CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, May 18, 2013
13
Opinion
The government needs to get its priorities straight IT IS DIFFICULT not to share the anger of deputies over the government’s decision not to open the four regional ambulance stations that are ready for operations, because of the freeze on new recruitments in the public sector. The 49 paramedics, who received a year’s training at a cost of €500,000 to the taxpayer, in order to man the four stations, will not be hired because of the recruitment freeze, which has been blamed on the troika. Blaming everything on the troika is convenient for the government, but the fact is that while the troika may set state spending targets, it does not decide what the spending priorities should be. This is decided by the ministry officials and minister. For instance, the troika did not stop the government funding the Medical School of the Cyprus University, a vanity project that would cost tens of millions of euros to operate. Why had the troika not applied the recruitment freeze to the Medical School, the payroll of which would be several million euros but prevented the opening of four ambulance centres the operation of which would cost about €500,000? It is obvious that this misguided decision was taken by the government presumably because the opening of the Medical School was an election promise of President Anastasiades. But we fear the government has got its priorities wrong. Ambulance stations manned by paramedics would save lives and as such should take precedence. A medical school is not a priority, by any stretch of the imagination we survived without one for decades at a time of economic depression and an acute shortage of state funds. Admittedly, it is not a case of one or the other because the amount is not comparable – the operation of the ambulance stations would cost a small fraction of what the Medical School would need – but the government needs to get its priorities right and it needs to take all steps to ensure a quick and effective response from the ambulance service to all parts of the island. There are countries in which the guaranteed, ambulance response time is 12 to 15 minutes, because saving lives is considered very important. Obviously the technocrats of the finance ministry and government politicians do not subscribe to this view, but because they are embarrassed to admit it they blame the troika for their shameful decision. As for the health minister, who should have been championing the right of all people to a prompt ambulance service, he was more concerned about giving assurances that the Medical School would go ahead. For the government, the saving of lives can wait until the economic recovery arrives.
Want to send a letter? Send letters to the Cyprus Mail by email, fax or post. They should include a full postal address (email address is not sufficient), daytime phone number and reference to any relevant article. Names and addresses may be withheld from publication if circumstances warrant. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Correspondence will be published at the discretion of the editor.
Obama under fire over civil liberties H
E MAY have been the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He may have written a book extolling constitutional values in a democracy. And he may have run for president on a civil liberties banner, pledging to reverse the legacy of George W. Bush. But as US president for the last 4-1/2 years, Barack Obama has faced accusation after accusation of impinging on civil liberties, disappointing his liberal Democratic base and providing fodder for rival Republicans as he deals with the realities of office. News in the past week of the federal seizure of phone records from the Associated Press news agency and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative Tea Party groups, has intensified criticism already simmering over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and aerial drone strikes abroad. Asked at a news conference on Tuesday why the administration had not done more for civil liberties, Attorney General Eric Holder said: “I’m proud of what we have done” and emphasised the administration’s shift from the Bush era harsh interrogation practices of terrorism suspects that had drawn international criticism. When he took office in 2009, Obama promised to close the Guantanamo camp for foreign terrorism suspects, but it remains open with 166 detainees, many on hunger strike in protest at indefinite detentions. Obama said last month he would revisit that pledge and blamed Congress for blocking his plan to close the camp, partly through restrictions on transfers of detainees. The administration has defended its aerial drone strikes abroad, which have included targeting a US-born terrorism suspect, as essential to the fight against al Qaeda and other militants in places such as Pakistan and Yemen. On Tuesday, Holder defended the seizure of journalists’ records, saying it was part of an investigation into a leak that he called “very, very serious.” A law enforcement official said the probe is related to information in a May 2012 AP story on a foiled Yemen-based al Qaeda plot. The phone records seizure was the latest in a series of crackdowns on leaks by the Obama administration. Obama has disappointed some because of his background, and because he followed the Bush presidency that had responded to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with what liberal critics saw as a trampling of civil liberties. “There were reasons to think he would be different,” said New York University law professor Barry Friedman, who teaches constitutional law and has written about public attitudes on the law. “He seemed
Analysis Joan Biskupic and David Ingram to be inculcated with constitutional values, because of his background and because of what he said during the campaign.” Friedman and other law professors acknowledge the Constitution is a text open to myriad interpretations and that, in situations such as the use of drones, a constant balancing of national security and individual liberties occurs. Obama is also contending with a polarised political scene and clashes with Republicans. Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, a professor, mentor and longtime supporter of Obama, said his famous former student was facing the realities of being president. Tribe wrote in an email to Reuters that on campus, “Barack Obama could live in a world unclouded by bureaucratic and political obstacles. As President, however, Barack Obama needs to impose his basic beliefs and priorities on the vast bureaucracy. ... His failings, in my view, have much more to do with whatever he has permitted to take place under the supposed oversight of (individual Cabinet secretaries) than they have to do with his own constitutional understanding and commitments.” When Obama won his place as the first African American in the White House, many Americans applauded another advance in the country’s long civil rights movement. But while Obama has long presented himself as a progressive Democrat, he has not been known as a fiery civil libertarian. His wont has been to assert the need for dialogue and consensus-building. In his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope,” he wrote: “The scope of presidential power during wartime. The ethics surrounding end-of-life decisions. These
‘Every president has a duty to understand, appreciate and protect our civil liberties’
A constant balancing of national security and individual liberties occurs in the United States weren’t easy issues; as much as I disagreed with Republican policies, I believed they were worthy of serious debate. No, what troubled me was the process - or lack of process - by which the White House and its congressional allies disposed of opposing views.” Obama’s administration has sometimes come under fire for its efforts to control the message, leading to allegations of manipulation. In the case of the IRS and Tea Party groups, Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley wrote to Steven Miller, acting IRS commissioner, on Tuesday asking for all records relating to the decision to reveal its mistakes at a meeting of an American Bar Association committee instead of to Congress. Some analysts say that because of his background Obama has been held to higher expectations. “He was elected by a constituency that would expect him to be more sensitive to civil liberties,” said author Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Centre for Politics. Others say he is simply being judged by the standard all presidents should meet. “I am certainly distressed by the latest revelations,” Steven Shapiro, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said on Tuesday. “I also think, honestly, that the fact that he was a constitutional
law professor is much less significant than that he is now president. Every president has a duty to understand, appreciate and protect our civil liberties.” Asked about Obama’s record on civil liberties compared to other presidents, Shapiro said the ACLU did not do comparative rankings of administrations and that, in any event, it would be too early to assess Obama. Critics and other observers agreed. “We’re living it right now,” said Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow of constitutional studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. Even as he asserts the administration may have “overreached” its constitutional authority, he said it was hard to predict how Obama’s tenure will rank with past administrations. “You never really know what’s going on behind the scenes until they leave office,” Sabato said, adding that Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson abused the IRS, for example, by ordering audits of political enemies. Sabato, who referred to other scandals including Watergate during Richard Nixon’s administration and the Irancontra controversy during Ronald Reagan’s years, said: “Compared to prior presidents, we’re still in the minorabuse league.”