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BRAZIL
INDONESIA
The shooting of a senator by “mutinous police”
shows that Brazil is spiraling toward lawlessness,
said Estadão. True, Sen. Cid Gomes had been
driving a backhoe toward a police roadblock and
threatening to run over the striking officers, hardly
an act “imbued with goodwill.” But he was shot
twice in the chest with live ammunition—whoever
opened fire “did it to kill, not to immobilize”—and
it’s a miracle he isn’t dead. These officers in Ceará
state have been “trampling the constitution” for
more than a week by striking for higher pay, which
is entirely illegal. The police complain they are
outgunned and outmanned by the gangs that runrampant throughout the state. But their struggles
don’t give them the right to strike. Worse, they have
been growing increasingly belligerent, with some of
them donning balaclavas and attacking other cops
who refuse to join the strike. Brazilian authorities
must act quickly to restore order. First, the shooting
of Gomes should be investigated as attempted mur-
der, with the shooter identified and prosecuted. And
then Gomes, too, “must be held accountable” for
his violent action toward the police, both by pros-
ecution if necessary and by censure from the Senate
ethics council. Brazil “cannot tolerate rioting”—not
by police, and not by elected officials.They claim it’s just a typo, said M. Taufiqurrahman.
The 1,028-page omnibus bill on job creation that
President Joko Widodo’s government recently sub-
mitted to the national legislature contains a clause
that would transfer many legislative powers to
the presidency and fatally undermine Indonesian
democracy. When confronted with public outrage,
the government said the clause was the result of
“a typo.” But a typo is when you put a period
where there should be a comma. Inserting the
phrase “central government can change provisions
within this law or change provisions within laws
not amended by this law” is not an oversight, orthe “work of a careless intern.” It is a poison pill
that could destroy checks and balances and con-
centrate power in the hands of the executive. After
being elected last May to a second five-year term,
Widodo vowed to make the country more attrac-
tive to investors by amending 82 laws that regulate
business. That’s a worthy goal, but surely he can
accomplish it without obliterating the separa-
tion of powers? His ministers say that if he has to
abandon some of his reforms, it will undermine the
whole effort. Well, compromise is part of democ-
racy. Widodo and his cabinet have mistaken the
AP job of a president “for that of a king.”
Senators
and cops
flout the law
Editorial
EstadãoA stealth
attack on
democracy
M. Taufiqurrahman
The Jakarta PostPresident Trump’s trip to India this
week may have been short on sub-
stance, but it was nevertheless “a
spectacular success,” said Sriram
Rama krishnan in The Economic Times.
Speaking to a packed crowd of 110,
in Ahmedabad’s enormous Motera
cricket stadium—festooned with Trump
posters—the U.S. president called for
“closer and deeper” U.S.-India ties, em-
braced Hindu nationalist Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi, and name-checked
Hindu spiritual leaders and Bollywood
movies. “America loves India!” Trump
proclaimed. Together with first lady
Melania, he hit all the major Indian highlights during the trip,
touring the Taj Mahal in Agra and planting a tree at a memorial
to Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi. Admittedly, no progress was
made on the long-delayed trade deal between India and America.
But that’s OK, because this visit was about “personal chemistry
and bonding,” a way to highlight the warm relationship between
two nationalists who genuinely enjoy feting one another.Let’s hope this blossoming friendship results in a trade deal soon,
said Ajit Ranade in Mint. As “the world’s two largest democra-
cies,” India and the U.S. have “linked destinies.” The U.S. is our
largest trading partner, and India is home to many of the world’s
leading software and offshoring firms. The “productivity and ef-
ficiency gains of offshoring substantially flow back to American
corporations,” so it would be nice if the U.S. shared some of the
wealth Indians generate for it. Perhaps Facebook, Apple, and
Microsoft could be listed on our stock exchanges so Indians couldinvest in them. Trump could also rein-
state the preferential trading status that
he pulled from India last year, exposing
our exports to $200 million a year in tar-
iffs. India is now prepared to buy more
U.S. farm goods to cement a new deal.What Trump really wants India to buy
is more arms, said Vijay Prashad in
The Hindu. The one deal that came
out of this summit was an agreement
by India to purchase more than $3 bil-
lion in American helicopters and other
military equipment, and that’s on top
of last month’s promise to buy $1.8 bil-
lion worth of air defense missiles and radars. Trump sees our
nation as a bulwark against China, which is flexing its muscles
abroad. But Trump’s new Indo-Pacific defense strategy includes
“no discussion” of how China is to be contained, “only rhetoric
that skates into belligerent territory.” India must guard against
becoming America’s pawn, to be sacrificed in an Asian conflict.But for now, Modi is the winner, said Abhijit Iyer-Mitra in The
Print.in. By going all-in for Trump in a U.S. election year, Modi
has guaranteed that the White House will stay silent on critical
issues. Other Western nations have denounced Modi’s imposi-
tion of martial law in Muslim-majority Kashmir, and his citizen-
ship law, which discriminates against Muslim immigrants. Even
as Trump visited, supporters and opponents of the law fought
bloody street battles in northeastern New Delhi, leaving at least
13 people dead. Trump, though, “praised India on its democratic
values” without offering “even the mildest of criticism.”How they see us: India gives Trump a warm welcome
Trump and Modi at Ahmedabad’s packed stadium