Saturday, January 25, 2014

[batavia-news] KPK Jangan Takut Periksa Ibas

 

res : Ibas adalah pangeran, jadi KPK yang dibentuk oleh raja harus segan dan takut untuk memeriksa Ibas. hahahaha
 
 

KPK Jangan Takut Periksa Ibas

KPK Jangan Takut Periksa IbasKPK Jangan Takut Periksa Ibas
 

JAKARTA – Kuasa hukum Anas Urbaningrum, Adnan Buyung Nasution, meminta Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) tidak tebang pilih dalam menindak kasus korupsi. Ditegaskannya, semua yang terindikasi korupsi harus diperiksa tanpa terkecuali.

Hal ini disampaikannya terkait dugaan aliran dana dollar kepada Sekretaris Jenderal (Sekjen) Partai Demokrat Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono alias Ibas. Menurut Adnan, selama ada bukti, KPK tidak perlu takut memanggil putra bungsu Pre siden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono itu.

"KPK harusnya tidak takut untuk periksa Ibas. Jangan sampai mentangmentang anak Presiden, KPK nggak berani panggil," kata Adnan di Jakarta, (24/1) Pengacara senior ini pun mengaku akan terus mendesak KPK untuk menelusuri dugaan keterlibatan Ibas. "Kalau benar harus disikat," tegasnya.

Adnan juga mengaku tidak takut ancaman somasi yang diumbar pengacara keluarga SBY, Palmer Situmorang. Ia berpendapat somasi tidak bisa dilakukan sebelum Ibas benar-benar terbukti tidak terlibat. "Biarkan KPK bekerja saja dulu. Nggak bisa asal somasi dong, periksa dulu laporannya, kalau palsu baru dituntut balik," pungkas mantan anggota Dewan Pertimbangan Presiden (Wantimpres) ini.

Seperti diberitakan, mantan Wakil Direktur Keuangan Grup Permai, Yulianis mengaku adanya pemberian dana senilai USD 200 ribu untuk Ibas. Hal ini diungkapkan Yulianis saat diperiksa KPK sebagai saksi untuk kasus dugaan gratifikasi Hambalang dengan tersangka mantan Ketua Umum Partai Demokrat, Anas Urbaningrum pada Desember 2013.

Dalam catatan Yulianis, ada uang US$ 200 ribu yang diberikan kepada Ibas dalam bentuk uang tunai terkait Kongres Partai Demokrat tahun 2010. Namun, Yulianis mengaku tidak me lihat sendiri uang itu berpindah tangan ke Ibas. Menurutnya, uang diberikan kepada Ibas oleh mantan bosnya yang juta Bendahara Umum Partai Demokrat, Muhammad Nazaruddin. "Kebetulan saya ditanya masalah Kongres, ya terpaksa nama Ibas saya sebutkan," ucap Yulianis. (dil/jpnn)

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[batavia-news] Talibanisation of society and state of denial

 

 
 

Talibanisation of society and state of denial

Since its very birth, Pakistan has favoured the Deobandi school. This favour touched new heights during the 'darkest ages': the years of General Ziaul Haq who was a protégé of the Wahabi state of Saudi Arabia

Thanks to the Almighty, 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal, the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) passed somewhat peacefully. However, the tightened security measures, along with shutting down the mobile phone networks, not only frightened everybody but also indicated how insecure we are — we cannot even celebrate religious events peacefully.

Despite deploying thousands of police and other security personnel on Moharram and Eid-e-Milaad-un-Nabi, and despite sacrificing many of these poor personnel, the state as well as society constantly denies the existence of any sectarian fighting in Pakistan. Whether it is Moharram, Eid or Eid-e-Milaad-un-Nabi, the Muslims of Pakistan become nervous instead of becoming jubilant, mournful instead of thankful given the nature of these events just because of the religious ruptures in the social fabric of the 'Pakistani ummah'. There is continued indoctrination on sectarian basis through the loudspeakers on the minarets and by means of the various, exclusive ideological enmities taught at the madrassas (seminaries) established by the various warring sects. These are not the only sources of religious hatred; there are thousands of pamphlets and books published in Pakistan that promote religious hatred. In addition, there are multiple websites, magazines and social media pages that widen not only the divide but also instigate violence on religious grounds.

The pious men and women at the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) can easily stop Facebook pages like Nai Roshni — a webpage promoting rational thinking and trying to deconstruct Taliban ideology — and YouTube, but it avoids touching the multiple web-pages and websites of the terrorists either due to fear or complicity. In Pakistan, the Barelvi school of Sunnis celebrates the birth anniversary of Mohammad (PBUH) on the 12th of Rabi-ul-Awwal (third month of the Islamic lunar calendar) while the Deobandi school of Sunnis regards celebrating Eid-e-Milaad-un-Nabi heresy.

The divide goes back to religious debates in British India between the Deobandi and Barelvi scholars before partition. Religious anthropologists suggest that the former is akin to the subcontinent while the Deobandi school is under the influence of the Wahabi school of Sunnis, especially in Saudi Arabia. They also suggest the Barelvi school, which also recognises and respects the various schools of Islamic Sufi tradition, has always been more peaceful than the other. They had less political aspirations while the Deobandi school is politically strong. The major religious parties that contest elections in Pakistan adhere ideologically more or less to the Deobandi school. Among them, the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), a successor of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind and Maulana Maududi's Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have considerable political say in Pakistan. The JI claims to represent all sects but its overwhelming majority does not have many differences with the Deobandi school but could not shatter this perception because its members and leaders have been found sheltering al Qaeda terrorists. Both the JI and JUI hold in low esteem 'traditional' Islam — in other words subcontinental Islam.

Since its very birth, Pakistan has favoured the Deobandi school. This favour touched new heights during the 'darkest ages': the years of General Ziaul Haq who was a puritan Muslim himself in addition to being a protégé of the Wahabi state of Saudi Arabia. Under Zia's policies, the Deobandi (read Wahabi) version of Sunni Islam was inculcated in the youth and children through public schooling and a network of Deobandi madrassas. The textbooks for Pakistan Studies, Urdu and other subjects were filled with lessons on Deobandi scholars and there was no mention of the other schools. In these textbooks, scholars were painted as saints and sages. A religious scholar, Syed Ahmad Sarhindi, was made Mujjadid-e-Alf-e-Saani (Sage of the Second Millennium) and his achievements were exaggerated hyperbolically. Similarly, Shah Waliullah, another great scholar, became the subject of many lessons in Pakistan Studies and Urdu textbooks. Both these scholars were great intellectuals in their particular spheres but their inspiration was mainly drawn from the urge to 'purge Islam from the norms or influences of Hinduism'. In this way, it was an antithesis of Sufi Islam.

Sufi saints were the real harbingers of Islam in the subcontinent. Syed Ahmad Barelvi, though an inhabitant of Raibreli, was a disciple of the school of Shah Waliullah. He waged a jihad against the Sikhs and ended up in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He has been made a hero in Pakistan Studies textbooks.

Now, as our politicians are obsessed with the US and its drones, and many of them are in the forefront to appease the Taliban, the state stands begging for peace from the Taliban. One wonders what will become of sectarian strife in Pakistan. It seems the rulers think that if the Taliban are silenced by any means, sectarian strife in the country will end automatically. This is like putting the cart before the horse. The Talibanisation of society is actually an extreme manifestation of what our society is taught through mosques, madrasaas and schools. There is no question of the Taliban adherence to the Wahabi school, which regards all to be infidels except itself. This puritanical ideology has pushed the country to the verge of demise.

Both the state institutions and society must come out of this state of denial. They must admit the problem and then design a counter-narrative to fight it. The present policy of the ostrich sticking its head in the sand will not work. It will never work when we declare there is no sectarian violence in Pakistan and that what is going on is the 'enemy's' conspiracy. The fact is that we are a failing state and an intolerant society. Once this weakness is admitted, there can be some remedy for it. The counter-narrative needs a holistic approach on every front: use of state force, dialogue with the terrorists, change in the foreign policy, reforms in education and effective laws

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[batavia-news] Democratic histrionics

 

 

Democratic histrionics

The obscene mantra of successes of the democratic transition and respect for the mandate being propounded by the bourgeoisie are the reflection of its actual fears and predicaments

For decades, the question of democracy verses dictatorship has been debated relentlessly in the political arena of our elites and their toadies. For capitalism and imperialism, military dictatorships and bourgeois democracy are interchangeable as long as they guarantee the continuation of their exploitative system of plunder. Since the Second World War, there has been a succession of one military dictatorship after another in ex-colonial countries. Pakistan has been no different as the military brutally imposed itself on the poor masses for more than half of the country's history. Whenever the ruling elite was threatened with a movement against its obscene rule, it pulled out all the stops against the masses, including the most obscure tricks in the book, to pacify and divert the masses with non-issues. If this seemed unsuccessful, then quickly it leaned on its 'B' team, the traditional left (read PPP). Since the fall of Ziaul Haq, there have been successions of right and so-called left democratic governments in Pakistan. The current hysteria in the electronic and print media around Musharraf's trial, the relatively 'peaceful' transition of the chief justice and the army chief, and the repetitive mantra of the mainstream parties' leaders and the intelligentsia of a successful transition from one democratic government to another proves that the PML-N government is a continuation of the same age old tactic.
However, this transition does not mean much for the vast majority of the people who have continuously suffered under the military and democratic rule of the ruling classes with incessant degradation and agony of economic and social exploitation and coercion. Along with these frivolous issues projected by the elite and its media, the social horizon is rocked with sensational sexual and financial scandals and juicy illicit relations of the rich and the famous. If this were not enough, the masses are inflicted by the daily terror of Islamic obscurantists and the terror of price hikes, shortages, unemployment and biblical poverty. The people of Pakistan are not duped by any of it and there is a real revolt simmering underneath the surface but, for the current period, this is blocked from all sides.
The crisis of the elite has permeated into all sections of the state and politicians, some of whom are so frustrated at being left out of the structures of power and accompanying loot that they are forced to resort to calling for rebellions and revolutions, and this can only be for a regressive obscurantist dawn. The divisions, confusion, inertia and total failure of this degenerated, belated, impatient ruling class, and its dysfunctional state and structures to solve any of the fundamental problems are starkly chalked on the streets and walls of the country. Capitalist democracy, in its present condition of terminal decay, is the rule of the rich for the rich and by the rich. It is being exposed in the mass consciousness and even in the thinking of sections of the state.
Not only this, the 'democratic' system has led to social and economic disasters for the masses and its process, methodology and political legitimacy have been severely eroded. The present regime has confessed that, if the results are verified, a majority of the results would prove to be duplicitous. The obscene mantra of successes of the democratic transition and respect for the mandate being propounded by the bourgeoisie are the reflection of its actual fears and predicaments, which could provoke a revolt against the socio-economic distress from below. This is also the basis of the policies of reconciliation and wrangling on non-issues by the different sections of the elite in crisis itself. These democratic histrionics are more doctored and planned than the impromptu fashion with which they are being depicted.
The current epoch is an epoch of crisis and, as its tremors are being felt across the globe in a domino effect, it has also exposed the hollowness of bourgeois democracy and its degeneration across the world where its authenticity and relevance are being questioned by ordinary people. There are serious doubts developing, even in Europe and the US, the advanced cradles of bourgeois democracy. In one country after another these processes, elections and their outcomes are being boycotted and rejected by the opposition political parties. In the last few months we have witnessed this in Eastern Europe, Africa and near to us in Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. It is perhaps not so astonishing that the foremost protagonist of capitalist democracy, The Economist, had to say this in its last issue, "Those living in dictatorships often harbour the delusion that the point of democracy is that you get the government that you want. Those living in democracies soon realise that this is not the system's most salient feature: rather, it is that voters get the government they want and are expected to put up with it until the next election."
Karl Marx could not have put it in simpler language when he wrote: "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them...Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity." One of the most radical and egalitarian presidents of the US, Thomas Jefferson, was more pertinent than any of the elitist intellectuals and politicians of modern day sick capitalism. He famously wrote: "Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
The masses are extremely resourceful and, when faced with the failures of old traditions, they invent new parties and methods of struggle. The rise of the Aam Admi Party in the Indian capital of New Delhi is one reflection of this. Despite its radical programme and some actions like subsidised clean drinking water and electricity for those who are lucky to have cables and pipes running to their homes and saying no to pomp and glitter, Mr Kejriwal's coalition had a very rude awakening of having to work within the confines of the rotten existing system. This is clearly reflected by the inability to provide water to the vast majority of Delhi's poor and the realisation of total incapacity of reforms within the system.
The real issue is that under the oligarchy and dictatorship of corporate and finance capital, there can be no genuine democracy. The masses are discovering this reality through painful experiences, betrayals and deceits, and are drawing correct lessons from this. The mass consciousness in general lags behind economic realities but once it catches up with these events, the collective consciousness takes the form of an irreconcilable class struggle. Its victory, through a socio-economic transformation, can give the masses that collective democracy from the grassroots level where they will be able to decide their own fate. Only then can human emancipation become a reality

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[batavia-news] Syria after Geneva 2: more 'dirty war' but also some hope

 

 
 

Syria after Geneva 2: more 'dirty war' but also some hope

25.01.2014
 
Syria after Geneva 2: more 'dirty war' but also some hope. 52011.jpeg

While little of substance seemed to come from the Geneva 2 peace conference and the dirty war against Syria seems set to continue, this does not mean the process has not advanced. Kerry still mouths the 2011 mantra 'Assad must go', but it is much less convincing. Tens of thousands of foreign-backed sectarian fighters still assail Syria's cities.


By Tim Anderson
John Kerry still mouths the 2011 mantra 'Assad must go', but it is much less convincing. Remember, Washington put great pressure on the rag-tag National Coalition to attend Geneva and speak directly, for the first time, to the Syrian Government.

Combined with the US backdown last September, in face of Russian resistance, this represents a strong message to exile and all other anti-Assad groups: we will not send in our air power, whatever new 'humanitarian intervention' stunts you may pull; we may allow the Saudis to keep providing arms but you must fight your own fight, including diplomacy.

While tens of thousands of foreign-backed sectarian fighters still assail Syria's cities, many western analysts concede that the Assad government has reached 2014 in a stronger position - even though the conflict is not close to an end.

Joshua Landis, in Al Jazeera, said the Syrian Government delegation at Geneva spoke from a position of strength, due to the loyalty of the Syrian Army, its superior weapons and the 'fragmentation and radicalization of rebel fighting forces'. However Landis (like David Cortright of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies) also adopts the misleading sectarian theme that the conflict is Sunni Muslims versus the rest.

Ayham Kamel, of the London-based Eurasia group, says after the failure to remove the Syrian Government by force, 'we are in a different world, where an Assad ouster is no longer realistic in the near term'.

Several of the more critical analysts remain cynical, given the duplicity of the US and its unaltered ambition for 'regime change' in Syria, as the next step towards a Washington-shaped 'New Middle East'.

For example Ajamu Baraka (Black Agenda Report, 'The Obama Administration's Orwellian Subterfuge') correctly points to the 'astonishing hypocrisy of US policies', in claiming to back 'democracy, pluralism and the human rights of the Syrian people', while supporting al Qaeda groups. Similarly, Pepe Escobar (RT: 'Syria and the Geneva 2 Charade') calls the Geneva process a 'pitiful charade even before it started', lamenting the inept management by Ban Ki-Moon and poking fun at stories about the 'good' and 'bad' al Qaeda.

Yet cynicism alone does not help chart the progress of and challenges for Syrian resistance, and a range of factors are slowly shifting the balance in favour of Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Geneva 2 had gone 'as expected', praising the 'breakthrough in relations' between the Syrian government and exile 'opposition'. In typically understated terms he called the decision by UN Secretary-General Ban to invite and then 'univite' Iran 'a mistake but not a catastrophe'. Importantly, Lavrov flagged the future role in talks of 'other domestic opposition groups', including the Kurdish committees.

It takes a little patience to find hope in the ashes. Geneva 2 did not achieve any real cessation of hostilities, in particular it did not stop the outside support for tens of thousands of sectarian killers (takfiris), mostly foreigners from 83 countries and mistakenly called 'rebels'. Indeed, the new pattern emerging is that the US has withdrawn to play 'good cop', urging protection of the Syrian people from a horrendous 'regime', while its partner-in-crime the 'bad cop' Saudis fund various al Qaeda styled groups.

However these takfiri 'rebels' have made no strategic advances on the ground in many months, they are deeply divided to the point of serious internecine warfare and their main achievement in recent months (e.g. with the Adra massacre) has been to show that they can 'bleed' Syria. Every day they kill people, attack infrastructure, including power lines, hospitals and schools. Yet they are also killed and wiped out in entire groups, by the Syrian Arab Army.

If there is no immediate relief from these daily attacks, demoralising as they are for the Syrian people, the longer terms disadvantages rest more heavily on the NATO-aligned 'rebels'.

First, their fragmentation continues to work against them. Lack of unity is the main reason why Washington dumped the Syrian National Council (more tightly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood) in favour of the 'National Coalition', now led by Saudi nominee Ahmad Jarba. Yet this Coalition is also divided and, crucially, cannot speak on behalf of the sectarian fighters, almost all of whom rejected Geneva 2.

Second, there is a domestic political agenda, driven by the Syrian constitution which demands a Presidential election by mid-2014. Yet the 'National Coalition' has effectively locked itself out. The Syrian Government was open to constitutional change, but none was seriously proposed at Geneva. Jarba said that a transitional government which excludes Bashar al Assad 'is the only topic for us'. Yet there are at least ten Syrian political parties (1), other than the ruling Ba'ath Party, saying they will participate. Indeed the constitutional reforms voted in in early 2012 have facilitated their participation.

Some western governments will label these parties 'dupes of the regime', and will continue to ignore them when a Syrian 'opposition' is spoken of. However that will influence neither Iran nor Russia, who recognise the civil opposition and insist on 'normal elections'. This normalisation process will be appealing to the BRIC countries, the Latin Americans, Africans and some of the Europeans. Even dithering, pro-Washington UN officials like Ban Ki-Moon may feel obliged to respond reasonably.

The abstentionist position of the Jarba-led National Coalition will work against them. They have failed to remove Bashar militarily, have little credibility with the takfiri armed groups (except as arms suppliers), and have lost all hope of direct US intervention. Their problem is that the civil opposition within Syria will gradually displace them, in the international arena.

This reminds me of the US-backed opposition to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, during the National Assembly elections of late 2005. They refused to participate, calling the elections a sham, no doubt hoping for another US-backed military coup. It never came. The result was this opposition excluded itself from national politics for several years.

Takfiri and Muslim Brotherhood groups in Syria face two additional hurdles. The Syrian constitution maintains its ban on political parties based on 'religious' or 'sectarian' grounds (Article 8.4), and presidential candidates must have been resident in Syria for the previous ten years (Article 84). The only opportunity to challenge this, and to call for change through a referendum, was at Geneva 2. Whatever might have been possible, that moment has passed.

So what are the future possibilities?

It is certainly true that the US maintains its 'regime change' preference, but it is also flexible. Any great power develops options, or back-up plans. Direct regime change by dirty war or direct intervention has failed; balkanisation of the country also seems highly unlikely. However Washington may settle for a third option: allowing the Saudis (driven by their own fear of Iran and a supposed regional Shia conspiracy) to keep funding the takfiri armies for years, so as to weaken Syria. Israel might also settle for this. Presidential adviser Dr Bouthaina Shaaban says the destruction of Syrian institutions (e.g. hospitals, schools, power supply) was a key objective, from the beginning of the conflict.

But how sustainable is this third option? It is true that the Saudis have virtually unlimited money, dozens of television channels that spew out sectarian messages and they enjoy access to an almost unending international supply of poorly educated religious fanatics.

However these same groups will face exhaustion with no strategic advances and constant death in face of the militarily superior, better organised and much larger Syrian Arab Army. Moreover, being mostly foreign and overwhelmingly sectarian, they maintain very little popular support, not least from the Sunni Muslim communities they claim to represent. Syrian society, whether pro-government or not, remains strongly nationalist and proud of the country's deep pluralist traditions.

Nevertheless, there seems no rapid end to the conflict unless Russia succeeds in some decisive move against Riyadh, the chief sponsor of terrorism in the region. The likelihood of this increased significantly when Moscow linked the Saudis to the recent terrorist bombing in Volgograd. President Putin has long known of Saudi support for sectarian attacks in Chechnya, as also the Chechen sectarian Islamists in Syria. He probably does not want to further inflame things on the eve of the Winter Olympics, and is very conscious of US backing for Riyadh. However he is not a person to sit back when Russia is attacked.

Geneva 2 marked a turning point in the crisis. We can expect more attempts at pulling proverbial 'rabbits out of the hat', like the Qatari stunt of releasing pictures of masses of dead bodies on the eve of the conference. However the balance has shifted away from the 'regime change' gang and back towards an independent Syria.

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1. Syrian 'civil opposition' political parties, other than the Ba'ath Party include: Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Unified Syrian Communist Party, Arab Socialist Union Party, National Pact Party, Unionist Socialist Democratic Party, Arab Democratic Union Party, Democratic Vanguard Party, Popular Will Party, Solidarity Party, and National Democratic Part

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[batavia-news] Canada may limit services for dual citizens

 

 

Canada may limit services for dual citizens

Taxes and banking curbs could apply to Canadians living abroad for more than 5 years

  • By Mick O'Reilly Senior Associate Editor
  • Published: 22:30 January 15, 2014
  • Gulf News

Dubai: If you're a Canadian with dual citizenship and outside Canada, Ottawa bureaucrats consider you a citizen 'of convenience'. And they plan to to curb your rights to government services and benefits, make you pay more in taxes and prevent you from having a Canadian driving licence or having an active bank account there.

But the stricter rules would also apply to Canadians and take effect after five years living away from Canada.

Officials believe there are 2.8 million Canadians living around the world. It's estimated that there are 40,000 Canadians currently living in the UAE — though many more are likely to have Canadian passports as dual citizenship.

A spokesman from the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi could not provide comments to Gulf News before press deadline.

Among the ideas floated are:

*Canada would limit consular services only to Canadians who live overseas for less than five years;

*Consular services could only be used based on tax status;

*Driving licences and access to bank accounts would be used to determine tax status and hence access to consular services, and;

*Ottawa would limit service at embassies and consulates based on the passport in use.

While the proposals would be difficult to monitor and are at the proposal stage, one possible outcome is that Canadian passport holders who want to use consular services in Abu Dhabi or Dubai might have to show residence permits before services are rendered — posing a difficulty for dual-nationality Canadians who use their other passport and nationality to live and work in the UAE.

The proposals were put together by senior officials with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and are contained in a briefing document now with Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird. The proposals came to light in a document released to the Canadian media under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The clampdown on dual citizens was spurred by the 2006 invasion of Lebanon by Israel in 2006. Then, some 44,000 Lebanese-Canadians had to be evacuated — a number that caught Ottawa officials off guard.

In 2009, the Harper government changed birth-right access to Canadian citizenship, limiting passport rights to one generation if residing outside Canada. In effect, if you're Canadian and live outside Canada, your child would qualify to be Canadian. Grandchildren are not granted Canadian citizenship if born outside Canada.

According to the briefing paper, Ottawa has had to intervene 50 times in 36 separate international crises over one 15-month period and the proposals with Baird are considered to be one way of saving money. A copy of the document has been obtained by Gulf News, with heavily redacted sections and details for each country where Canada has had to intervene to help its citizens.

"Recent crises have highlighted that many Canadian passport holders have limited connection to Canada, seen by some as maintaining a 'citizenship of convenience'," the document says.

The briefing paper suggests that Canadians who travel overseas or work overseas on the passport of another country should have limited access to consular and government services.

One of the proposals suggests that if you live outside Canada for five years, a new passport will cost you $500 (Dh1,672).

"Consideration could also be given to different levels of service to dual nationalities who choose not to use a Canadian passport when travelling or living abroad," the paper says.

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[batavia-news] Tin Trouble

 

res : Untuk melihat video footage penambangan timah di pulau Bangka, click situs :
 
 
101 East

Tin Trouble

Indonesia is the world's biggest tin exporter but for poverty stricken miners, the costs are deadly.

Last updated: 24 Jan 2014 07:32
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It is nightfall and Rusdanila is on his way to meet an illegal tin dealer. Carrying almost 4kg of tin in a bucket, the product of a hard day's work, he goes to the first collector, hoping that the metal will fetch at least $3.50 per kilogramme.

Here in the little island of Bangka, east of Sumatra, miners like Rusdanila are at the mercy of the price of ore determined thousands of miles away at the London Metal Exchange.

But in Indonesia, this precious mineral is largely mined illegally.

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In 2012, the country exported 98,000 tons of tin, supplying 40 percent of international demand. Major electronics consumer brands like Samsung, Apple and Philips rely heavily on Indonesia's tin. Each mobile phone contains seven grams of the mineral.

Currently, tin rakes in around $28m a year for Indonesia but the human and environmental toll is proving costly.

Families outside of the islands of Bangka and Belitung are cashing in on the mining boom, rushing to illegal mines sprouting across the land. The work is dangerous – landslides are common and the mined tin is usually mixed with radioactive elements.

In Bangka, tin is getting harder to find in the ravaged ground, so the private companies, as well as the illegal miners, are taking it one step further: they are searching the offshore seabed.

While it is as dangerous as mining on land, sourcing tin in the sea has an added disadvantage – poor visibility. Officially, dredging is illegal within four miles of the coastline but the community bribes a middleman to grease the palms of policemen, allowing the miners to set up their equipment a few hundred metres away from the shore.

Yudi, 25, works with a diver out in a makeshift barge. The diver is given a breathing tube attached to a compressor and he needs to suck the seabed, digging deeper to reach the tin in the lower layers. Yudi knows if there is a landslide in the water, his diver will not be able to see, much less anticipate it. "The danger also comes from the compressor, because the oxygen we are breathing is not pure oxygen. Since it's coming from the compressor, it's dangerous for the lungs," he says.

In addition to a steadily rising death toll, local ecosystems are being ravaged by massive deforestation, water pollution, soil depletion and the collapse of fish stocks. "It will take centuries, thousands of years, before everything can return to normal," says biologist Eddy Nurtjahya.

Even though it is against the law to buy tin from illegal mines, transactions between miners and dealers and then private smelters are commonplace, fuelled by rampant corruption.

101 East travels to Indonesia and explores the deadly cost of extracting precious tin.

How can Indonesia stop illegal tin mining? Share your thoughts with us @AJ101East #TinMining

101 East airs each week at the following times GMT: Thursday: 2230; Friday: 0930; Saturday: 0330; Sunday: 1630

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[batavia-news] Scottish independence: The Yes campaign

 

Res Beda sekali! Para pro kemerdekaan Scotland tidak ditangkap dan dipermak  sampai peot hancur oleh tentara Inggris, dan dipenjarakn untuk bertahun-tahun, seperti TNI menghajar mereka yang menutut referendum kemerdekan  dari kerajaan neo-Mojopahit.
 
 

Scottish independence: The Yes campaign

Opinion polls put support for independence - excluding "undecideds" - at 40 percent, yet nationalists are upbeat.

Last updated: 25 Jan 2014 07:54
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Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has been the driving force for independence [Getty Images]

Glasgow, United Kingdom - It is a yearly celebration of one of Scotland's most favourite sons, an event that sees Scots indulge in a feast of merriment incorporating a traditional helping of haggis, neeps and tatties - and reams of poetry.

Burns Night, a literary homage to Scotland's national bard - or poet - Robert Burns and, held on his birthday, one of the most iconic dates on the Scottish calendar, will today unite Scots from all corners of the globe. This Burns Night marks exactly 255 years since the man who composed the world-renowned Auld Lang Syne in 1788 was welcomed into the world - but as modern Scotland prepares to go to the polls on September 18 to decide whether to become an independent country and leave the United Kingdom, Scottish nationalists and unionists might be forgiven for having more than Burns' poetry on their mind.

Yet, as both sides of the divide - and those many undecided - raise a glass to this most flamboyant of Scotsmen, it is those in the nationalist camp with the most to do as they look to claw back lost ground in a constitutional race, where, for the first year since the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament election of May 2011, the finishing line of the referendum itself is in plain sight.

Uphill battle?

"Large parts of institutional Scotland - apart from the SNP Scottish government obviously - don't like independence, so we're at a point where we're entering a referendum in which not one newspaper supports independence," said Gerry Hassan, a Scottish political thinker and author of the forthcoming book, Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland. "And despite the newspaper industry being a significantly declining resource, that really matters. So, over the last two years, that has framed the long run of this campaign - and I think that has left the [pro-independence] Yes Scotland campaign in a very difficult place. Independence wasn't really seriously thought about until May 2011… and I'm very cautious about whether they can reclaim that lost ground in this very short period."

Click here for all our in-depth coverage

That said, and despite Scottish opinion polls putting support for independence - excluding "undecideds" - at 40 percent, and the union at 60 percent, the pro-independence movement remains curiously buoyant, say many analysts.

"On one hand, they're behind in the polls, and yet whenever you speak to people involved and hear all the noise from the Yes side, there is great optimism," James Mitchell, a public policy professor and ESRC Fellow at The University of Edinburgh, told Al Jazeera. "Part of the reason for this is that they've been very active on the ground - preparing the ground war - and they claim, and, as much as we can see, they seem to be correct in claiming, to be more organised on the ground and more active on the ground… Whether they can close the gap over the next eight months is an unknown - and it seems a difficult one for them to do - but the fascinating thing is they seem to genuinely believe they can."

The pro-union Better Together camp, incorporating the Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Conservatives, has been accused of running a relentlessly negative campaign by many observers. Yet, as the perceived underdogs in the race, how might the Scottish government and Yes Scotland - an umbrella organisation featuring the SNP, Scottish Green Party and Scottish Socialist Party - take the fight to a pro-union movement, which has used robust tactics in their attempt to preserve the 307-year-old union with England?

Going negative

Mitchell contends that while the pro-independence camp has repeatedly pressed home their message of hope over fear in their drive to persuade Scots to vote for an independent Scotland - "there are key strategists in Yes Scotland who take the strong view that positive campaigning works", he said. Could a little negativity of their own could go a long way to bridging the gap?

The mere fact that the referendum is happening, of course, makes a Yes vote more probable, and the mere fact that the question is being asked is a testament to [Alex] Salmond's achievement,

- Alex Massie, political commentator and blogger

"Negative campaigning can work," he continued. "But there are different forms of negative campaigning. If negative campaigning is simply personalised abuse then that can backfire spectacularly. But there's no doubt that questioning your opponents can work - and I wonder whether at some point we will begin to see the Yes side be more negative in their campaigning."

So far this year, there are already signs of the pro-independence movement going on the offensive. In response to an attack by the UK government's Scottish secretary, Alistair Carmichael, who called the Scottish government's 670-page blueprint for independence, published last November, a "mirage", Scotland's SNP deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, published a list of 50 questions - which she said those leading the Better Together campaign must answer about the consequences of voting No in the referendum, such as: "How many more children will be living in poverty in Scotland in 2020 as a result of Westminster policies?"

This subtle change of approach by the Yes camp notwithstanding, many observers believe that their core strength still lies in their ability to lay out an appealing vision of the future.

"The No campaign has managed to put [Scotland's SNP first minister] Alex Salmond on the back foot over questions like the currency and the exact terms and timing of Scotland's membership of the European Union… but they've not been as good at telling a story," Alex Massie, a Scottish political commentator and prominent blogger for The Spectator, told Al Jazeera.

"The nationalists have a good story - that 'Scotland is a country, that decisions that affect the people of Scotland should whenever possible be made in Scotland, that we accept there is a measure of pooling of sovereignty in the European Union, but Brussels, London, Edinburgh is just too long an address, let's cut out the middle man'. It's quite a powerful argument."

A Better Together-commissioned poll at the beginning of this month added further intrigue to the independence debate. In a three-way question, the poll suggested that 29 percent of people in Scotland supported the status quo, 30 percent independence and 32 percent more powers for the Scottish parliament within the UK. For many commentators, it was this latter category that held most interest.

"The crucial element in the electorate will be that element that wants more powers - how they essentially split in the referendum will be the key to the outcome of the referendum," explains Mitchell, who also says that in "all the polls" there is "not a great endorsement of the union".

Massie said that, while current evidence clearly suggests that the Scottish government and Yes Scotland have it all to do in the next eight months, the political drive of Scotland's first minister alone could take it to the wire.

"The mere fact that the referendum is happening, of course, makes a Yes vote more probable, and the mere fact that the question is being asked is a testament to Salmond's achievement," he said. "He's taken a party that was once a laughing stock and on the fringes of mainstream political debate… to a state where they are now, in many respects, the political establishment in Scotland. But, whether he can carry them across the finishing line, I don't know."

Follow Alasdair Soussi on Twitter: @AlasdairSoussi

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