State of emergency imposed in Malaysia, granting government sweeping powers

Peter Symonds

A state of emergency was declared last week in Malaysia, reflecting the country’s worsening political and social crisis, which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the spread of the virus was the stated reason, the anti-democratic powers that the government now has in its hands are above all directed against the working class and the population more generally.

The king, Al-Sultan Abdullah, issued the emergency declaration last Tuesday at the request of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. A day earlier, Muhyiddin had announced a two-week lockdown of Kuala Lumpur and five states as well as a nationwide travel ban.

Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, right, sits next to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during his welcome ceremony at Parliament House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (AP Photo/Yam G-Jun, FIle)

Muhyiddin described the situation as “very alarming” and said the country’s healthcare system was “under tremendous pressure.” He added: “As I have said before, unprecedented situations call for unprecedented measures.”

The number of COVID-19 cases in October, when Muhyiddin first called for a state of emergency, was comparatively low at 13,000. The king refused the request. The number of cases, however, has risen sharply as the government eased restrictions.

By last Tuesday the daily infections had hit a new record of 3,309, bringing the total number of cases to more than 141,000 and over 550 deaths.

Dr. Suan Ee Ong, a Malaysian public health expert at Singapore-based think tank Research for Impact, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): “Most of our ICU beds are very, very full. Even our non-ICU beds are reaching capacity, especially in the major hospitals.”

In early January, a group of nearly 50 former and current senior healthcare workers addressed an open letter to the prime minister warning the government’s measures were not bringing the virus under control. “Our national metrics paint a very bleak picture of COVID-19 pandemic management,” it declared.

The letter called for a ramping up of testing, for more people to isolate at home, and for vaccine approval to be expedited “so that immunisation can begin as soon as the first doses of vaccines arrive at the airport.” Malaysia has ordered 25 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and also has an agreement to buy the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The prime minister, however, offered no explanation as to why the emergency declaration was necessary in order to adopt measures to contain the virus and safeguard public health. No such step was required last year between March and May, when the government imposed a stringent ban on mass gatherings and restrictions on movement. The police and military enforced the lockdown, making thousands of arrests.

The emergency proclamation hands the government sweeping powers. With the parliament suspended, the cabinet can make laws with virtually no restrictions on their scope. The state of emergency will be in force until August 1, so the shaky ruling coalition, which has a slim parliamentary majority, will avoid a no-confidence motion.

Since the end of British colonial rule in 1957, a national state of emergency has been invoked only once before—in 1969 amid race riots instigated by the dominant ethnic Malay establishment following substantial losses to the opposition parties in that year’s general election. The constitution was suspected and parliament dissolved. A National Operations Council took over the government, imposing a curfew, censoring the media and arresting opposition politicians.

The current political crisis is far more severe. The right-wing and repressive United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which had held power since independence, was defeated for the first time in the May 2018 election by an unstable alliance between the party headed by former UMNO Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and an opposition coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim. In 1998, amid the Asian financial crisis, Mahathir expelled Anwar from UMNO, then had him arrested and jailed on trumped-charges.

The shaky ruling alliance fell apart when Mahathir resisted handing over the post of prime minister to Anwar after two years as part of their partnership agreement. Mahathir himself was pushed to one side by Muhyiddin, a minister from his own party, who formed a new ruling coalition with UMNO. Anwar challenged the Muhyiddin government last September, saying he had a majority in parliament and sought to form a fresh government, but the king denied his request.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the political crisis. The government proceeded with a state election in Sabah last September, despite warnings by health experts that it would lead to a spike in cases. Even though his party won the election, Muhyiddin later conceded that the election campaign, during which voters and politicians travelled to Sabah, had contributed to the rise in cases.

The growing discontent and opposition to the government is being fueled by a sharp downturn in the economy and rising unemployment, which has hovered between 4.6 and 4.7 percent in recent months, up from 3.2 percent at the end of last year. The World Bank estimates that the Malaysian economy contracted by 5.8 percent last year. The bank’s projection of a bounce back of 6.7 percent growth for 2021 is now in doubt as a result of the lockdown and travel ban.

Commenting to the ABC on the emergency declaration, Tengku Nur Qistina, a senior researcher at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, said: “The government can be said to [be prioritising] the nation’s health security at the expense of democracy. With the emergency proclaimed, Parliament does not meet and this has been inferred as an obstruction of democracy [by] many.”

Like its counterparts around the world, the Malaysian government’s decision to lift restrictions from May onward was driven by the demands of business for a resumption of work to ensure profits, regardless of the danger to the health and lives of workers. The world’s largest medical glove manufacturer Top Glove was forced to shut down half its factories last November after thousands of its employees tested positive to COVID-19.

With the political establishment deeply divided, the weak coalition government has sought the state of emergency to concentrate police-state powers in its hands to suppress any social unrest. The Malaysian ruling class, which has a long history of autocratic forms of rule, is deeply fearful that the rising tide of working class struggle internationally will find its expression among Malaysian workers, who have been forced to bear the brunt of the pandemic.

Philippines records first case of new COVID-19 strain

Robert Campion

An infection of the more transmissible British strain of the coronavirus was officially confirmed in the Philippines for the first time last Wednesday, threatening a more disastrous stage of the pandemic for the second-worst hit country in South-East Asia. The Philippines joins at least 51 other countries and territories that have recorded a case of the variant, including Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

The infection was detected in a 27-year-old old real estate agent who had recently returned from a business trip to Dubai with his partner. On January 7, the couple returned on an Emirates flight and were placed in quarantine and swab tested. On January 8, the man tested positive for the original strain and contracted a cough. He was transferred to an isolation facility, where it was discovered through an X-Ray that he had developed pneumonia.

It was not until the results were sent to the Philippine Genome Centre (PGC) for full genomic sequencing that the new B.1.1.7 strain was confirmed on January 13.

Thousands of Catholic devotees line up as they celebrate the feast day of the Black Nazarene at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in downtown Manila, Philippines, Saturday Jan. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerard Carreon)

Both residents of Quezon City had tested negative prior to leaving the Philippines and upon arrival in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is still unclear when and where the infection took place, given that the UAE is yet to detect its first case of the new strain.

The Philippine Department of Health acquired the flight manifesto pertaining to the patient and is now scrambling to contact those who were on board. Currently there is one flight passenger missing, a resident of Quezon City, who left incorrect contact details.

The UAE and Hungary have now been included on a travel ban of 33 countries, which was extended on Friday from the 15th to the 31st. Only Filipinos are able to arrive from the list of countries, but they must be placed in 14-day quarantine and tested. In addition, the government announced it is now compulsory for travelers from all countries to be tested and to undergo genome sequencing to identify the new strains.

The emergence of new COVID-19 variants is the product of the profit-driven approach by capitalist governments worldwide. Under the banner of the “herd immunity” policy, they have allowed the virus to circulate, rejecting lockdown measures that would have an impact on corporate profit-making activities. This has created the conditions for variations and mutations to occur.

The fact that the variant arrived on a flight from a country that was omitted from the travel ban indicates its far-advanced spread and the inadequate character of attempts by governments in the Philippines and elsewhere to prevent its spread.

Studies have indicated that the UK variant has an increased infection rate of up to 70 percent. Whilst not more virulent, its increased transmissibility gives the virus the opportunity to spread at an exponential rate and overwhelm the capacity of hospitals and intensive care units.

Dr. John Wong, part of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), warned earlier this month that the new strain could increase cases in the Philippines by fifteen-fold.

“With our current R [reproduction rate] of 1.1, 20,000 cases at the beginning of the month will be about 32,000 at the end of the month. But if the variant takes over, the 20,000 cases can become almost 300,000 cases by the end of the month,” Wong said.

Despite these warnings, the government has resisted calls for more stringent lockdown measures.

Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported on Friday that the government would not impose a “complete travel ban for everybody.” “We want to balance health with the economy. It is not feasible for us to do that,” she said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also ruled out any immediate escalation of the current general community quarantine (GCQ). He said any change to the policy would be dependent upon an increase in the weekly transmission rate and the capacity of the hospital system.

“As of now, we don’t have that kind of signal yet to elevate the current community quarantine [status],” Duque said at a news briefing last week.

“There is a possibility that more people would get sick because the new variant is more contagious. But if they would not be hospitalised because their cases are mild, it is possible that the quarantine restrictions won’t change,” Roque said.

In other words, the government is allowing the virus to circulate, to prevent any disruption to big business, and is openly acknowledging that this will result in ordinary people contracting COVID-19 and becoming ill.

Under the GCQ, businesses can operate at between 50 and 100 percent capacity, depending on their industry classification. Public transport is continuing to operate, at reduced rates, and potential centres of mass infection, such as shopping malls, remain open. Outside Metro Manilla and four other hard-hit provinces, a “modified” GCQ is in place that involves even fewer restrictions.

This week, the Department of Labor and Employment acknowledged that some 20 percent of businesses it inspected, equating to almost 14,500, had been in breach of health and safety requirements, such as ensuring that workers could socially-distance. Officials ruled out any penalties for the transgressions, instead declaring that they would provide those businesses with greater “assistance.”

A post-holiday surge is also driving an increase in cases. The Octa Research Group recently noted that the reproduction number in Metro Manila had increased from 1.02 to 1.17. Health experts have previously cautioned against letting the virus rise above 1 until a vaccine becomes available.

“There is a clear upward trend now... and if this upward trend continues, the local governments will need to implement measures to reverse this direction before the pandemic gets out of hand," the Octa team stated.

They also noted that the percentage of tests returning positive has risen above 11 percent in Metro Manila, indicating broader transmission that is not being tracked. The World Health Organisation warned early last year that a positivity rate above 5 percent indicates insufficient lockdown measures and contact tracing.

The rise in cases is particularly sharp in Davao City, on the island of Mindanao, where daily infections are greater than 100. In the Davao region more broadly, there is a continuing spread amongst health care workers. A total of 107 cases were recorded last week, mostly among nurses.

Government officials have stated that there is sufficient hospital capacity in most areas. The infections among medical staff, and the prospect of the spread of the new strain, pose the risk that the health system could be overwhelmed if there is a major surge.

The Philippines has been the second-worst hit country in South-East Asia. It passed half a million cumulative cases on Sunday, while the official death toll is approaching 10,000. When the pandemic struck, the right-wing administration of President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed the threat posed by the virus and rejected calls for elementary safety measures. Only amid mass infections and a crisis of the health system were lockdown measures introduced.

At the same time, Duterte has used the pandemic to boost the role of the military in public life, in line with a broader authoritarian agenda. This has gone hand in hand with an offensive against the social position of the working class and the poor. Hunger and malnutrition are at record highs and millions have been thrown out of work or pushed into poverty, with only a pittance of government assistance.

Silent on coup attempt, Mexico’s AMLO defends Trump against “censorship”

Andrea Lobo

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) has refused to condemn the January 6 coup attempt instigated by Donald Trump. Instead, he has focused his response to the tumultuous events in the US on defending the access of Trump—the main conspirator behind efforts to establish a fascistic dictatorship—to his social media accounts.

The breakdown of American democracy has explosive implications for the political crisis engulfing the AMLO administration, as his subservience to Wall Street and US imperialism becomes increasingly evident in the context of the uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In defending Trump after the coup, AMLO is signaling that he will enforce the untrammeled exploitation of cheap labor and austerity diktats in Mexico with his own shift toward dictatorship.

Mexico is reporting record daily COVID-19 cases and deaths, while corporations, trade unions, and the authorities cover up deadly outbreaks in factories and workplaces. In this context, the AMLO government plans to double down on its policy of maximizing production and depriving those workers and small businesses falling into economic destitution from the necessary economic aid.

US President Donald Trump meets with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Wednesday, July 8, 2020. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Currently, news coverage in Mexico is dominated by AMLO’s most naked appeal yet to the Mexican military, upon which he has increasingly relied to repress strikes and protests. On Friday, he endorsed the exoneration by Mexican prosecutors of Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, a former Mexican Defense Secretary who had been indicted by US courts on drug trafficking charges. The refusal of the Mexican government to level any charges against Cienfuegos is an effective guarantee of impunity to the military brass.

AMLO made his first mention of the US Capitol insurrection during a January 7 press conference. He began: “We have always acted with respect to the domestic policy of other countries, like our Constitution says… We will not intervene in matters that correspond [to] resolving, serving Americans. That is our policy; that is why I can comment.”

He then lamented the deaths of the four insurrectionists at the Capitol and appealed for the “conflict” to be resolved through “dialogue.” He concluded fleetingly: “Regarding the rest, we don’t take a position, we wish for peace, that democracy prevails, being the power of the people, and that there are freedoms. That is all.”

The Mexican president had used the same excuse of “respect” and non-intervention in foreign affairs to justify his refusal to recognize the overwhelming electoral victory of US President-elect Joe Biden until after the Electoral College ratified it on December 15. Every Latin American president, except for López Obrador and Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro, congratulated Biden on November 7, after the major news networks “called” the result.

As the World Socialist Web Site warned at the time, “AMLO is contributing to the installation of an American presidential dictatorship.” Having been portrayed by the American media and the pseudo-left in Latin America, Europe and North America as a “left” and “progressive” president, AMLO’s stance helped provide a cover of legitimacy for Trump’s claims of voter fraud as he prompted his fascist supporters to mobilize to overturn the elections.

As early as November 9, backing Trump’s conspiracies, AMLO was already suggesting that the greatest threat to democracy in the United States was the decision by social media companies to label as “unverified” Trump’s claims of voter fraud.

Then, on January 8, after refusing to condemn Trump’s instigation of the Capitol coup, AMLO again denounced Twitter and Facebook after Trump’s personal accounts were closed. “I don’t accept that,” he said. “There is something I said yesterday and some days earlier and I always say what I think, something I did not like about the Capitol business—it’s only that I’m respectful—but I don’t like censorship.”

He then compared the closing of Trump’s accounts to the “Holy Inquisition” and called it “extremely serious” only to add: “Where is that regulated? This is a matter of the state, not of the companies. It’s an important issue because they have tried to censor us here.”

Trump’s neofascist conspiracies constitute a threat of historic proportions for Mexican workers domestically and in the United States. Fascist groups violently hostile to migrants, incited by a president who has threatened to deploy US troops into Mexico against migrants and criminal organizations, attempted to overturn an election and establish a dictatorship.

In response, AMLO has extended his hand in collaboration. Not since Porfirio Díaz, the dictatorial ruler overthrown by the Mexican Revolution in 1911, has a Mexican head of state adopted such a submissive stance toward the imperialist power to the north.

In doing so, AMLO is merely expressing the interests of the Mexican national bourgeoisie, which has become completely subordinated economically to US imperialism in the form of a North American geopolitical platform to compete against Washington’s Asian and European economic and military rivals.

At the same time, the fate of workers internationally has been fused in the most unbreakable sense. This is especially true in Mexico and the United States. Nearly half of all Mexican imports come from the United States and 80 percent of exports go to the United States; the two countries share a 2,000-mile border, and about 40 million people of Mexican origin live in the U.S.

Numerous details have continued to surface of the high-level support in the Republican Party, the police and military for the January 6 insurrection, as well as reports by the FBI of more planned attacks by fascist militias against Washington D.C. and all US state capitals ahead of the January 20 inauguration of Joe Biden.

However, as late as Wednesday, AMLO continued his silence on the fascist plots and again aimed his attacks against the closing of Trump’s media accounts. He declared: “Since those decisions were made, the New York Statute of Liberty has been turning green from anger because it doesn’t want to become an empty symbol.”

Trump himself duly recognized AMLO’s backing in what is thus far his only public appearance since the coup attempt, a pilgrimage to his hated border wall in Texas. After applauding the “groundbreaking agreement with Mexico” to force asylum seekers to the United States to wait in Mexico, Trump gushed:

“I want to thank the great President of Mexico. He is a great gentleman, a friend of mine, President Obrador. He is a man who really knows what is happening and he loves his country and he also loves the United States… We actually had 27,000 Mexican soldiers guarding our borders over the last two years. Nobody thought that was possible.”

Trump was praising the same man promoted by pseudo-left outlets like Jacobin Magazine, which speaks for the faction of the Democratic Party in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), as a “firebrand champion of the working class” with “pro-poor politics.”

AMLO’s subservience to Trump is a confirmation of the theory of permanent revolution developed by Leon Trotsky, who wrote on Mexico in 1938, at the time of the nationalizations of oil and railways under Lázaro Cárdenas, that the bourgeoisie was still “absolutely incapable of developing democratic rule.” He added: “If the national bourgeoisie is compelled to abandon the struggle against foreign capitalists and work under its direct tutelage, we’ll have a fascist regime.”

To oppose the threat of fascism, the Mexican working class must build a revolutionary political movement to unite with their class brothers and sisters in the United States, Latin America and internationally in a fight for socialism. This must be done in unbending opposition to all pro-capitalist and nationalist parties and the trade unions.

Podemos obeys Spanish fascist Vox party’s demand for no shelter-at-home

Alejandro López

After the January 6 fascist coup attempted by Donald Trump in Washington and amid growing, public threats of a Francoite coup in Spain, the fascist Vox party is increasingly dictating terms to Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government.

COVID-19 is running rampant across Europe, with record number of infections and daily deaths mounting to several thousand per day. Yet when Vox denounced a shelter-at-home policy needed to halt the pandemic, the PSOE-Podemos government immediately accepted.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (PSOE), second left, walks next to Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, second right, and First Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo, left, at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 14 2020. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

On Friday, Vox leader Santiago Abascal intervened in a party-sponsored event titled “The Future of Patriotism in the US and Spain” in Barcelona. Other far-right attendees included Georgia Meloni, of Fratelli d’Italia; far-right Chilean politician José Antonio Kas; and US Republican operatives Ted Bromund of the Heritage Foundation think tank and Grover Norquist. The latter is the brother of David Norquist, appointed acting secretary of defense by the incoming Biden administration as a sign of “unity” between the Democratic Party and its “Republican colleagues” after Trump’s coup.

Abascal denounced Twitter for closing Trump’s account during his coup attempt. The Vox leader said it was the result of “hatred,” which “shows the fear of the globalists, of the left, who have perceived that the future does not belong to them, it belongs to the patriots.” He concluded with a call for the fascists and far-right extremists to work together, “coordinated and united” against the “left,” that is to say, against the working class.

Shortly before the meeting, Abascal reacted publicly to news that Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP) may change its opposition to a state of alarm to implement a shelter-at-home policy. He made clear there could be no attempt to change health policy: “Spain must protect itself, but Spain cannot stop. They have no right to arrest Spaniards in their homes condemning them to their ruin. For many months they have not been allowed to work, or their rights are being restricted.”

Hours after Abascal’s intervention, Fernando Simón, director of the Centre for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, made clear, as he has done for a number of weeks now, that the PSOE-Podemos government will not reverse to shelter-at-home. Simón said: “The option of home confinement, as always, is there. But it does not seem, right now, necessary. We will see in the future. The control measures implemented are very similar to that of France or Germany.”

He falsely claimed that the limited measures adopted by regional governments across Spain, like shutting down bars and restaurants while allowing non-essential work and children back to school, “will not have the name of confinement, but the set of measures has a very similar effect.”

The following morning, as if to further reassure the fascists, Health Minister Salvador Illa said in a press conference: “At the moment, we do not contemplate any home confinement. We dominated the second wave without home confinement. We will defeat this third wave through co-governance and the current state of alarm, which works.” He added, “We are in the third wave, we are reporting very worrying figures, but we want to remind everyone that we have the knowledge, the experience and we know how to bend this curve.”

Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government is lying. One cannot define the current state of the pandemic as a third wave when the second one—which itself was only the resurgence of the virus after the premature ending of lockdown measures in the spring—was never brought under control. The virus is running rampant throughout Spain, and ICUs throughout the country face collapse.

Last Monday, Spain reported 61,422 new coronavirus cases, the highest weekend figure so far. By the middle of the week, on Wednesday, the number of new coronavirus infections reported was 38,869 in 24 hours. This was the worst seen so far in the pandemic until Friday, when Spain reported 40,197 new infections. The number of “excess deaths” above the historical norm—a better indication of deaths caused by the pandemic—now stand over 84,000.

The reaction of the government confirms the warning that it does not represent a “progressive” faction of the capitalist establishment. The working class cannot “pressure” the “left populists” in Podemos and trade unions to obtain a less callous and repressive policy, or a scientifically-based approach to combat the virus. These forces are becoming the main instrument through which the increasingly fascistic ruling establishment implements its policy.

It confirms the warnings of the International Committee of the Fourth International: If the control of the virus is left in the hands of the capitalist governments in Europe, the result will be hundreds of thousands of further unnecessary deaths. Capitalist elites in country after country have rejected any response to the pandemic that conflicts with corporate profit interests and the drive for the accumulation of private wealth.

The EU bailout, co-managed with Podemos and union representatives, transferring €140 billion to corporations and banks is being paid with the thousands of infections and deaths in herd immunity policy, pension and labour reforms, and brutal police-state repression to suppress social opposition.

Meanwhile, Podemos is intervening to cover up advanced coup plans of Vox and sections of the army. For over a year, these forces plotted to impose a dictatorship under the guise of a national PSOE-PP-Vox unity government.

Vox’s attacks on the PP for considering shelter-at-home policy, reveals the class interests underlying this policy. Just days after retired Lieutenant General Emilio Pérez Alamán wrote to the Minister of Defence on the same day Trump launched his coup, demanding it “change the course” of the government, a PP internal debate emerged whether to align themselves with the fascist campaign.

It is also an exposure of both the social-democratic PSOE and the “left populist” Podemos, and its allies across Europe, that Vox is intervening not to shift the policy of the PSOE and Podemos, but to ensure that there be no change to the murderous policies that they are already implementing.

The debate takes place amid rising working class opposition to the PSOE-Podemos government’s “herd immunity” policy and a growing class gulf separating the workers from the capitalist class. Nearly 60 percent of Spaniards believe the government should have taken stricter measures to control the virus, according to a survey conducted in early December by the state-funded Centre for Sociological Research (CIS).

It reflects a gulf between the policy of death and profits and the police of saving lives and socialism. The capitalist policy must be countered by the unified struggle of the working class across Europe. Schools and non-essential workplaces must be closed, with living wages provided to everyone, and full compensation provided to small businesses.

United Kingdom COVID-19 variant reaches New Zealand

John Braddock

Despite New Zealand’s fabricated reputation as a haven from the global coronavirus pandemic, its isolation facilities are now housing the highly-transmissible UK variant of COVID-19 and another strain associated with South Africa.

Twenty-eight new COVID-19 cases arrived in four days last week. An earlier spike of 35 cases up to January 11 included people who had arrived from India, the UK, Zimbabwe, Austria, Russia, Poland, Ukraine and the US. Nineteen cases are from a group of 190 international mariners who arrived from Singapore and the UAE early this month.

As of January 17, the total number of active cases is 82, from a total of 1,900. Almost a quarter of live cases are the UK variant, with that number expected to sharply increase. At least 19 cases in official isolation are linked to this variant, which is believed to be up to 70 percent more infectious than the previous strain.

A nurse holds a phone while a COVID-19 patient speaks with his family from an intensive care unit. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

The Ministry of Health reported the first case of the South African variant on January 10, although it had arrived at the border on December 26. While less is known about this strain, it is considered more transmissible than the original but less so than the UK variant.

The surge in more infectious strains echoes the situation in Australia where Brisbane, the third largest city, recently enforced a three-day emergency lockdown after a cleaner contracted the UK COVID-19 variant from inside the hotel quarantine system. Repeated failures to implement basic preventive measures have seen multiple clusters erupting from quarantine hotels into the general population.

While no community cases have been reported in New Zealand since November, health experts have expressed alarm about the arrival of the new variants. Auckland University microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles warned that the new strains “would spread like wildfire.” Wiles told the New Zealand Herald the UK variant has a “founder effect.” That is, a mutant takes off not because it is more infectious, but because it is the one that people who are infectious have. According to reports from Britain, much younger patients are becoming very ill very fast.

Epidemiologist Michael Baker also warned of an increased risk of community transmission. “As soon as you have a variant that’s more infectious it means those with it are more likely to infect people on the flight to New Zealand, more likely to infect other people in managed isolation and the staff that work there,” he said.

This underscores the global nature of the virus, which cannot be contained within national borders. According to Baker the strain, which has now been reported in over 50 countries, was always going to make it to New Zealand. “This new variant will become dominant all over the world over the next couple of weeks and months because it’s more infectious,” Baker said.

Modelling expert Shaun Hendy declared that a new community outbreak would need a level 4 lockdown to bring it under control. “Level 3 was effective back in August ... but I think if you take into account the extra infectiousness of these new variants, level 3 is probably not strong enough,” Hendy said. Epidemiologist Nick Wilson told Radio NZ the government should consider banning flights from certain countries and look at fast-tracking vaccinations for border control workers.

From this week, people arriving from America and the UK have to show they have tested negative less than 72 hours before departing. While the Labour-Greens government has tightened international travel restrictions, it insists the protocols governing managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities do not need to be upgraded.

However, a crisis already exists over the inadequate supply of facilities for new arrivals. Existing MIQ hotels have a combined operational capacity of 4,500 rooms. In the next 14 days, 4,299 of these rooms will be full with 5,627 people, but the government has no plans to establish new facilities.

A Christchurch-based MIQ worker told Stuff on Saturday that an outbreak could happen at any time, due to inadequate measures to prevent the more contagious strains getting into the community. Workers at the facility highlighted control “gaps” such as a lack of social distancing, the possible spread of the virus through a hotel’s ventilation system and inadequate contact tracing and testing for staff.

Nurses have previously raised concerns about staff shortages. A Ministry of Health audit in October admitted shortages and roster problems in MIQ facilities. The ministry said the matters have since been addressed, but health care professionals working at border facilities have publicly disagreed.

Nursing trade unions have sat on the growing crisis. Nurses Society director David Wills said the union surveyed members working in MIQ facilities last month, and 44 percent had experienced inadequate staffing. A NZ Nurses Organisation spokesperson said members raised concerns before Christmas, which the union had dealt with “on an individual basis.”

The Unite union, which covers hotel workers, has lauded union-controlled health and safety committees for “working closely” with government departments at some MIQ sites. Unite spokesman Gerard Hehir said any COVID outbreaks to date were the “result of procedures not being followed”—in other words, the fault of workers.

The unions have played the key role in buttressing the Labour-led government and enforcing the continuation of work under increasingly dire conditions. As with previous complaints about lack of supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), the unions have organised no industrial campaign or strike action to fight the staff shortages and overwork.

There is growing anger among workers. Last year primary health care nurses began taking strike action for pay parity with their District Health Board (DHB) counterparts, following widespread strikes over pay and conditions in 2018-19, which the unions sold out.

As elsewhere globally, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government has responded to the health emergency by prioritising financial considerations. Returning citizens are now charged a $3,000 upfront fee to secure a place in an MIQ facility. Thousands of citizens, along with displaced migrant workers and foreign students with residency visas, have been tossed into limbo.

The wider public health system remains ill-equipped to deal with a new COVID-19 surge. A $4 billion cash injection following the COVID-19 lockdown last March failed to address the crisis in the system, which is falling apart. Underfunded and resourced for decades, the country’s 20 DHBs are millions of dollars in the red. Health Minister Andrew Little has promised to “reform” the health bureaucracy, but has not promised any more money.

Free COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones!

Bryan Dyne

On Sunday, scientist and COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones tweeted that the state of Florida had issued a warrant for her arrest in a flagrant effort to intimidate the outspoken and courageous scientist.

Jones is one of the most outspoken public opponents of the “herd immunity” policy being carried out by both the Trump White House and the Democratic governors. It has resulted in the premature reopening of schools and businesses even as the pandemic surges throughout the country.

Jones has repeatedly warned of the dangers of reopening schools, countering the false narrative peddled in much of the establishment media that schools are not major sources of transmission for COVID-19.

“To protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that I’m ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I’m turning myself in to police in Florida Sunday night,” Jones said. “The Governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.”

At the time of this writing, Jones’ current location is unknown, and the Florida government has not even enumerated the charges against her. Jones made clear that the state of Florida was using the threat of legal prosecution to muzzle her. “The agent told my lawyer there would be only one charge, but emphasized that speaking out or going to the media may result in police ‘stacking’ additional charges. All of this just to silence a critic of a governor who failed to do his job and got thousands killed as a result,” she wrote.

She later defiantly posted, “Censored by the state of Florida until further notice. #LetHerSpeak”

Jones’ incarceration comes one month after Republican Governor Ron DeSantis ordered a police-state-style raid on her house, during which state police aiming guns at Jones and her family. The immediate target of the police were flash drives that, according to an interview given to CNN by Jones, contain proof that Florida officials “were lying [last] January about things like internal reports and notices from the CDC,” as well as “evidence of illegal activities by the state.”

More broadly, last month’s police invasion of her home and the current arrest warrant are an attempt to silence a well-known and outspoken opponent of the back-to-work campaign.

Jones became famous last May for refusing to doctor Florida’s coronavirus case numbers to support the state government’s escalating back-to-work and back-to-school campaigns.

Now, as then, the coronavirus case numbers and death toll make a clear argument for closing down schools and non-essential workplaces to halt the pandemic. There were nearly 24,000 reported deaths in the US during the past week, averaging more than 3,400 dead each day. More than 1,200 of those deaths were in Florida alone.

After being fired from her position, Jones went on to help create and oversee Florida COVID Action and The COVID Monitor—the most comprehensive databases for tracking COVID-19 infections and deaths in Florida and in K-12 schools across the US, respectively.

To date, there have been no major statements from the Democratic Party or pseudo-left organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America opposing the censorship of Jones.

The pretext for the December raid against Jones is a felony charge based on claims by Florida authorities that she had circulated an email among state employees on November 10 that urged them to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”

Even before Jones turned herself in, the charges were shown to be false. She explained that, “FDLE found no evidence of a message sent last Nov. to DOH staff telling them to ‘speak out’ on any of the devices they took—the entire basis for the raid on my home in Dec.” She also made clear that “an agent confirmed” that whatever police found on her hard drives “has nothing to do with the subject of the warrant.”

Moreover, since the state’s first attempt to silence Jones by claiming she broke the law is falling apart, Florida government authorities have moved on to a new allegation. As Jones tweeted, the new warrant “was issued the day after a Tallahassee judge told police that if they’re not investigating a crime, they had to return my equipment. They didn’t find proof of anything related to the warrant, so they invented something new to come after me for in retaliation.”

The timing of the arrest warrant is also significant. It was issued in the wake of the January 6 attempted coup d’état by President Donald Trump and during the same week that the US death toll of the pandemic topped 400,000. DeSantis is making clear that the central preoccupation of the American state is not seriously probing the immense dangers posed by Trump’s attempts to overthrow the Constitution or the mass death caused by the pandemic, but ensuring that schools and businesses remain open at all costs.

In that light, Jones is an obstacle to be removed before she can reveal any more truths about the government’s handling of the pandemic. The ruling class is very aware of the mass hostility to its homicidal herd immunity policies, anger which will only grow as the number of deaths spiral to ever greater heights. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now predict that 92,000 more deaths will occur during the next three weeks.

Such projections agree with those from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which predicts that more than 500,000 people will have died from COVID-19 in the US by mid-February.

Five hundred thousand dead! And the IHME model admits that even with a “rapid vaccine rollout” the number of dead will be essentially the same. At the same time, the authors of the model, including Chris Murray at the University of Washington in Seattle, predict that the daily death rate will level off in April, presumably a result of the policies of the incoming Biden administration.

In reality, the pandemic will continue to rage out of control as long as the necessary measures to contain the pandemic are not taken, including a lockdown of all but essential production and full compensation for those who aren’t working. The science is clear.

This is ultimately why Rebekah Jones is being silenced. Just as with other persecuted whistleblowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, she took it upon herself to commit the crime of telling the working class the truth, both about the pandemic and the criminal response of the government to the public health crisis. It is now up to workers themselves to fight against censorship and defend all democratic rights as part of a broader revolutionary struggle for socialism.

Ashden International Awards in Sustainable Energy 2021

Application Deadline: 3rd March 2021 at 11.59pm GMT.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): London, UK

About the Award: World’s leading green energy awards, seeks to reward innovative enterprises and programmes that deliver, or play a key part in enabling the delivery of sustainable energy systems and through this bring social, economic and environmental benefits.

In 2021, we’re uncovering and supporting the world’s next climate champions to help them grow faster and spread further. Are you one of them?

This year’s award categories include greener communities, energy access, green skills, natural climate solutions, sustainable cooling and more. Some categories focus on the UK, and others cover work in low- and middle-income countries. Businesses, public bodies and charities can all apply.

Type: Entrepreneurship, Contest

Who can apply for an Ashden International Award?

• Businesses, NGOs, social enterprises and government organisations are all eligible.
• The work must be delivered in at least one of the UN’s developing regions of Africa, Caribbean, Central America, South America, Asia (excluding Japan) and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) and can be in rural or urban areas. High-income countries in these regions, as defined by the World Bank, are not eligible to apply

What happens if you win an Award As an Ashden Award winner? You will:

• Be invited to London at Ashden’s expense to take part in the Awards Ceremony as well as other events during that week. Winning an Ashden Award is contingent on taking part in Awards Week activities.
• Participate in media interviews that we may be able to arrange.
• Agree with Ashden what you will spend the prize fund on and any business support you may receive.
• Provide and update monitoring data about the progress of your work after one year, two years and three years

Number of Awardees: 10

Value of Contest: 

• The winners will receive prize funds of £20,000 each
• As well as this cash fund, winning an Ashden Award brings many other benefits, such as:
• Local, national and international publicity, through the work of our specialist media team.
• Support to grow or replicate your work: this can include professional mentoring, training and introductions to investment and other finance providers.
• Opportunities to present your work to large and influential audiences at the Ashden Awards Ceremony, International Conference and other Ashden events.
• Membership of the Ashden Alumni network of Ashden Award-winners, which facilitates opportunities to create productive partnerships and learning.
• The acclaim of winning a prestigious Ashden Award. Our application and assessment process is known for being rigorous.

How to Apply: Apply here

Visit Contest Webpage for details

Japanese Government MEXT Scholarships 2021

Application Deadline: 12th February 2021

Eligible Countries: International

To be taken at (country): Japan

About the Award: The Embassy of Japan is pleased to inform you that the Government of Japan will provide scholarship for Primary/Secondary school teachers who desire to take teacher training course and Japanese language training in Japan.

The scholarship is open to graduates of universities and teachers training colleges no more than thirty-four (34) years of age who have worked as teachers at primary/secondary schools or teacher training college for at least five years in their home countries at the time of application.

Beneficiaries shall upon their return, help to promote Japanese Language education in Nigeria.

Type: Training

Eligibility: 

(1) Nationality: Applicants must have the nationality of a country that has diplomatic relations with Japanese government. An applicant who has Japanese nationality at the time of application is not eligible. However, persons with dual nationality who hold Japanese nationality and whose place of residence at the time of application is outside of Japan are eligible to apply as long as they give up their Japanese nationality and choose the nationality of the foreign country by the date of their arrival in Japan. Applicant screening will be conducted at the Japanese Embassy or Consulate (hereinafter referred to “Japanese diplomatic mission”)in the country of applicant’s nationality.

(2) Age: Applicants, in principle, must be born on or after April 2, 1987.

(3) Academic and Career Background: Applicants must be graduates of universities or teacher training schools and have worked as teachers at primary/secondary educational institutions or teacher training schools (excluding universities)in their home countries for five years in total as of April 1, 2019.In-service university faculty members are not eligible.

(4) Japanese Language Ability: Applicants must be keen to learn Japanese. Applicants must be interested in Japan and be keen to deepen their understanding of Japan after arriving in Japan. Applicants must also have the ability to do research and adapt to living in Japan.

(5) Health: Applicants must be judged that they are medically adequate to pursue study in Japan by an examining physician on a prescribed certificate of health.

(6) Arrival in Japan: Applicants must be able to arrive in Japan by the designated period(usually October) between the day two weeks before the course starts and the first day of the course. (If the applicant arrives in Japan before this period for personal reasons, travel expenses to Japan will not be paid. Excluding cases of unavoidable circumstances, if the applicant cannot arrive in Japan by the end of the designated period the applicant must withdraw the offer.)

(7) Visa acquisition: Applicants should, in principle, acquire “Student” visas before entering Japan and enter Japan with “Student” residence status. The visas should be issued at the Japanese diplomatic missions located in the country of applicants’ nationality. Those who change their visa status to one other than “Student” after arrival in Japan will lose their qualification to be Japanese Government Scholarship recipients from the date when their visa status changes.

(8) Applicants must return to their home country and resume their work immediately after the end of the scholarship period.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship:

• Allowance: 143,000 yen per month. (In case that the recipient researches in a designated region, 2,000 or 3,000 yen per month will be added. The monetary amount each year may be subject to change due to budgetary reasons.)
• Transportation to Japan: The recipient will be provided an economy-class airplane ticket, according to his/her itinerary and route as designated by MEXT,from the international airport nearest to his/her home country residence,where in principle is in the country of nationality, to the Narita International Airport or any other international airport that the appointed university usually uses when they enter to Japan.
• Expenses such as inland transportation from his/her home address to the international airport, airport tax, airport usage fees, special taxes on travel, or inland transportation within Japan including a connecting flight will NOT be covered. (*Although the address in the home country stated in the application form is in principle regarded as the recipient’s “home country residence,” if it will be changed at the time of leaving from his/her home country the changed address will be regarded as “home country residence.”)
• Transportation from Japan: The recipient who returns to his/her home country within the fixed period after the expiration of his/her scholarship will be provided, upon application, with an economy-class airplane ticket for travel from the Narita International Airport or any other international airport that the appointed university usually uses to the international airport nearest to his/her home address, wherein principle is in the country of nationality.
  • (Note 1) Any aviation and accident insurance to and from Japan shall be borne by the recipient.
  • (Note 2) Should the recipient not return to his/her home country soon after the end of the scholarship period to resume his/her duties, the transportation fee for the return to the home country will not be provided.
• Tuition and Other Fees: Fees for the entrance examination, matriculation and tuition at universities will be paid by the Japanese Government.

Duration of Scholarship: The term is the period necessary to complete each university’s training course and should be between October 2021 (or the starting month of the course) and March 2023. Extension of the term is not permitted

How to Apply: 

• Applicants must submit all required documents to the Japanese diplomatic mission in the applicant’s country. The submitted documents will not be returned.
• For Nigerian teachers: Completed MEXT scholarship application forms (find in link below) can be submitted by hand or by post to this address below:
  Embassy of Japan – Culture & Information Section
  No. 9 Bobo Street (Off Gana Street),
  Maitama District,
  Abuja 

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Important Notes: 

• (1)The recipient is advised to learn, before departing for Japan, the Japanese language and to acquire some information about Japanese weather, climate, customs, and university education in Japan, as well as about the difference between the Japanese legal system and that of his/her home country.
• (2)As the first installment of the scholarship payment cannot be provided immediately upon the recipient’s arrival, the recipient should bring at least approximately US $2,000 or the equivalent thereof to cover immediate needs after arrival in Japan.

Linguistic Deception Used Against People and Environment

Bharat Dogra

Linguistic deception has been increasingly used against the interests of common people and environment protection, and to advance the interests of big business, on a vast scale although in subtle and veiled ways. The most common example of this is the way in which the word ‘reform’ has been used, particular in economic discourse. The general meaning of ‘reform’ is to improve an institution, system, practice etc.  However in economic discourse this word has been increasingly and widely used to convey economic changes which mainly benefit big business interests ( any other benefits, if these exist at all, being incidental).

Having defined economic reforms in these terms, a battery of so-called experts is let loose, many of them front-persons of big business, yet claiming   the high moral ground of reformers and pioneers of economic reforms, pretending to be unjustly treated when governments make their rare gesture of defending the interests of common people and environment.

Similarly the expression trade reforms is often used to justify the expansion of shrewd devices of  new imperialism and multinational corporations while curbing the aspirations of local small farmers ad entrepreneurs. The words agricultural reforms are increasingly used to promote the expansion of big business and multinational company interests in farming and food sectors.

The words green revolution were used to give a good and attractive name to promote the control of a few rich countries and multinational companies on world farming and food system and to achieve an ever-increasing penetration of the rural areas by big business, foreign and local, all at the cost of sustainability and environment, the loss of hundreds of thousands of traditional crop varieties and cultivars, a  genetic holocaust, and the loss or depletion of traditional wisdom of maybe a hundred generations or more associated with this. But all the dissenting voices were sought to be pushed aside by proclaiming a green revolution. Who can object to such  nice words, even if they are used only to hide very harsh truths, and when big propaganda networks are there to promote the linguist mischief and deception?

Similarly the over-centralization of milk processing, decline of local processing, decline of traditional animal breeds, promotion of urban obesity at the cost of rural nutrition, plastic packaging at the cost of milk vendor, big companies at the cost of small dairy producer comes in the name of white revolution , while an assault on small fisherfolk and bio-diversity protective practices comes in the name of blue revolution.

The word liberalism was used initially to convey an openness to new ideas, a very positive trait, and later this got extended to convey a thinking which supports not just  individual rights and civil liberties but also free enterprise in particular. So far so good, but increasingly it was the support of free enterprise which got more emphasis and this in turn got more associated with support of big business. And later by pre-fixing neo to it  liberalism got associated more with a system of justifying plunder by big business and moving away from welfare responsibilities of state. Yet somehow the original highly positive connotation of liberalism survived, providing a strong linguist deception for a system of plunder and injustice.

In other languages the deception can be even harsher and sharper. In Hindi economic reform translated as aarthik sudhar creates a strong first impression in the mind of the reader that only something very good, some really nice improvement is being discussed, particularly when this sudhar is being supported by so many big names. And the translation of neo-liberalism as nav-udaaervaad takes the deception even further. After all . the Hindi reader feels, isn’t being udaar ( a connotation of not just being liberal but also being large-hearted ) intrinsically good, specially if it is an entire system of being udaar ( udaarvaad ) and on top of this new original thinking on this  ( nav-udaarvaad)!

So many problems in proper understanding are being caused by linguist deception. Lies are being spread and truth is being hidden. It is high time this linguist deception should be challenged and opposed.

Trigger Finger for Armageddon: Trump and the Thermonuclear Monarchy

Binoy Kampmark

It is the sort of breezy, skimpy and careless reasoning that is laying the ground for the Biden Republic.  A person, kicked off a social media babbling platform and having the means to incinerate the human race multiple times over, seen as corollaries of each other.  There should be an obvious difference, but Silicon Valley has managed to make public and political commentary on President Donald Trump’s access (or not) to Twitter and the codes for nuclear weapons codes somehow equivalent.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is certainly of the view that Trump and nuclear weapons are not good matches, suggesting her own form of strategic de-platforming.  “This morning,” she writes in her letter to Democratic colleagues in the House, “I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”  She persists with the theme of mental instability, worried about a man she is convinced has gone crackers.  “The situation of this unhinged president could be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”

DePaul University’s Ken Butigan also dabbles in a bit of comparative fancy in worrying that Trump has already engaged in his own version of a “first-strike on the US Capitol on Jan. 6,” having used “what amounted to well-understood ‘launch codes.’”  What was there to stop him “initiating an infinitely more destructive first-strike on a host of nations that have been in his administration’s cross-hairs for four years?”

It would be churlish not to admit that Trump has stirred some excitement about the nuclear option even prior to coming to office.  The 2016 presidential race was already worrying Michael E. O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.  “Can we really trust the future of the human race to the continued steady decision making of single individuals who have the power to kill tens or hundreds of millions, based on a single unchallenged edict?”

This has as much to do with the character of the decision maker as the problem of executive authority behind launching such baleful weapons.  Nuclear non-proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis is convinced that Pelosi has no legal recourse to removing the power to deploy the nuclear option from Trump’s meaty hands.  “The president has sole, unfettered authority to order the use of nuclear weapons with no ‘second vote’ required.  If you think that’s crazy, I agree with you.”

Elaine Scarry is also adamant that the commander-in-chief “has sole authority, and he does not have to check that with anyone.”  Such a power is distinctly anti-democratic, bypassing Congress and being, according to Scarry, a form of “thermonuclear monarchy”.

Other occupants of the White House have been tempted by the intoxicatingly murderous nature of that power.  “I could go into the next room,” crowed President Richard Nixon to a group of Congressmen even as impeachment proceedings against him hovered, “make a telephone call, and in twenty-five minutes, seventy million people will be dead.”  Nixon himself had been an advocate of the “Madman Theory”, otherwise known as “the principle of the threat of excessive force.”  It was an idea marketed to foreign leaders that a US president might well be barbarically and unpredictably inclined to order the launch of a nuclear weapon.  Fostering such doubts might encourage the yielding of concessions.

When it comes to contemplating the use of such weapons, Trump looks distinctly angelic beside many of his predecessors, though the archive may reveal a different story.  Dwight D. Eisenhower felt tempted on two occasions to use a nuclear option; John F. Kennedy three times, Lyndon B. Johnson once and Nixon four times.

Thermonuclear monarchy is not necessarily an automatic guarantee of Armageddon, though it is a clear inducement.  The command structure generally assumes that a president is likely to be rational and capable in a field that repels rationality and reason.  We are left to the small mercies of internal disruptions and obstructions; administrative officials can, for instance, meddle, if in the name of high principle.  Nixon’s Secretary of Defence James Schlesinger is said to have ordered various presidential orders, notably those touching on nuclear weapons, to be vetted by himself or National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.

According to the New York Times, Schlesinger and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff George S. Brown kept “unusually close control over lines of command,” with an unnamed Pentagon official telling the paper that the defence secretary “began to worry … Nixon or one of his aides might get in touch with some military units directly”.  There was a risk of an order being issued  “to block the ‘constitutional process’.”

Kissinger himself is quoted as having told his aides on more than one occasion, “If the president had his way, there would be a nuclear war each week!”  This does not necessarily suggest that the US Republic was any safer in having its own Metternich fumbling triggers in the chain of command.  Along the way, senior Pentagon officials might also find themselves tickled by an attack of humanitarian conscience, concerned about a potential violation of the laws of war.

An unbalanced, narcissistic brute ultimately proves to be less of a problem than a process with few balances and the presence of an arsenal capable of mass ecocide and genocide.  If there is any constructive discussion dealing with executive authorisation behind launching nukes, it must first begin with making the process virtually impossible to use.  A nice way of doing so would be to get rid of the incentive altogether.

Data Privacy And Tech Giants

Mohammad Haseen Ahmed

Prerogative of your privacy with the tech giants like WHATSAPP, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and like many others is being largely brought into questions and judicial overview as to what it actually constitutes in the strictest sense and what modalities need to be adopted to design the much-needed safeguards and framework of its judicial redressal in cases of brazen and conflagrant infringement, violations and exploitation for commercial gains that all social media platforms are vying for in this ever expanding digitized world.

With WhatsApp’s new privacy policy has triggered an outcry worldwide with around fifty crores(500 million active users in India alone) about their unauthorized breach of personal data collection to be used by the third parties to target potential clientele and the users’ buying and shopping preferential trend researches for making bigger and wider inroads into the online shopping domains.

As usual WhatsApp’s implausible and perhaps inexplicable and standard response remains the same that you have agreed to the terms and conditions reading all the clauses for using the app and those who are willing to quit are welcome to do so brushing aside its moral obligation of safeguarding the users’ personal information and protecting them from any of their misuse or leakage through recurrent breaches, not uncommon these days in the hands of the seasoned hackers and mercenaries involved.

It is worthwhile to mention that even Zuckerberg, Facebook C.E.O when called before the US congress regarding fixing professional accountability and giving assurance about setting higher standards of practices of running these doyens of social media houses Zuckerberg had to confess and admit that there has been rampant breaches in customers’ data protection and somehow accidentally the collected information reached the third party companies which in turn misused them for their marketing and commercial gains.

Although Zuckerberg left the core committee assured that they are committed and trying hard to stop this menace because any breach of personal information can damage an individual’s fundamental rights and freedom, including the risk of identity theft and many other fraudulent mischiefs that hackers or third parties involved may wantonly resort to without letting the principal, the first part’s knowledge and consent.

The need of the hour is not just an eye wash to the entire conundrum by certain companies and individuals agreeing to one another but the right intervention of the government which can intervene time to time and on occasions of disputes as the sole arbitrator because the issue is not just restricted to the individual rights of freedom and companies’ rights of business operations but also the social and national security of any sovereign state.

Recent blanket ban and suspension of Trumps’ Twitter account permanently is a case in point suggesting how powerful these social media platforms have become and it is no wonder that the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and U.K parliamentarians along with some others have voiced their legitimate concerns over the sweeping powers being entrusted to these giant tech companies which can hold anyone on ransom. let alone the common individual who has got hardly any say in bringing them to book in case of the infringement of personal freedom and right to speech.

These social platforms should be seen as a double-edged sword and its non-judicious use might prove deadly for not just persons but the society at large, so it is imperative that there should be a fine balance between how much of leverage can be accorded to them in stipulating their binding terms and conditions, to be met by the gullible users and provisioning strictest penalties in case of their gross violations and irresponsible conducts or data breaches which has been witnessed so invariably lately .

Although it is never in the interest of any organisation to fail in ensuring data privacy protection because of the reputational risk involved and its core values definitely get eroded as they might lose the customers’ trust gained over the years, there still flagrant breaches of huge scales are being reported primarily because of unscrupulous tech giants have become a formidable force to reckon with and they have the audacity to lock horns with the governments also.

The companies or the tech giants and social networks need to ensure that their co-partner companies like suppliers, retailers or service providers don’t resort to such nefarious acts of stealing data and are well-equipped to handle them transparently, incorporating agreements about data breach notification obligations and cooperation in fulfilling data subject requests and such commitments.

In future newer regulations coupled with stricter requirements and steeper penalty provisions will be paramount to all the successes that these tech houses are aspiring for and these have to be imbed in the core competencies of all successful business models.