Their Way
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The Hindu of India caught up
Monday with the death of Frank Sinatra, devoting an editorial to the subject. "He combined distinctive phrasing,
punctuated pauses and delicate emotional overtones to create songs that were at
once mechanical in their precision and dream-like in their effect," the
newspaper said. "Unruffled and self-assured in its confidence, his was a voice
that seemed to comprehend the rhapsody of romance, the obscure logic of love."
The only negative thing the Hindu had to say about the great Sinatra was
that "My Way" was "one of his less memorable songs."
This
tribute to a great American was especially welcome in a week in which the
Indian media were not feeling well-disposed toward the United States. The
Times of India said
in an editorial Monday that the United States, the "world's
self-professed conscience keeper which claims to be committed to
non-proliferation of nuclear and missile technology," has turned a blind eye to
the fact that Beijing has long been arming Pakistan with conventional weapons
as well as "nuclear and missile technology while issuing public denials and
pledging itself to improving relations with New Delhi." Despite this,
"Washington actually approved the first export of advanced nuclear reactor
technology to China after obtaining assurances that Beijing would limit its
arms exports to Teheran (but not Islamabad)," the newspaper said.
The Asian Age of New Delhi said that "Pakistan is in a dilemma: to
test or not to test," because (contrary to Pakistan's claims) it "definitely
does not have the capacity" to make a hydrogen bomb. "If Pakistan tests without
matching India's performance, Prime Minister [Nawaz] Sharif will face the brunt
of his electorate's disillusionment and wrath," the paper said in an editorial.
"If it does not test, the government might find it difficult to survive against
the strong public reaction." On the other hand, if it does test, "Bill Clinton
will probably take it as a personal affront" and impose sanctions that would
"certainly" cause the country to collapse. "The way out for Pakistan at the
moment lies in a dignified exit from the nuclear arms race," the Asian
Age said.
Dawn, Pakistan's main
English-language newspaper, devoted an editorial Monday
not to the mounting U.S. pressure on Islamabad to drop its plans but to an
attack on U.S. policy in the Middle East. "There seems to be no end to the
Americans' theatre of the absurd over the Middle East peace process," the
editorial said. It accused Clinton of indifference to the Palestinians' plight
and of weakness toward the Israeli government. "Israel needs more than mere
arm-twisting from America," it said. "It must put Mr. Netanyahu on notice to
come round to the negotiating table by a fixed deadline. Mr. Clinton certainly
has the clout to be able to do that." Claiming that American Jewish leaders
were becoming exasperated with Israel, Dawn suggested that "the big, bad
wolf, of which the U.S. President appears to be mortally afraid while dealing
with Mr. Netanyahu, exists, perhaps, only in his mind."
In Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post devoted its main editorial to an
attack on the International Monetary Fund for its handling of the economic
crisis in Indonesia. If the banks reopen in Jakarta, it said, "then at least
the International Monetary Fund will be physically able to hand over the next
tranche of its bailout package." While admitting "the problem is primarily
political and the IMF can hardly be blamed for Mr. Suharto's mismanagement,"
the newspaper said that "it will now be difficult to rebut the increasing
perception that the IMF has failed in Asia." Although the "U.S. continued to
loyally defend the IMF yesterday, it is probably only a matter of time before
other Western nations, such as Australia, break ranks and push for alternative
remedies," it added. "In any event, even the IMF can hardly describe as a
success a program that is partly responsible for such bloodshed and one which
cannot even now be implemented."
In a front-page news
analysis of the Group of Eight summit in Birmingham, England, this weekend,
Alan Friedman of the International Herald Tribune in Paris wrote
that the meeting served merely to "highlight the limits of power in an
increasingly complex world." On issues such as India's nuclear testing, the
prospect of Pakistan's carrying out its own tests, and Indonesia's descent into
anarchy, participants were "either divided or unable to offer much beyond
rhetoric," Friedman wrote. "Moreover, both India and Pakistan remained
oblivious to it."
The news that the U.S.
government was launching a legal battle against Microsoft led the Financial Times of London Monday and
was on the front pages of most European newspapers.
