Ambassador Robin Raphel is the right person for the right job in Pakistan

Posted on 02 January 2010.

If President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have done anything right, they have appointed Robin Raphel as the Economic Advisor for Economic Assistance to Pakistan. She is one of the only American official that is unbiased and some even see a soft corner for Pakistan. It used to be that the US Ambassador to Pakistan was the biggest proponent for Pakistan in Washington. Not today. people remember the tenure of Robert B. Oakley, Wendy Jean Chamberlin, and Ryan C. Crocker with fondness.

The rude US Ambassador Patterson in hot soup. Today the current US Ambassador loses no opportunity to threaten and disparage the country. It takes a special Ambassador to build partnerships with the local population and then sell that partnership to Washington. Ms. Paterson has neither the skills nor the temperament nor the vision to build a proper US-Pakistan relationship. Hence the problems. When the Pakistanis don’t trust the Ambassador the relationship suffers.

Compared to the arrogant Anne Paterson, the current US Ambassador to Pakistan, Ms. Raphel is a godsend. Ms. Raphel like her ex-husband Arnold Lewis Raphel are admired and loved in Pakistan. Unlike todays transactional relationship, the alliance that Mr. Raphel built with Pakistan was a solid alliance between friends. Ms. Raphel’s statements on Kashmir were right on the money, and there is much hope from her.

An FTA and elimination of tariffs on Pakistani textiles would enable Pakistan to export $15 worth of textiles. Better than any aid package this would reverse extremism

In a lopsided policy the US wasted $143 Billion in aid to Afghanistan and gave Pakistan $5 Billion. Egyptian loans of around $38 Billion were forgiven. Pakistani losses due to GWOT calculated by the US DOD were $20 Billion per year in 2001. These losses have quadrupled. Aid to Pakistan is less than aid to Afghanistan. This has to be balanced with need. The US uses Pakistani infrastructure to transport supplies without building or even maintaining the roads.

Needs of the Pakistan nation: These basics have to be addressed to win the hearts and minds of Pakistanis

Already, the right ideas are emerging from the Raphel camp. Our only critique is that her ideas are small and may not impact the colossal needs created by America’s war in Afghanistan. One Truma Center is a good start, but Pakistan needs 5000 hospital with “Made in America” written on them. Pakistan needs 60,000 schools and 63,000 teachers with “Made in America” written on them. Pakistan needs 100 Unversities with “Made in America” written on them.

ISLAMABAD: The United States will make an investment of $2 billion in the agriculture sector of Pakistan over a period of five years (2010-2014) to address impending water crisis to help the country improve profitability of agricultural markets.

The country’s agricultural sector which affects the livelihood of 60 per cent of the population uses 90 per cent of Pakistan’s water, according to the ‘Pakistan Assistance Strategy Report’ of the State Department.

In an analysis, the report says the management of the Indus Basin Irrigation System, which sustains the agricultural sector, is reliant on water flows from diminishing Himalayan glaciers and is so inefficient that half the water is lost to seepage.

To avoid potential disruption in rural incomes and food supplies from this pending water crisis, Pakistan urgently needs investments in storage, canals and irrigation services to improve water management.

“High impact, high visibility US agriculture programmes will likely to include rehabilitation and expansion of irrigation to help make Pakistan’s agricultural sector more stable and profitable,” the report says.

Assistance will be implemented primarily through provincial irrigation departments, thus helping build long-term capacity at the sub-national government level to manage water in a sustainable fashion.

In addition, Pakistan’s agricultural sector was missing major revenue-generating opportunities and self-sustaining export potential because of its poor storage infrastructure, the strategy report notes.

Less than eight per cent of Pakistan’s produce is exported due to inadequate cold storage facilities. Citing an example in this regard, the report pointed out that an estimated 35 per cent of Pakistani mango crop rots before reaching any market place.

US experts were exploring investments in cold storage facilities that will leverage private sector capital investment and increase the opportunities for exports of mango, citrus and other horticulture. Such investments would help stabilize the country’s rural economy, the report hopes.

The report says while the United States’ infrastructure support will focus first on energy and agriculture programmes, subsequent years of funding were intended to also support activities in transport, health and education, such as roads in the border region, a state-of-the-art trauma centre in a vulnerable area or a centre of excellence in a major university, which will serve a concrete need and were indicative of the US long-term commitment to help improve the lives of the Pakistani people.

The report explains that these efforts will not substitute for ongoing investments in social services and capacity development, but rather will provide visible symbols of US efforts intended to address immediate needs of the Pakistani people and to promote the country’s economic growth, security and stability.

The US government has appointed Robin Raphel as economic assistance coordinator in Pakistan to closely supervise all assistance to the country to coordinate the expanding assistance programmes.

In this regard, additional US staff has been requested to manage an expanded programme operating more through Pakistani institutions and in provincial capitals.

The report reveals that additional operational funding will be required to support the additional staffing. Related investments in office and residential infrastructure and transportation were being identified.

Given the paramount role, Pakistan’s provincial governments play in designing, managing and implementing programmes, US government staff will be both in Islamabad and Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore.

As the lead and largest manager of assistance funds among the US government agencies, USAID in particular will significantly increase its project management, legal, financial management, and procurement staff.

According to the report, Pakistani officials at all levels will have the opportunity to provide input into civilian assistance planning.

A US inter-agency team spent weeks in Islamabad between October and November to review the assistance strategy and met key officials of the government at federal and provincial levels.

The report stated that procedures were currently being developed with the government at both the national and provincial levels for channelling resources through governmental agencies with the capacity to implement programmes effectively. Implementation letters for the provincial governments have been drafted and were under review.

In the meantime, the USAID Mission in Pakistan has also begun conducting pre-award surveys of governmental and non-governmental institutions that will likely be recipients of US assistance resources.

The war in Afghanistan has created massive needs. Mr. Raphel has a limited budget. The powers to be should increase her budget a hundred fold and transform Pakistan into a US showcase to the planet. As goes Pakistan, so goes the Muslim world.

The appointment of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Robin Raphel as a member of the Richard Holbrookes team is a ominous sign for Delhi and a good omen for Pakistan. On October 28th 1993, Robin Raphel stated that Washington did not recognize the Instrument of Accession to India as meaning that Kashmir is not forever more an integral part of India. She expressed the view that the whole of Kashmir is disputed territory, the future status of which must be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir.

In her new position she is expected to cohesively carry together the different strands of non-military US engagement with Pakistan — economic, development, political and civilian security. Ambassador Raphel will be “also overseeing the ramp up of US civilian assistance effort in anticipation of the final passage of the Kerry-Lugar Bill 2009,” an insider explained.

The passage of the Kerry-Lugar bill means approval of tripling of civilian US aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion per annum for each of the next five years in a key part of a strategy to combat extremism with economic and social development. The $1.5 billion in annual funding includes money for schools, judicial system, parliament and law-enforcement agencies in Pakistan.

As Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs during the Clinton administration in the 90s, Raphel had a similar role within the region. She particularly played an important part in managing US relations with the newly formed Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Ambassador Robin Raphel is currently the senior vice-president of a Washington-based lobbying consulting firm Cassidy & Associates that provides counselling to multinational corporations, foreign countries and other organisations to advocate their US-based interests in Washington, and US corporations to meet business challenges abroad.

Her appointment is the clearest signal yet of the US rapprochement with the Taliban and gives us an inkling to the American Exit strategy which was publicly announced by President Brack Obama and is being openly discussed in the US Congress. The opinion polls surely show a trend whereby neither the the American public nor the US Congress will not tolerate a perpetual mimetic warfare in Afghanistan. Ms. Raphel enjoys privileged access to the Taliban leadership in Qandahar. The News

This is deja vu repetition of the 90s. History repeats itself. The Taliban was seen as a solution by the CIA. Congressman Rohrabaker was instrumental in setting up the Taliban to bring security to Afghanistan. The plan had worked. However the Neocons in the Bush Administration wanted a war and show th world that America could occupy and create new realities in the region. Many contend that the 2nd nuclear bomb thrown on a distraught and surrendering Japan was lobbed on Nagasaki as a warning to Russia, not as an assault on Tokyo. Many see the attack on Afghanistan and the destruction of a Russian ally–Iraq as warning to a resurgent Russia and a rising China. The games with the Taliban have already begun. The surge was the first play in an Exit strategy. Mr. Raphel has openly and actively campaigned for the Talibans unique credentials as an indigenous force capable of stabilizing Afghanistan, which posed no real threat to world or American security.

Ambassador Robin Raphel is generally considered to be very sympathetic towards Pakistan and enjoys goodwill in the country’s civilian as well as military circles. Even after her retirement from the State Department in 2005 after 30 years of service, Ambassador Raphel has been in touch with Pakistan through participation in seminars and conferences.

More recently she was responsible for lobbying for Pakistan in the State Department and her firm had a $1.2 million contract with the government of Pakistan. However, this contract was abruptly terminated by the firm following the declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan by President Gen (retd.) Pervez Musharraf on Nov 3, 2007. The News

It is time to dump Ann Paterson and appoint Ms. Raphel as the Ambassador to Pakistan.

Monitoring & Reversing Anti-Americanism-Some Solutions Ugly Americanism in Pakistan Kerry-Lugar Peanuts: 50% of US Aid fills pockets of US consultants Senator John Kerrys confusion about Afghanistan