Banner Graphic, Volume 22, Number 178, Greencastle, Putnam County, 31 March 1992 — Page 3

De Klerk calls for first election with majority voting

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) The African National Congress today condemned a government plan for a new parliament as prolonging apartheid even though blacks would vote for die first time. The country’s main black opposition group said the plan forwarded by President F.W. de Klerk’s government on Monday would give whites and their allies a veto over any future government. IT REPEATED its demand for a single-chamber parliament elected on a one-man, one-vote basis with no special rights for minorities. Despite the ANC criticism of the government, the two groups appear to be making progress on the formation of a new constitution and government. Both black and white leaders say they want an interim government installed in the next few months to oversee the transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy. THE NEW parliament proposed by the de Klerk government would have two chambers one chosen on regional and ethnic lines, the other along majority lines. Because any legislation would need approval in both chambers, whites and their allies would have an effective veto over any future government. “We can only conclude that the contemplated upper house is an attempt to ... have apartheid ruling from its grave. It is a provocative deviation from the course towards democracy on which we thought we were embarked,” the ANC said in a statement But the government plan represents a major step toward ANC views on writing a new constitution. The government had wanted a new constitution worked out in interparty talks and previously resisted ANC demands for an elected constitutent assembly. “IT IS CLEAR that in accepting the principle that an elected body should be the constitution-making body, we’re closing the gap with other parties,” said Constitutional Development Minister Gerrit Viljoen. Viljoen warned that the government was “not married” to an elected constitution-making body and white interests would have to be guaranteed. He said both chambers of the proposed parliament would have to approve a new constitution. J De KLERK HAS said white domination cannot give way to black domination. While leaders on both sides have

Poles may vote on abortion

WARSAW, Poland (AP) The divisive question of whether abortion should be legal may be put to Polish voters under a bill before parliament That proposal and another supporting the right to abortion were submitted Monday. A churchbacked bill already before parliament would outlaw abortion, which was legalized by the Communists in 1956. “We should listen to the voice of society on such a controversial issue,” said Deputy Barbara Labuda, who leads parliament’s women’s caucus. She did not appear optimistic about the prospects for the bill

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F. W. de KLERK

Avoiding biack domination publicly criticized each other’s positions, their representatives in closed door talks have been moving closer to a compromise. The ANC recently , suggested “sunset clauses” to protect white interests for a set period after the end of apartheid. The latest government proposal came after de Klerk gained a huge mandate from white voters in a March 17 referendum on ending apartheid and sharing power with the black majority. VILJOEN SAID the government considers the installation of an interim leadership an urgent priority that should be completed in “a matter of months rather than years.” But he also indicated that elections could be delayed by political violence in black townships. An international team of judges and lawyers visiting South Africa said last week the violence would make free and fair elections impossible. VILJOEN SAID the ANC and other black groups must end chronic violence in black townships. The black opposition accuses state security forces of fomenting the unrest, a charge the government denies. The government and ANC are among 19 political groups negotiating reforms that will give the black majority voting rights. The groups first met in December and are expected to convene again May 15. In the meantime, special working groups set up to tackle specific issues have been meeting. One of the groups, designed to deal with time frames for reform, said Monday that “every attempt should be made to install an interim government by June 30.”

preserving legalized abortion, but said the referendum has “better chances." Parliament is expected to act on the bills within the next couple of months. An estimated 500,000 abortions are performed in Poland annually, accounting for about half of all pregnancies terminated. Polls have repeatedly shown that most people do not favor an all-out ban on abortion, although more than 90 percent of Poles consider themselves Roman Catholics. Catholic church leaders have pushed hard for an abortion ban since the Communists were toppled in 1989.

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Bonn, Berlin deal with capital clash BERLIN (AP) of reunification euphoria, German lawmakers voted last year to move the government back to Berlin. Now, the economy has gone soft and many politicians want to slow the eastward trek from Bonn. Hans Gattermann, the head of Parliament’s finance committee, said Monday that the move to Berlin could cost well over S3O billion. BERLIN OFFICIALS disagree. They estimate the federal government would only have to spend $6 billion for the move. The money arguments weigh heavily in Germany, where the economy has been teetering on recession due to the demands of absorbing East Germany. Just a week ago, Der Spiegel ran a cover story with the headline “Is Unification Too Expensive? The Huge Bankruptcy.” WHEN PARLIAMENT voted in June, estimates of the time needed for the move the government ran from four years to 10 years, although the issue was left open. Many people now believe the government won’t be firmly in place in Berlin, the official German capital, until well into the next century. Volker Kaehne, chief of staff to Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen, says Bonn will be filled with “Potemkin Villages” if the government keeps putting up buildings there.

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Japan propping up economy

TOKYO (AP) Japan said today it will boost public spending and ease borrowing to combat months of economic bad news ranging from sinking corporate earnings to an ailing stock market. The measures center around a plan to spend at least 75 percent of the 1992 public-works budget in the first half of the fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. THE GOVERNMENT also will make it easier for companies to borrow money for labor-saving or power-conserving investments. “We’ve adopted the best policies,” said Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, whose popularity has plunged in part because of the nation’s economic ills. Japan’s central bank is widely expected to cut its discount rate, as early as Wednesday according to some reports. NEWSPAPERS speculated today that the central bank would cut the discount rate, the interest it charges on loans to commercial banks, from 4.5 percent to 4 percent or 3.75 percent. That would make it easier to borrow money, which in turn makes it easier for investors to buy securities and for companies to invest in new equipment The accelerated public works spending, added to stepped-up investment by public utilities and semi-public companies, means the government will pump S3B billion more into the economy during the first half of fiscal 1992 than it did over the same period last year, said Takeshi Noda, chief of the Economic Planning Agency. SOME OF THAT spending increase, however, already was included in the 1992 budget. The United States hopes that in-

creased public spending would be used in part to purchase American goods. Japan agreed during President Bush’s visit in January to aim for 3.5 percent growth in fiscal 1992. Masaru Yoshitomi, director-general of the Economic Planning Agency’s coordination bureau, said the new measures could help Japan reach that goal. BUT ROBERT Feldman, an economist at Salomon Brothers Asia, said that prediction was too optimistic. A Salomon Brothers

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March 31,1992 THE BANNERGRAPHIC

report predicts growth of only 2.4 percent in 1992, even if a supplemental budget passed later in the year includes significant new spending. A government statement said the measures were intended to prevent the slowdown from discouraging businessmen or hurting the national economy. The Economic Planning Agency said earlier this month that the economy contracted in the last quarter of 1991.

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