7
the new Urban Council should receive of the 17% rates now levied. Finan- și independence was recommended by both the working party and Urbco's 1966 committee. Both recommended an extension of the franchise, to be deter- mined on the basis of either ratepaying or residence, with the emphasis on voters "having a real stake in Hong- kong". The White Paper has not pro- posed an extension of the franchise.
Both 1966 reports suggested a 3:1 or at least a 3:2 ratio for elected and appointed members, but the White Pa- per proposes a 1:1 ratio. It recommends the withdrawal of all official members, when all the earlier recommendations called for their retention to serve as direct links with the government in matters of housing, education, medical care and social welfare.
The 1966 reports favoured differing reform plans, but agreed there should be councils of 30 to 40 members each for
PAK
IME
WORLD
BANK
"I've always envied the poor their luxury!"
INDIA-PAKISTAN
BY A. HARIHARAN
Hongkong island, Kowloon and the New Armed to a Point Territories, on municipal, urban district and local levels. The government prefers to retain the single body, enlarging it to 24 members.
The working party felt the councils should have consultative functions on welfare, education, medical care and housing and their own staff and pre- mises; the committee recommended in- cluding control of education, social wel-. fare, medical care, traffic and transport among their functions. The White Paper gives the expanded Urbco neither staff nor premises, nor control over educa- tion, welfare or medical care. The coun- cil, it believes, should continue to utilise staff from the urban services depart-
ment
and pay for them.
The basic premise of the earlier re- ports was that there should be the greatest possible amount of popular participation. This has not been granted in the proposed Urbco reforms, and the government must be taken to task for ignoring this plea. Urbco's 1966 com- mittee wanted to take over medical and health departments, but has not been realistic about its own lack of profes- sional competence in this and some other areas of proposed responsibility.
The only commendable aspect of the proposed reforms is that Urbco is being given financial autonomy. The council will not be permanently frozen into the proposed shape, and will now have the chance to prove that it is a body capable of managing things in its given areas of responsibility, limited though these are. The council will have the chance to correct its prevalent image as a forum for much talk but no action.
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
New Delhi: The armed forces of India and Pakistan are fully geared for war. "From alert to scramble should not take more than two minutes," said India's minister for defence production last week. And sabre-rattling goes on all the time.
Car stickers proclaiming "Crush In- dia" and "Conquer India" are out in force in Lahore, Karachi and other Pakistani cities. Indian Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram said a new war would be fought on Pakistani soil and India would not only take the cities of Lahore and Sialkot in Punjab but keep them for good.
Ram was obviously referring to the 1965 war when the Indian army march- ed up to the outskirts of Lahore but did not take the city. Following the Tash- kent agreement, India withdrew from the area and also gave up the strategic heights of Kargil and Haji Pir in Kashmir which had been gained at great cost.
There are conflicting versions about the "22-day war" of 1965. Political leaders maintain India did not take Lahore because of the problems in- volved in feeding the civilian popula- tion. However General Harbaksh Singh, who was commander of the western sector at the time, has said the corps commander, after having established a bridgehead across the Icchogil Canal in Lahore, got cold feet and failed to consolidate his gains. There must be some truth in this for the corps com- mander was subsequently fired.
What may prevent a war this time is
.
INDIA
the extremely difficult military situa- tion Pakistan faces. In 1965 both coun- tries refrained from opening a front on the East Pakistan border. Today, with the Bengali population ranged as one man against the Pakistan government, the 80,000 troops in the province will be bottled up and perhaps annihilated in the first hours of the war.
There are reports Pakistan already has withdrawn one infantry division from the east to strengthen defences in the western wing. Can it afford to write off the rest? Pakistani military aircraft and naval ships will be unable to make use of Ceylon and any attempt to hold East Pakistan in a shooting war is likely to prove hopeless.
The military rulers might well see virtue in withdrawing troops from the east and concentrating on the western sector with the aim of capturing some Indian territory in Kashmir, Rajasthan or Gujarat. That would be the only way to save face, given the certain loss of East Pakistan.
In terms of military balance, both sides have strengthened their positions since 1965. Pakistan has reportedly taken on loan 75 military aircraft from Saudi Arabia. It also maintains airforce training missions in various West Asian countries which, in the event of a war, may be expected to assist Pakistan.
India's policy of achieving self-suf- ficiency in military hardware gives it a decided advantage over Pakistan. Several new types of arms and ammunition are being manufactured in Indian ordnance factories. A major breakthrough was the Vijayanta tank, considered more manoeuvrable than the Centurion which was India's mainstay in 1965. The first Vijayanta rolled out in December 1965 and an informed guess is that between
OCTOBER 30, 1971
144
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.