Siberian Light has been tracking the Moldovan elections.
Here’s the breakdown of the three parties that forced their way over the five percent threshold and into 101-seat parliament.
- Communist Party: 46.1% / 56 seats
- Democratic Moldova Bloc: 28.4% / 24 seats
- Popular Party Christian Democratic: 9% / 11 seats
But Publius Pundit has a different headline: Communists lose majority in Moldova.
Filed under democracy, Eastern Europe, USSR
The [Nationalist] state responded to the challenge presented by the [Taiwanese] uprising [on February 28] and demands for reform with overwhelming force. On the morning of March 8, the first Nationalist military reinforcements arrived in the northern port city of Jilong [= Keelung]. As these forces moved southward toward Taibei, fighting broke out with Taiwanese. Over the next two days, thousands of soldiers landed in Jilong and on the south coast at Gaoxiong [= Kaohsiung]. They reasserted the government’s control by indiscriminately shooting anyone on the streets. Martial law was declared throughout the island on March 9. On March 10, [Taiwan administrator] Chen Yi announced that the resolution committees had become part of the revolt and were now illegal. He also ordered all workers to return to their posts and shopkeepers to open for business, implemented price controls, and outlawed meetings or the collection of money for any purpose. Since Taiwanese were poorly armed and lacked a unified command, resistance collapsed quickly. Furthermore, most prominent islanders never sought a pitched battle with mainland forces….
Estimates of the number killed range from unbelievably low (500) to absurdly high (100,000). Those with close ties to the Nationalist government claim lower figures for the dead and injured, while supporters of Taiwan independence and critics of Jiang’s regime insist on higher numbers. The rough consensus among scholars is 10,000 killed and 30,000 wounded. Although discovering whether 5,000, 10,000, or more died is an important way of understanding the scope of the massacre, knowing who was killed helps make clear the incident’s effect on later political activity. As soldiers spread terror through the island, they crushed the Taiwanese as a political force able to advocate change outside the Nationalist state or Guomindang party structure. The elite’s struggle to position themselves between the Nationalists and the bulk of the island’s population failed. Instead, the government saw as one the elite, urbanites who took up arms, and even Taiwanese who stayed home throughout the crisis. All were part of a rebellion against the state.
The [2-28] incident and its aftermath had a greater impact on the island’s elite than did retrocession [to Chinese rule]. Many of the most vocal critics of the state and promoters of expanded self-government, usually prominent figures from the Japanese era, died, fled, or were frightened into silence. For example, two members of the Provincial Consultative Assembly were killed and five others arrested, while four members of the Taibei City Council died and nine were jailed. Others killed included lawyers, professors, teachers, landlords, merchants, and journalists. Because of their political activity under both Japanese and Chinese rule, these were among the best educated and most prominent islanders….
The February 28 Incident was a watershed in Taiwan’s modern political history. Decolonization essentially came to a close in early March 1947. At that point, many of the Taiwanese most likely to use the Japanese-era experience as a basis for evaluating the Nationalists and promoting expanded self-government were killed or cowed into silence. Now, the state dominated debate over the colonial legacy and thus prevented Taiwanese reference to it as justification for political reform. After the incident, the Nationalists combined limited reforms with increasing repression to solidify their rule. Subsequent changes in the political and economic spheres came from and through the state, not as a result of initiatives from the Taiwanese themselves. The events of early 1947 also marked the conclusion of debates over provincial-central relations in Republican China. The centralizers, represented by the Nationalists, had won. And in their victory, any hope for islandwide self-government, for which the Taiwanese had yearned throughout the colonial occupation, was dashed.
The incident is fascinating on two levels. First are the facts, what actually happened on Taiwan in February and March of 1947. Second is the way the incident illustrates the impact of history upon politics and vice versa. Paul Cohen, in his research of the Boxer Movement in China, examines how political context influences the memory of important events. “Certainly, mythologizers start out with an understanding of the past,” Cohen writes, “which in many (though not all) cases they may sincerely believe to be ‘correct.’ Their purpose, however, is not to enlarge upon or deepen this understanding. Rather, it is to draw on it to serve the political, ideological, rhetorical, and/or psychological needs of the present.”
SOURCE: Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950, by Steven E. Phillips (Stanford U. Press, 2003), pp. 81, 83, 87-88
Filed under China
During the first week of the new government Taraki was elected president and prime minister of the Revolutionary Council of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal was elected vice president and deputy premier and Hafizullah Amin was deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. The Revolutionary Council was the core of government power. It was made up of twenty cabinet members, who unanimously agreed that martial law should remain in force throughout the country indefinitely. Although the government always announced that all parts of the country were under their control, there were strong indications that the three-week-old regime had still not quelled all the opposition.
In a news conference Taraki declared that Afghanistan was a nonaligned country and that his government would seek friendship from all nations, including Western countries. All the political speeches began hypocritically with the familiar words “In the name of God Almighty we begin…”; “In the name of God Almighty the benevolent and merciful….” Taraki and other members of his government were seen on TV attending mosques–a very wise move, but it did not impress many university people. Those who knew the present leaders of Afghanistan and their ties to the Soviet Union could easily guess that this was not a nonaligned country. I think Taraki and his followers figured that an orthodox Communist regime would not be favored by Afghans, so it was important for the survival of the new government to be very careful. Such precautions did not last very long, however. Soon Taraki was collaborating with the Soviet Union, his closest ally. Decree after decree was approved by the inexperienced Central Committee members, who were still giddy with pride and joy at their easily gained positions. They were in a great hurry to make changes, forgetting the ingrained, time-tested old customs and traditions of the Afghan culture.
Every night I listened to broadcasts from outside the country, switching from the BBC to the Voice of America and to Pakistani and Indian radio stations. With great sadness I realized that the outside world, even the United States, did not react strongly to the coup. From my colleagues’ comments at the university I could guess that they also were listening to those stations, but none of us dared to talk about it.
During the previous week, classes at the university and other schools had been called off almost every afternoon. The students were ordered to go to the auditoriums and listen to Marxist speeches in which Taraki was touted as the greatest leader of all time. Generally, several school days were wasted for every new decree. Most of us were tired of all the propaganda but we couldn’t say a word. Disobedience to the rules or expression of our opinions had no place in the present regime.
SOURCE: An Afghan Woman’s Odyssey, by Farooka Gauhari (U. Nebraska Press, 1996), pp. 100-101
Filed under Afghanistan
Three new decrees, the first two concerning the selection ofRevolutionary Council members and the third one the military court, were repeated hour after hour, day and night, on radio, TV, and even at the school assemblies. But still the new regime refused to release any information as to [my husband] Saleem’s whereabouts. It seemed that he was a forgotten case, as if he had never existed. Most often, when I asked an official about Saleem, he would give me a dirty look, one that made me freeze for a second. I was treated like an antirevolutionary, with no rights at all.
On weekends (Fridays) I unfailingly joined the mass of people taking clean clothes, food, and other supplies to relatives who were thought to be imprisoned at Puli-Charkhi. I always tried to be among the first few in a very long line of people who were waiting there. The line increased throughout the day, and as time went on, it seemed that there was no end to this infinite queue of worried and miserable human beings. When the gate opened at eight in the morning, we each gave our package to the man in charge to be passed along to the intended recipient. Then we waited for a response. For some a note came back from their beloved one, along with dirty clothing to be washed and returned. For others, the package was kept for hours and then was returned with the simple comment “He is not here.” I always hoped that someday they would give my package to Saleem.
The first few weeks after the coup, most of the visitors to the prison were from educated, well-to-do families; I could easily tell from the way they talked and dressed. But later all sorts of men and women from every sect and group of society could be seen: rich, poor, educated, nomads, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Kabulis, Kandaharis–almost every ethnic group of the country was represented.
SOURCE: An Afghan Woman’s Odyssey, by Farooka Gauhari (U. Nebraska Press, 1996), p. 104
Filed under Afghanistan
All convicted criminals, even murderers, were released in most parts of country, making big news on radio and TV. According to the minister of education, “The doors of the prisons are being closed and the doors of the schools are being opened.” Yet, paradoxically, the political kidnappings continued and people still disappeared. The jails were being emptied to make room for the new political prisoners!
People were getting tired of all such propaganda. As I was crossing Puli-Baghi Umomi Road I noticed that someone had written under the government’s famous slogan of “Food, Shelter, and Clothing for All,” in large letters that could be read from far away, ‘Address: Puli-Charkhi Prison.” Whoever did it took a big risk to write such words on a very busy road.
SOURCE: An Afghan Woman’s Odyssey, by Farooka Gauhari (U. Nebraska Press, 1996),
p. 107
Filed under Afghanistan
Our New Year came on March 21 and I don’t think people celebrated it the way they used to. School started right after the New Year. My daughter told me that a new subject, one hour daily, had been added recently to their curriculum. It was called itla-at, or “information” class. During this class the teacher asked the students about their homes, what went on there, what their parents said about the new regime and who visited them. This was a new wrinkle in the spy network that was spreading through the schools.
Rumors were rampant that even children had been disappearing from schools and the streets. The Marxists had supposedly taken them to special “indoctrination schools,” but people kept quiet and didn’t talk about their missing family members.
Both of my sons were going into the tenth grade, while my daughter was in the fifth. They were growing fast and making new friends. There were times when I felt so uncertain about decisions. I wanted Saleem’s opinion when it came to raising my children. One day Ali wanted to go out and play football with his friends but I wouldn’t let him. I was scared, I was scared even of my own shadow. I didn’t know who I could trust anymore. I was afraid that if I let him go and play, he would not return safely. I didn’t know his friends. Times had changed so much that I was afraid I might lose the children exactly the way I had lost my husband–and I wouldn’t be able to find them either. When I told Ali no, he cried. His tearful eyes were killing me.
SOURCE: An Afghan Woman’s Odyssey, by Farooka Gauhari (U. Nebraska Press, 1996), pp. 113-114
Filed under Afghanistan
In the 3 March New York Times, Robert D. Kaplan offers an interesting analysis of how the Pentagon’s recent restructuring of the U.S. Navy improved the tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia.
The fact is, the Navy of the 1990’s could not have responded nearly as quickly and efficiently to the tsunami as did the post-9/11 one. This is largely because of structural changes made to fight the war on terrorism.
A decade ago, our carrier battle groups mainly did planned, six-month-long “pulse” deployments. Since 9/11, the Navy has put increasing emphasis on emergency “surge” deployments, in which carriers, cruisers and destroyers have to be ready to go anywhere, anytime, to deal with a security threat. The new strategy explains why, in late December, the Abraham Lincoln strike force was able to so quickly leave Hong Kong for Indonesia at a best speed of 27 knots.
In recent years the Navy has also instituted what it calls sea-swaps, in which crews are rotated in the middle of a deployment, without the battle group having to return to port. This allows the ships to remain on call in unstable areas of the globe while giving the initial crews a rest.
For example, the Benfold, a guided missile destroyer on which I have been embedded for four weeks – and which played a substantial role in tsunami relief – is now being maintained by a crew from another destroyer, the Higgins, as part of a sea-swap. Although the Benfold had intended to go to the Korean Peninsula before the tsunami hit, its navigators had sailing charts of Indonesia on hand because, as they explained to me, the war on terrorism necessitates a flexible, expeditionary mentality.
Sept. 11 has also encouraged America’s blue water (oceanic) Navy to become more of a green water, street-fighting force, adept at littoral operations, whether that means infiltrating coastal terrorist hideouts or providing onshore assistance to disaster victims. While fighting terrorism has sharpened the Navy’s skill at disaster relief, the humanitarian work in the Indian Ocean, it is now clear, has provided a major victory in both the war on terrorism and the more low-key effort of managing China’s re-emergence as a great power. Not only did the Abraham Lincoln strike group show Muslim Indonesians that America is their friend, it also proved how helpful our sailors can be compared to the Chinese Navy, which floundered in its relief efforts. Clearly, by doing good, we have done well.
Apparently so, according to the results of a new poll in Indonesia.
The Terror Free Tomorrow poll was conducted in February by the leading Indonesian pollster, Lembaga Survei Indonesia, and surveyed 1,200 adults nationwide with a margin of error of 1 2.9 percentage points.
Filed under Indonesia
The New York Public Library has announced a new digital library now available to the public. Here are a few of the galleries that caught my eye in the Printing and Graphics category. Unfortunately, the image-viewing function seems exceedingly buggy, even after installing LizardTech’s Express View 3.4.2 under IE. Firefox seems even less well-supported.
Charting North America: Maps from the Leonard Slaughter Collection and Others
The Floating World: Japanese Color Woodcuts by Kitagawa Utamaro
Dust Jackets from American and European Books, 1926-1947
Posters of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1922
World War I Photograph Albums and Postcards
UPDATE: Apparently the server couldn’t handle the enthusiastic level of response. The “bugginess” was nothing more than server constipation.
Filed under publishing
Andy at Siberian Light notes a report that Moldovans don’t want CIS election observers. He comments:
Moldova does, however, want OSCE and Council of Europe observers.
Can you imagine the hurt and suffering the poor man [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] is going through as he ever so slowly comes to terms with the heartbreaking knowledge that there are people in former Soviet states that actually don’t trust Russia?
Andy’s post attracted a cynical comment that cites an article on the IWPR website about the recent elections in Kyrgyzstan.
This article, perhaps unwittingly, demonstrates that the real protests are not taking place in the name of democracy, but are orchestrated by local regional powerbrokers.
UPDATE: The Financial Times has more on the Moldovan elections (via Instapundit).
At first sight, Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Moldova, an impoverished former Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania, look like fertile ground for a political battle between Russia and the west.
President Vladimir Voronin, the Communist party leader who came to power on a pro-Moscow ticket four years ago, is confronted by centre-right and rightwing opposition parties.
Following the success of popular protests that forced changes of government in Ukraine and Georgia, Moldova might seem ripe for a similar upheaval. But the parallels are misleading. Far from calling on Moscow for support, the veteran Communist president has transformed himself into a pro-west leader, anxious to build ties with the European Union.
In an attempt to exploit the popularity of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, Mr Voronin has also recently wooed those countries’ new democratic leaders – Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.
And, to the Kremlin’s considerable annoyance, he expelled 19 Russian “poll monitors” accusing them of meddling in the election.
Mr Voronin hopes his tactics can help settle Moldova’s biggest challenge – the conflict with its Russian-backed separatist enclave, Transdnestria. But he clearly also hopes his manoeuvres will allow his party to retain control of parliament and be in a position to extend his own power when deputies vote for a new president later this year.
Filed under Romania
Last week, Macam-Macam posted a wide-ranging update on the “Boxing Day Tsunami” that included a link to a long backgrounder on the history of Aceh in, of all places, Margo Kingston’s web diary at the Sydney Morning Herald. The backgrounder is entitled “The Aceh conflict: past, present and Quo Vadis?” by a “PF Journey” of Chinese Indonesian background. Here’s a sample of what it has to say. (I’ve corrected a few of the typos that seem to be a Margo Kingston speciality.)
From Sabang to Merauke – Can 225 millions Indonesians be wrong?
Another one of Sukarno’s famous catchcries was “From Sabang to Merauke”. Sabang is located on an island in Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra, the westernmost island in the Indonesian archipelago. (It was badly hit by the Tsunami). Merauke is located in West Papua near the border with PNG, and is the most easterly city of Indonesia.
It was the catchcry Sukarno and his nationalists of the 20s and 30s used to rally the people of Indonesia against the Dutch colonial power. It was also a nation building tool, for there was no Indonesia in those days. Indonesia, as the political entity as we know today, is a recent creature.
Every Indonesian student from Kindergarten to University has been constantly brainwashed and taught songs about “From Sabang to Merauke”. The Indonesians like to say that the sun rises at Meurake and sets in Sabang. To the average Indonesian, the unity of Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke is firmly etched in their consciousness. East Timor was more like an adopted son, whereas Aceh is like the number one son in the family.
Aceh is also known as Serambi Mekkah, the gateway to Mecca. Before the age of air transport, ships carrying Indonesian pilgrims on the way Mecca for the Haj had to stop at Sabang before crossing the Indian Ocean. Aceh has also been described as “the front porch of Mecca”. To a lot of Indonesian Muslims, Aceh is their holy land, so the spiritual and emotional attachment to Aceh is far far stronger than to East Timor.
Obviously this cut no ice with the Acehnese, especially with the Aceh Nationalists. Tengku Hasan Di Tiro, head of GAM (Free Aceh Movement), declared in 1976:
“There never was such a people, much less a nation, in our part of the world by that name (Indonesia). No such people existed in the Malay archipelago by definition of ethnology, philology, cultural anthropology, sociology or by any other scientific findings. Indonesia is a Javanese republic with a Greek pseudo-name.” (Indo- (combining form of India) + Greek nes(os): islands + -ia (suffix for country).
Indonesia’s total population is about 230 million. There are about 5 million Acehnese. Can 225 million Indonesians be wrong? …
The tsunami wildcard: curse or blessing?
A blessing? It puts Aceh on the front page. The world now knows where Aceh is and its problems. It exposes the incompetence of the Indonesia government and the military.
It provides a circuit breaker for GAM and the Indonesian Government, with a face saving opportunity to secure a peaceful deal. The AP reported recently:
“BANDA ACEH, Indonesia Rebels in Aceh Province said Monday that they were willing to put their demand for secession on hold if Indonesia accepted a “face-saving” formula that would allow the tsunami-hit region to hold an independence referendum within 5 to 10 years. Members of the Indonesian government and rebel leaders from Aceh Province held talks over the weekend in Helsinki to consider a possible cease-fire and to reopen a peace process that was broken in May 2003 by the Indonesian military.”
With the aid money that is pouring in, estimated to be US$5-10 billion, Aceh can be re-built, providing its long suffering people with better facilities and infrastructure. Aceh will not and cannot be closed again to the outside world by the military or the Islamic fundamentalists.
A curse? Conservative estimates put the tsunami’s death toll at about 5% of the population and it has affected about 40% of the population. The tsunami destroyed whatever basic infrastructure the region had. The Acehnese fear that after the initial shock and horror of the disaster the outside world will forget Aceh and things will go back to normal, out of sight and out of mind.
Influential Islamic clerics have declared that the tsunami that hit Aceh is Allah’s warning to the Acehnese against the influence of decadent western values and that they must more strictly observe their religion, including putting a stop to Muslims killing Muslims.
Another red flag needs to be raised here – the size of aid money that is pouring in for Aceh. Will this become the new honey pot for the corrupt officials from both sides? If so, the poor people of Aceh will be hit by a triple whammy: Firstly, the never ending war; secondly, the Tsunami; thirdly, another betrayal.
Filed under Indonesia
Far Outliers 