Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 30, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba July cab Shilo Rumor has it that it will be spared when bases Are shut a very political axe by John Best special to the free press Ottawa the longer the government delays in get Ting out its promised state ment of Canadian defence the deeper the Hole it digs for and the clearer it becomes that the primary reason for the lengthy delay is political the dynamite Laden question of base an example of the kind of Trou ble the conservatives Are courting with their Dill dallying was the recent published report that All 13 bases in Western Canada Are to be the purported reason for exempting them the surging popu Larity of the Reform and the inroads this is making into tory strength in the Wield the axe i find it hard to believe the How could the tories declare bases in the West sacrosanct while proceeding to Wield the axe Cornwallis and Greenwood in Nova Scotia Annapolis both of which Are rumoured to be on the chopping Block the tories May be getting Des Perate Over their persistent 15 percent showings in the opinion but even that should not Blind them to the Folly of playing regional favourites still less the Folly of appearing to be spooked at every turn by Preston mannings the report perfectly illustrates the quagmire the government is getting into by tem it has Long since become apparent that fear of the political fallout from base shutdowns More than anything what is holding up the defence White paper or whatever form the policy statement is to the policy presumably to be accompanied by a list of bases earmarked for has been promised intermittently for More than two no amount of delay is Likely to soften the economic Impact on communities affected by the and hence the Politi Cal when they do on the the government compounds the harm in Advance by conveying the impression of indecisiveness and of putting its own political interests before the country other Western including the Bush administration in the United have bitten the Bullet on base shutdowns in the Wake of the end of the cold each has had to and has the same unpleasant political Why then is the Canadian government so lacking in nerve one obvious reason is tote past ing it took Over the closings ordained under the 1989 Federal Bud local politicians in affected communities such As and Portage la were up in the rumpus grew so loud in Summerside the government decided it would be the better part of discretion to come to terms with so it made Summerside the site of a new get processing which will help take up the employment the tendency of any government faced with the same problem a time around would be to who needs then to sit Back and Hope that the problem will somehow go but for the in this the problem is not going to go by now everybody in the country knows that Canada has too Many military bases for its needs with further cuts in military Man Power expected soon possibly 15 per cent or More the excess will be greater the Best Way for the govern ment to handle the problem would be to accept the recommendations of the defence staff As to which of the 33 bases across Canada should be closed and which left expert advice that it can argue that it acted strictly on the advice of its doing it that Way would also constitute a vote of Confidence in the defence which has viewed with increasing resentment the practice of successive Canadian governments in maintaining cer Tain military bases As More Orless regional development it would help to banish suspicions that the louder the Hue and cry local politicians the better chances that a Given base will while with less vocal support behind whether that particular break through is at hand the Best proof is the governments politically inspired dithering Over base clo which in turn Breeds delay on an Overall defence policy to serve Canada through the 1990s and John Best is a freelance journalist based in by Dick Leonard special to the free press tuft Rey Way in the Lofing to be one of the Tia in gainers from the Gulf at it is As much concerned with the problems which the War has created As with the opportunities which it Way have thrown up for the fhe economic Cost to through its closure of the iraqi Oil pipeline and the loss of transport and tourist has been estimated at against this must be set at least billion of Aid promised during 1991 by the United states and other Allied countries in appreciation of the support Given by the turks before and during the the world Bank is also currently negotiating a series of Loans to help Turkey reschedule some debts due during the current year when its foreign Exchange reserves Are abnormally yet the greatest gain which key May have got is the strengthen ing of its political relationship with the this should to some for the col Shoul Der it has had from the european which has shelved inde finitely its application for member ship while simultaneously Ling that later applications from Austria and Sweden will be favor ably the establishment on turkish soil of the rapid reaction Force to protect the iraqi kurd should fur ther consolidate the close links with the end of the cold and the diminished threat of soviet had significantly reduced the leverage which the turks had been Able to exercise As key members of the creation of a new military link with the Western Powers should reinforce the country strategic presiding uneasily Over these events is president Turgut his own position had grown a great Deal weaker Over the past few especially since when his Moth Erland party polled a Mere 21 per cent it local the party was beset by constant quarrels be tween its Lay and islamic sup porters and its standing was damaged by the unpopularity of prime minister Yildirim who was seen As a Mere Stooge of the presi Dent with no views of his the election in april of opals ambitious As head of the party powerful Istanbul Branch was by no mean universally Wel but it seems to have Trig gered changes which May help to improve the party electoral chances and those of Ozal himself As he evidently the turkish Constitution is changed to enable him to be popularly rather than chosen by parliament As at entered the fray opals election was a setback for the islamic elements and this emboldened foreign minister Mesut the Champion of the party Liberal to throw his hat into the ring last month when a new party chairman was to be his main rival was Akbulut and when Yilmaz Defeated Ozal sacked Akbulut As prime minister and appointed Yilmaz in his Ozal May fear Yilmaz As a Possi ble future but there is Little doubt that his appointment As prime minister will go some Way to restore the motherland party battered he is seen As an Able and energetic Man capable of taking hard but necessary the most urgent of these is reduce the High budget this has been stoking the inflation rate which has been above 60 per cent in each of the past three after Hercule an efforts had brought it Down to less than 40 per cent in More Yilmaz faces the Challenge of consolidating Turk ish which is still tainted by the fact that the current Constitution was imposed by the military during its takeover in the Early 1980s and by continuing human rights especially against the Large kurdish Ozal made some Effort to heal relations with the kurd when he announced in january that restrictions against the use of the kurdish language would be yet the guerrilla War with the marxist led kurdish workers party which has claimed More than victims since there is no Prospect of it ending unless the government is prepared to cede to its 10 million the bulk of whom Are concentrated in the East of the the same degree of autonomy that their cousins Are demanding from Saddam it was to prevent its kurdish popu lation from being reinforced that the turkish government refused to open its Borders after the Gulf prob ably causing the unnecessary deaths of several thousand iraqi kurd on the Bleak mountainsides on the other Side of the this cold hearted attitude hardly encourages the turkish kurd to Trust in their own governments Turkey is swarming with rumours that the government will attempt to change the Constitution in order to bolster its own electoral chances in to ensure that Ozal is Able to continue in office even if his party loses its parliamentary majority in the elections due before november if Yilmaz is serious in his democratic aspirations he should instead Convene an Al party at which the views of the opposition parties three of which Are each ahead of the motherland party in the most recent polls would be fully taken into if this were to happen the Prospect of building a really stable democratic regime in and perhaps also of finding an acceptable formula for kurdish would be greatly on the con he chooses to play it for narrow party advantage he will run a terrible risk of the country once again becoming thus provoking yet another military take Dick Leonard is european cow in Unity correspondent of the observer of turkish kurd protest against repressive policies of Central government patronage storm Likely to resume with new session for a session filled with charges of government it was fitting the Cloud that began the storm was partially lifted in the last for five months there have been numerous accusations about the government giving preferential treatment to those with tory membership it ranged from appoint ments of political friends to boards and commissions a practice followed by every administration to the waiving or at least bending of rules to help supporters landed a elopement plans near the each the opposition cried foul and depending on the demanded Public inquiries and dismissal or resignation of those in such charges were a regular but in april it was relatively that Issue involved the handling of a lease agreement for Manitoba housing and Newal corporation valued to be Worth million Over join bids were eased and proposals received in a Public because of six months later the department which leases spaces for government called for a second round of those bids were opened privately by two government officials in late january and the Winner was a company which had been seventh in the first among its Board members were two businessmen with ties to the would have been said about the matter except the owner of company which finished second in the first round went to alleging the government had illegally approved the he maintained All first Rownd tenders had been rejected without reason and subsequent consideration of ers of a restricted basis was contrary to the Public works Arlene Billinkoff under the dome those charges were political fodder and in Early Sharon Carstairs charged that the abuse of the tendering process of this government it smells of the Rotten odor of tory Gary Poer did not go As but he believed it was an Issue of integrity and wanted a special audit of the lease award Gary who is chairman of the Treasury Board which ultimately approved the saw no reason for an the bid actually saved he and the process was acceptable even though could not remember exactly what the process had been and who had decided to abandon the Public bidding unfortunately his answer did not ease concerns and critics intensified their Call for the auditor to study the the rejected any hint of looks bad Only if you want to make it i Skaj he told the we got a better Deal for the but were being Dent understand because opposition did not understand the premiers contradictory doer called for a third open bid to restore the integrity of the when Filmon re Many viewed it As an indication he was trying to hide something in the Premier accused the pcs of merely see Tang headlines and having no sense of the action was proper and eventually saved he if that was a he was willing to take full because of serious provincial auditor Fred Jackson decided the process should be reviewed to determine exactly what occurred and whether it was while that study was under a judge dismissed the businessman court Challenge and cleared the government was of any wrongdoing in awarding the con the auditors report did much the same although it noted the decision to scrap a Public tender and replace it with a bidding process which was not publicly advertised was not in accordance with stated it found no evidence that political influence affected the although it provided ways to improve the the report eluded the existing process was generally the which is facing so Many patronage hoped the report would at least silence criticism in one but Hilmons responses to questions from doer about what was being done to Correct the bidding process aggravated the Situa forgetting an earlier pledge to provide More he demanded doer show integrity and apologize for an accusation last april of political he then said the government intended to ensure All departments follow proper but the damage had been denying he had never made the comments attributed to they were uttered by Carstairs doer was appalled by the Sli Miest response he had Ever the question involved the he but since politics had been he wanted to know whether Treasury Board Secretary Mike Bessey had been involved in discus Sions with unsuccessful after underlining the auditors general acceptance of the existing bidding Filmon admitted he had asked Bessey to speak to one but Only because he did not want to be accused of political inter do not talk about unethical he that Type of innuendo does nobody the Premier might have heeded his own the auditors report May have cleared the government of a patronage charge in regard to the leasing of one but Hilmons defensive position left the impression that storm Clouds were Gath ering doonesbury by Garry Trudeau War Tau whajmw56 qty you thin Kip i ;