AMERICA's GOVERNANCE CRISIS

 

NewsX Senior Consulting Editor Vineet Malhotra sat down with Scot Faulkner who served as the Chief Administrative Officer for the U.S. House of Representatives and as Director of Personnel for 40th US President Ronald Raegan for a fireside chat on what the mood in South Asia is, vis a vis, the change in administration in the United States. Responding to a question on the heated discussion between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday, Faulkner revealed that the last time something like this happened in public eye was back in 1619 when the defenestrations happened in Prague, which eventually started the 30-year-war. Excerpts:

Q: Do you think this (Zelenskyy-Trump-Vance exchange) was the first interaction of its sort ever to happen in the Oval Office or anywhere in the world?

A: I was doing some history research before this, anticipating the question. In 1619, in Prague, the defenestration of the Holy Roman Emperors, Catholic delegation. They were thrown out of a third-floor window and it started the 30-years-war. So that seems to be the last time there was a this high profile meltdown for a diplomatic mission. So, it’s been quite a while, and that one wasn’t on CNN. It’s just absolutely stunning. My phone started blowing up last night, and I have friends on both sides of the aisle. And you can imagine one side says it’s Zelenskyy’s fault. The other side says it’s Trump’s fault. And everyone’s sort of throwing eggs and rotten tomatoes at each other.

Q: Do you think it was about time that somebody called out Zelenskyy for what’s happening?

A: Well, that’s an interesting question because what they are saying is that a deal was cut and that this was only was supposed to been sort of like a protocol meeting in preparation for the signing of the document deal with mineral rights. And then they were going to go into a press conference, and Zelenskyy decided to up the ante and sort of reopen the negotiations on the fly. Some of the people are saying that Zelenskyy was so used to working with Biden and his national security staff, which to this day, is still probably the weakest and most incompetent in the American history. And he wasn’t ready to encounter the buzzsaw of Trump. And then to, as one person put it, with Trump and Vance, there was ‘bad cop, worse cop’ (instead of bad cop, good cop). And so, Zelenskyy probably lost his cool when he shouldn’t have. But both sides sort of up the ante. And it’s sad because only two people benefit from it: Russia – because they hope that they can retain all their ill-gotten gains of territory and maybe force Ukraine to never be a NATO (member). And then China that’s sitting there saying, well, if this happens on Ukraine, maybe we ought to test our waters, literally, our waters around Taiwan. So, it was not one of the better moments for American history or world history or for in the future, Ukraine.

Q: You gave me a lot of interesting insights into what governments do and what governments emote and project in order to run efficiently. And you spoke about the 3Ts. Could you share that philosophy and that idea with our audience as well.

A: When you start to think of governance, we’re not just talking about elections and who gets elected and who represents who. We’re talking about the actual operations and mechanics of how a government operates, how it serves its citizenry. And you kind of harken back to basically Rousseau in the 18th century about the social contract that, you know, we all came here either by bus or car because we don’t build. We don’t build our own cars. So we, we voluntarily, hire a car or buy a car. So we have a transactional contract with that manufacturer. The same thing goes in government. None of us are going to sit there and build the roads that drive that car. We’re willing to, through a toll or gas tax or something, delegate to government building the roads. We delegate to government, the police and the signage on those roads. And so the social contract for government at every level: from national to federal to local, is that the citizens that it serves willingly delegate and willingly pay for certain basic services that we’re not going to do ourselves. And so transaction is a very fundamental thing because government needs to be able to make the value proposition that we can do certain things better than individuals because of collective action and economies of scale.

Then we’re into trust: the second T. We trust that government is going to do the right thing. Just like we all had a lunch break, we assume that the food we ate was not going to kill us, give us food poisoning. So there’s a certain trust level that comes with that social contract. And then finally to establish that that trust is real and is actually justified, we have transparency. Public processes should be public; public documents should be public; public meetings should be public and public decisions should be public. And you put a little asterisk for we don’t need to know the nuclear codes or some secret weapon being built or who the spies are. But overall, public things should be public. What’s happened in America and this goes back 30+ years, is that both Republicans and Democrats are to blame. Those three Ts have been destroyed, and that’s what led to last year’s election where America’s faith in government, in that social contract has completely collapsed because governments have been lying to them. And we’re finding that over the years, we basically have a government filled with aging, egotistical, greedy and corrupt people who have been lining their pockets. And this is where the DOJ’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) comes in. Peeling back the onion to see the waste, the fraud and abuse and the fact that we’re about to have the full files of the Epstein. We’re going to have the trial on PD. So we’re not only looking at corruption, we’re looking at perversion to a very sordid level. And so Americans today have little faith in government, little faith in the media that covers government, little faith in the academia that studies government and this is probably the worst crisis in governance in American history.

We had our Civil War, but that wasn’t about governance; it was about very fundamental issues on freedom and sectional competition. To this day, 77 percent of Americans are for what Musk is doing in terms of what we call draining the swamp and starting to expose all this waste. But the basics of governance that holds America together are right now in play, and we’ll see how it plays out.

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RISING REGIONAL POWERS WORKING TOGETHER

Dr. Sunil Chacko - Guest Columnist


Also published at http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/10904-joint-statement-maps-out-road-india-japan-ties

The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe visited India on 13 and 14 September 2017 for the annual India-Japan Prime Ministerial Summit. This visit was unique because his itinerary was entirely in Gujarat, opening the doors to similar such state-level visits by heads of government, reflecting India’s diverse States-Union tradition.

There was palpable excitement in Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar for the visit of Japan’s first couple, Shinzo and Akie Abe, as compared to the jaded disinterest that is common in Lutyens Delhi for the now-unending stream of dignitaries that come through the nation’s capital. Indeed, the next summit in India in 2019 could be in the southern states.


The highlights of the Abes’ interactions with the public were their marigold bedecked open-jeep greetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to throngs of excited Gujaratis lining the streets and the much-anticipated foundation stone laying ceremony for the Shinkansen Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train construction project, expected to be completed around 2022. The Abes too appeared to be energised by the warm reception they received, and PM Abe in his exuberance, declared “I really like India and I will do whatever I can do for India”. This is not insignificant, given that some in the leadership of another large economy in Asia, by comparison, appear to be taking frequent pot-shots at India.


The Joint Statement at the conclusion of the Prime Ministerial Summit calls for alignment of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy with India’s Act East Policy, including through enhancing maritime security cooperation, improving connectivity in the wider Indo-Pacific region, strengthening cooperation with ASEAN, and promoting discussions between strategists and experts of the two countries. It advances the need for partnerships for prosperity through India-Japan Investment Promotion, speedy implementation of key infrastructure projects, and advancing cooperation in the fields of energy, smart cities, information and communication technology, space, science and technology, bio-technology, pharmaceuticals and health.


Both India and Japan have a formidable number and range of human resources and expertise in sectors mentioned in the Joint Statement, however, one tall barrier could be the relative unfamiliarity with Japanese language in the past interactions among Indians and Japanese. Japanese language teaching in India was stressed in the Joint Statement, as was collaboration in the fields of tourism, civil aviation, higher education, women’s education, skills development and sports. For many Indians, who have grown up with multiple-languages and multi-cultural environment in a multi-religious-and-ethnic society, adding one more language to our portfolio may not be such a difficult task, especially if Japanese language skill is associated with in-coming skilled jobs with Make in India investment from Japan.


On the enhanced connectivity of Pacific-Indian Ocean, the two Prime Ministers plan to work together to enhance connectivity in India and with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including Africa. This includes the development of industrial corridors and industrial networks for the growth of Asia and Africa, which will benefit various stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region, including Africa. They shared the desire to further promote cooperation and collaboration in Africa, just as companies like Maruti-Suzuki have been exporting to numerous African nations.


The Joint Statement also prescribes enhanced defense and security cooperation and dialogues, defense equipment and technology cooperation in such areas as surveillance and unmanned system technologies, and defense industry cooperation.


As is customary with joint statements, there is a litany of initiatives and programmes mentioned. However, little by way of analysis and evaluation. What has happened to various joint endeavours? Have they resulted in business going concerns or faded into oblivion? What can we learn from those experiences?


In a first, PM Abe and PM Modi stressed the importance of holding accountable all parties that have supported North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, a not-so-veiled reference to the widely suspected Pakistan and China, which have reportedly been overtly, covertly and unofficially supportive.


It is quite fascinating that Modi and Abe have returned to the theme of “Confluence of the Two Seas”, meaning the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which was the title of a 1655 book authored by the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh, who was the son and heir-apparent of Emperor Shah Jahan. Dara Shikoh assiduously sought understanding with different communities and religions. This book title was emphasised by Prime Minister Abe in his famous speech to Indian Parliament on 22 August 2007, during his first term in office. That Dara Shikoh was assassinated by his brother Aurangzeb, a despot, in order to seize power, is often not remembered. Thus, recollecting India’s history, PM Abe’s 2007 speech aimed at governance through peace and by extension peace through strength, would be an essential shared vision; not merely peace through good intentions and hope, and that is indeed the path that India and Japan have embarked on.


Dr Sunil Chacko, a graduate of Harvard, has been a faculty member in the US, Canada, India and Japan.
 

INDIA & JAPAN STANDING TOGETHER

Dr. Sunil Chacko - Guest Columnist


Also published at http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/10801-crowded-agenda-awaits-modi-and-abe-gandhinagar


Japan was the only country besides Bhutan to publicly back India during the 71-day India-China armed standoff at Doklam. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits India next week for the annual India-Japan Prime Ministerial Summit at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stock has risen in the great power centres worldwide over his resolute handling of the standoff with China and his deft management of the complex relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. That the Doklam imbroglio could have led to a border war, which would have triggered the clauses for legal expropriation of all Chinese assets in India as per the Enemy Property Act 1968, appears to have been a key factor in cooling hotheads in the armed forces of China.


Japan itself faces a threat, which has the capacity of becoming existential. This is with Kim Jong-Un and his regime in Pyongyang. As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe grapples with the unending complications of the breathtakingly tense North Korean crisis—where Kim Jong-Un appears to reserve special venom for Japan, for historical reasons, and with missiles flying over the Japanese islands like ping pong balls— the people in the world’s third largest economy are jittery. Therefore, the strongly worded statements from India have been doubly reassuring. The Japanese side is convinced that India, a rising power, will stand for respect for international law and will not tolerate rogue actions, and the special relationship between the two Prime Ministers Modi and Abe ensures that. The recent Malabar naval exercises of the Navies of India, the United States and Japan have augmented that confidence in India as a strong and reliable partner of Japan.


Unbeknown to most Japanese is the North Korea-Pakistan axis of nuclear and missile proliferation, even from the time of Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. Some Indian scientists have privately opined that both North Korea and Pakistan could not have advanced so much in both nuclear and missile technologies without concrete scientific and technological help from China. North Korea undoubtedly has become the cause of the most severe migraine that Japan has had since the US started providing a security umbrella after the end of the Second World War 72 years ago. Thus, India—with its own historical links with North Korea through the “non-aligned movement”—breaking with tradition and condemning North Korea for its belligerence is definitely being paid close attention in Tokyo.


Beyond the national security angles, PM Abe along with PM Modi will lay the foundation stones of two flagship projects for mutual economic growth. First the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, which will become the main pathway for Japanese-Indian “Make in India” products and components for export to the growing economies of Africa. It is also fitting that the inaugural events are being held in Gujarat, since it re-emphasises the historical links built by Kutchi traders with Zanzibar in Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Abe believes that the Indian diaspora, which is firmly rooted in important countries of South, West and East Africa are the key partners for local distribution, management of spares and servicing, and related work needed for Japanese investment to succeed.


The Japanese are not resident in Africa in most countries in any appreciable numbers, unlike the Chinese. Therefore, there is little risk of the Japanese somehow running by themselves the local operations in African nations of joint ventures and other co-produced products from India. Japan sees India as a good location to manufacture and export to Africa, the Middle-East and Central Asia. Indeed, the Maruti-Suzuki manufactured vehicles in India are exported to 125 countries, a genuine success story for the company, Suzuki, which was once on the verge of bankruptcy because of stiff competition from much larger rivals in Japan like Toyota, Honda and Nissan.


Another important and much-anticipated construction project is the “Shinkansen” bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. This rail mode has an enviable zero accident record, despite travelling at over 300 kilometres an hour in Japan. Indeed, beyond the bullet train, Japan-India collaboration on enhancing railway safety throughout the country is one of the topics under discussion. The average speed of Indian trains being about 50 kmph, at the Shinkansen speed, the journey from Mumbai to Ahmedabad would be cut to two hours from the current seven hours. However, the new route would require 11 new tunnels, including an undersea tunnel near Mumbai, and, therefore, the total Japanese concessional loan is approximately $12 billion at 0.1% interest, with a 50-year repayment period, as well as a moratorium on payments for the first 15 years, while the route and train construction, training and allied development work is undertaken and passenger journeys get underway. This is the most concessional of loans, at 0.1% interest, that Japan has ever given for commercial-scale projects. It is one of the payoffs of the increasingly close India-Japan multi-faceted relationship.


Both Modi and Abe, who are close friends, will have several rounds of discussions on geopolitical matters, as well as the India and Japan partnership being developed by the two PMs. The two countries have shared values in security stability, promotion of dialogue and engagement with strong legal ground, joint outreach to global market, where Indians are geo-politically strong, and technology collaboration for the new era of strong and sustained growth. The forthcoming Modi-Abe summit is expected by the Japanese side to be a path-breaker in ties between Tokyo and Delhi.


Dr Sunil Chacko, a graduate of Harvard, has been a faculty member in the US, Canada, India and Japan.