Diversity Award means so much to India: Barse

AFP . Manchester

   

‘Slum Soccer’ winning the inaugural FIFA Diversity award will mean the world to India, better known for its cricket than football, the CEO Abhijeet Barse told AFP on Monday.
‘Slum Soccer’ saw off two other short-listed rivals—The International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (ILGBTFA) and British anti-discrimination pressure group ‘Kick It Out’—to take the award.
“This is absolutely thrilling for India, being acknowledged for a football project when India doesn’t ever make the football headlines!” an overjoyed Barse said at the Soccerex Global Football Convention.
“This will help us project ourselves onto the Government with this sort of publicity.
“The Government used to see it as education versus sport but now they see sport is part of education.”
‘Slum Soccer’ Barse explained takes in children who are outcasts in society and gets them playing football as a means to getting their confidence back with the ultimate goal of re-integrating them into society.
“They just give up because they have no direction and don’t feel part of the community,” he said.
“We go not only into the slums but also to schools and we take children who feel marginalised.
“At the moment we have around 12,000 on a daily basis in the project not just in the cities but also in the villages and rural areas.”
Barse, who is an academic by background, said that it had been wonderful to see some of the successes they had had in their different children.
“Many have gone on to gain the confidence to apply for and obtain jobs,” he said.
“Some have even returned to our project as coaches. Others have returned to resume their education and are absorbed back into the community that once they didn’t feel part of.
“That is because we have built up their confidence through playing together and being a unit, learning off each other as much as from us adults.”
Barse, whose project is backed by among others UNICEF and FIFA’s Football For Hope, said that his father had been the brainchild behind the project.
“He was a sportsman himself, a handball player,” said Barse.
“But he came from a very poor background and he knew that lots of children wouldn’t be getting opportunities to shine because of their origins.
“Thus 14 years ago he started up ‘Slum Soccer’ to give them a possibility of hope. And it grew and grew.”
However, success as often the case had its price as Barse Senior discovered and his son observed.
“He realised it was unmanageable and I saw the impact it was having on him,” said Barse.
“I was doing my PhD in the US at the time but I decided that I would return and help,” he said.
“I have no regrets because of the joy it brings. Of course there are challenges but different to the ones I found in academia.
“It is very satisfying.”

Colombia, FARC rebels sign historic peace deal

AFP . Cartagena | Update: 12:18, Sep 27, 2016

           

Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel force signed a historic peace accord with the government Monday and apologized to the countless victims of the country’s half-century civil war.
In an emotional open-air ceremony, President Juan Manuel Santos welcomed the communist rebels into the political sphere after signing the accord with FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, alias Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez.
Dressed in white, the former mortal enemies signed and shook hands, smiling before an audience of international dignitaries, drawing loud cheers.
The ceremony in the Caribbean coast city of Cartagena followed a four-year process to end the last major armed conflict in the Americas. The accord remains to be ratified by referendum in a week.
“We are being reborn to launch a new era of reconciliation and of building peace,” Timochenko said.
“In the name of the FARC, I sincerely apologize to all the victims of the conflict for any pain we may have caused during this war.”
Colombian authorities estimate the territorial and ideological conflict has killed 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and uprooted 6.9 million.
“Let no one doubt that we are moving towards politics without weapons. Let us all prepare to disarm hearts and minds,” Timochenko said.
Santos then stepped up to the podium and addressed a message to the thousands of FARC fighters preparing to disarm in their jungle camps.
“When you begin your return to society... as head of state of the homeland that we all love, I welcome you to democracy,” he said.
“Swapping bullets for votes and weapons for ideas is the bravest and most intelligent decision that any rebel group could take.”
The 2,500 guests at the signing included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
An array of Latin American heads of state, including Cuban President Raul Castro, sat near the signatories on stage.
FARC’s political future
The FARC launched its guerrilla war on the Colombian government in 1964, after a peasant uprising that was crushed by the army.
Over the decades, the conflict drew in several leftist rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
Under the deal, the FARC is now to relaunch as a political party. Timochenko, 57, is expected to remain its leader.
At a remote jungle camp in El Diamante, western Colombia, FARC fighter David Preciado celebrated the accord by playing football with his comrades.
“The government did not defeat us, and we did not defeat them. Our 52 years of war were not in vain,” he told AFP.
“We are aware that we have to move forward together, united... to finally achieve victory, giving power to the people by political means.”
Amnesty
The rebels came to the negotiating table after being weakened by an army offensive led by Santos, 65, when he was defense minister.
After he became president, four years of talks hosted by Cuba yielded a final, 300-page accord last month.
It grants an amnesty for “political crimes” committed during the conflict, but not for the worst atrocities, such as massacres, torture and rape.
The FARC’s fighters are to leave their mountain and jungle hideouts and disarm in a UN-supervised process.
Colombian authorities estimate their number at more than 7,000.
No to ‘terrorists’
Recent polls show the “Yes” camp in the lead to ratify the accord in the referendum on October 2.
Some Colombians resent the concessions made to the FARC, however.
Former president Alvaro Uribe led a demonstration in protest at the signing on Monday.
“The Americans would not grant impunity to Osama Bin Laden. The French would not grant impunity to (Islamist militants) ISIS,” he said.
“Why should we Colombians grant total impunity to terrorists?”
Santos told the gathering at the signing ceremony: “I prefer an imperfect accord that saves lives to a perfect war that keeps sowing death and pain.”
FARC off blacklist
The European Union suspended the FARC from its list of terrorist groups, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement.
The government has yet to begin planned peace talks with another, smaller leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), saying it must first stop kidnappings.

The election process and the next election commission

M Sakhawat Hossain 

Prothom Alo carried an article on 17 September by Sohrab Hossain, asking ‘Who will conduct the elections?’ This was quite a timely piece and it is prime time to discuss the issue.
Hopefully the new election commission will be formed within less than four months, though there is no constitutional obligation to do so. There is no reason to believe that there will be any change in the process followed by the political governments in forming the election commission. The law minister has already said that the election commission will be appointed in the same manner as it has been in the past.
The election commission is formed in different ways in different countries. In some countries it hardly has a role to play in conducting the election. And in many democratic countries, it has control over the government during the election period. India is an example.
The election commission in India is firmly rooted and has strong support from the judiciary, the media, civil society and, above all, the political parties. They are all stakeholders. Very few election commissions in India have faced criticism.
During the last Lok Sabha election in India, the new Indian army chief was supposed to be elected, but even that was postponed at the behest of the commission.
Article 119 of our constitution also provides such powers to the election commission, but our commission cannot fully exercise these powers. They are not backed up by those supposed to back them. The judiciary must come forward to support the commission. When we were in the election commission, the media played a powerful role. We did not, however, receive as much support from the judiciary as desired.
I don’t know if the court can take any action automatically if the constitution is violated. In such cases, Indian civil society organisations approach the court through the PLI. In our country a few organisations did go to the court, but it is doubtful if they will be able to do so in the future.
Our experience with elections is not negligible. Our election commissions have dealt will all the types of elections as enumerated in political science. In our country, during one term an election commission gains experience of about 6000 election units, including the union parishad election and so on. India does not have this experience as the election commission there only conducts the Rajya Sabha election. The local elections are conducted by the respective state election commissions.
Despite our experience, there is a lack of continuity in our election work procedures. Actually the fault lies in the formation of the election commission. The commissions formed by the political governments simply look towards the government. So it then depends on the government, not the election commission, as to whether the election will be free, fair and credible.
The election commissions under the caretaker governments managed to conduct free, fair and credible elections, but after that the commissions failed to follow suit. The successive governments were non-cooperative and the election commissions were compromised.
The time span between 2007 and 2012 was significant in the history of the election commission. The elections conducted in this period were hardly debated and the election commission performed quite independently despite several bottlenecks and also managed to bring about several changes. Unfortunately, the subsequent commissions failed to carry on this trend or to effectively apply these changes.
There is a lack of public confidence in the present election system. It will be the first and foremost task of the next election commission to restore this confidence.
The first step will be the process of forming the election commission. Though there is similarity between the Indian constitution and ours, it must be kept in mind that the foundations of their democratic institutions, of which political parties are most important, are very strong. India’s federal structure is also conducive to democracy.
The fact of the matter remains that the election commission in Bangladesh cannot apply the authority vested upon it. The complementary bodies also fail to give it the required backing. Political parties, civil society, the government, the parliament, media, the judiciary and others are all important stakeholders in the election process and election management for a free, fair and credible election.
In rising democracies like Bangladesh, the lack of election integrity and acceptability on an international level is a problem for the administration. The United Nation’s 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights upholds an individual’s right to vote, and places importance on election integrity, credibility, international standards and settlement of election disputes.
The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in its research paper Deepening Democracy, and Professor Pippa Norris in her work, point out that if the election process is not credible and the application of law is absent, then the public becomes frustrated and loses confidence in the election process as well as in those who conduct the election.
Such elections are a serious violation of human rights. The governments which emerge from such elections, thus tend to be authoritarian and alienated from the people. The country’s entire election system is harmed. The price is paid in terms of law and order and human rights violations. This has been seen in post-election situations in Kenya, Nigeria and several East European countries.
If an election commission is biased or is ineffective, then the very foundations of democracy will be weak and authoritarianism will spring up. In our country, whether or not there will be a repeat of the 2014 elections and other subsequent polls, all depends on who will run the election commission and how they will perform their duty.
M Sakhawat Hossain: Retired Brigadier General, former election commissioner and columnist
hhintlbd@yahoo.com