Anglo-American Monkeys Keep Sub-continent Cats Squabbling
Make India a Sponge to Protect West from US Stirred Muslims !
by K Gajendra Singh http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0461.htm 26 July,2009
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13 November ,2002
ASIA TIMES online
South Asia Nov 14, 2002
The case for a South, Central Asia trade bloc
By K Gajendra Singh www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DK14Df02.html
In the sleepy Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh early this November, an economic cooperation agreement was signed between China and the 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that will create the world's biggest free trade area when it comes into force on July 1, 2003.
It covers 1.7 billion consumers with a GDP totaling US$3.56 trillion with two-way annual trade of $1.2 trillion. The agreement will eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers on goods and services and will give special differential treatment and flexibility to the newer and poorer ASEAN member states - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. China also decided to write off its Cambodian debt of about $200 million.
China and the original six ASEAN states - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - will be in the free trade zone by 2010, while Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will join by 2015. The agreement also soothes Southeast Asia's worries over China's entry into the World Trade Organization earlier this year. An ASEAN study estimates that the new agreement will raise ASEAN's exports to China by 48 percent, and China's exports to ASEAN by 55 percent.
China and ASEAN also signed a nonbinding declaration to reduce political and military tension in the South China Sea. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei have claims to all or part of the strategic and resource-rich sea lanes and islands, such as the Spratlys. Confidence-building measures include prior warnings of military exercises to reduce the chances of conflicts.
A day after the agreement, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi signed an accord to form a free trade area with ASEAN, but the details are vague, being more of a pact for a framework, with Koizumi saying that its realization was at least a decade away.
Observing all of this from the sidelines, and attending such an ASEAN meet for the first time, was India, which declared that it, too, was eager to negotiate a free trade pact with ASEAN. But as many in East and Southeast Asian know, India is often long on words and short on delivery, and the question remains whether the Indian leadership can overcome its geography and its history.
Many believe that the country's destiny lies in the subcontinent, known as Hindustan in history, and with its natural cultural linkages with Turkistan and Iran via Afghanistan that date back over the centuries. These people claim that New Delhi's latest declaration has been made without much thought, and is an attempt to escape from the failure to resolve its current problems with Pakistan and in Kashmir.
The region comprising India, Pakistan and others in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Central Asian Republics (CARs) presents a depressing spectacle. Beset with problems of economic underdevelopment, the countries are mired in ethnic, religious, territorial and other disputes and problems.
In Afghanistan, the pro-US Hamid Karzai has not been widely accepted as president outside of Kabul, and the situation remains unstable. Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders and cadres have gone into hiding in southern Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially in the latter's northern mountainous regions and the sprawling city of Karachi. Such elements and ethnic minorities in neighboring states like Tajikistan in and around the Ferghana valley remain a source of constant concern.
And with its policy of strategic depth in Afghanistan unraveled, Pakistan, in spite of joining the US war against terrorism, remains paranoid about Kashmir, where it has not kept its promise to stop cross-border terrorism. Kashmir is in the blood of Pakistanis, said President General Pervez Musharraf. For India, the issue goes to the very backbone of its secular fabric. These opposite perceptions of the Kashmir coin make it a koan (Zen riddle).
Now, more than ever, perhaps, it is time for a fresh, unorthodox look at a canvas extending beyond India and Pakistan. With the sole superpower (the US) now calling the shots, it is pertinent to look for solutions in line with the economic and strategic interests of South Asia and Central Asia that will subsume political and other differences. The first step is to try cutting through the past 150 years of British and Russian colonial fog separating South and Central Asia, which share millennia of history, culture and civilization.
The time is right, then to seriously promote the concept of a free trade zone, and later even an economic community, for the countries of the two regions, shifting the emphasis from the current agenda of ethnic, linguistic and border strife to one of close economic cooperation and integration, as in the Europe Union, or nearer home, ASEAN, and its alliance with China, which should make the leadership in South and Central Asia sit up and take note.
If the Europeans could overcome their vast differences, having constantly fought wars against each other, why can't the South and Central Asians? Meanwhile, they are the only ones unprepared for the world as a new global bazaar and the economic challenges of this century.
Culturally, linguistically, ethnically and spiritually no other regions and people have so much in common. An area with continuous history and the cradle of most civilizations and the majority of the world's religions, where Indo-Iranian and Ural-Altaic languages have mingled with local languages to produce a rich mosaic of tongues.
The region has had a number of incipient and small economic communities in the past. The Persian empire under the Achameneans ruled from Persepolis, stretching from Turkey to Uzbekistan and north India. In 517 BC, Roman emperor Darius ordered Scylax, his Greek subject from Caria (western Turkey) to survey the Indus river, and Herodotus' chapters on Indian history are based on records of that exploration. Under Devputra Kanishka's rule from Peshawar in nowadays Pakistan, traders and preachers moved freely and flourished in his empire, which covered most of Central Asia and Xinjiang down to central and east India. During the 16th century AD, traders moved freely in the empires of the Moghuls of Hindustan, and the Uzbek Shaybani Khans of Khawarizm on the Aral Sea, the Shi'ite Safavids of Iran and the Ottomans of Turkey right into central Europe. A hundi (based on the hawala - trust - system still in existence today) issued in a Delhi bazaar was valid in Istanbul or Bukhara.
Although the British quit the sub-continent more than half a century ago, it was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the independent Turkic speaking Central Asia Republics, such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, that dramatically changed the political, economic and strategic situation in the region.
Tashkent, Dushanbe and Bishkek, the capitals of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, are as close to Delhi by air as Chennai. Now independent and sovereign, they look elsewhere, despite their almost umbilical past connections with Russia. The population of the CARs is only about 65 million, but the republic of Kazakhstan is as large as India, and the CARs are extremely rich in energy resources and other raw materials, such as gold, uranium, iron and non-ferrous metals.
Apart from restricted contacts since 1947 between India and the CARs, then part of the USSR, and except for a century and a half when the Indian sub-continent was ruled by the British and Central Asia by the Russians, there has always been natural interaction through travel, trade, migration and conquest between the sub-continent and Central Asia, Iran and Turkey.
Aryan tribes from India migrated from north of the Black Sea and the Caspian and Kazakh steppes during the second and first millennium BC. Later, Turkish tribes marched from the eastern Asian steppes to the Indian sub-continent, Iran and Turkey, then known as Asia Minor, where earlier Greek, Roman and Hellenic thought, culture and polity, which forms the basis of Western civilization, had already evolved. This was the result of the interaction of incoming Greeks with the existing higher Asian civilizations of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and India. Home to over 40 civilizations, Turkey has more Greek sites than Greece and more Roman monuments than Italy.
Although the idea of an economic community will take time to be accepted, it must be studied and promoted for the well being of the nearly 2 billion people of the region. With so many members, there will be less fear of Indian domination, a Pakistani obsession.
At the hub of exchanges, Pakistan and Afghanistan would gain the most; even more than they currently earn from heroin exports and smuggling. India could be a massive market for manufactured and raw materials from Kazakhstan to the Maldives and from Iran, if not Turkey, to Bangladesh.
The new community would be overtly and covertly opposed by many. How would China, the US and Russia react? China would certainly oppose it covertly, and could use Pakistan as a Trojan horse. After the unraveling of the USSR, US foreign policy has been erratic in Central Asia. First it tried to use ethnically closer and secular Turkey against Islamic fundamentalism from Iran and Afghanistan. But Saudi Arabia provided the bulk of the funds for mosques and literature. Jihadis in the CARs are Wahhabis, the austere and no-frills Islamic form enforced in Saudi Arabia.
Many leaders of the CARs and the Caucasus region have in the past leaned towards Russia, and they have earned criticism from the US for their lack of democracy. But after September 11, the erstwhile pariahs became partners against terrorism. They were invited to Washington and wined and dined. Military agreements have been signed with almost all the states and aid worth billions of dollars has poured in, mostly in the defense sector. But US policy on Iran, which now forms a part of the so-called axis of evil, is counterproductive, and India and Russia are working towards a north-south corridor through Iran for trade, which could also link India with Central Asia.
Many former top US officials now meet with the leaders of energy-rich Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and during his visit to India over two years ago then president Bill Clinton spent more time with India's Ambani family, which has growing interests in the petroleum and energy sectors with sights set on Central Asia, than with the Indian prime minister. US President George W Bush, his deputy and most of his senior advisers are connected with the energy industry. Energy-short India, with a billion-strong population, can absorb US finance and technology in which the Indian Diaspora of nearly 2 million in the US could also play a critical role.
With the US and India thus moving towards a closer strategic relationship, the US ought to welcome a wide trade grouping in the region, and it could also act as a counter to the expanding EU and the China-led ASEAN block. It would force China to look West, away from the Pacific, a fond hope and strategic aim of the US and many others. By bringing the CARs into the grouping, Russian influence in Central Asia could also be neutralized. Energy resources in the CARs would compete with Russia's (as well as be a counter to Arab and Iranian sources). The natural outlets of the CARs are south (Asia), as geography and history tell us.
An economic community would contribute towards helping Afghanistan, in particular, which has few natural resources and which cannot afford to rely on foreign aid. Afghans have a long history of trade, being at the crossroads of Hindustan and Turkistan, China and Iran. An economic community would change Afghanistan from a Kalashnikov culture based on opium cultivation to one of trade and oil and gas pipelines.
Previous groupings in the region have been still born, while SAARC is a moribund organization that keeps diplomats busy but does little for economic cooperation and integration. A fresh start is a must. To begin with, an initiative could be taken by non-government and other organizations. The leaders of India, Bangladesh, Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan could take up the challenge through various channels, including their parliaments. Later, other countries would join in.
After the recent comments by France's former president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, that admitting Turkey to the EU "would be the end of the European Union" because Turkey had "a different culture, a different approach, a different way of life - it is not a European country", it should be clear that full membership for Turkey will remain only a chimera. Turkey could serve as an important and dynamic member of the new grouping.
An enlarged economic community for South and Central Asia in the early 21st century need not remain a dream if the leaders of the regions wake up, look beyond their noses and take up the challenges.
K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Blogger <no-reply@blogger.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 9:27 AM
Subject: [Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent] Taj Hotel , Mumbai; A Symbo...
To: pavocavalry@gmail.com
AN INDIAN VIEW OF OBAMAS VISIT !
IF PAKISTAN AND INDIA CAN MAKE PEACE THEY DONT NEED CLOWNS LIKE OBAMA OR CAMEROON !
THE GREATEST BENEFICIARY OF THE INDIA PAKISTAN CONFLICT ARE USA , UK AND THE WEST !
SALVATION OF BOTH INDIA AND PAKISTAN LIES IN COMING CLOSE OR BE DESTROYED BY THE NEW US BRITISH ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY !
AGHA H AMIN
Taj Hotel , Mumbai; A Symbol of India's Impotence and Humiliation
http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2010/11/taj-hotel-mumbai-symbol-of-indias.html
The three day rape of India's commercial and cultural centre ,Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists on 26 November, 2008 with Hotel Taj as the main theatre of inflicting horror and fear , wanton destruction and showcasing Indian state's impotence and total incompetence and inefficiency of its security establishment, in some ways mirrors the destruction of US symbols of economic power in New York's Trade Towers and damage to its military power's nerve centre ,the Pentagon, on 11 September , 2001.
Suppose President Parvez Musharraf of Pakistan had gone to the site of the destroyed towers and made a speech about the resilience and courage of New Yorkers , how would US and its people taken this sermon .After all the hijackers/terrorists, mostly from Saudi Arabia , were trained and financed by those who were either Pakistanis or were their guests and comrades of the Jihad against USSR in Afghanistan in 1980s. The Al Qaida and its host Taleban were created by Pakistan ISI and financed by Washington, Riyadh and others , mostly Muslim countries .Just before 911 Taleban were having discussions with UNOCAL , a US oil company for allowing use of Afghanistan territory for laying energy pipelines from central Asia to south Asia .
Thus the choice of Hotel Taj , Mumbai as the venue for the speech of US president Barack Obama
was most inappropriate and unfortunate ,if not a slap on the face of Mumbaikars who lost friends and relatives and suffered the humiliation of being made to witness the City's rape .How could a feckless Indian administration and Indians agree to it .
"India disappointed that the name of David Headley was not provided (by US), if not pre-26/11 at least post 26/11", Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai , (Headley visited India in March 2009 . New Delhi could have nabbed him).
But the Indian worm was not even allowed to turn . Next day the US ambassador contradicted Pillai's statement .Soon after his boss Home Minister Chidambaram and others were disowning the truth about FBI's complicity in 2611 so evident because of the involvement of its agent David Goldman Headley. What else is arm twisting!
But to allow Obama to make an otiose speech at the Taj was a most thoughtless decision. What happened to thousands of Mumbaikars who held TV discussions , seminars , candlelit sit outs after 2611 .
No brave souls showing a black flag or two .
It was very clear that Washington ought to have had advance info about 2611 .Since with 70% of allies war material for Afghanistan being sent up from the Karachi port, the place is crawling with FBI and other agents . US has unmatched control over communications in the region. So to believe that US did not have precise details of preparations and even departure of ISI trained terrorists towards Mumbai is to live in a fools paradise . The revelations by Headley only confirmed the author's suspicions held since 2611, which damaged India's reputation and brand equity, much to Beijing's delight.
There is a litany of examples how Washington has mislead and even deceived friends and allies when their interest are involved . You do not need testimony from FBI agent David Goldman Headley's scorned and estranged 27 years old Moroccan wife Faiza Outalha who was told to "Get lost" by the US officials in Islamabad when she told him a year before 2611 that Headley was planning a terror attack in India with the help of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba .
"I told them, he's either a terrorist, or he's working for you," she recalled claiming that she showed them photos of Headley and her stay , twice , at the Taj Mahal Hotel ( confirmed by hotel records)
A senior US official confirmed Outalha's meeting but gave no details of her warnings. In a statement, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer stonewalled that "The United States regularly provided threat information to Indian officials in 2008 before the attacks in Mumbai.
"Had we known about the timing and other specifics related to the Mumbai attacks, we would have immediately shared those details with the government of India," Hammer added.The revelations came after a recent report by ProPublica followed by New York Times and The Washington Post that the FBI had been warned about Headley's terrorist ties a year before the Mumbai attacks. It was pointed out that "despite those warnings by two of his three wives, Headley roamed far and wide on Lashkar's behalf." Despite a federal inquiry into the tip, Headley spent the next four years doing terrorist reconnaissance around the world. Between 2006 and 2009, he came on five spying missions to Mumbai , one after 2611 scouting targets for the attack by Lashkar that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
Headley was arrested 11 months after 2611.
"FBI complicity in Pak ISI's 26/11 Mumbai Rape"
Who needs Enemies with Friends like Washington
By K.Gajendra singh 26 October,2010
http://cms.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=9770
http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2010/10/fbi-complicity-in-pak-isis-2611-mumbai.htmlhttp://www.chowk.com/ilogs/81421/47736 ( and a score more websites/blogs)
As for 911, most Muslims believe that it was a false flag operation .The number of US citizens to this viewpoint is on the increase with a large body of evidence to support it . The author believes that powers that be in US knew about it and allowed it to happen , so that Washington could use it like Pearl Harbour before US entered the WWII .It is now clear that Bush administration insiders had plans to invade Iraq for its oil and Afghanistan for strategic control of the region even before Bush was sworn in as the President.
PS. The author witnessed with some amusement and disdain on 6 November the daylong coverage of the Obama 's first day in Mumbai on India's corporate channels with the usual suspects toeing the correct line , barring a few like retired defense officers , Sidhharath Vardarajan , Brahma Chellany ( he was not allowed sometimes to even complete his sentences on NDTV a la CNN, who do the same with inconvenient facts )
K.Gajendra Singh ,Ambassador of India ( Retired), 7 November, 2010 ,Delhi
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Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
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Posted By Blogger to Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent at 11/06/2010 09:27:00 PM
--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
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