Editorial: The News - 28 June 2013

 

Secrets and lies

Transparency, honesty and accountability have never loomed large in the national political life of Pakistan. While the law of averages compels an understanding that there must be politicians as straight as the proverbial ruler, they remain a shy and rarely-seen species. The latest revelations in the Swiss letter saga do nothing to dispel the above perception. Conspiracy theories abound but rarely have substance. However, the revelation that a letter was written to the Swiss authorities, in secret and running counter to an earlier letter to them at the behest of the Supreme Court, really does have more than a whiff of conspiracy about it. Three leading figures of the last government – former law minister Farooq Naek, former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and the former federal law secretary Yasmin Abbasey – conspired together to deceive the judiciary and by extension the rest of the population. They were seeking to prevent the Swiss government from investigating the possibility of re-opening money-laundering cases against President Zardari, and wrote asking that the effects of a previous letter be annulled. It appears that the Swiss acted on the contents of the second – secret – letter and the matter stands revealed. Some top guys have been caught red-handed, with their hands in the till, it seems.

The effect of the secret letter was to withdraw all previous letters written by the government of Pakistan regarding the money-laundering cases. It said to the Swiss authorities that the government had closed all cases, and that the cases would remain closed and never re-opened. This violates the December 16, 2009 judgement of the Supreme Court and a number of other subsequent judgements passed in the NRO implementation case, which had all ordered the executive authorities to seek the revival of the Swiss cases. Understandably the Supreme Court is less than delighted to see its judgements so deviously flouted by a sitting government, and observed on Wednesday that the conspirators would be given ‘exemplary punishment’. This they may well deserve but the likelihood of any of them ever being brought to book must be remote. A two-member enquiry team constituted to look into this latest piece of skulduggery assured the SC that the culprits would not escape. There is talk in the air of criminal charges. Attorney General Munir Malik informed the SC that the government will appeal the Swiss government decision; the matter stands adjourned. Whatever immunity President Zardari currently enjoys by virtue of his position lapses when he leaves the presidency in just over two months. It remains to be seen whether the Nawaz Sharif government will pursue this to the bitter end, but it is evident that there are many who seek answers from President Zardari – a man who has displayed a remarkable ability to play games of survival, speak at length and say very little of substance, and who may now stand revealed as ‘all tip and no iceberg.’

Riots in Brazil

The words ‘football’ and ‘revolution’ rarely appear close together in any context, but that has changed with events that have been unfolding in Brazil in the last 13 days. Crowds of up to a million strong gathered to protest initially about the cost of tickets for the 2014 World Cup football tournament and transport fares in Sao Paulo, but quickly spread to cover a range of issues from corruption to health care to education. The plan to showcase Brazil via football, which is followed with a fervour bordering on the religious, at first seemed a good one. What better combination could there be but Brazil and the world’s premier football tournament? Work is far advanced on stadiums to play the games across the country – stadiums that in many cases are located in or near the desperately poor favela slums that climb the hillsides all over the country. The poor who live in them are, unsurprisingly, angered at the amount spent on a football tournament when they have no health care or clean drinking water or schools for their children.

Such is the scale of the protests – which have led to destruction of property, several deaths and the widespread use of teargas and inappropriate levels of violence by the police – that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has announced a series of reforms as a way of defusing a situation that is potentially destabilising for her government. All future oil royalties are to be used to fund education. A new plan is to be drafted for public transport. Doctors will be brought in from overseas to support the creaking health services. The old, and universal, enemy – corruption – is to be tackled. In a pre-recorded address to the nation, she said that she will listen to and meet with the leaders of the demonstrations. Brazil is also to host the 2016 Olympic Games, and there are hints that there is an undercurrent of resentment regarding cost there as well. Brazil is a country of extremes – of both wealth and poverty. A booming economy and an ossified development sector. The governing body of football and its idiosyncratic head Sepp Blatter would never in their wildest dreams have thought that The Wonderful Game might serve as a trigger for a South American Spring. But put a popular game alongside poverty, stir in a mix of aggressive commercial exploitation and suddenly the streets are full of very angry people demanding their basic rights. International sporting events are money-spinners – Formula 1, cricket, rugby, equestrianism – and the venues they are staged at are becoming increasingly diverse. Football is supposedly egalitarian, a sport for all, and so it is but not everybody is able to afford the boots to play The Wonderful Game – a reality overlooked by its Olympian promoters.