France rejects Socialism yet again.

24-04-2007

France rejects Socialism, sympathetically

After the first round of elections held in France on 22nd April, it has become amply clear that the head of France's ruling UMP, rightist candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, is certain to beceome the next President of France after the second round of the poll to be held on 06th May the final results of which will be announced on the 10 th, keeping the Socialist camp in the country disillusioned all over again. Mr.Sarkozy, France's rightwing former interior minister, stormed to one of the most impressive first-round victories in French presidential history, making him favourite to beat the socialist Ségolène Royal to the Elysée in a fortnight's time.

There were twelve candidates on yesterday's ballot. Apart from those three, the other "big" one was the centrist Francois Bayrou, who got 18.3% of the national vote.In the run-off, the outcome will depend to some extent which way Bayrou's supporters will turn. The other eight candidates are nearly all from the left.Officially, France now faces the traditional right-left run-off that it was denied in the last election in 2002, when the far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, shocked the country by making it through to the final round. But polling experts last night predicted a very tight race.

French voters particiapted in record high numbers in the first round of the presidential elections on 22d April. The Gaullist Party's Nicolas Sarkozy got around 30% and the Socialists' Segolene Royal, in improvemnt of previous "socialist" records since 1988, got 25.2%. The voters also delivered a sharp rebuff to the far-right, anti-immigrant candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, giving him only 11.5%. That means that Sarkozy and Segolene will go to the second round run-off on May 6. Five years ago, Le Pen had shocked much of the French intelligentsia by beating the Socialist candidate (Lionel Jospin) into second place, and thus got into the run-off ballot against Chirac a couple of weeks later.

The Socialist cadidate, Ms.Segolene Royal seems to have no costructive socialist ideas and has styled herself the defender of social justice who "listens to the people", challenging Mr Sarkozy indirectly for his "brutal" style, divisiveness and "dangerous" authoritarianism, even tried to woo women by chanpioning feminism . She has conveneintly broken away from the traditional left, styling herself as a mother figure who sings the Marseillaise and calling for everyone to place a French flag in their window.

Sarkozy, whose inspirations are Charles de Gaulle and Pope John Paul II, has said France needs "a new Renaissance" and has promised to restore pride in "what it means to be French".He emerged as the most popular rightwing politician in 30 years after promising to shake France out of its decline with a mixture of free-market reforms, and to restore "authority" with tough law and order measures, clamp down on immigration and instil a sense of "national pride".Addressing a rally of around 2,000 supporters in Paris, Mr Sarkozy said: "I wish only to rally people around a new French dream of a fraternal republic."
He said his vision of France valued work, instilled authority and was a France where people did not fear others. He said he would rally the workers, farmers and all those who had suffered and were "exasperated".

Sarkozy has made quite a break with some of the stiff nationalism the Gaullists have traditionally held to; and he's been seen as far more pro-US than most Gaullists have been in the part. To a certain extent he's had to run away from his pro-US sentiments during the election so far. But he is definitely seen as eager to start dismantling some key aspects of the French "social contract" and shifting the country to what is described here as "the Anglo-Saxon model" of social-service dismantlement.In the last few days of the campaign, Sarko also started talking quite openly about the importance of his Christian beliefs and the fact that France should be less militantly secularist than it has been for the past 125 years.
Some Afro-French women would go to vote agaisnt Sarko, rather than voting for Sego or anyone else.

Mr Le Pen came fourth with 11.5%, his worst result in a presidential election since he first ran in 1974. Reacting to his ejection, Mr Le Pen said: "I thought the French were quite unhappy with the fact that we have 7 million poor people, 14 million poor workers, that we have a trade deficit, that we had a debt of €2,500bn. "Well, I was wrong. The French are very happy. The proof is that they have just re-elected the parties that have been in power and which are responsible for France's situation. I fear this euphoria will not last for a very long time." His anger as well as dispair is quite understandable.

The record 85% turnout in the latest election reflected the huge amount of interest in the race for a new generation of president; 12 years of Jacques Chirac has left the nation struggling with economic stagnation, debt, unemployment, discrimination and simmering unrest on rundown housing estates.

Interestingly, François Hollande, the Socialist party leader, said the choice was now between Mr Sarkozy, who as a former minister represented the outgoing government, and Ms Royal, "the real force of change". French voters still believe unemployment and spending power in the sluggish economy are their main concerns but both candidates have been keen to promote the question of national identity.

However, the fact remains that the French people seem to have reposted faith in the outgong government by overlooking its past non-performnce. Clearly, the Frech Socialists too, confused following the collapse of Soviet Union, have lost their direction and purpose. One more mandate, therefore, for the ruling rightist UMP yet another term for rule. The Leftist parties in other countries clamouring for "covergence atmosphere" and "peaceful coexistsnce" must take note of the results in France, a nation with sizeable traditional leftists. Convergence theory was propounded in the West to get socialism and communism neutralized and immersed in capitalism and that is what has happened in France.

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DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal
JNU, New Delhi

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Terror Causing Countries (TCC)

Written by drdivas on

From: drdivas.wordpress.com

By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

ONE

The Terror Causing Countries (TCC) are those that promote violence, terror and antihuman activities around the world. The present era of so-called communalism, anti-Muslimism, nuclearism andÂ Â displaced thousands of Muslims in Islamic world, including Pakistan, a close ally of USA. Consistent anti-Islamic torture has been going on probably in every region.

Under severe pressure from the Hindu forces, intelligence and media lords, the Union Home Ministry said it would challenge the order in the Supreme Court if necessary. The Ministry is studying the order and eliciting views of legal experts and a decision will be taken on the basis of their advice. The tribunal order lifting the ban imposed by the Centre on the activities of the Students Islamic Movement of India was not a setback to the Ministry.Â

A special tribunal headed by a sitting Delhi High Court judge Justice Geeta Mittal on July 6 lifted the ban on a so-called “terrorist” organization SIMI, citing lack of any fresh evidence against the organization. SIMI had challenged the two-year ban re-imposed on it by the central government Feb 7, 2008. The tribunal was specially constituted to decide whether or not there was sufficient cause for declaring SIMI an unlawful association.Â

SIMI was founded in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in 1977 by Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi as an offshoot to the Jamaat-e-Islami. SIMI was first banned in 2001 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the ban has been renewed thrice since then. When it was outlawed, SIMI has thousands of members across the country taking up Islamic issues irritating the saffron bands. It has a national presence with strong bases in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Assam.Â

FIVE

The SIMI annoyed by Indian attitude toward Muslims denying them their legitimate rights and ignoring their genuine concerns, advocates the “liberation of India” and restoring Islamic rule. When India demolished Grand Babri Mosque by cleverly using anti-Islamic Hindutva militants, they protested but they were taken into custody without trials and tortured. SIMI witnessed slow growth even in Muslim dominated areas until December 1992 when the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya sparked one of the worst Hindu-Muslim violence in the country since independence in 1947. Under tremendous pressure from government agencies and political outfits as well as media threat on Muslims fighting for their rights, many young Muslims have quit SIMI saying they do not “subscribe to its ideology”. But that strategy is has not fully worked with Muslims.

With a view to getting some political mileage, the major Hindutva party BJP blamed immediately the “incompetence” of the Central government for the revocation of the ban on SIMI. The government remarked that one should not expect anything else from the saffron party.

The anti-Muslim forces are now gearing up to get the verdict quashed by the courts themselves and must be pressuring the judges to support the Hindu cause in India, that is Hindustan.

Finally, Supreme Court has come to the “resque” of the sentiments of Hindus now. India is one of major Terror Causing Countries (TCC) and only judiciary can make it humane.

Globalization has generated a few negative trends and the most crucial and crudest one is anti-Islamism. This anti-world process has to end.

A Word

A lot of Muslim blood has flown under the regional bridges over decades and yet the anti-Islamic forces led by USA-Israel-India trio are hatching more and more conspiracies to trap more and more Muslims and Muslim nations. It is high time the UN and UNSC rose to the occasion to stop countries like India, USA and Israel from employing terrorist methods to deal with Muslims and Islamic nations. These terror causing countries should be retrained forthwith from either killing and torturing or provoking the Muslims and Islamic nations and then brand them as “terrorists”.

Nuclearization of international relations and weaponization of space are the chief reason for the current tension in the world as every strong power is trying outsmarting the other in showcasing it supremacy. Terrorism is just one of the fallouts of this horrid, inhuman process causing other innumerable problems for the humanity including price rise, poverty, diseases and climate change.

Terror Causing Countries (TCC) have to be isolated, punished and dismembered from UN and UNSC.

If, however, UN and UNSC will continue to be immune to the pressures and cannot take serious steps to arrest the anti-human, anti-Muslim trends, they are only failing in their primary functions and in that case both these global bodies deserve to be dismantled forthwith.

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