The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 8

8 INTERNATIONAL NEWS THE GUARDIAN Monday May 24 1993 Health plan divides Democrats Martin Walker in Washington line to get lower social security benefits." There were signs yesterday that this tussle could be resolved by a traditional politi Poll position Cambodians, brandishing voter registration cards issued by the UN, crowd eagerly outside the main polling station in Phnom Penh yesterday photograph. Jonathan drake Cambodians ignore Khmer Rouge threat and flock to polls to Cambodia's head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who would serve as a force for national reconciliation. Prince Ranariddh said the Khmer Rouge would not be included in the government, which should be made up only of elected members of the new assembly. Funcinpec appears to be riding a wave of popular enthusiasm in the capital but has made uncertain headway in rural areas after a campaign marred by intimidation, much of it attributed to the Phnom Penh regime. UN officials said yesterday that 200 people have been killed, 338 injured and 114 abducted since the beginning of March.

They blamed Phnom Penh for 15 of the deaths and the Khmer Rouge In Phnom Penh, Ghanaian UN troops and UN police struggled to clear a path through voters at a polling station in the Olympic stadium as Chea Sim, one of the most powerful leaders of the ruling Cambodian People's Party, arrived to vote. But if the crowd was aware of his presence, they largely ignored it. By contrast, pandemonium reigned when Prince Norodom Ranariddh, leader of Funcinpec, the royalist party and strongest challenger, arrived at the polling station. "I think the people today will vote for change," he declared, predicting his party would win 70 of 120 seats in the national assembly. The prince repeated promises that, if his party won.

it ing station. He was summing-up the sentiment of many voters in Cambodia's first multi-party election for more than 25 years. A group of about 80 Khmer Rouge guerrillas attacked and burned down a police station in the southern district of Chum Kirri, reportedly killing three people. The guerrillas also opened fire on French legionnaires who went to investigate but reported no injuries. The polling station nearby remained open.

Two voters were slightly injured by mortar fire near a polling station in the western town of Poipet, but the voting continued without interruption. By contrast, a dozen polling stations in the northeast were unable to open because of heavyrain. The guerrilla attacks proved the exception, not the rule, to the huge relief of the officials running an election that is the culmination of one of the United Nations' costliest and most ambitious peacekeeping operations. UN staff estimate that between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians a third or more of total registered voters cast their ballots on what was only the first of six days of polling. The turnout ranged from about 30 per cent in Phnom Penh to 40 per cent in the provincial capital of Kompong Thorn, and 45 per cent in the western town of Pursat.

The danger of Khmer Rouge attacks has not passed. The UN's military commander, Lieutenant-General John Sanderson, yestertacEOrts that, the guerrillas have been moving ammunition and other materiel close to remoter polling centres. "These things disturb us but we are mentally and physically prepared for that sort of disturbance of the electoral process," he said. "If it does happen, I hope the Cambodians will show a determination to work through it. I anticipate they will." But the value to the Khmer Rouge of violently disrupting the poll would seem to have diminished in the face of yesterday's turnout.

As a result, the tension is focusing increasingly on the likely outcome and the prospect for a transition to pluralist politics in a country that has lived under authoritarian Communist Party rule wonMjjgiye executive powerjji New ruler eases Sri Lanka tension THE tension at the heart of the Clinton administration came to a head at an evening meeting in the White House last Thursday, as Hillary Rodham Clinton's outline plan for an American national health service came under intense fire from the president's economic advisers as too expensive and politically dangerous. According to White House sources, all three members of the Council of Economic Advisers, led by the Berkeley economist Laura D'Andrea Tyson, told Mrs Clinton that the $60-90 billion (40-58 billion) in new taxes her plans required would enfeeble the US economy and lead to "serious and damaging job losses" among small businesses. This was more than the usual policy debate. The health reform plan, which President Clinton sees as the keystone of his presidency, has brought into the open the conflict between the "New Democrat" agenda on which he ran for office and the principles of traditional liberalism which appear to dominate his administration. Mrs Clinton's leadership of the health reform task force makes this tension both acute and personal.

But the revolt against Mr Clinton's budget and energy tax by conservative Democrats in the House and Senate reflects a similar clash between New and Old Democrats. In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Clinton denounced the rebels in his own party in classic Old Democrat terms. In attacking his energy tax. he said, they had become prisoners of the oil lobby. "It is simply wrong for a powerful interest to try and opt out of this programme by asking the elderly and the working poor to contribute more so they can contribute less.

I regret that otherwise good and responsible legislators would even consider this proposal. But I will fight it," Mr Clinton vowed. "Some of my opponents want to cut social security and tax credits to working families with incomes of under $30,000 just to get a tax cut for the rich. The big oil lobby is trying to wiggle out of its contribution to deficit reduction and force senior citi zens bfljs above Ujg, poverty WorlcrBanle' signals U-turn on African aid policy Taml Hultman In Washington THE World Bank's top policymaker for Africa has announced sweeping changes in the institution's approach to the continent's economic problems. In a speech to the annual conference of the African-American Institute.

Edward Jaycox, vice-president for the Africa region, said the bank would no longer dictate development plans to African countries and would stop "imposing" foreign expertise on reluctant governments. Calling the current pattern of technical assistance to Africa "a systematic, destructive Mr Jaycox said future programmes would be aimed at building the region's capacity to help itself. Africa may be the only major region where poverty has deepened in recent years, yet it has vast untapped wealth and is already a larger trading market for the United States than the countries of the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe combined. The speech was an off-the-record address to a closed session of the institute's conference. The policy shift, if implemented, will have repercussions throughout Africa.

For the last decade, the bank has shaped the development agenda, formulating policies that have guided the practices of its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, as well as the aid programmes of donor countries. Acknowledging that the World Bank had been unable to devise solutions to Africa's economic problems, Mr Jaycox said in future the bank would help fund African governments to write their own development plans and would use the bulk of a $20 million (12.9 million) economic research fund to support studies commissioned by Africans themselves rather than bank economists. Critics of current programmes estimate that more than 100,000 foreign experts working in Africa consume a major chunk of foreign aid money. Mr Jaycox also announced that universities in the US and other Western countries that had World Bank-funded contracts to train African economic managers must move their programmes to Africa within three years and collaborate with African universities. The Washington Post.

cal compromise, laid out by senator Pat Moynihan, chairman of the Senate finance committee. Speaking on NBC's Meet The Press, Mr Moynihan said that the president's proposed BTU tax. named after the British Thermal Unit and designed to tax energy in all its forms, will be scrapped in favour of a more acceptable and tightly targeted petrol tax. The rebels agreed to swallow that, Mr Moynihan said, and he forecast the president's budget would be enacted by late July, and the health reform bill would wait until next year. However, the underlying argument between New and Old Democrats will rage on while the health reform package is being defined.

And it will do so while Mr Clinton's opinion poll ratings are steadily eroded. Mr Clinton, bruised by allegations of cronyism in replacing the White House travel office with a new team led by a distant cousin from Arkansas, and by the fuss over his $200 haircut in Los Angeles, faces more battles with the senate over his nomination of veteran liberals to key positions in his administration. Professor Lani Guinier, nominated to run the civil rights division of the justice department, has called not just for more black judges, but for them to be "not just physically black, but to hold a cultural and psychological view of group She will face trouble in her Senate confirmation hearings, as will Dr Alicia Munnell, whose confirmation as assistant secretary for economic policy at the treasury labours under her advocacy of taxing pension contributions. Mr Clinton, seeing his centrist allies criticise him for abandoning the New Democrat agenda, sought over the weekend to re-establish that he was not a traditional tax-and-spend Democrat. "What I think your government owes you is to move beyond the two dichotomies One says 'You're out there on your The other says, 'We'll take care of you.

We can do things for Neither one of these approaches is right," he told a college commence-jnent Brazil's 'last-hope' finance minister takes calculated risk Sue Branford In SSo Paulo MESSAGES of support for President Itamar Franco's unexpected choice as his new and fourth finance minister have been flooding in from Brazilian businessmen, bankers and politicians. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an intellectual who until his appointment was proving a highly competent foreign minister, was reluctant to accept the job. He was sounded out by President Franco on Wednesday night in New York, but the conversation was inconclusive. He woke on Thursday morning to find that his appointment had already been published in the official gazette in Brasilia. As well as bringing hope to a demoralised nation, the appointment has changed the balance of power in Brasilia.

His Social Democratic Party, a young and expanding centre-left group that was earlier providing President Franco with lukewarm support, has now decided to back the government to the hilt. The Social Democrats' president, Passo Jereissati, said: "We're going for bust. If Fernando Henrique can restore order in the economy, then he will bo in a very powerful position to run for the presidency in December 1994. If he fails, we will implode." It is a big gamble. Mr Cardoso must honour his party's commitment to tackle an alarming social crisis, but also cut the public deficit to bring down galloping inflation.

His biggest problem, however, is President Franco himself, who is already unhappy with the adulation that has been heaped on Mr Cardoso, giving him virtually the status of prime minister. "A month ago Brazilians voted against a parliamentary form of government," President Franco commented testily yesterday. In a show of independence, he has appointed as foreign minister the ambassador to Portugal, Jose Aparecido do Oliveira, who is a personal friend. The appointment has been received with dismay in Brasilia, where the ambassador is not regarded as up to the job. In the short term, however, Mr Cardoso has political clout.

President Franco knows that the new finance minister is his last chance. As a political scientist, Francisco Wetlbrt, commented: "Maybe Cardoso will fail, but then we will know that the Franco government would have failed with anyone." The deadline draws near. Soon you can apply for shares in Northern Ireland Electricity pic. And if you register for a mini prospectus you could be eligible for bonus shares and preference in allocation. JJuorm Nicholas Cumming-Bruce In Phnom Penh CAMBODIA set aside two decades of conflict and widespread fears of violence as enthusiastic crowds turned out for the first day of voting in elections disturbed more by rain than guerrillas or gunfire.

Such was the fear that Khmer Rouge troops would carry out threats to attack and disrupt an election they had boycotted, that polling stations in many towns were unprepared for the crush of people who thronged to vote even before they opened. "It's a wonderful day. In my life I've seen nothing like this," said one man in a tightly packed crowd squeezing into a Phnom Penh poll- i 14 Silo or 131,. United National Party (UNP) with a cornucopia of funds. But there have been crucial changes.

For the first time in at least 10 years, important elections were held last week without anyone being killed and with only routine cheating. This is a watershed. Nevertheless, old habits die hard. Of the seven provincial councils contested, the combined opposition of the Popular Alliance, with its main component the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP), and the Democratic United National Front (DUNF), a breakaway from the UNP, secured slight majorities in two provinces and a clear victory in Western Province, which includes Colombo. In Western Province the opposition could not be gainsaid.

But in the other two the governors nominated UNP chief ministers, despite the opposition majorities. Provincial opposition MPs are likely to have it made worth their while to be absent when a vote of confidence is called, or to take some official position. Under the electoral system they can be expelled from their party and parliament and a substitute nominated. An appeal to the courts can take at least until the next election to settle. This leaves Chandrika Ku-maranatunga, daughter of the veteran SLFP leader, and former prime minister, Sirima Bandaranaike, carrying the opposition flag alone as new chief minister in the Western Province.

Mrs Kumaranatunga, whose father and husband were assassinated in 1956 and 1987, has no illusions. "I know my life may still be in she said, "but I have to go on." She has only until the end of next year, when presidential elections are due, to make her mark. If she can do it, there might even be hope of tackling the country's main problem the longstanding war with the Tamil Tigers. "We must offer something dignified to the Tamil people which would divorce them from the Tiger terrorists," she said. "And we must persuade the majority of Sinhalese to accept it, if not the racist minority." Many people, however, doubt that the Tigers really want a solution, except on their own terms.

They have hinted at accepting a federal solution, but the new young prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe. thinks that would be in return for control of the Tamil region "which we will never To qualify you must register before midnight on June 1st, 1993. Simply post the coupon or telephone Wijetunga is cutting links with the era of fear under Premadasa, reports John Rettie in Colombo IQBAL does not whisper any more. For years you had to strain to catch the trenchant comments of this Colombo businessman about Sri Lankan politics. Hotel rooms had ears, and no one knew who was sitting at the next table.

But no longer is his voice drowned by the background noise. "It's as if a great rock has been lifted from us." he declared for all to hear although he still did not want his real name used. Except for some impoverished rural areas which benefited from official munificence, the sense of relief since President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed by a bomb during the May Day parade is almost palpable. Only Tamils of the north and east appear concerned about a future without the Sinhalese leader who kept his lines open to the Tamil Tigers, even during military operations against them. President D.

B. Wijetunga, the former prime minister elected by parliament to serve the remaining 20 months of Mr Premadasa's term, is busily distancing himself from the former era and its men. He has been quietly dismantling the repressive apparatus, including the hit squad which terrified many a government opponent. He has attacked the corruption that flourished under Premadasa. and the directors of state corporations have been asked to resign so that new boards can be appointed.

Cynics say this is only to put in new men who can be manipulated. "The principal reason for restructuring the boards is to get rid of Premadasa favourites," said another businessman who declined to be named. President Wijetunga has promised to continue Premadasa's free market reforms. These include the privatisation of state companies, whose vast property assets make financiers' mouths water. The government is now suspected of arranging for its friends to pick up state concerns cheaply, partly by writing off old losses.

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