The brutal killing of a Detroit man in 1982 inspires decades of Asian American activism nationwide


Wilson Lee holds an U.S. flag as Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy speaks during a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

BY RYAN DOAN-NGUYEN
 June 28, 2024

Two white autoworkers bludgeoned 27-year-old Chinese American Vincent Chin to death with a baseball bat during his bachelor party in Detroit in 1982, but his loved ones’ cries for justice fell on deaf ears.

Twelve days passed before any media outlets reported Chin’s killing by men who blamed Asian manufacturers for the downfall of the city’s mainstay auto industry, and none acknowledged the racism in his killing at the time. The defendants pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to three years’ probation. Circuit Judge Charles Kaufman reasoned, “These aren’t the kind of men you send to jail.”

The injustice spurred Asian Americans to unite across ethnic and cultural lines. Hundreds protested the trial’s outcome in downtown Detroit. Chin’s mother traveled the country sharing his story and pushing for a federal civil rights prosecution.
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More than four decades later, activists still fight to ensure Chin is not forgotten, saying his story inspires advocacy nationwide. Law students reenact his trial, Hollywood adapted his story into a movie and Asian Americans remember the impact of his killing on their struggle for racial justice and equality.


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“For a whole generation of Asian American activists, the Vincent Chin case was the case that got them involved,” says writer and filmmaker Curtis Chin. “It was the thing that brought them to the table.”
A chorus of Asian American voices

After the judge spared Vincent Chin’s killers, Curtis Chin — then 14 — grabbed his parents’ typewriter and wrote outraged letters to newspaper editors. He had found his calling.

Instead of taking over his family’s Chinese restaurant, Curtis Chin — who is not related to the man killed on June 23, 1982 — spent the next 30 years elevating Asian American voices, and recounting Vincent Chin’s story and the racism of 1980s Detroit.

For Helen Zia, an Asian American activist who moved to Detroit in the 1970s, Chin’s case laid bare the glaring injustices that her community faced.

Lacking any local organizations to advocate for Asian American civil rights, Zia co-founded the American Citizens for Justice, which helped to secure a federal trial against Chin’s killers. One was acquitted of civil rights violations and the other was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His conviction was overturned on appeal.

On June 20, the FBI released a 602-page file on Chin’s death, revealing previously unseen witness interviews with descriptions of his final moments and the anti-Asian slurs his attackers used, among other details. Activists told the Detroit Free Press, which first reported on the FBI documents, that they were not notified about the file, and the agency did not provide a reason for its release.

Last year, Zia launched the Vincent Chin Institute, an advocacy organization to counter hatred against Asian Americans.

Chin’s case has had an impact beyond advocacy. Students at Harvard Law School have reenacted the trials of his attackers to highlight shortcomings in the legal system. And his killing has inspired documentaries, a podcast and a movie, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?


Vincent Chin was a victim of brutal, racial violence, but from that tragedy emerged “a chorus of Asian American voices,” Curtis Chin says.

Considerable work ahead

The autoworkers who attacked Chin blamed foreign vehicle manufacturers for hardships in the U.S. auto industry.

This fear of foreign economic threat parallels modern “anti-China hysteria and scapegoating,” says Stop AAPI Hate co-founder Cynthia Choi, pointing to attacks on Asians by people accusing them of culpability in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What’s different for our community today is that we are speaking out. We are speaking out loudly,” Choi says.

Established in 2020, Stop AAPI Hate advocates for policy change and collects comprehensive data on acts of hatred against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The group has documented thousands of cases nationwide, including verbal and physical abuse, and discrimination in business and education.

“Close to 50% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders reported that they experienced some form of race-based hate in the past year,” Choi says.

Advocates say there’s still considerable work to be done.

No comprehensive history of Asian Americans is included in core K-12 curricula. Asked to name a prominent Asian American in a recent survey, most Americans responded “I can’t think of one” or Jackie Chan, who is not American.

“We don’t even exist to most Americans,” Zia says, citing lack of visibility as a key driver in the perpetuation of Asian American stereotypes.

John Yang, the president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, underscores the damage of stereotypes.

“In terms of job opportunities, we are pigeonholed as perpetual foreigners,” Yang says. “Asian Americans don’t get promoted at the same rate. We don’t occupy C-suites. We don’t occupy boards in the same way that other Americans do.”

Discrimination also extends to housing. The Urban Institute, a think tank that conducts economic and policy research, reports that Asian American buyers are shown 18.8% fewer properties overall compared to white buyers. Yet the stereotype of Asian Americans as the model minority leads some fair housing advocates to exclude Asian Americans from their efforts.

“Everyone is concerned about whether an Asian American is truly an American, and so they’re not being shown the same houses,” Yang says. “They’re not being afforded the same opportunities.”

Standing on the shoulders of giants

On Sunday, dozens of residents stood with their heads bowed beneath Boston’s Chinatown gate to remember Chin. Wearing T-shirts reading “STOP ASIAN HATE,” they arranged candles in the shape of a heart and displayed a portrait of Chin with his name written in Chinese and “May 18, 1955 - June 23, 1982.”

Wilson Lee, co-founder of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Boston Lodge and the Chinese American Heritage Foundation, said he and his wife have organized a vigil for Chin every June 23 for six years. Even as media attention faded, their dedication to Chin’s memory has not wavered.

“We’re in it for the long haul,” Lee says. “Because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s the popular thing to do.”

A collection of local dignitaries joined the remembrance, as did 16 Asian American elementary and high school students whom Lee described as “stakeholders.” They held orange lilies and yellow flowers pressed to their chests.

“We need to make sure that future generations, especially our young people, know about the experience that he went through,” Lee says. “They are standing on the shoulders of giants, and Vincent Chin was a giant.”

Li Zhou watches a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

Children with flowers attend a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 


Children place flowers during a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

Armaya Doremi, center, sings the national anthem beside Ken Chia, left, Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy, second from left, and Wilson Lee, third from left, during a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

Miss Chinese Boston Sarah Chu speaks beside Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn during a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

People gather for a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

Women play cards in a public park near a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit.

A man plays Xiangqi, or Chinese chess, in a public park in Chinatown near a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed byy two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

Men play Xiangqi, or Chinese chess, in a public park near a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit. 

Women play cards in a public park near a remembrance ceremony for Vincent Chin in Chinatown, Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Boston. Over the weekend, vigils were held across the country to honor the memory of Chin, who was killed by two white men in 1982 in Detroit.

 (AP Photos/Michael Dwyer)

At least 30 killed in Kenya anti-government protests: HRW

AFP Published June 29, 2024 

Family, friends and fellow protesters carry the body of Ibrahim Kamau, 19, in a procession as they chant slogans to show their respects in the streets of Nairobi on June 28.

 — AFP

At least 30 people died in protests in Kenya this week sparked by a government drive to substantially raise taxes in the East African country, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.
“Kenyan security forces shot directly into crowds of protesters on (Tuesday) June 25, 2024, including protesters who were fleeing,” the NGO said in a statement.

“Although there is no confirmation on the exact number of people killed in Nairobi and other towns, Human Rights Watch found that at least 30 people had been killed on that day based on witness accounts, publicly available information, hospital and mortuary records in Nairobi as well as witness accounts,” the statement said.

“Shooting directly into crowds without justification, including as protesters try to flee, is completely unacceptable under Kenyan and international law,” said Otsieno Namwaya, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“The Kenyan authorities need to make clear to their forces that they should be protecting peaceful protesters and that impunity for police violence can no longer be tolerated,” Namwaya added.

The largely peaceful rallies turned violent on Tuesday when lawmakers passed the deeply unpopular tax increases following pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

After the announcement of the vote, crowds stormed the parliament complex and a fire broke out in clashes unprecedented in the history of the country since its independence from Britain in 1963.

President William Ruto’s administration ultimately withdrew the bill.

IMF pressure

The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said it had recorded 22 deaths and 300 injured victims, adding it would open an investigation.

“Eight military officers came out and just opened fire on people. They killed several people, including those who were not part of the protests,” HRW quoted a rights activist in Nairobi as saying.

“Kenya’s international partners should continue to actively monitor the situation […] and further urge Kenyan authorities to speedily but credibly and transparently investigate abuses by the security forces,” the rights watchdog said.

Ruto had already rolled back some tax measures after the protests began, prompting the treasury to warn of a gaping budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings ($1.6 billion).

The cash-strapped government had said previously that the increases were necessary to service Kenya’s massive debt of some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), equal to roughly 70 per cent of GDP.

The Washington-based IMF has urged the country to implement fiscal reforms in order to access crucial funding from the international lender.

“The bill was expected to raise an additional $2.3 billion in the next fiscal year, in part to meet IMF requirements to increase revenues,” HRW said. “Widespread outrage should be a wake-up call to the Kenyan government and the IMF that they cannot sacrifice rights in the name of economic recovery,” Namwaya said.

“Economic sustainability can only be achieved by building a new social contract that raises revenues fairly, manages them responsibly, and funds services and programs that protect everyone’s rights. “

GENDER APARTHEID & MISOGYNY

Afghan women’s rights an internal issue, Taliban govt says before UN-led talks

AFP 

Published June 29, 2024

A Taliban member watches as Afghan women hold placards during a demonstration demanding better rights for women in front of the former ministry of women affairs in Kabul. — AFP/File

Taliban authorities said on Saturday that demands over women’s rights were “Afghanistan’s issues” to solve, ahead of United Nations-led engagement talks where the exclusion of Afghan women has sparked an outcry.

The Taliban government, which has imposed restrictions on women since seizing power in 2021 that the UN has described as “gender apartheid”, will send its first delegation to the third round of talks starting in Qatar on Sunday.

Civil society representatives, including from women’s rights groups, will attend meetings with the international envoys and UN officials on Tuesday, after the official talks.

Rights groups have condemned the exclusion of Afghan women from the main meetings and the lack of human rights issues on the agenda.

The Taliban authorities “acknowledge the issues about women”, government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul on the eve of the latest talks.

“But these issues are Afghanistan’s issues,” said Mujahid, who will lead the delegation.

“We are working to find a logical path toward solutions inside Afghanistan so that, God forbid, our country doesn’t again fall into conflict and discord.”

He said the Taliban government would represent all of Afghanistan at the meetings and, given their authority, should be the only Afghans at the table.

“If Afghans participate through several channels, it means we are still scattered, our nation is still not unified,” he said.

The talks were launched by the UN in May 2023 and aim to increase international coordination on engagement with the Taliban authorities, who ousted a Western-backed government when they swept to power.

The Taliban government has not been officially recognised by any state and the international community has wrestled with its approach to Afghanistan’s new rulers, with women’s rights issues a sticking point for many countries.

Taliban authorities were not invited to the first talks in Doha last year and refused to attend the second conference, demanding that they be the sole Afghan representatives to the exclusion of invited civil society groups.

That condition has been met for the third round.

Mujahid reiterated that the Taliban government sought positive relations with all countries.

However, he added that “no major or key discussions” would take place in Doha and that the meeting was an opportunity to exchange views, particularly with Western countries.

The agenda will include combating narcotics and economic issues, key topics for authorities in the impoverished country.

“We have hurdles blocking economic development, which should be removed,” Mujahid said.

“If the economy were fine, then all other issues could be solved. “

PAKISTAN

Labour cases

Parvez Rahim 

DAWN

Published June 29, 2024 



BEFORE 1972, significant labour litigation did not exist in Pakistan. When the first PPP government assumed charge under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, it carried out several amendments in the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969, purportedly for the welfare of workers. In this context, two additions were made in the labour judiciary: junior labour courts (JLC) and the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC).

Labour courts did exist and disposal of cases was far quicker than it is now, court proceedings began on time and defaulting parties were rarely granted adjournments. All proceedings took place in court and not in judges’ chambers, which is currently practised in some courts, and judges followed all rules faithfully.

For one of our company’s cases in a Lahore labour court, certain attendance and payroll registers were submitted as evidence. Later, the same records were required by the audit department of the company. A company representative approached the court for the material but the request was denied. However, the material could be photocopied within the judicial premises. The judge also ordered the company to make advance payment of electricity charges for the photocopy machine to the court. Although the judge’s order caused hardship for the company, he was correct about not permitting the registers to be taken out of the court premises. It prevented any tampering with the evidence.

For expeditious labour litigation, it was made mandatory for JLCs to decide cases within seven days. In the beginning, these fora adhered to the stipulated timeframe but eventually lethargy crept in, resulting in months of delay. Hence, the primary purpose of JLCs stood thwarted and the previous system was restored. The NIRC, on the other hand, was institted with the mandate to register trade unions and federations.

The labour courts now take years to decide lawsuits.

In the early 1970s, incidents of labour unrest and mob violence, orchestrated by labour unions at industrial sites across the country, became widespread. In fact, in Karachi’s SITE area, Korangi and Landhi, agitating workers manhandled and humiliated many factory owners; unremitting turmoil impacted industrial productivity and led to the closure of small and medium-sized enterprises, with the Federal Security Force, created by the PPP government, being deployed at larger factories. In 1973, the government added two comprehensive sections in the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969 to cover “unfair labour practices on the part of employers and the workmen”, and related cases were filed in the NIRC.

In view of the government’s pro-labour policy, NIRC head, retired justice Abdul Hameed, was sympathetic towards workers and, to appease union leaders, he adopted an aggressive stance towards representatives of the employers; he even ordered the imprisonment of a factory manager from Faisalabad. This particular decision sent waves of fear through the factory owners, making them wary of labour unions, and they also began to see the Commission as an intimidating body — an impression that lasted for nearly five years.

As activities of the labour federations and unions fell silent, the NIRC too became dormant. After the devolution of labour laws to the provinces through the 18th Amendment in 2010, a new concept of provincial and trans-provincial companies came into existence. The labour cases of provincial companies would continue to be filed before the labour courts, and those of trans-provincial companies went to the NIRC.

Despite the clear distinction, many lawyers file cases of aggrieved workers from trans-provincial companies in labour courts. When transferred to the NIRC, these cases start afresh, which delays remedy, causes frustration, and drains people of funds. The labour courts now take years to decide law suits pertaining to issues such as reinstatement. But courts alone are not responsible for these pile-ups, some petitioners should also take the blame for wasting the courts’ time with frivolous litigation. For example, when I served as personnel and administration services manager at a British multinational in Sheikhupura, a worker had filed a complaint against me, stating that I had abused and threatened him over his trade union activities and even barred him from entering the plant.

The judge asked me to swear on the Holy Quran to deny the worker’s allegations against me, and when I did so, both the petitioner and his lawyer vanished from the court. This proves that only compliance with specified procedures and fora for the redressal of workers’ woes — along with strict curbs on bogus litigations — ensures accelerated delivery of justice as well as a collective sigh of relief for the tormented.

The writer is a consultant in human resources at the Aga Khan University Hospital and Vital Pakistan Trust.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024

More than Biden or Trump?

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi

DAWN

Published June 29, 2024 

WE talk a lot about the state of Pakistan today, and, by and large, it is not encouraging — to put it mildly. We are also part of the larger world and are witnessing the state of ‘the greatest state in the world’, and — to put it mildly — it is not encouraging.

The debate between President Biden and former president Trump was, in the words of one commentator, a match between a derelict and “infirm” Biden and an “unstable” felon, Trump. Accordingly, the world’s mightiest country will be led by someone who is either “not quite there” or someone who is pathologically “reckless”. One can hear the Doomsday Clock tick-tocking towards “midnight”.

The US is politically more polarised than ever. A less polarised and more informed political society might have been expected to moderate the recklessness or compensate for the cluelessness of its leadership. But the American polity is irreconcilably divided between the ‘besotted’ (for Trump) and the ‘haters’ (of Trump) — which renders Biden irrelevant, and yet a possible winner! This is what the US has been reduced to while being the world’s mightiest military and economic power.

Like it or not, the rest of the world has a vital stake in the policies pursued by the US as ‘leader of the free world’. But neither Biden nor Trump measure up to the minimum essentials for such a role. Moreover, the US political process by and large does not take account of the impact of its policies and follies on the rest of the world. This may be true of other countries, but their ability to benefit or harm the rest of the world is relatively limited. So what is to be done if we are to avoid the prospect of the US leading the world over the cliff?

Like it or not, the rest of the world has a vital stake in the policies pursued by the US as ‘leader of the free world’.

Intellectually, answers are available. Instead of the US political process — or rather, its power structure — deciding the fate of the world, the UN Charter and UN decisions should be enabled — with the necessary UN reforms — to play a much greater role in preserving the peace, eliminating poverty and injustice, and combating climate and other challenges to the survival of human civilisation.

However, securing intellectual agreement on such a panacea is far easier than translating it into reality. For a start, this would require democratising the decision-making processes of the UN and its affiliated bodies, which the US and other great powers are anything but willing to contemplate. Nevertheless, the idea of One World, in which we win or lose and live or die together, needs to be promoted with far greater urgency and realism than has been the case.

How might this be possible? Let us resort to childhood imagination and build on old Hollywood movie themes, such as a war of the worlds, etc. Suppose alien intelligent life discovered us and saw our world as an inviting place for conquest and occupation. How would we react to such a palpable threat? Would we, as in the movies, overcome all our divisions and differences to unitedly meet and overcome such a threat? Or would we, in accordance with the prevailing reality, dismiss as juvenile the very idea of making a serious and sincere attempt on a scale and speed that would make a real difference? Can we mimic the movies and bring ourselves to see contemporary existential challenges as we might an alien invasion if it became a reality? If so, we might yet make the right choices in time.

Even so, no one country with all its supposed superlatives is able and wise enough to be the sole leader of such a global undertaking. The current dysfunction of the American political process underscores this fact. It should incentivise the best minds and enablers to come together as never before to meet and overcome these threats. If the US political process can sufficiently buy into this urgent global imperative, it may yet provide a major contribution to such a global endeavour and become worthy of its self-image as a shining City on a Hill.

The price of failure was affordable up until now. This is increasingly no longer the case. One could afford to be sceptical, cynical, lazy, self-centred and self-deluded without having to imminently pay an existential price for such irresponsibility. Accordingly, one could more or less comfortably acknowledge the existential urgency of doing things without bothering to do them — and get away with the hypocrisy. No longer. This insight needs to become an imperative that informs political processes all over the world — and of such processes, arguably none is more important than the dysfunctional one in the US that occupies our screens today. It has facilitated if not promoted the indescribable horrors we are compelled to helplessly bear witness to on a daily basis. Unless such obscenities are immediately and effectively addressed, they will ensure survival imperatives remain helpless cries in the wilderness.

What can Pakistan do? It can be true to itself, which, of course, is easily said but has remained impossible to achieve. Its ‘leaders’ need to do on a national scale what has been suggested is imperative on a global scale. It can try to set an example for the rest of the world as other countries must similarly try to do. Only then will they be able to collectively contain the fatal potential of global realpolitik. Only a realisation that the wolf is at the door can transform counsels of perfection into practical and realistic policies at the national, regional and global levels.

Ironically, the global display of US political dysfunction may yet save the world by highlighting the scale and immediacy of the stakes involved, and thereby compel the country to become something more than Biden or Trump. Otherwise, the rest of the world will have to find ways to survive on their own by cooperatively confronting the US as they would invading aliens.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, India and China and head of UN missions in Iraq and Sudan.
ashrafjqazi@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024

PAKISTAN

Pension burden

Editorial 

DAWN

Published June 29, 2024 

AFTER years of bureaucratic resistance, the ECC has finally approved changes to the federal government’s pension system to reduce the rapidly growing burden of pension costs on the budget.

The reforms alter the formula to calculate gross pension, penalise voluntary retirements, change the method for future pension increases, adjust family pension entitlements, eliminate multiple pensions, establish a pension fund, and initiate other measures to introduce savings in the federal pension system.

The introduction of the contributory pension scheme for the new civilian employees and military personnel is perhaps the most significant reform being rolled out. A report suggests that the government has deferred pension cuts for existing pensioners and employees due to questions over its “legal mandate”, which might have resulted in “substantial savings”. The new pension rules will come into force for civilian employees from the next fiscal year and for military personnel the year after.

Many of the changes had already been announced in this year’s budget but remained unimplemented. The draft changes in pension rules are in line with recommendations of the Pay and Pension Commission of 2020 regarding amendments to the pension scheme for existing pensioners and employees to curtail future increases in annual pension costs “without compromising on the government’s pension philosophy”.

Successive governments have been struggling since the 1990s to strike a balance between ensuring financial sustainability of pension liabilities and providing an adequate income in retirement to public sector employees. With the annual pension bill becoming the fourth-largest budget expense following interest payments, defence costs and development spending, reforms are unavoidable, especially with the ongoing economic crisis adding urgency to the need for fiscal consolidation.

The question is whether the measures are enough to slash the annual pension liabilities of existing pensioners, or those who will retire and join the rollover in the next 30-40 years.

As the annual federal pension budget is estimated to rise to more than Rs1tr for both existing military and civilian pensioners next fiscal year, the ‘reforms’ are likely to yield only Rs4bn, or 0.4pc of pension liabilities, in savings in the first year according to some officials quoted in a media report.

Some estimates indicate that the consolidated federal and provincial pension bill would grow at 22-25pc a year for the next 35 years unless serious reforms are implemented. The cost of inaction has been enormous; the national pension bill has risen 50 times during the last 20 years. The liability doubles roughly every four years.

If vested interests continue to stall meaningful changes, the government may not be left with enough money for most pensioners or social and economic development in the next 10 years. One hopes that the issue is revisited and stronger reforms are introduced to reduce burden on the state.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024

Istanbul, not…

Türkiye today is where Pakistan should have been.

F.S. Aijazuddin 

DAWN

Published June 27, 2024

TURKISH cuisine is to die for, not from. What seafood is to the Japanese, meat is for the Turks. It promises longevity.

The average lifespan of a Japanese is 84 years, a Turk 71 years. Indulgent Pakistanis last only 66 years.

Türkiye today is where Pakistan should have been, had it been properly husbanded. Pakistan, although a brother in Islam, took instead the path of unbridled procreation. Türkiye’s population (99 per cent Muslim) increased from 21 million in 1950, to 86m in 2023. Over the same period, Pakistan’s population burgeoned from 34m to over 220m. Birth control is spelt differently in Turkish.

Today, while Pakistan is still struggling to emerge out of its ideological sac, Türkiye knows what it is. It is the Türkiye envisaged by its Jinnah; ie, Kemal Atatürk. On Nov 10 each year — Atatürk’s death anniversary — all Türkiye comes to a halt and observes one minute’s silence. Jinnah shares his birthday with Jesus Christ and Nawaz Sharif.

The late president Pervez Musharraf studied in Türkiye until 1956. He spoke Turkish fluently. Unfortunately, that is all he learned. He forgot Türkiye’s seismic shift from a khaki kleptocracy to a democratically elected dictatorship.

Türkiye today is where Pakistan should have been.

Its present ruler, Recep Erdogan, has been in power as prime minister, then president, since 2003. On his way up, he served as Istanbul’s mayor. (In China, being mayor of Shanghai helps in reaching Beijing.)

In 1999, he served four months in jail for making a speech in which he recited Ziya Gökalp’s 1912 poem, Soldier’s Prayer. Erdogan quoted: ‘Minarets are bayonets, domes are helmets, mosques are our barracks, believers are soldiers’.

Is Erdogan a second Atatürk? No. Türkiye’s pantheon has only one place at the top. Is he a Turkish version of the Saudi MBS? Erdogan, even if he had the money, is too canny to waste resources on the folly of a $1.5 trillion Neom city project.

Türkiye — dismissed in the 19th century as the “sick man of Europe”, and, in the 20th century, denied entry into the EU — has decided to steer its own course. It is a vibrant example of a benign Islam — shorn of ritualism and an intrusive clergy.

Its priorities are education, infrastructure and expanding tourism. In 2023, Türkiye’s income from 57m visitors exceeded $54 billion. The largest number — Russians — live within spitting distance across the Black Sea. Pakistan sent 140,388, less than 155,155 Mexicans. The Mongolian hordes have yet to invade Türkiye. A Turkish Chinatown is still decades away.

A 1990 guide book warned travellers that Turks were just “beginning to learn about living on plastic”. Modern Turks are now as addicted to plastic cards as the Americans are to plastic surgery.

Turkey is becoming a preferred destination for medical tourism. Almost half a million foreign visitors come to have their Iooks improved (or damaged) by Botox procedures. Some hospitals have dedicated hotels where patients check in, go next door to have their operation, and return for five-star recuperation.

In Istanbul, stray dogs and cats are tagged at official expense and pampered with free meals and comfortable kennels. The Indian cynophile, Maneka Gandhi, who fought for Delhi’s canines, would have been gratified. After the recent Eidul Azha holidays (known as Kurban Bayrami), bones became hard to come by. A rabies epidemic could force the Turkish administration to rethink its hospitality.

Despite the keenness to encourage tourists, Turks are curiously xenophobic. They insist on speaking only Turkish. This often leads to a dialogue of the deaf between Turks and strangers, until both tap into their mobile phones for translation.

Istanbul’s shopping malls are a treat, even for a tourist tired of London. In them, desi­gner outlets rub che­eks with shops offering every kind of Tur­kish sweetmeats and flavours of honey. Haunches of cured meat compete with Har­ro­­ds’ Food Hall. The generational divide appears in the Food Court, where hamburgers and fried chicken overwhelm traditional adana kebabs and shorba.

Türkiye is now more than a country; it is an experience. To savour its fullness, one needs to immerse oneself in it. Young locals do it by dipping into the Bosphorus, which is remarkably clean considering the armada of tankers, cruise ships, ferries and boats that ply through it.

To spend a few days in a Turkish hotel is to escape from home. To live in a villa in the cool, silent suburb of Zekeriyaköy, high in the green, undulating hills that overlook Istanbul, is to holiday in heaven.

Over Kurban Bayrami, its affluent residents fled to their second seaside homes, leaving streets empty for dogs, their walkers, and for those who prefer their Eid away from an urban abattoir.

Holiday in Türkiye. You will emerge from its hammam physically cleansed, emotionally relaxed, and pummelled free of domestic anxieties.

The writer is an author.
www.fsaijazuddin.pk

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2024

Defying nature

IT seems that the guardians of our morality believe a major threat to Pakistan’s existence comes from its transgender citizens.

Zubeida Mustafa 

 June 28, 2024  

 A considerable section of religious scholars is unable to explain how a small community of 10,478 (census 2023) vulnerable souls can pose a danger to some 240 million who constitute the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

With their lively imagination, they conjure up all sorts of hypothetical situations that they believe will destroy the moral fibre of the nation. It is strange that those who actually resort to both illegal and immoral actions escape the wrath of our religious scholars. When have they called a conference or uttered a word of condemnation when women are gang-raped, little girls sexually abused and murdered, and thousands of young women trafficked in an illegal multimillion-dollar trade with the connivance of the police? Does their silence on such matters indicate a tacit acceptance of these horrific crimes? But when there is talk of the constitutional rights of the transgender community, it throws them into a state of moral panic. Is this not bizarre?

In a convention held recently in Kara­chi, a section of the clergy lost no time in denouncing some provisions of the Trans­gender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, that has been in force for the last six years. To put the record straight, it must be mentioned that this Act has been ap­­proved by the Council of Islamic Ideology, while the Supreme Court accepted the principle of self-determination in matters of gender identity/expression in 2012 and Nadra has been issuing CNICs in accordance with the court’s ruling.

The aim, it seems, is to reverse the few gains the transgender persons had managed to win after a hard struggle. We saw some fundamentalist elements belatedly file a petition in the Federal Shariat Court challenging the 2018 Act and labelling it un-Islamic. In 2023, the court gave a verdict turning down the self-determination clause and requiring a transgender person’s gender to be identified by a medical board. Transgender persons understandably consider this violative of their dignity.


These are trying times for trans persons.

Now, these elements are claiming that they had been ‘deceived’ and that the ‘nation is a victim of a big “fitna”’. These are serious charges against the Supreme Court that had set the ball rolling for the transgender community at a time when internationally the trend had been to reform gender recognition laws. According to TGEU (Transgender Europe), “Self-determination is growing in popularity as a model. Gender self-determination means that a person can change gender marker and name on official documents through an easy administrative process. The change is based on the person’s self-determined gender identity. No third party is required.”

Since the government has mercifully appealed against the FSC verdict, these conservative elements are in a fix. They now want the government to withdraw its appeal. They even speak of launching a movement against the law protecting the rights of the transgender community. According to the participants of the convention, the Act is a guise to encourage homosexuality and obscenity.

These are trying times for the transgender community. A large number of them have been singled out and killed since 2021, when the hate campaign against them reached fever pitch. They feel insecure, and this has hampered their progress. After the passage of the 2018 Act, the rights activists failed to sustain their campaign to create awareness about the transgender community. Social prejudice against them has still to be rooted out. Many religious parties have taken advantage of this situation and are whipping up hatred against non-binary people.

I feel sad and call up Bindiya Rana, the pioneer of the transgender movement in Pak­istan. She is depressed. “Three tran­s-­gender persons have been murdered recently,” she tells me. “And do you know who their killers were? They were her own siblings, who have no love for their sister.” Bindiya feels that the Transgender Persons Act needs to be strengthened and not undermined. It should have a provision for punishing parents who abandon a transgender child before s/he reaches adulthood. But here are some conservative elements trying to make life more difficult for them.

I agree and point out that the real danger comes from bigotry and obscurantism. Those born with birth defects cannot hurt this country.

Bindiya remains calm and has no harsh words for her tormentors, who reject her humanity. After all, she is God’s creation, and what she has been denied is compensated by her generosity of spirit and sagacity. Bindiya reminds me of the words of the transgender protagonist of Arundhati Roy’s book, Ministry of Utmost Happiness: “The word Hijra … meant a Body in which a Holy Soul lives.”

www.zubeida-mustafa.com

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024

PAKISTAN

The despotic state

Tariq Khosa

DAWN

 June 27, 2024 



WHAT is a core human value? It’s freedom, says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the economist who, in his book The Road to Freedom, pleads for an economic and political system based on equity, justice and well-being.

The concept of freedom articulated by US president Franklin Roosevelt revolved around four pillars: 1) freedom of speech and expression; 2) freedom of belief or faith; 3) freedom from want; and 4) freedom from fear. “A person facing extremes of want and fear is not free,” says Stiglitz, echoing Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who said that “freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep”.

Economic and political freedoms have deep connections. Can a nation have one set of rights without the other? Unfortunately, we in Pakistan have lost the core value of freedom. Extremes of want and fear haunt us daily.

The wolves (the elite corporate sector, real estate tycoons, feudal class) have gained ‘freedom’ at the expense of the sheep (workers, the salaried class and the poverty-stricken masses). Financial debt traps and dependence on foreign loans have created an atmosphere of slavish adherence. The current environment is akin to a jungle in which only power matters, determining ‘who gets what and who does what’. We have been reduced to a nation of bootlickers.

“The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism,” said Hannah Arendt, the German-born American historian, philosopher, political theorist and social critic. The dearth of empathy is evident in our present ruling elite. Subservient to the forces of tyranny, we are treading the path to serfdom. Will we ever get on the road to freedom that leads to the republican values of equity, justice, rule of law, and collective well-being?

The elite’s hegemony must be broken. For that, we must ask what kind of economic, political and social system will contribute to the freedom of most citizens. As Cicero said some 2,000 years ago, “We are slaves of the law so that we may be able to be free.”

Thomas Jefferson, the US founding father who drafted the Declaration of Independence, said: “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalised version of the first.”

A troika of power brokers has always called the shots by manipulating constitutional provisions.

However, “modern society, governments and freedom need not be at odds,” says Stiglitz, provided the rulers abandon the authoritarian tendencies that breed despotism and persecution in the body politic. This is our key challenge today, as we ask how tolerant we should be of those who are intolerant and tyrannical. One option is extreme, leading to revolt and violence; we must not tread that path. The saner course is for state institutions to admit their mistakes and undertake serious introspection in the larger interest of the nation, and to rise above narrow self-interest for steering the ship of state out of turbulent waters. This involves changing mindsets.

The military establishment has ruled Pakistan directly or indirectly since the abrogation of our first constitution (1956). Four army chiefs ruled directly by either imposing martial law, suspending the constitution, or becoming either president or chief executive. Most other army chiefs have been de facto rulers under the façade of democratic dispensations.

Four political leaders who tried to assert civilian supremacy met with an adverse fate. One was hanged in a murder case. Two other heads of political parties were sacked one after the other without completion of parliament’s tenure in the 1990s. The fourth one, brought to power by the establishment to replace two political dynasties, was shown the door through a vote of no-confidence. The first went to the gallows, the second chose exile over incarceration, the third was assassinated, and the fourth, after surviving an assassination attempt, is in prison under frivolous charges.

A troika of power brokers has always called the shots by manipulating constitutional provisions. Initially, it was the president, prime minister and army chief under Article 58(2)(b) of the 1973 Constitution. Later, the president lost his clout with the repeal of the draconian clause. Then emerged the new troika of prime minister, army chief and chief justice. The shenanigans continue to this day, with the military establishment and deep state involved in political engineering. Political tussles end up in courts and judicial verdicts decide the fate of political leaders.

Such a messy state of affairs cannot be sustained for long. The military is a strong national institution. It comprises mostly disciplined and professional rank and file exuding patriotic fervour, with officers and their men willing to sacrifice their lives for the security and sovereignty of their homeland. They are waging a heroic battle against militants and violent extremists who want to unravel the state. We salute them for their courage and sacrifices.

But when officers of the armed forces and intelligence agencies indulge in political engineering, they lose the public’s respect, and the compact between state and society comes under serious threat. This is where our state and society find themselves currently. The nation looks up to its protectors and defenders, and expects them to abide by their oath, rise above narrow self-interest, and assist in nation-building in these trying times.

The only way forward is to embark upon course correction for the sake of equity, justice and the collective well-being of citizens. Can our leaders ponder over George Washington’s words to Alexander Hamilton: “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man”?

We, the people, demand nothing but honesty and fairness from those leading our armed forces, intelligence agencies, judiciary, bureaucracy and police services. Is it asking too much, or shall we echo the Virginian Patrick Henry’s cry, “Give me liberty, or give me death”?

The writer is a former inspector general of police.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2024

PAKISTAN

More stakeholders join striking cotton ginners

Amjad Mahmood 

DAWN

 June 29, 2024 

LAHORE: Showing solidarity with the striking cotton ginners, the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), oilseed mills and arhtis (commission agents) at major markets in Punjab and Sindh have announced halting trading in cotton crop.

The KCA, All Pakistan Oil Mills Association and governing bodies of various mandis (markets) in Punjab and Sindh on Thursday told their members to immediately stop trading in cotton until the government withdrew the tax on the ginning and textile sector.

In Sanghar, arhtis and traders staged a rally to protest the new taxes and some commission agents even threatened to stop trading in other crops as well if the tax was not withdrawn at the earliest.

The reports indicate an emerging crisis in the cotton sector to the disadvantage of growers. The crop is piling up with farmers since ginners have already halted purchases of lint. Under the circumstances, the crop is likely to be damaged as farmers lack arrangements to store it. Rains, expected within the next few days, will ruin the crop if it is not taken care of soon.

It is feared that the stored cotton will deteriorate due to rains and the industry will not get quality lint leading to a decline in the textile exports.

The ginning sector is already paying 72 per cent GST, while a 10pc additional tax has been imposed on the oil cake. Fixed electricity charges for the ginning units have been increased from Rs500 to Rs1000 per kilowatt hour.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024