Journal of a journey

Out of Syllabus

Saleem — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:14:55 +0000

The end has begun, and I am glad to report the beginning of the end of corruption in India. Anna Hazare should be thanked a billion times for his efforts to coalesce the efforts of the many into a national movement, much like what Gandhi-ji did for the freedom movement. The people behind the Jan Lokpal draft should be thanked a billion times over for bringing a draft that puts fear into the souls of the corrupt, and brings hope to the oppressed.

What we saw in April, was what we read in our history books – Throngs of people adopting an idea and willing to invest their energy towards implementing it. The last time something like this happened in India in this scale, was during JP’ movement and before that , our freedom movement. When something so obvious and popular fascinates the public’s imagination, you would expect a politician to gleefully align himself or herself to it, so that they can reap the benefits of the outcome. If the government, had agreed to implement the Jan Lokpal bill with minor changes, the people would have readily forgotten their earlier reluctance, and embraced the government for doing something the previous parliaments did not do. Manmohan Singh could have achieved something far greater than his 1991 economic reforms and India would have rightly called him its greatest prime minister ever. More than the allure of that epithet, even a reluctant politician like him, would have jumped at such a chance to do something really meaningful for the “aam aadmi”. Sadly it wasn’t so. The government’s version of the bill is a slap on the face of all those who trusted their initial acceptance. Does power corrupt so much that you fail to understand what is good for you? It is unfortunate that the people had to take to the streets again to force the government’s hand, that too after just 4 months of victory. This sadly shows the gulf between the people and the politicians. There is a more disturbing point to it. When you don’t see even one political party aligning itself to the principles of the movement, it reveals the amount of belief the current crop of politicians have invested in the current corrupt state of the system. Caste, religion, reservation, garibi, aam admi, bijli, sadak and paani was their syllabus. They do not understand what we millions yearn for. Its time to phase the whole crop out. Jai Hind.

The Sunnah and elements of flexibility

Saleem — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:47:18 +0000

As always, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty has written a revealing article about the flexibility of islam. I have presented it here verbatim, with some changes to the make it presentable in a blog.

The Sunnah and Elements of Flexibility in Determining the Times of Fajr and imsak (beginning of fasting) By Shaikh Ahmad Kutty


The following piece is an effort to clarify the issue of fajr al-sadiq (the true dawn), the cut-off point for suhur (pre-dawn-meal) in light of the Quran, the authentic traditions, and acceptable practices of the companions, their successors and

the great imams/scholars.
To begin this discussion, it is necessary to point out that all evidence in the sources show that shariah is all about ease and the removal of hardship for people in order to facilitate things for them. Shariah, therefore, can be seen as catering to the welfare of people in both worlds. Consequently, practicality, balance, ease, and removal of hardship are all sound principles that have always have been used as the criteria for providing rulings for people, according to changing times, and circumstances.
The Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah reiterate this principle throughout as when Allah says: “Allah wants ease for you; He does not wish to make things hard for you”(Qur’an: : 185); “He did not appoint for you any hardship in this religion: the way of your ancestor Ibrahim.”(Qur’an: 22:78)
Additionally, the Prophet (peace be upon him) (peace be upon him) is known to have said: “I have been sent to teach the simple, natural way (of Ibrahim).” (Cf.Ibn Hajar, Kashf al-ssitr)"; “This religion is easy and simple to follow; whoever makes it hard will only be defeating himself.” (al-Nasa’i)“Make things easy for people; do not make things for hard for them. Give good news, and do not turn people away from religion (by making it hard on them) (Bukhari) While stressing ease and comfort, the Prophet(peace be upon him) also warned against rigidity, and hair-splitting in religion. In this regard, he is reported to have said: “Woe to those who are rigid.” (Muslim) “Abstain from what I have forbidden; and fulfill the duties I have enjoined as best as you can (shunning rigidity) for the nations before you perished because of their (excessive rigidity and) hair-splitting interpretations of religion.” (Muslim)
This spirit of ease, comfort, and removal of hardship, was the basis for how the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companions practiced and applied Islamic principles.
Before elaborating on this issue further, let us first look at the meaning of the word fajr as used in the Arabic language:

“fajr means the light of the morning; because it is the cleaving of the darkness from before the light;… i.e. the redness of the sun in the darkness of the night; the fajr in the end of the night is like the shafaq in the beginning. It is two fold: the first is called al-fajr al-kadhib (the false dawn); that which rises without extending laterally, which appears black, presenting itself like an obstacle (on the horizon); the second is called al-fajr al-sadiq (the true dawn); which is the rising and spreading (dawn) which appears rising, and fills the horizon with its whiteness; and this is what is called amood al-ssubh; rising after the former has disappeared; and by its rising the day commences, and everything by which fasting would be broken becomes unlawful to the faster.  Hence, The time of the fajr.” (cf. E.W. Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon)
The above definitions, as compiled from various authoritative Arabic lexicons, are directly based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Thus while stipulating the rules of abstinance as applicable to the faster, Allah says, “Eat and drink until the white thread of dawn appears distinct from its black thread. Then fast until the night approaches again…” (Qur’an: 2: 187).
The verse has been further explained in a number of traditions. When one of the companions, namely, Adiyy b. Hatim, mistakenly thought this to be an order to see whether he can distinguish a white thread from a black thread, the Prophet (peace be upon him) pointed out to him that what is meant is the whiteness of the day as distinct from the blackness of the night, and he said, “Eat and drink and do not be misled by the ascending white light. Eat and drink until the redness (of the dawn) appears."

(Ahmad)
It may be helpful to introduce here the various definitions of dawn as applied in natural sciences: A distinction is made between astronomical dawn and nautical dawn:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Dawn
“Astronomical dawn: the moment after which the sky is no longer completely dark; formally defined as the time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the morning.

Nautical dawn: the time at which there is enough sunlight for the horizon and some objects to be distinguishable; formally, when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon in the morning.” 
Now let us ask ourselves which of the two definitions of dawn would be applicable to our observations of fast and starting of the fajr prayer. This can be answered by a perusal of the Islamic sources.

In examining the various authentic commentaries of the Qur’an on the definition of the verse we have referred above, we find that all of them indicate that fajr starts when we can be certain (by way of our faculty of sight) of its arrival in no uncertain terms (the word used in the verse is yatabayyana).
The commentaries also refer to/make mention of the tradition which clearly discriminates the false dawn from the true dawn. Whereas the false dawn is described as being deceptive in that it appears like dawn but does not bring about dawn or dissipate darkness, the true dawn is what is described as dispelling darkness gradually.  And though the false dawn precedes the true dawn, it is initially followed by darkness).  Therefore, explaining the words, yatabayyana, Ibn Jarir states, “The proper way to

describe this state is to say that the glow of dawn should be so wide- spread in the sky in such a way that the whiteness and light emanating from it should fill the streets.”Therefore, it is said, “Whoever has any doubt whether the dawn has arrived or

not, is allowed to eat until they are certain that fajr has arrived.”
Thus, the criterion for determining true dawn is the certainty of its arrival beyond a shadow of doubt. This being the case, we find that the companions always demonstrated remarkable latitude when it came to imsak, by postponing suhur and eating until such time that it was plainly clear to them that the true dawn had arrived. In short, rather than erring on the side of abstention from foods, they chose to err on the side of consumption.
The traditions, in support of this, are numerous:
Ibn Abbas, the Prophet’s companion and the reputed scholar of his generation, was once asked, “Should I stop eating when I have doubt whether fajr has begun or not?" To this, he replied, "No, eat as long as you are certain that the dawn has arrived.” (Ibn Abi Shaybah)
The fact that such a practice was directly derived from the Prophet (peace be upon him) is shown by the following tradition:
Imam Ahmad, Nasai and Ibn Majah report on the authority of Hudhayfah, the prominent companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him), “We partook of suhur with the Prophet (peace be upon him) until it was plain day, except the sun had not arisen yet.”(Ibn Kathir in his tafsir).  In other words, to them, there was no question about the arrival of fajr when observed by the naked eye.
Aishah is also reported to have said, “Bilal used to give adhan at night. Therefore, the Prophet (peace be upon him) (peace be upon him) instructed us to ‘eat and drink until Ibn Umm Makthum calls the second adhan, for he will only give adhan when fajr clearly arrives.”(Bukhari).  In another report, the words, when fajr clearly arrives, is replaced with the words, ‘until he is told that fajr has arrived' (for being blind, Ibn Umm Makthum could not observe the arrival of dawn on his own).
Commenting on the Companions’s position in regards to determination of the time of fajr, Ibrahim al-Nakha’i states:“The Prophet’s companions have never agreed on any issue as they have agreed on reckoning the time of fajr as the time when it is plainly visible for all to see.” (Ibn Abi Shaybah)
The various Imams views on this issue include the following:
Imam Ahmad said, “If one has any doubt in his mind about whether fajr has arrived, he may eat until he is certain of its arrival.”
Imam Nawawi states, “Imam Shafi’s followers are unanimous on the fact that it is permissible for anyone who doubts the arrival of dawn to eat until he is certain of its arrival. The evidence for this is that Allah has allowed for us to eat and drink until the arrival of dawn; the one who doubts the fajr is not certain of its arrival.”
And Imam Ibn Kathir writes in his famous tafsir:

“Leniency and flexibility with regard to partaking of suhor has been reported from a great number of pious predecssors. It has been reported from Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Ibn Masud, Hudhayh, Abu Huryah, Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas, Zayd b.Thabit and

a great number of successors, including Muhamad b. Ali b, al-Husayn, …Ibrahim aNakha’I, ….Ata, al-Hasan, ..Mujahid, Urwah b. al-Zubayr, etc.…”
This is the reason why Ibn Hajar, the great authority in Hadith and fiqh, denounced those who laid unnecessary restrictions in regard to partaking of suhur--describing it as ‘one of the most reprehensible innovations of later times.’
It should be clear from the above discussions that, according to the Sunnah, and understanding of the pious elders, fajr is not determined by minutes, seconds, and/or degrees, but by sufficient latitude, ease, and flexibility. Hence, there is no compelling reason for us to insist that we prefer either the astronomical or the nautical definition of dawn in fixing the time of fajr.
When we consider the above statements and reports carefully, it is clear that their approach to the issue unravels another important principle of jurisprudence. This has been often phrased as “That which is certain cannot be removed by doubts.” When we apply this principle to the issue at hand, since the night precedes dawn, that is a certainty,

as such, it cannot be ruled out until we are certain that the dawn has arrived.
Closely allied with the above is the importance of taking into account our own times and circumstances. No one can doubt we are living at a time where Muslims are showing increasing complacency and are slipping away from the practice of Islam. Moreover,

since the day hours are excessively long, such rigidity when determining imsak can be viewed as only dampening one's spirit about fasting.
We saw all of the above leniency and latitude as pointed out above were demonstrated in standard time zones like those of Makkah and Madinah. So one might legitimately ask: By applying a far more stricter rule in calculating the time of imsak, are we trying to prove to be more pious than the Prophet’s companions and successors, and end up causing greater and greater hardship for people, who reside in less than standard time zones?
In this regard, therefore, let us recognize that the juristic traditions in all of the acceptable schools of jurisprudence have taken into account the circumstances of people and countries, for they knew too well that Shari’ah is based on tangible maqasid (higher purposes) and masalih (benefits). They also understood that the function of an ‘alim is to render ease where there is difficulty. Long ago, Imam Sufyan al-Thawri said, “A true scholar is one who finds (based on sound principles) an easier way for people, because as far as making things difficult is concerned, one need not have any knowledge to do that!”
It is perhaps pertinent to mention here that, according to one of the great jurists of the Hanafi School of the twentieth century, the late Mustafa al-Zarqa, Muslims living in time zones where day-light hours are unusually long may base their times for imsak and iftar on the regular time tables followed in Makkah and Madinah.  If this is the inference of a great hanafi jurist, coming as he is from a long lineage of authentic representatives of the hanafi school, how can we be faulted for going by a time-table which calculates the fajr in a slightly flexible manner?

As a final word, it would be wise to remind ourselves of the dire warning of the Prophet(peace be upon him), “There are among you those who simply drive people away from Islam.”(Bukhari and Muslim).Let us pray that we not be among those - Ameen.

Source: The Sunnah and elements of flexibility by Sh. Ahmad Kutty

Tips to get your Canadian PR faster

Saleem — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:21:13 +0000

The Permanent Residency process in Canada has undergone a lot of changes over the last few years. The most important being the changes to the Federal Skilled Worker class, and the introduction of a new class, Canadian Experience Class. The main intention is to ensure that new immigrants contribute to the economy(pay taxes) as soon as they arrive.

This post is a collection of tips gleaned from different sources, during my PR process. Hope it helps someone.

Do your medicals as soon as you get your AOR. Follow up with your DMP to get a reference letter from them detailing the tracking number, and reference number, and send it to your visa processing office

Communicate via eMail instead of snail mail

If english is not your mother tongue, do the IELTS before applying. This is a must.

Attach as many supporting documents possible. If some required documentation like experience letter or police certificate is missing, give a detailed explanation for its absence.

For faster communication, while communicating with the visa office, provide the following details before your request: File number, Full Name and Date of birth

Finally, when you get your request for PR, and if you have a US visa, just go over and get it stamped at the office directly. Take precautions to reach there before 9AM atleast. This is the best part, because… you will know it when you do it.

Sources:

www.trackitt.com

www.google.com

Gandhi – Our Father

Saleem — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:51:22 +0000

Mahatma Gandhi, in the process of delivering freedom for India, showed the world a unique way of fighting aggression and winning – ahimsa! From Mandela, Martin Luther King to Aung San Suu Kyi, leaders all over the world seem to be inspired by his philosophy and are trying to achieve their freedoms and rights using his non-violent means and principles. If the palestinians also went this route, instead of their current penchant for violence, I think they would be better off. Some suggestions like dissolving their institutions and joining the Israeli state, will make Israel realize its folly. If 2.5 million Arabs become part of Israel, then Israel’s jewish identity comes under threat (under the assumption that they hold the ideals of democracy dearer than their jewish identity). This threat would accelerate the two state solution.

India, the result of Gandhi’s experiment, seems to have forgotten its roots. Nowadays, violence is common place. If you disagree with your opponent, then the “hurt” party activists vent their ire. If you need reservation for your community, the government property bears the brunt. Non-cooperation movements are no more civil, but violent affairs. We blame politicians for all this, but are they the only ones to blame?

Gandhi – whose powerful ideas permeates the thinking of every wannabe leader across the world – seems to be forgotten in India. Are his ideals only for those that lead and not for the citizens? More pertinently, are his ideals only for fighting oppression and not for governance?

if a=b and b=c, then a=c

Saleem — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:12:45 +0000

Last night I had a nightmare. The details were hazy but I can remember the shivers down my spine when I woke up. Even now, as I write it.

It was happy in the beginning, before things began to unravel. My dad was put into jail for some trumped up terrorist charge. I was so enraged, that while reacting to it, I was put in jail as well, for being a terrorist. Taking all liberties of a dream, before I knew it, everyone in my family were in jail, even my mom. Once the realization that everyone were jailed for wrong reasons, that too being accused of a terrorist, the torture began. We did meet each other quite often within the confines of the jail, and those were happy moments. Then as we started to depart, when we said our goodbyes, the heavy burden of our reality crushed our spirits – We were in jail because we were Muslims. We were suspects. We had to sacrifice our daily lives, because someone in power had a suspicion. I had to sacrifice the joy of seeing my son, because someone in power had a suspicion. My dad had to sacrifice his small joys like playing with his grandchildren because someone in power had a suspicion. Till their minds were enlightened we had to be confined within four walls, only because we were Muslims, only because we believed in God. The people in power taunted me with misconceived notions of the Quran, and I tried to reason with them saying they are wrong in their interpretation, but to no avail. It went on.

The nightmare did not end there. Actually, it has not started yet. What follows below was the scariest part, the part that made the dream above, the nightmare it was.

After a point, I was free. Free from the walls, but not from the accusations and bad memories. Now I had all my family around me, the same happy family, however something was different – me. I had changed. There was rage inside me, I could sense it. The rage was bubbling. I could feel its heat. I am no longer the same.

Then I came across my faceless accuser, the one who subjected me to jail, the one who suspected me just because I was a Muslim. I did not argue with him, I just slapped him. That is how it started. The slapping became hitting, then kicking, then… a barrage of violence. As I descended into the orgy of violence, I could hear words. It was that man’s voice. Though he seemed to be pleading, all I heard were those words – the words that he taunted me with when I was in jail…

I woke up – beads of perspiration, lining up my forehead. Upon realization that it was a dream, more than relief, I was scared. Scared of what I had turned into. The voice of reason was silent, not to be found anywhere. The countless conversations that I had with people came flooding to me. Was the nightmare the answer to that question – What if you were in their place?

This nightmare had to happen. Given the countless news outlets, the vitriolic opinion makers, this nightmare simply had to happen. Public opinion was swayed. I had to always hear the question, why is your religion so violent? Why does one, when thinking about Islam, associates it with violence?

Why? Why do I have to hear those questions? Why do I have to answer?

My point is simply this: If you are going to derive opinions based on this media coverage, Must I be thinking of all catholic bishops as child abusers? Must I be thinking of all hindu priests as perverts? Is Buddhism violent based on their actions in Sri Lanka and China? Will the security officers at airports screen the laptops of catholic priests, like they do anyone with a beard or head scarf?

If I listen to my primary school Math teacher, then if a=b and b=c, then a=c. Thankfully, God has given me intelligence, and I hope the patience, to sift through this biased crap.

PS: This post is primarily towards those people who tend to justify violence due to victimization. I hear you, but I still disagree that it is right. Though it is human to give in to human instincts, violence or rage can never be the answer. I am fully prepared for a trial of my beliefs, because we live in a polarized world, but I pray that God gives me the courage to take in everything, and not become the monster in my nightmare. I hope everyone under such duress, counts on that human spirit to overcome.

No deal in copenhagen. Please!

Saleem — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:20:13 +0000

Which side of the fence are you on climate change? Denier? Believer? Deniers and believers, both agree upon climate change, but not its causes and consequences.

I am a strong believer in climate change by virtue of having lived through its consequences. No, not those tsunamis and monster earthquakes, that Mr Emmerich periodically reminds us of, but consequences nevertheless.

In India, every summer, I have felt the gradual but nevertheless excruciating increase in temperatures, to the point where air conditioners became a need than luxury. Earlier, during “hot” summers, all we had to do was close the front door, close the curtains and just power on the fan, or if there was no electricity, fold a newspaper or some magazine, and make it a hand fan. Now they are just memories. The story was the same in Madras, Kerala, UAE and Canada. Did I just hear you chuckle, Mr Emmerich?

Having said that, I don’t want Copenhagen to produce a deal. It just doesn’t make sense. These summits achieve nothing but moral grandstanding. Rich nations give poor nations money, and poor nations forgive the rich nations for their past sins. No meaningful results. Didn’t we have a deal, a decade or so back, in Kyoto, and where did that take us to? At that time, we went through the same brouhaha – dramatic negotiations, name calling, to produce a deal. A deal that was easily thrown away by the same nations that created it.

Its not that I don’t get the climate change experts’ arguments. I get it. The consequences of inaction will be dire. I agree, totally. What I don’t agree to, are their arguments for a deal, a global deal. I am not against emission cuts and the whole shebang – “solutions-for-climate-change”. It would be great if we could get everyone to agree to it. If? Everyone?

These countries,that are trying to create a deal for global action, who are they kidding?

The USA, unable to bridge differences between coal states and non coal states, oil and dirty oil. Forget that, they haven’t even ratified the kyoto protocol.

Canada, with its current PM playing the parochial card by supporting Alberta, and trying to penalize the eastern provinces, actually addressing grievances of the western provinces

China, with its selective development of cities

and India? Which has annual protests and riots within itself between different states for water.

So all these countries above are going to come up with a deal which will ensure collective action? Nice try.

And what about the rest – the developing and poor countries? They have sent people to negotiate the acceptable level of emissions, when people in their countries are starving or don’t have access to basic needs?

Haven’t we got our priorities wrong?

We are not going to achieve what the experts want us achieved, within the amount of time they want achieved. The task is simply too enormous. We may fool ourselves all we want by insisting on a deal, but it simply ain’t gonna happen.

The USA will not agree to a deal, unless China and India commits to a legally binding deal, which allows the international community to monitor their emissions.

Harper in Canada says Amen

China, Brazil and India, the next economic powerhouses, will not agree to a legally binding deal because developed nations did not do so during Kyoto. Moreover, if its a legally binding deal, chances of their industries and subsequently their economies, being choked are high. With a majority of their populations below poverty line, they will not risk it. Monitoring is a strict no-no, because no one trusts the other.

When, if by some miracle, a majority of the populations of China and India achieve a western lifestyle, even by the most conservative estimate that would be a billion more people contributing to the mess.

There is no guarantee, that no developed country will unilaterally walk off the deal. If it did, whatever it says about the deal being legally binding, as long as countries do not recognize institutions like International Court of Justice, UN or IAEA, no one is going to stop them

The moral argument is that we have to do this for our kids. I agree, but I don’t think this deal that these experts and countries are clamoring for will help the kids.

Rather, invest all the proposed funds to research green technology. When a disaster occurs, we know the world pours in aid. So we need no climate change disaster fund. Most importantly, ensure that, when this technology is invented, ensure that it reaches every country. Ensure that no corporation patents and makes money of it. Open the geographical boundaries.

I paint no bleak picture. I just don’t believe a deal will work. I have not guaranteed anyone I will live forever, and neither will my kids. Neither will you or yours.

PS: Lost in all the cacophony:
America complains that all the american corporations are moving the factories to China. America also blames that Chinese industry to be the largest polluter.
China is America’s biggest creditor, but wants America to give more money to it so that it can offset possible growth lag due to emission cuts.
Experts talk about the pollution from stoves in places like India. Are they serious? People who do not care where they get their meal from, as long as they get at least one a day, should be asked not to cook on stoves.

My first eclipse plugin

Saleem — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:15:19 +0000

I am not talking about Stephanie Meyer’s novel but the java IDE. There are reams about its advantages, so I am not going there. I just want to document my experiences while writing my first plugin.

Eclipse is a tool. It helps with your productivity, and most importantly, due to its plugin architecture, it helps you to create plugins that improve your productivity. With this in mind, I decided to create a plugin for some redundant but recurring and required set of actions before we start work on an old project. These projects by virtue of being created before I came into the tech industry(an exaggeration, but it does seem that old) were standalone java projects. vi and ant are the preferred tools.

Me being me, lazy et all, just hated to do all these redundant tasks when I could automate them with an eclipse plugin, and ultimately work on eclipse which guarantees an improvement in my productivity. So I created a plugin, my first eclipse plugin.

This is definitely not intended to be the bible for eclipse plugin development, but because of the daunting architecture that eclipse is, its easy for people to get sucked in and create messy code, which flies in the face of the beautiful architecture that eclipse is. I know because I have first hand experience with some so called “eclipse experts” in my previous company. We had a product that resembled eclipse, but not a product that business could sell.

So here are two important guidelines:
Create the plugins to do the dirty work, the actual grunt work. But never distribute this. NEVER!!!
Create features to package these plugins. You never find a class file being distributed, its always the jar. There is a reason for that, and in eclipse as well, its the same, but provides you more options, like a welcome page and compatibility check list.

Some initial roadblocks that could occur:
1. To get the resource that you want the action to be performed, I had to search a bit. For eg: If you want to work on the project, that you just right clicked, you will get the selected project using the HandlerUtil if you have a selectionEvent or from the selectionChanged method.
2. Paths – This tripped me quite a lot. The paths are mostly workspace relative, so if you want file system paths, use Iproject.getLocation
3. For anything java related, check out the JavaCore class first.
4. To refresh the project, check out the refreshLocal method in IProject.
5. Writing to a console is not as simple as sysout. You need to get a console and make it visible. Best practice is to have your own console for the feature.

Get started on eclipse plugins!

India and China – the future superpowers of the world

Saleem — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:51:08 +0000

I did my IELTS exam a few days back and I found that only chinese and indians were taking the test. No east europeans, no arabs, no latin americans… just chinese and indians. What does this mean?

Election system reform – Change the election system as we know it

Saleem — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:27:01 +0000

Each candidate in each constituency should decide on 5 issues that they are fighting for. It could be anything from education, security, corruption to the mosquito problem, or garbage disposal. It is the candidate’s responsibility to educate the constituents about the issues they are fighting for. On election day, the voters, apart from voting for the constituents should also vote or rate the issues that concern them. The winner will be the one who has more than 50% of the vote. In cases, where they fail to register to get the 50%, then it gets interesting. The election officials will ask the candidates to vote or rate the issues that they have identified. The candidate whose rating or voting pattern is similar to the majority of the constituents wins.

Secondly, the voters should be quizzed about the different candidates and the different positions that they stand for. If the voter is not informed about it, then he gets to vote only for the issues and not the candidates. This is to make the voter more responsible towards his duties to the country. It borders on disenfranchisement, but it is not.

Finally, this is the most interesting part for me. Now we have a database for each constituency, regarding their needs, and the policy makers know, what the people want. Come next election time, there obviously will be a scorecard against these issues and the winning candidate, and people will know whether they are repeating their mistake or not. In fact, at the end of the term, the Election Commission may even not allow candidates who have fared poorly to contest the immediate term. Or if the candidate feels he needs a second chance, he/she will have to fund an election to ask the constituents, if he can be placed on the next ballot. It can be a ballot conducted within the party or within the constituency. Another way of promoting internal party democracy.

PS: This was originally posted in FB. Here is the link.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=87941597870&1&index=0

Time for a new party for conservative ideals

Saleem — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:49:22 +0000

The republican party is gone way too right, to be considered the party for conservative ideals. I mean lets face it, they have become a bunch of hypocrites married to the Christian right, and have become a symbol for anything disgusting. I was pretty happy when Newt Gingrich hinted at a new party. Atleast, some people are sane in that party.

Watch the samples of the famous republican hypocrisy. In 2000, they were all for the other side of this debate. There are many other examples. Like their opposition now to Obama’s spending, when they kept quite over the Bush years.

Then for examples of their nauseous patrons… Rush Limbaugh, Bill O Reilly, Sean Hannity. Man they suck big time. They are a disgrace to civilized soceity. Actually its a good thing by the Democratic party to give publicity to these low lying stinkers and shout masters, because its time the mainland knew the kind of people, the republican base listen to. Its not conservative ideals, or the simplicity of small government any more. Its nauseating and disgusting.

I am a big fan of the conservative movement, but am not happy with the people and the implementations that we see. To find an analogy in the IT world, it is like J2EE. The philosophy behind it was awesome and had potential. But the actual implementation sucked, and then Spring came along… and everything was bright and shiny.

Time for another Spring in the political landscape.