Domestic Politics Archive

Suspended between an uncertain Muslim world and a democratic Europe, a battle is brewing between Islamists and secularists in Turkey. Under a sea of red-and-white Turkish flags, tens of thousands of Turks took to the streets in the Black Sea coastal town of Samsun in late May in a series of rallies against the pro-Islamic government led by AKP, which they fear is conspiring to force its religious values on society. “No to Sharia,” “Turkey is secular and will remain secular,” the protesters, predominantly women and youth, recited in a growing chorus of demonstrations. This latest display of secular strength […]

LAHORE, Pakistan — “The only time I wore a burka was at a fancy-dress ball,” says Unver, a Pakistani painter hailing from an upper class Pakistani family. Speaking to a group of friends, he recounts sending his driver to the market to buy him the cheap, all-enveloping veil sealed with a face grill that many of Pakistan’s most conservative women wear on sorties outside the house. “After forty minutes of wearing that thing, I was drenched in sweat. Next time I saw my driver, I asked him how his wife can wear that thing all the time. He just looked […]

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — It is too early to measure the social effects of tighter restrictions on alcohol sales introduced early this month by Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov’s government. However, beyond their purported social function, the laws appear politically motivated, aimed at depriving the country’s opposition from gaining funding from major alcohol producers in what, until very recently, was a largely unregulated local industry. Among other things, the new regulations ban the sale of alcohol near schools, and in health care and sports facilities, railway stations, bus stops and airports. Political analysts contend that while one motivation of Uzbek authorities may […]

In late April, Dr. Kamal al-Labwani signed on to a letter from political and human rights activists that had been smuggled out of Damascus Central Prison. The letter urged Syria’s embattled activist community, particularly hundreds of detainees awaiting judgments, not to despair, for “they are not alone” and “there is hope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis of freedoms and human rights in Syria.” Two weeks later, on May 10, al-Labwani stood in a Damascus courtroom to hear a guilty verdict passed down upon him; three days later, two more pro-reform advocates received jail sentences. One-by-one, non-violent Syrian advocates […]

BERLIN — During the past few months, leading members of the major political parties comprising the German coalition government have expressed widely divergent views on the key foreign policy issues facing Germany. Senior representatives from the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) have made conflicting statements on the ballistic missile defense (BMD) issue, how to curb Iran’s nuclear program, Germany’s role in the war in Afghanistan, and other topics. At some point, these foreign-policy divergences, combined with differences over other policy areas, could lead to the coalition’s collapse before its scheduled dissolution at […]

Grossly unpopular and legally questionable changes to the constitution didn’t do it. Neither did a farcical referendum to secure legitimacy, nor festering resentment over the economic and social woes that plague the Pakistani population. Instead, Pakistanis have united in a vocal groundswell of opposition to President Pervez Musharraf due to the suspension of a judge — a rather routine political technique in Pakistan that has unexpectedly morphed into a nightmare of historic proportions for the leader. It should have been a simple bait and switch. Musharraf’s goal was to remove an authority figure ill-disposed to acquiescence in the general’s leadership […]

OAXACA, Mexico — The grim images of tear gas and street battles that were streaming out of Oaxaca late last year nearly dissuaded Spanish-language student Hermann Ingjaldsson from coming to the southern Mexican state, where a teachers’ strike had descended into a revolt against the governor. “I looked it up on YouTube and it didn’t look good,” the native of Iceland recalled one quiet evening while poring over his notes. At the urging of a Mexican friend, he came anyway and found the reality entirely different from the unfavorable videos shot in the colonial city and state of the same […]

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s newly elected president, takes office on May 16. Not for the French a two-month transition following elections, as in the United States. He will then announce a prime minister and a government that could remain in office for less than a month — if French voters decide to balance a conservative presidency by voting for the Socialist Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections in June. However, the prevailing view in Paris is that Ségolène Royal’s defeat in the presidential run-off has left the socialists bruised and weakened. Sarkozy’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement, therefore, stands […]

PARIS — “If I could get my hands on Sarkozy, I’d kill him.” Thus begins author David Rieff’s article in the New York Times Magazine last month on Nicolas Sarkozy’s relation to the French “banlieues.” Needless to say, it is not David Rieff himself, a fellow of the World Policy Institute in New York, who is proffering the threat. Rather he is quoting one “Mamadou”, a young resident of the Les Bousquets housing project outside Paris. Evidently having succeeded in making an impression on the American visitor, Mamadou continued, “Then I’d go to prison. And when I got out, I’d […]

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — In a bid to quash growing dissent amidst a worsening economic and political situation, Zimbabwe´s Robert Mugabe has ordered the creation of a reserve army made up of war veterans that took part in the country’s liberation struggle in the 1970s. The move comes after thousands of junior soldiers and police deserted or resigned from the government’s security forces over the past few years, disgruntled by poor pay and working conditions, leaving Mugabe short of the manpower that is essential to the maintenance of his oppressive regime. Many have left to seek better paying jobs as private […]

GLASGOW, Scotland — In what some here are calling a throwback to the electoral bedlam that surrounded U.S. President George W. Bush’s controversial win over Al Gore in 2000, Scotland’s recent election proved chaotic, with a divisive outcome that could threaten the future of the whole United Kingdom. As the dust settles around the May 4 vote for a new Scottish Parliament, the Scottish National Party (SNP), which attracted worldwide attention in the months leading up to the election by running on a call for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom, has emerged victorious. Public wrangling over the fate […]

When leaders of the two main rival factions in Palestinian politics signed a unity deal under Saudi auspices in February, the internal violence that had gripped the Palestinian Territories was supposed to come to an end. Instead, what came to an end was international news coverage of a crisis that has turned Palestinian society — particularly in the Gaza Strip — into a Hobbesian picture of lawlessness and despair.<<ad>>The Gaza Strip, which Israelis evacuated almost two years ago, is the scene of almost daily murders, kidnappings and shootouts, for reasons ranging from personal feuds to religious zealotry. Children are dying […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — As the 45 million Filipinos eligible to vote get ready to make a choice in their country’s May 14 mid-term election, the Philippines political landscape has been disturbed by the sound of guns, and filled with a mix of celebrities, rebels and political dynasties. Several actors, a current boxing world champion and a certain “Bin Laden” are among the nearly 87,000 candidates vying for 17,000 national and local positions, which include all of the 250 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. In the meantime, reports indicate that up to 80 […]

If Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is looking for someone in Israel willing to stand up and fight for his political survival, the only place he may find that person is staring straight into the mirror. Olmert’s approval ratings could hardly go any lower — and that was even before Monday’s release of partial results from the Winograd Commission investigation into what went wrong in Israel’s war with Lebanon last summer. Olmert’s survival looks like the longest of long shots, and yet, the road ahead looks anything but clear for his political opponents. The Commission skewered Olmert, declaring that he “bears […]

Nigerian President-elect Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua has pledged to secure the insurgent-riddled Niger Delta in an apparent bid to solidify his contested victory in last month’s election and prove his commitment to the country’s resource and revenue base. “If government must succeed in its bid to secure the country, it must secure the Niger Delta region,” said Yar’Adua Friday in one of his first official appeals as the troubled West African nation’s next elected leader. “I have given my pledge that the Niger Delta is a strategic part of this nation and will be treated as such. We will take […]