reason for this song to trend online was the outrageous nature of Shah’s immersion and inspiration with his own world of colourful fantasy. The purple robes became a mocking sign of “Yes-I-have-seen-this-too” virus that infected millions all across the globe.
Thus whether by default or by design banning or condemning anything is hardly ever successful in restricting its sale or popularity. Corporate world or celebrities use banning of their products or films as a deliberate strategy with the intent to make it more popular, and consequently, the results are what they plan for.
Politicians who are clever also use outrageousness to increase their brand appeal. Donald Trump becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee may have left many people aghast, but to evoke that sentiment is exactly the deliberate ploy used by him to become the talk of the world. He spent the minimum on advertising amongst all candidates from both parties, but got the maximum coverage on media due to this scandalous strategy.
However when Pakistani government bans a movie or YouTube or a song with the intent to make it less popular and accessible it does the exact opposite. That is why it is so difficult to understand the thinking behind this strategy that not only backfires but also exposes their level of pragmatism. This is not the first time government has banned a movie that shows politicians as being corrupt.
In 1996, Nawaz Sharif government banned Junoon band’s song Ehtesab from their album Inqilaab as it showed how politicians indulged in corruption and there was no accountability for them. At that time, media was restricted to PTV and there was no social media. Despite that it became one of the reasons for Sharif government to become unpopular at that time. The difference now is that media industry is in private sector and social media has a large reach. The only result that this strategy has achieved is to ensure that millions watch the banned movie, and also to confirm government’s fear of being seen in the shady light that is already cast around them.
Creation of perception is not just through showing or not showing a certain element on various platforms of media. It is also a product of matching behaviours that reinforce a certain perception. Thus if a media campaign is launched against a politician or a celebrity, and his behaviour, consequently, is contrary to that perception, over a period of time that campaign will die. Take, for example, the Panama leaks campaign against David Cameron. When his name first appeared in Panama leaks he denied involvement.
The opposition grilled him. He immediately apologised that he had misstated facts, and that his father owned an offshore company but he had sold his stake in it before he became the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Media and opposition started a campaign painting him as a liar and instigated a huge public protest demanding his resignation. Cameron instead of banning any movies or videos that painted politicians in bad light or starting a counter-allegation scandal on the opposition immediately brought his documents in parliament and placed them in front of the opposition to prove his innocence. His behaviour tamed his critics and the perception was managed well to restore public confidence.
Government is using all the wrong tactics to suppress the Panama leaks scandal. They start with a complete denial, which is followed by a counter attack, which is followed by threats, which is followed by contradictory statements, which is followed by more denials. This vicious circle has made them the laughing stock in media parody shows and an object of ridicule amongst analysts.
The question then is why are they persisting with this self-defeating strategy? The answer is very simple: because it has worked in the past. Every corruption scandal has created an uproar that fades in no time. Given time, all scandals have resulted in political write-offs. SROs and NROs with mutual cooperation have resulted in mutual forgiveness. The only difference this time is that there are some unrelenting players both in the opposition and in army. Eventually, it will be government versus public pressure that will decide whether history will be repeated or history will be rewritten.
Andleeb Abbas is a columnist and analyst
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/08-May-16/shoot-the-messenger
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Identity Politics?
By Huma Yusuf
May 9th, 2016
SADIQ Khan is London’s new mayor. Today is his first day in office. Or, as the world’s press would have it, he is London’s first Muslim mayor; the first Muslim mayor of a European capital. As results rolled in on Friday, to show that he had beat the Conservative Party’s Zac Goldsmith 57pc to 43pc, global news headlines began trickling in, with Khan’s religious identity inevitably the adjective of choice.
The New York Times described Khan as “one of the most prominent Muslim politicians in the West”; the American news website Drudge Report went for a cruder option, describing Khan as “the first Muslim mayor of Londonistan”.
The headlines have echoed the tenor of the London mayoral election, which has been a case of identity politics at its worst. The Conservative Party tried to play up Labour candidate Khan’s Muslim identity, casting it in a negative light — even positing it as a threat. A leaflet in Goldsmith’s name was distributed to the homes of voters with Hindu- and Sikh-sounding names, claiming that Khan would impose a wealth tax on family jewellery — simultaneously scaremongering and offending by conjuring stereotypes of South Asians with stashes of gold bangles.
A letter in Prime Minister David Cameron’s name addressed to similar constituencies described Khan as “dangerous”. Other Conservative materials distributed to the homes of Hindu, Sikh and Tamil Londoners contained assurances that Goldsmith would keep London safe from terrorist attacks (with the implication that Khan would not).
Sadiq Khan’s win has ultimately come down to policies.
Goldsmith and Cameron also repeatedly accused Khan of being sympathetic to extremists, with the prime minister accusing him of links to radical imam Sulaiman Gani (Gani subsequently declared that he voted for the Conservative Party in the last general election).
The Conservative campaign backfired, as confirmed by the election results. Londoners have been offended at being singled out on a linguistic, ethnic and religious basis, and for being treated as communities apart from the British mainstream — some have accused the Conservative party of stoking communalism. Goldsmith’s campaign has been labelled racist and bigoted. Goldsmith’s sister Jemima on Friday tweeted that she was “sad that Zac’s campaign did not reflect who I know him to be”.
Acknowledging the criticism of his rival’s campaign, Khan in his victory speech said he was proud of Londoners for choosing “hope over fear, and unity over division”. With these words, he has offered a strong reminder of the limitations of identity politics.
If Khan were interested in identity politics at any time in this campaign, it was in the context of class not creed. His campaign materials sought to frame the mayoral race as a contest between the son of a bus driver and the son of a billionaire. His official campaign video showed him riding a London bus, recalling his youth spent in a council flat — a form of public housing — while musing London’s current shortage of affordable homes.
But Khan’s victory has ultimately come down to policies: his commitment to ensure that 50pc of new homes built in London are affordable; his promise to freeze public transport fares for four years; his pledge to improve the city’s air quality and help Londoners gain skills to boost employment. His victory has also come down to the perception that Khan is an effective politician. As the local press has pointed out, he doesn’t lose — he’s won seats as an MP and he helped the Labour party increase its vote share in London during the last general election even while the party was decimated elsewhere in the county.
There’s a lesson here for Pakistani politicians, many of whom are probably smugly celebrating the win of a British-Pakistani Muslim mayor (and wondering what his housing policies mean for the value of their Mayfair apartments). When election fever begins in Pakistan, too many parties remain complacent, relying on ethnic and linguistic affiliation to determine who they represent and how they win their votes. The PML-N has tried to reframe itself as a party that tackles the three Es — extremism, energy, economy — but by only doing so in Punjab it continues to implicitly play an identity politics.
In a Pakistan where the effects of the 2010 political devolution have yet to fully manifest, identity politics may seem like a valid option. But if Khan’s victory shows anything, it’s that it offers no guarantees — if anything, it can be the thing that loses an election. This is particularly true in large cities where diverse identities are subsumed by the shared urban experience and the only things that matter are sensible policies and good governance. There are lessons here for politicians in the fastest urbanising country in South Asia; we’ll have to wait until 2018 to see what they have learned, if anything.
Huma Yusuf is a freelance journalist.
Source: dawn.com/news/1257161/identity-politics
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No Rules To Being A Good Mother
By Mita Kapur
Motherhood continues to be defined by our own mental conditioning of how we should fulfil the roleing mothers versus stay-at-home mothers will never see a closure or an end. The all-s. The debate of workacrificing mother who puts her dreams, desires and aspirations under the carpet so that her children can blossom has been the most accepted, lauded and encouraged model of motherhood.
It’s changing! And thank God for that. I’ve just read an article by Amulya Malladi on refusing to succumb to the pressures of being the conventional mom. She doesn’t h
ave the time to take her children to the park, literally and figuratively, but her children are growing up just fine. I shared her article on my Facebook page and sure enough, a few mothers commented. “You’re a good mummy if you are teaching children on how to stay invested in their own life and dreams. I notice the children of sacrificing mothers decide not to have children of their own! It seems too hard,” said Vinita Bhatnagar.
Yet another mother who is a doctor commented, “Children learn by observation. If they see you as honest, committed and productive, that's what they will be. Taking them to the park or watching basketball does not qualify one to be any kind of mommy, good or bad.” And finally another one said, “It’s amazing how much better you become as a mother if you’re doing some of the things you really enjoy.”
The recent study by Harvard that says that children of working mothers are more hard-working and compassionate got a no-discussion-needed-on-this from my end. I asked my sister whose children were part of the ‘latchkey kids brigade’. I see the two boys clocking in time as an investment banker and a lawyer respectively. Not having someone hovering over the children, comforting them, pandering to their every whim and fancy, does give them many moments of tough choice-making, dealing with situations, learning to fend for themselves.
That is because in any given circumstance they have to feel and think their way through without someone prompting their decisions. It may be something as simple as a child reacting to her friend going through the loss of a family member. That child came home holding my daughter’s finger. When I looked askance, I was told, “She was a little down so I got her home to have some fun here. She'll feel better once she romps around with Waffle.” Sure thing! Only that the said feeling-low child was four years junior, and the two children just crossed each other in the school corridor every day.
Pallavi Aiyar’s new book, Babies and Bylines has just hit the stands and it examines the paradigm shift in motherhood as perceived, and how managing careers and professionalism vis-à-vis the concepts of parenthood and child-rearing need a fresh approach. As a personal experiment, not to fall into the trap of generalising that children of working moms are better off, I asked several mothers, “Do you think you could have been a better mom if you weren’t working?” and their children, “Do you think you could have been a better human being had your mom always been around?” All mothers felt they were better off working and not around their children all the time. A fair share of guilt is a part of the mothers psyche but most of them were trying to get rid of it. “I’d rather be a happy person around my child than be a frumpy, frustrated role model. That way I also send the right message to my child — to project who you are, as you are, instead of always trying to be someone you actually aren’t.” The paradigm of motherhood is taking on a more defined shape finally.
I tried imagining what my childhood would have been like and what kind of a person would I have grown up into had my mother not been a paediatrician. I couldn’t. A casual “Would you have been better off if I wasn’t working?” question thrown at my 16-year-old son threw me off, “Yes, I would have been better off had you not been working.” I looked up from my laptop to a laughing face and a thumbs-up, which turned into a high five, “At least I got your attention, mom.”
Mita Kapur is the founder and CEO of Siyahi, India’s leading literary consultancy
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/09-May-16/no-rules-to-being-a-good-mother
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Disclose All Deaths in Custody
By Dr Fawad Kaiser
09-May-16 236
When people die in legal custody the public has a vital interest in knowing who they were and how they died. It is a matter of basic transparency and accountability to prevent abuses from going on behind the closed gates of prisons and other detention centres. But the Rangers until instructed by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif felt bound by no such need for openness. Rather far from it, when the body of Aftab Ahmed, coordinator of senior Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Dr Farooq Sattar was found dead by doctors in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre under controversial circumstances. A reluctant admission was seen only when pictures of Ahmed’s tortured body were being shown on social media.
This is an instance of an appalling degree of unaccountability. It calls to mind people who disappeared into Soviet gulags, never to be heard from again. Rangers’ tough policy toward unlawful activities and terrorism should not extend to covering up details when people die in their custody. By and large, the public was left in the dark, waiting for more information to appear on social media. This is unacceptable. Rangers have a duty to account for the lives of people they detain. In this case that accountability wasn’t there. True to the cause, General Sharif and Director General Rangers Major General Bilal Akber has ordered an inquiry and reassured “justice must be done.” That would spare compromising any investigation.
General Sharif sees value in an inquiry into the death of Ahmed, and how the death occurred in custody of Rangers. Undoubtedly, Rangers have implemented the COAS’s recommendations, but whether such a move would temper the ‘tough on crime’ instincts of Rangers and government in particular is doubtful. It is not the defiance of the instructions that would be the problem; it is the enduring belief that locking more and more people up is going to solve the problems of criminal offences and make the country safer, despite decades of evidence that shows the absolute opposite. Section 11E of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, which allows for the detention of suspects for up to 90 days, takes away judicial authority in the matter entirely and demands only that the court be informed of each detention. Another step forward would be to accede to calls from human rights organisations, and commit to open and transparent justice, and invest more in early intervention, prevention and diversion strategies.
The sudden death of Ahmed raises some troubling questions, starting with the fact that federal law still does not require law-enforcing officials to publicly disclose every such death. Surely, there is nothing a government in a democratic society does on our behalf that is more serious or sensitive than to deprive people of their freedom. Whenever someone who is taken into custody dies while in lock-up, the death should become public information as soon as the person’s family is notified. Ironically, federal government amasses statistics on a wide range of topics. How many people travelled on the motorway in a year? How many people sat in the metro? How many acres of corn are planted in a given year? It Is all tracked. But one thing government does not keep track of is how often law enforcing agencies kill civilians.
Death in custody is a serious judicial matter and should be considered for discussion in the parliament for bringing forth ‘death in custody reporting act’ to address this very serious issue. If passed, this law would make it mandatory for provincial and federal law enforcement agencies to report on such deaths for trials and tribulations.
Police and Rangers are crucial in our communities; they play a vital role in enforcing laws and keeping the public safe. But based on persistent reports of excessive force, it is clear that some officers use aggressive tactics too quickly, are susceptible to bias in confronting detainees and, in some cases, wind up killing unarmed people who posed no existential threat, and in some cases were committing no crimes.
Prompt disclosure of deaths in custody can ensure a high level of accountability required to maintain public confidence in a justice system where we can be confident that people aren’t simply ‘disappearing or dying without an identified cause’. It is not good enough for law enforcement agencies to suggest that it doesn’t issue news releases about in-custody deaths unless staff suspects some foul play, or there is some threat to public safety. Whether it is through natural causes, accident, suicide or homicide, it is imperative that all deaths in custody are disclosed to the public. In the long run, this is the surest path to building and retaining public trust.
The inquiry ordered by the General Sharif may sound one note of caution. It may deliver a unique catalogue of the destruction of human rights, spirit and lives of people. It may examine a wide range of policies designed to avoid the failures of the past, and propose a blueprint for tackling the underlying causes of disintegration in our society today. But imagine if the inquiry held leads into a matter of national shame, and a five-volume report actually produced the headline indicators of that shame. Consider the public reaction if, after a year, the inquiry produced the report that lamented that the situation was now worse than when the inquiry was started.
Contemplate the level of anger, outrage and despair, especially within the community covered by the report, if deaths every bit shocking as the one that triggered the inquiry were still taking place. Then consider the deeper, more disturbing truth: all of the above is accurate, yet the vast majority of victims are only vaguely aware of the grim reality, and most of the politicians representing them seem content with things as they are.
Dr Fawad Kaiser is a professor of psychiatry and consultant forensic psychiatrist in the UK.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/09-May-16/disclose-all-deaths-in-custody
URL: https://newageislam.com/pakistan-press/turkey-under-sultan’s-daunting-shadow/d/107234