China: On 28 October, a car crashed and caught fire
near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, killing five people and injuring 40
people. Chinese authorities have determined that at least two of the
occupants were Uighurs. Witnesses reported the car did not try to avoid
pedestrians as it drove along the sidewalk.
Officials increased security at pivotal intersections, subway stations
and tourist sites across the capital on Tuesday. Police also notified
hotels to report on eight persons from Xinjiang in western China in
connection with the "incident."
Comment: Chinese media have avoided calling the crash a
suicide attack by Uighur militants, but it looks like a suicide car
bomb attack without the bomb. This is a serious security lapse because
Beijing usually is free from terrorist incidents. Reprisals will be
swift and severe against the Uighurs in Xinjiang and anyone who helped
the perpetrators in Beijing and en route.
Syria-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW): Update.
International inspectors overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical
weapons stockpile missed the 27 October deadline for visiting all
chemical weapons sites in Syria, but have provided more details of the
findings.
According to press accounts of a report by the chief of OPCW, Syria has
declared 41 facilities at 23 chemical sites where it stores
approximately 1,300 tons of precursors and agents, and over 1,200
unfilled munitions to deliver them. The OPCW inspectors corroborated the
information provided by Syria at 37 of the 41 facilities and were able
to visit 21 of the 23 sites. The remaining two sites are in contested
regions where security conditions prevented an inspection visit.
The OPCW report indicates the 41 facilities include 18 chemical weapons
production facilities, 12 chemical weapons storage facilities, eight
mobile units to fill chemical weapons, and three chemical
weapons-related facilities.
Syria also submitted information on approximately 1,000 metric tons of
Category 1 chemical weapons, most of which are precursors which are
rarely used for peaceful purposes; approximately 290 metric tons of
Category 2 substances which are toxic chemicals that pose significant
risk; and approximately 1,230 unfilled chemical munitions, which were
not described.
"In addition, the Syrian authorities reported finding two cylinders not
belonging to them, which are believed to contain chemical weapons," the
OPCW chief said.
Comment: There are no penalties for missing the 27
October deadline. The tight inspection schedule apparently was
established to ensure Syrian cooperation by a dubious US. Syrian
cooperation has made that provision look pointless.
The US-Russian agreement on eliminating the chemical weapons contains
no provision for their disposal, including who pays for it, where will
it take place, who will move the materials and how. OPCW has declared it
has no capabilities for the ultimate disposal of the materials.
Even with the unsolved problems, this inspection process has disclosed
for the first time in public the size and nature of the chemical weapons
threat that had been targeted against Israel. Regardless of the outcome
of the fighting in Syria, the elimination of 1,300 tons of chemical
weapons and 1,230 munitions would be an absolute good.
Egypt: Update on the constitution: Amr al-Shubaki, a
member of the 50-member committee tasked to amend the constitution,
provided an update to the media on 28 October on the status of key
constitutional issues, especially the system of government.
Al-Shubaki said that there is a strong tendency toward applying a
"mixed semi-presidential system."
He criticized calls for implementing a
strict parliamentary system. "Implementing the parliamentary system in
Egypt will be a disaster because we are not qualified to this system
right now (sic)."
A-Shubaki stressed the need to limit the president's authority, saying,
"The condition for establishing a successful presidential system is to
prevent the executive authority from expanding over the legislative and
judicial authorities and to separate authorities. This will be
guaranteed in the new constitution. "
"The new constitution includes a real separation between the three
authorities and two thirds of the people have the right to make a
no-confidence vote against the president of the republic because the
people have the right to withdraw confidence from the president via
referendum."
Comment: All-Shubaki is an analyst at Al Ahram Centre
for Political Studies as well as a member of the committee. His
commentaries indicate he is a secularist and a strong advocate of a
democratic government.
The comment that Egypt is not "qualified" for a parliamentary system is
a reflection of the experience under the Mursi regime which used
democratic elections to enable him to implement an Islamist agenda that
Mursi did not mention during the presidential election campaign last
year. The constitutional committee is trying to insert safeguards
against that.
Another safeguard is a stricter separation of powers among the
presidency, legislature and judiciary so as to limit executive power
relative to the other branches of government.
A third safeguard is a novel provision by which the president is
subject to a no-confidence vote by the electorate through a referendum.
This would be independent of the election cycle.
The thinking shows an earnest effort to guard against abuse of power.
They provision that al Shubaki did not discuss is the amendment
procedure. In some countries, the national legislature can vote
constitutional amendments without a public referendum. An easy amendment
process is an invitation to abuse.
A weakness in a no-confidence vote provision is that it requires a
degree of political awareness and ownership of the system by most of the
electorate. Even with a well-written constitution, it is far from clear
that Egyptians outside the major cities have those characteristics,
except when the issues are religion and taxes. In any event, even the
best constitution is no safeguard against a determined military coup
cabal.