Cashing the Chechen Dividend
Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia dominated the world's editorial
pages early this week. Although the Communist Party will remain the biggest
single bloc in the Duma, having won 24 percent of the vote, the success of
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Unity Party, which claimed 23 percent, took the
ink. El País of
Spain called Putin's success the "Chechen dividend," a sentiment echoed
in Britain's Daily Telegraph , which said that "beyond bellicosity in the Caucasus, Mr Putin
has articulated no clear policy." The Age of Melbourne headlined its editorial "Putin: the man who rose without trace," and said,
"Public attention no longer focuses primarily on the ailing Mr Yeltsin's
erratic policy-making, or even on the widespread corruption, ballooning debt
and huge disparities of wealth that have arisen during the over-rapid
privatisation of the Russian economy. Instead the talk is increasingly of a
resurgent, nationalist Russia, pinning its hopes of salvation on a strong
leader. And it has all happened because Mr Putin launched Russia into a war in
Chechnya."
In a
leader
Tuesday, the Financial
Times of London said the election results brought both good and bad
news: "The good news is that the new Duma is likely to be younger, and somewhat
more sympathetic towards economic liberalism than the last one. … The bad news
is that political liberalism has been sacrificed in the process." The Daily
Telegraph took a similar tack, decrying the "rise in military influence"
and "a resumption in the sway of oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky," but
taking heart in the shift of power "from conservatives to reformers." Hong
Kong's South China Morning
Post also attacked the style of the election, saying "the vote was influenced by an assortment of
electoral dirty tricks, involving money, rule-breaking and libelling Kremlin
foes on state television," but said that "given their limited choices, the
Russian people were suprisingly selective, backing those who may actually do
something about the sorry state of their nation."
The
conservative National Post of Canada asked what the effect of a compatible legislature and
executive would be and decided that, "In foreign policy, the recent
anti-Western tendency is likely to continue, but more cautiously and less
explicitly. Thus, Mr. Primakov's active pro-Iraqi diplomacy in the Middle East
will be moderated, but Mr. Yeltsin's pursuit of a Chinese rapprochement to
offset American influence will proceed at a leisurely pace."
A
cautious note was struck in the St. Petersburg Times , which said
that "Putin's future looks rosy, except as regards concrete policies, his main
one so far being the razing of Grozny. And the businessmen who have amassed
vast fortunes under the Yeltsin regime are able to continue as usual and are
doubtless grinning like Cheshire cats." Similarly, the Moscow Times said, "The system of succession that will guarantee the Kremlin's
victory is a very positive development. For, in circumstances where the
authorities and their opposition are equally corrupt, a corrupt regime based on
succession is preferable to a revolutionary corrupt regime, whose ascension to
the throne is accompanied by the hollow grunting of pigs rushing the
trough--and who, amid the cries of 'bribe-takers to jail,' make the same pie
all over again."
Sunday's handover of the Portuguese-administered territory of Macau to China
after 442 years of colonial rule was in marked contrast with the handover of
Hong Kong in July 1997. The South China Morning Post described scenes of "unconfined joy" and "delight" at the
arrival of the People's Liberation Army, and according to Britain's Independent , "[a]lmost everyone agreed that China's
resumption of sovereignty would help wipe out a turf war that has gripped
Macau's gambling industry and sparked 39 triad gangster killings this year
alone." More than a quarter of Macau's workforce is employed by the casino and
gambling industries, and while gambling is illegal on the mainland, China's
promise to maintain the capitalist system in the territory for the next 50
years means that gambling will most likely remain the mainstay of Macau's
economy.
Dawn of Pakistan
said
that now "the pressure on Taiwan to revert to China is likely to mount
considerably," and the SCMP reported that just before the handover ceremonies, Chinese
President Jiang Zemin announced that China will speed up efforts for
reunification with Taiwan in the new year. The paper said the strategy will
consist of wooing Taiwanese business groups by offering incentives for joint
ventures between Taiwanese and mainland firms on one hand, and "military
preparation" on the other. The SCMP quoted Jiang saying, "All
far-sighted people in the world have seen, from the smooth return of Hong Kong
and Macau, that the 'one country, two systems' policy is most appropriate and
correct and is the best approach to solving the Taiwan question." An op-ed in Canada's National Post by David Lee, a Taiwanese
official based in Toronto, said there would be "no more handovers following
Macau's," not least because "Taiwan is not, and never has been, a colony."
Wednesday's International Herald Tribune
described current efforts to remove "military jargon, acronyms
and politically correct euphemisms" that crept into the Indonesian language
during the 32-year rule of President Suharto. According to the piece, prisons
were known as "socialization institutions," poverty was "pre-prosperity,"
corruption was "procedural error," and people were "protected" rather than
arrested. As the old euphemisms are shed, foreign words are sometimes taking
their place, leading novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer to conclude that "We have
returned to the colonial mentality, thinking that everything that is foreign is
more intellectual and high-minded."
