Can Obama create a wonderland?

America still holds sway over the world despite the fact that former President Bush had somewhat mercilessly injured it with his disastrous thinking and barbarous policies coupled with Dick Cheney’s diseased intention to grab the Middle East oil. Prior to Bush era, America had made unimaginable breakthroughs and advancements in all walks of life and the entire world had immensely benefited from it. Today George Bush is a chapter of past history. But the trouble and sufferings he had left behind not only for the US but also for the whole world will take a long time and a gigantic effort to solve and heal.

Now a man with so many good reasons and for all seasons and events, a visionary to the core has emerged. It can be for the present, easily predicted that he will be the one who could work wonders. The credit for his emergence as President of the US dates back to the historic day when President Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery. Later it owes its emergence to Dr Martin Luther King, whose heroic and unforgettable death by a bullet bore fruit in the shape of Obama’s successful election as president. Obama has taken over at a crucial juncture. There are turmoil, killings, tension, economic recession, record high price hike and inflation all around the globe. As a result he and his team will have to gird up their loins and the entire world is also earnestly required to pledge him full support.

On the home front, his first and foremost task should be to slash inflation, boost production and eliminate unemployment. A large workforce comprising millions of volunteers is needed to oversee the implementation and progress of his policies. Healthcare, social security, disturbed financial structure and the housing sector problems also needed his utmost attention. Outside the US in policy matters his first thrust should be the restoration of peace in Afghanistan. To achieve this, all factions be appeased and then brought to the negotiation table to join the genuine general elections in which all segments of society be provided an equal opportunity to participate and to step up development of the region.

Next comes the crucial issue of Iran’s nuclear programme. A balance between Iran and Israel is the need of the hour. Both should be treated at par without discrimination. This could be done under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) auspices. Both the Iranian and Israeli nuclear sites and installations should be open to inspection round the clock. Israel should no longer be the most favoured nation of the US. Last but not the least is the equitable solution of the Palestinian problem i.e. the setting up of an independent Palestinian state without any further delay. Procedure of unnecessary and undesirable casting of vetoes at the UN to protect Israel should also end. The US must rise to the occasion and closely scrutinise facts. Had the US policies been realistic from the very start, almost a million Palestinians would not have been lost and the Palestinians will not have grown two generations in refugee camps. The most appreciable solution is a Palestinian state with the Jerusalem as its capital which may be declared an international city but under the Palestinian government with a provision of granting unhindered access to the Muslims, the Christians and the Jews.

As a first plausible step all Palestinians factions should be disarmed and be given the choice either to forge unity in their ranks or keep themselves aloof from politics at least till the next general elections, or to leave the territory for some other destination. Then there should be free and fair elections under the UN auspices. The elected representatives should be given the powers to manage the state affairs under a four-nation force of their choice for two years. After that, of course, the Palestinian government will be free to run the country’s administration and to buy arms from wherever it liked. Foreigners’ entry into the Palestinian state should be only from two crossing points and that too on foot alone. Jews from all over the world may cross through Israel and Muslims and Christians via Egypt. Foreigners should not be allowed to stay for over a week during normal circumstances and will have to pay 20 dollars per person, per day as entry fee. In extreme circumstances the aspirant should pay 60 dollars each per day for their stay beyond the seven days’ stay. Israel will have to vacate an area of 30 km surrounding the Palestinian state border as buffer zone. This area too should remain under the control of the four-nation multinational force. Israel will be duty bound to demolish settlements, installations, if any, in the area within six months after the establishment of the Palestinian state.

The next in line of importance is the long-awaited solution of the Kashmir dispute which still lingers on despite the passage of the UN resolutions during six decades ago. The land of Kashmir had been the hub of military activities ever since the division of the subcontinent. The Kashmir dispute is the unfinished agenda of the subcontinent’s division. Due to India’s adamant behaviour there had been three wars between India and Pakistan besides the worst bloodshed by India in the Held Valley. According to a rough estimate more than a million Kashmiris had sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom. Only after the 1979 indigenous uprising in the Held Valley, more than 150,000 Kashmiri freedom fighters have lost their lives brutally killed by the Indian forces. India still insists that the Kashmiri freedom movement rests on the shoulders of Pakistani “intruders”, but the presence of over 100,000 graves alone in the martyrs’ graveyard in Srinagar belies the Indian claim. It is the genuineness of the movement that India is maintaining a 700,000 strong military force in the area over and above the border security force and the state police.

India has also armed and trained Hindu extremists after they had been settled in the border areas under a special scheme. On the other hand, Pakistan is forced to maintain an army beyond its resources. What is urgently required is the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Held Valley, deployment of a veto power state force and then the holding of a free and fair plebiscite in Kashmir to let the poor people decide their future. All eligible voters must comprise the real sons of the soil on both sides of the divide. Those who had abandoned their ancestral homes and settled abroad or in other parts of India or Pakistan should not be made eligible to cast their votes. This is a must to avoid rigging as well as the bogus voters’ registration since India has already settled over a million Hindus in the area in a bid to counter the indigenous uprising in the valley.

India as a matter of its national policy for its ills and mischief keep on bemoaning Pakistan in an attempt to further complicate the Kashmir issue. The latest being the stoppage of river water flow to Pakistan for the past few years. The Obama administration, it is hoped should advice India not to keep on researching lacunas and snags in various settled and old signed agreements. They must be adhered to in letter and spirit. India should also be urged to compensate Pakistan in the shape of water alone to make up the losses. It is time President Obama immediately nominates a special envoy for the solution of the Kashmir dispute. At present the entire Pakistani nation is somewhat in a doubtful or confused state. It is unable to understand that whatever Obama stated during his election campaign was either a simple election slogan or had he (Obama) been trapped by the powerful Hindu and Zionist lobby.

It is also advisable that President Obama revises his China containment policy and instead devise a US-China cooperation policy. Building India to confront China will not work. It will be a futile exercise; rather waste of money and time. If Obama succeeds in restoring normalcy in Afghanistan, rehabilitating Palestinians, reaching an amicable solution of the Kashmir dispute and appeasing Iran by treating it at par with Israel, the entire Muslim world will lend its full support to Obama and he, in return, will be in a much better position to utilise the vast Muslim wealth in the hands of oil rich Arab states to once again build a solid US and world economy in a not distinct future.

Zia ul Haque
The writer is a senior journalist