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Bad weather may affect boro crops
Special prayer offered
for good crops
Amena Khatun Urmee
Devotees on Friday offered special prayers in their
respective mosques across the country after Juma prayers
for saving Boro crops from natural catastrophe.
Earlier on Thursday, Ministry of Religious Affairs
requested the countrymen to offer special prayers after
Juma for saving Boro from natural disaster as people as
well as the government are now hoping that Boro crop will
be able to overcome the ongoing food crisis. All eyes are
fixed at the production of boro. Government and farmers
are also expecting a bumper production of boro this
season.
Meanwhile, Met Office has cautioned that the country's
north and central regions may witness four to six
nor'westers within a month. Simultaneously, the country
will also experience 15 per cent more rain accompanied by
gusty winds during the month than previous year. Besides,
two deep depressions over Bay and its adjoining areas may
also be formed. Of the two, one may intensify and turn
into a cyclonic storm.
"If the cyclonic storm hit the country, low-lying areas of
the three hilly regions Sylhet, Rangamati and Bandarban
may go under water. The cyclonic storm, nor'wester and
heavy rain will damage the boro crops, it is apprehended.
As low-lying areas of the hilly region are likely to be
inundated by storm surge, a vast area where boro and other
crops have been cultivated may be washed away," talking to
the Bangladesh Today an expert of Met Office cautioned
adding under the influence of the storm, nor'wester and
heavy rain the coastal districts and their offshore
islands and chars will be the worst hit.
The Met office further said deep convection is taking
place over the North Bay and squally weather may affect
the maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Mongla.
The three ports have been advised to hoist local
cautionary signal number three. All fishing boats and
trawlers over the North Bay have been advised to come
close to the coast and proceed with caution till further
notice.
An official of Agriculture Department said thousands of
acres of land with full of boro crop are in three stages.
One is primary stage while another is near to ripe. On the
other hand, the harvesting of ripe boro will begin within
15 days, he added.
"If it is rained, the primary level of boro crops will be
benefited but ripe boro will be badly damaged. Side by
side, other crops will also be affected. Like cyclonic
storm Sidr, the nor'wester and rain will destroy the
country's boro," the official said.
On the other hand, the present target for the upcoming
bumper production of boro is unlikely to be achieved due
mainly to fertilizer and power crises, according to
sources.
To overcome the food crisis caused by the two back-to-back
floods and Sidr, the government has taken initiatives to
produce more boro crops in the country. Government is
trying to supply some 1000 megawatt power and adequate
fertliser to the rural areas for boro irrigation and
cultivation.
But it is apprehended that it would not be possible to
ensure smooth power supply and proper distribution of
fertiliser among the farmers. The farmers across the
country are now irrigating through some two lac deep and
shallow tube wells which consume 1000 to 1500 mw of
electricity. Against the backdrop of generation shortfall,
supply disruption and voltage fluctuation, the government
has planned to implement a load management system to
ensure uninterrupted supply of power for irrigation in the
northern region for boro cultivation.
Prices continue to rise unchecked
F.M. Masum
Prices of some varieties of
coarse rice continue to rise in the city's kitchen markets
following India's decision to ban exporting rice for an
indefinite period while prices of other commodities remain
unchanged.
The whole sale price of different varieties of coarse rice
increased by Tk 20-30 per maund and as they said the price
would go up further if the government fails to take proper
steps including increasing the quantity of OMS rice per
head and make sure of availability for the low income
people.
People who thronged different OMS shops are failing to get
the rice even after waiting in the long queues for hours
and they expressed resentment over the limited scale of
sale.
Talking to this correspondent, many dealers said, "The
government should increase the quantity of rice supplied
to the dealers everyday to ensure smooth supply among the
low income people." The businessmen said as the Government
on Thursday signed an agreement with four Indian state
owned agencies on importing the remaining 4 lakhs of rice
out of the 5 lakh tonnes at $ 430 as per its commitment.
But the price of local rice is stable and the businessmen
fear that if the government fails to procure its planned 4
lakh tons of rice from India by this month, the price of
the staple food would go up further. Due to continuous
price spiral of rice, every day more people are thronging
the BDR shops to buy the rice and other essentials. The
number of shops should be increased to make the essentials
available to the low and limited income groups, said the
buyers at different BDR shops.
Meanwhile, the price of edible oil and lentils also rose
as yesterday lentils was selling at Tk 98 per kg and in
the retail markets, Soyabean was selling at Tk 110 per
litre.
The price of chicken (broiler) are still on the rise as
yesterday it was selling at Tk 105 per kg . When contacted
with a chicken traders by this correspondent to know the
reason behind the sudden abnormal price hike of chicken
broiler, he said, " the supply is not enough against the
huge demand and people have started buying chicken in
large number."
On Friday, coarse rice was selling between Tk 34 and Tk 35
per kg, Pari Tk 33 and Tk 34 per kg, fine quality
Najirshail Tk 39 and Tk. 44, miniket at Tk 38 and Tk. 44
per kg and Polao rice at Tk 68 and Tk 80 per kg. Besides,
the consumers fear that as the price monitoring is totally
abandoned, so the prices of other commodities could go up
further if the Government does not take immediate action
against the unscrupulous businessmen responsible for the
price hike. Some consumers said, "The Government should
distribute more VGF cards among the poor families to help
them get at least two meals a day.
Besides, it also can set up more BDR shops across the
country to make the availability of rice at a lower
price."
Retailers said that a certain quarter of businessmen have
increased the price, spreading a rumor in the markets
saying, there is limited supply of rice in the markets.
The government some should maintain cordial relation with
India for our food security". "
The price of various items of fish is still at their high
as yesterday Ruhi was selling at Tk 180-220 per kg, Hilsha
at Tk 340 per kg. Beef was selling at Tk 180 per kg.
Yesterday, imported onion was selling at Tk 16 per kg,
local onion at Tk 18, imported lentils at Tk 95, four at
Tk 43 per kg. Potato was selling at Tk 12, cucumber at Tk
14, tomato at Tk 16, Korola at tk 20 per kg, bean at Tk 24
per kg.
Water
and Power Crises Persist
Staff Correspondent
The administration of most essential public utilities like
water and electricity is in serious jeopardy in the
capital causing untold suffering to city dwellers. Most of
the city dwellers have been experiencing water crisis and
frequent load shedding for long.
The residents of Lalmatia, Mirpur, Gulshan, Dilu Road,
Moghbazar, Eskaton, Kakrail, Tejkunipara, Shaheen Bagh,
Hazaribagh, Rampura, Lalbagh and Bhagalpur Lane faced
serious water crisis due to drastic fall in ground water
level, low voltage of power, faulty distribution pipelines
and illegal connections.
WASA Head Office sources said occasionally the residents
of some places in the capital face water crisis due to
unwanted situation caused by inadequate power supply.
"But we are supplying sufficient water to the affected
areas. Our vehicles with water are rushing to the affected
people to meet their demand. The deep tubewells become
inoperative due to low voltage," the sources added.
Moreover, severe power crisis has been gripping the
country for the last few months as many units of power
plants are out of operation due to lack of gas. As a
result, the country has been facing 1000 mw loadshedding
daily.
In the capital, frequent loadshedding, is also disrupting
the normal activities but DESA claimed that the city on
Friday experienced only few mw load shedding.
To free the capital of load shedding the PDB has reduced
power supply to other parts of the country as a result the
country is facing frequent loadshedding. The PDB has the
capacity to generate 3500 mw to 3900 mw electricity
against the demand for 5000 mw during summer.
The worst power situation, caused by frequent power outage
and disruption crippling the country is unlikely to
improve in the near future as many units of different
power plants across the country remain out of order, an
official of PDB said.
"The terrible power situation will deteriorate day by day
as most of the power plants are old. At least 20 power
units of different power plants in the country with a
generation capacity of 1500 mw of electricity remain out
of order," a source in the Power Develop-ment Board said.
Meanwhile, people living at many places of country
including six metropolitan cities have been facing also
the worst situation.
TAAC
to be headed by a retired CJ, its tenure to be 6 months
Anyone pardoned by TAAC can’t contest parliamentary, local
body polls for 5 yrs
UNB, Dhaka
A draft ordinance seeking to establish the Truth and
Accountability (TAAC) Commission has been finalized and
awaits approval of the Council of Advisers of the
caretaker government.
Officials told UNB that the draft ordinance, called the
Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008, might be placed at
the next meeting of the Council of Advisers for approval.
Objectives of the proposed Commission is to promote
voluntary disclosure of corrupt practices for a lenient
dealing in a spirit of encouragement for expeditious
disposal of the matter and to lessen the burden of
prosecuting offences and save the overburdened judiciary
from anti-corruption cases for a long time that may
further create backlog in other cases. The Commission will
deal with a person, who applies to it for making voluntary
disclosure seeking leniency.
It will also have power to deal with any other person
found to be involved in corrupt practice on the basis of
such voluntary disclosure as made before it provided such
person being notified of such disclosure also expresses
his willingness in writing to make a voluntary disclosure.
The Commission will also deal with a person referred to by
the National Coordination Committee when it has reasons to
believe that such person has been a party to a corrupt
practice or has the reputation in society of being corrupt
and such person has expressed his willingness in writing
to make a voluntary disclosure. A person may also be
referred to the Commission by a competent court if the
person at the time of framing charge makes any application
to the court expressing his willingness to make a
voluntary disclosure.
A person may be summoned by the Commission on its own
motion when it has information to believe that such person
has reputation of being corrupt or party to any corrupt
practice to afford him an opportunity of making a
voluntary disclosure provided the person makes voluntary
disclosure within two weeks of his appearance before the
Commission.
After hearing the person making voluntary disclosure, if
the Commission is satisfied that the person deserves to be
treated leniently, it may direct the person to make
reparations to the State of an amount which may be
equivalent to the sum as in the view of the commission has
been made or gained from such corruption within a specific
time.
The Commission may direct return or refund, seizure and
confiscation to the state of any property, assets,
concessions, franchise, business, benefit etc., which in
the opinion of the Commission was unduly received by the
person.
However, the Commission may refuse to accept a voluntary
disclosure when it feels that the disclosure made by the
person has not been honest or disclosed corruption is of
grave in nature affecting national interest or economy
that he does not deserve leniency. A person who has made
voluntary disclosure before the Commission shall be
disqualified from holding any public or elected office
under the Constitution namely membership of Parliament,
Zilla Parishad, Upazilla Parishad, Union Parishad,
Pourasava or City Corporation or any trade organization
for a period not exceeding five years.
The Commission will not deal with a voluntary disclosure
if it discloses substantial damage to the national economy
or national security interest or discloses offences
involving arms, drugs, human trafficking, prostitution,
violence, murder, rape etc.
It will not also deal with a person who has been convicted
of an offence concerning corruption or corrupt practices
or any kind of moral turpitude.
The Commission will conclude each case of voluntary
disclosure within 14 days from the date of voluntary
disclosure before the Commission unless there is
compelling reason for extension of time. Appropriate
measures shall be taken to minimize the inconvenience to
the persons who will make voluntary disclosure and, when
necessary, privacy and safety of the persons and their
families will be ensured. The Commission may give priority
to the persons in custody.
The person making a voluntary disclosure may appoint a
legal representative subject to the permission of the
Commission.
The tenure of the Commission will be of six months from
the date of its establishment by an official gazette
notification.
According to the draft ordinance, the Commission shall
consist of three members to be appointed by the President
in consultation with the government. One of the members
will be the Chairman of the commission.
The Chairman of the Commission shall be appointed from
amongst the persons who have retired as the Chief Justice.
Two other members will be appointed from a retired Chief
Justice or a retired judge of the Appellate Division, a
retired officer of the armed forces not below the rank and
status of Major General, a retired public servant who held
the post of secretary or an eminent citizen who has made
meaningful contribution in his profession and discipline.
The Commission may recommend to the government to appoint
Sub-Commissions not exceeding five to expedite the dealing
with the voluntary disclosure. Such Sub-Commissions will
sit at Divisional Headquarters for receiving and
processing the voluntary disclosure to minimize the
workload of the Commission.
Members of the Sub-Commission will be appointed from a
retired judge of the High Court Division, a retired civil
servant who has held a post not below the rank and status
of Secretary, a retired officer of the Armed Forces not
below the rank of and status of a Brigadier General or an
eminent citizen who has meaningful contribution in his
profession or discipline.
The Commission, its members and every staff shall function
without political or other bias or interference and shall
be independent and separate from any party, government,
administration or any other functionary or body directly
representing the interest of such entity.
Delwar
holds CEC responsible if polls not held in time
Staff Correspondent
BNP Secretary General Khandoker Delwar Hossain on
Friday came down hard on the chief election commissioner (CEC)
saying the people of the country will hold him responsible
if the stalled parliamentary election is not held on
announced schedule.
On his return from New York, Khandoker Delwar said this
while talking to newsmen at his Nam Bhaban home.The BNP
Secretary General returned home on Thursday night from
Singapore.
Responding to a query, Delwar said, "The CEC itself has
created a chink in the people's confidence through its
words and deeds. It could not complete its scheduled
dialogue with political parties as it created a problem
regarding the BNP issue on its own"
"The CEC has all along been talking much since he took the
charge. We also on several occasions gave him suggestion
to exert his efforts to accomplish the tasks on time. But
he did pay no heed to our suggestion. At last he admitted
that the roadmap has slipped from its track," said
Khandoker Delwar adding, "Besides carrying out the
administrative routine works, the caretaker government is
entitled only to assist the Election Commission (EC) to
hold the general election. But this caretaker government
announced a two-year long roadmap for the election. We,
however, have complied with the government decision. Even
after then the EC cannot hold the election in line with
its announced roadmap, people must hold him responsible
for his failure."
When the newsmen arrested his attention to the
government-sponsored dialogue, Delwar declined to comment
anything saying, "I would talk about the issue later
consulting other party senior leaders."
Referring to Goyeshwar's statement on the national
dialogue that the presence of Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh
Hasina in the dialogue should be ensured, Delwar said,
"Nobody but me can speak of the party affairs. I am the
party spokesman as Begum Zia appointed me the party
Secretary General."
On much-talked-about party unity, the Khaleda appointed
secretary general said, "I cannot give any decision
regarding those who were expelled by the party
Chairperson. Only the Chairperson will decide their fate.
Except the expelled ones, others can easily carry out the
party activities from their positions."
In reply to a question whether the BNP is going for
launching a movement against the ruling regime, Delwar
said, "People are the driving force of everything. No
government can survive disregarding the people's demand.
The sooner the government will realize the people's pulse
the better it would be for the government as well as for
the country. People are never reluctant to wage movement
to save the country's sovereignty, integrity and
democracy."
Back Page
Yaba returning to
the capital
Ainul Haque Royal
Braving massive drive
against all narcotic items, Yaba a much talked item, has
started returning to the capital for meeting demands of
addicts in recent days.
The members of different law enforcing agencies including
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Narcotic department are
conducting drive against the dealers, sellers and
retailers of the items across the country. But the ring
leaders of the Mafia gang are still untouched as they are
well organised and equipped with fire arms, according to
sources.
On Thursday, acting on a tip-off, a patrol team of RAB-3
raided a business centre under Ramna police station at
about 10 pm and arrested Muntu, 35, Selim, 45 and Masud
Rana 35 while they were selling the yaba tablets. Around
500 yaba tablets, worth Tk 73000 and five mobile phone
sets were recovered from their possession.
Earlier, on Wednesday a team of RAB-2 went to Banani area
at about 1:00 pm and arrested Mejbaul Alam, Masud, Anwar
Hossain Mukul and Shanwar and recovered around 500 yaba
tablets while they were trying to sell the tablets near
Banani Market.
AK Azad commander of legal and media of RAB told this
correspondent that young generation specially students of
different private university, showbiz activists and member
of affluent families are becoming addicted to yaba. The
numbers of addicts are also rising in the capital even
amidst stern action against all narcotic items.
In a bid to reduce drug trading and numbers of addicts RAB
launched a drive in different parts of the capital as well
as across the country and arrested around 54 people for
their alleged involvement with yaba trading in last three
months. The law enforcers also recovered around 5000 yaba
tablets from their possession.
Revenue
Collection by Private companies better : WASA
Staff Correspondent
The decision made by the Dhaka WASA to hand over the
responsibility for revenue collection to the private
companies could not be implemented over the last several
years due to strong opposition by the WASA Employees'
Multi-purpose Co-operative Society.
According to sources, if the responsibility to collect
revenues of the Dhaka WASA is given to the private
companies, the amount of its revenue collection will
increase by 200 percent per year. Introduction of such
system will also help improve the standard of customer
service and decrease the existing system loss. So, the
Dhaka WASA authorities decided to appoint private
companies to collect revenues from the subscribers. But
the decision is not being implemented for about two years
due to internal complexity.
In 1997, the Dhaka WASA prepared a project titled "
Programme for Performance Improvement" (PPI) in order to
increase the amount of its revenue income through
lessening the huge system loss .
Under the project, the Dhaka WASA Employees Multi-purpose
Co-operative Society has been collecting revenues from the
subscribers in three zones since 1997.
There are around eight zones in the Dhaka WASA. The WASA
employees association is collecting revenues in Zone No.3
comprising the areas of Lalbagh, Mohammadpur, Dhanmodi and
Lalmatia, Zone No. 4 (Mirpur) and Zone No.5 consisting of
Mohakhali, Gulshan, Banani and Uttara areas. The revenue
collection activities in the five other zones are
directedly conducted by the WASA.
Witnessing positive outcome as a result of carrying out
the PPI project, a decision was made at a Dhaka WASA Board
meeting to collect its revenues under the management of
selected private companies experimentally.
With the goal of implementing the decision, the
authorities invited tenders for appointment of private
organization for revenue collection. Through the bidding,
two private companies namely, Messrs. Consortium of Techno
Index Limited and the Pacific Maintenance and Energy
Conservation Trust were selected in this regard and these
companies were allowed to jointly collect revenues from
the Dhaka WASA subscribers in Zone No. 6 (Khilgaon, Basabo,
Rampura and Fakirapool).
But two companies could not take responsibilities of
revenue collection as the Dhaka WASA Employees
Multi-purpose Society expressed strong opposition to the
move. With a view to preventing the decision from
implementation, the WASA employees took the matter to the
court in July, 2007.
When contacted, the employees' leaders said, the
responsibility for revenue collection should be given to
the Dhaka WASA Employees Multi-purpose Society instead of
the newly appointed private organizations as the Society
is collecting more revenues in the respective zones then
the Dhaka WASA.
Dwelling problems
of working women
Fahmida Rahman Karobi
Professional women who don't have minimum support for
living in capital Dhaka, have been facing serious
difficulties as they are being harassed in many ways while
renting houses.
Specially, the girls who come from different places of the
country for getting higher education in the capital are
continuously facing various problems including dwelling,
soon after completion of their education from their
respective educational institutions.
"It is very difficult to get a rented house in this city.
No master of the house wants to rent his house to a single
woman as they don't feel comfortable. Like me, many
professional ladies after obtaining highest degrees from
Dhaka University, Dhaka Medical College (DMC), Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology (BUTE) and other
educational institutions, are still facing problems in
getting a rented house," Tuhina Sultana, an employee of a
non-government organisation, told this correspondent.
Although the Government established three ladies hostels
for the professional women, but the number is very meagre
against huge demand. Few women get the opportunity to
avail the government hostel. On other hand, considering
the working women's dwelling problems, a large number of
women hostels have grown up under non-government
organisations, but they charge high rate of rent. As a
result, low paid women fail to afford the non government
hostels.
Taking to the Bangladesh Today Miti Pal, a school teacher
who lives in Nilkhet Kormogibi Mohial Hostel said, "We
have to face a lot of problems including administrative
problems. The quality of food is very low and dormitories
and rooms are also dirty. There is also corruption in the
room allocation process as the women who desire to get a
room are often failing to have a seat. But if any body can
manage any influential person she often gets a room. Many
students are living in this hostel.
When contacted, the hostel super, Ferdousi Begum denied
the allegations saying, "Nobody will be able to prove that
there is any students in the hostel. The seats allocations
are sanctioned on the basis of their appointment letter. I
don't have any idea about corruption," he added.
Musharraf increasingly isolated: Analysts
AFP/BSS, Islamabad
Pakistan's
army is speeding up the transfer of power to the country's
new civilian government, further isolating embattled US
anti-terror ally President Pervez Musharraf, analysts say.
Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999,
is confronting a hostile coalition government that won
elections in February in the latest see- saw between army
and civilian rule in Pakistan's 60-year history. But in a
departure from previous years when ministers visited the
army chief, current military supremo General Ashfaq Kayani
came to new premier Yousaf Raza Gilani's residence on
Wednesday for a security briefing.
Later the same day Kayani, who succeeded Musharraf as army
chief in November last year, replaced a key confidant of
the president as head of the crucial Military Intelligence
unit. "It is another step that isolates President Pervez
Musharraf. He is increasingly isolated by the new
political power set-up," general-turned- defence-analyst
Talat Masood told AFP. "It shows the times are changing in
Pakistan. I think that it is the first time the COAS
(chief of army staff) went to the PM house for such a
briefing to the political leaders, showing that now the
army is now prepared to promote democracy," he said.
Kayani vowed earlier this year to pull the army out of
politics and began by ordering the withdrawal of officers
from key government and bureaucratic roles in early
February. Analysts said that the most important step came
when the military and its associated spy agencies did not
meddle in the February 18 elections, which took place amid
widespread expectations that they would be rigged.
"The revolution was more when Kayani said publicly that
the army wants free and fair elections," leading newspaper
columnist and political analyst Shafqat Mahmood told AFP.
He said the meeting on Wednesday was "symbolic, in a
sense, that the power has transferred from military side
to civil side."
"The army played a role it is supposed to play in
democracy. In the elections army and its intelligence
remained aloof," former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg
told AFP. Wednesday's visit also showed that the army
agreed with Gilani's call for political solutions to the
wave of Islamist violence spreading from the troubled
tribal areas bordering Afghanistan into Pakistan's big
cities.
"The threat of this insurgency is also making the armed
forces realise that it is important to promote democracy,"
Masood said. The apparent harmony between the army and the
new government should reassure Washington, which has been
watching anxiously to see if the new administration will
remain committed to fighting Al-Qaeda and Taliban
militants.
But the real test for the army will come if the new
government decides to go head-to-head with Musharraf by
reinstating around 60 judges sacked by the president under
a state of emergency in November. Musharraf purged the
judiciary when it looked like the Supreme Court was about
to overturn his re-election as president -- but if the old
judges return then he could find his position under
threat.
"The army role will become important when the issue of the
judiciary comes up, only in this sense that if Musharraf
tries to get the army involved, I think they will say no,"
Mahmood said. Former army chief Beg agreed.
"The armed forces' role is defined in the constitution, it
is the politicians who forced army into politics and
tempted them to take over in the past. But I think they
(army leaders) have learnt a bitter lesson," he said.
"In 1989 (in the first turbulent year of Benazir Bhutto's
government) they came to me and invited the army to
intervene. I said, 'Sorry, God bless you.''
Crime
Housewife
commits suicide
A Correspondent, Faridpur
Mrs. Esmotara Parvin, 17, a housewife, Chandani village
under Boalmari thana in Faridpur district, committed
suicide on Thursday evening.
Her Father Md. Ismail Mollah, 60, Dopapara villaga under
Boalmari thana said, one year ago, his daughter was
married off to Md. Azad, 28, village of Chandani.
After marriage, Md. Azad continually kept torturing his
wife.
At that day, after he had stricken Parvin she took poison.
Later, the victim was admitted to Boalmari Hospital and
was declared dead by the doctors.
A case was filed with Boalmari thana in the district.
Youth found dead
UNB, Narsingdi
Police on Friday recovered the body of a young man from
his home at Nilaksha village in Belabo upazila.
The dead was identified as Monju Mia, 24, son of Dhan Mia.
Police quoted Monju's parents as saying two of Monju's
friends called him out at about 9:00 pm Thursday. Monju's
parents also said they returned Monju at about 11:00 pm
saying them that he was sick. Soon after his return in
home, Monju died.
Police sent the body to morgue for autopsy.
Robbers loot valuables from FF's house
UNB, Brahmanbaria
A daring robbery was committed at the house of a freedom
fighter at Akhaura poura town early Thursday.
Local people said the gang numbering 10/12 stormed into
the house of freedom fighter Harunur Rashid of Radhanagar
College para area at 1:30 am and took the house inmates
hostage at gunpoint.
They later beat the inmates indiscriminately and took away
seven tolas of gold ornaments, three mobile phone sets and
Tk 27000 in cash from the house.
Another report from Jhalakati adds: A gang of dacoits
raided two houses at Amtali village in Nalcity upazila
early Thursday and looted cash and valuables worth Taka
several lakhs.
Police quoting local people said the gang numbering 12/15
first swooped on the house of UP member Shah Alam Howlader
at about 1:30 am and looted 30 tolas of gold ornaments and
Tk 67,000 in cash. They
later entered into the nearby house of poultry trader Sanu
Howlader and decamped with cash, gold ornaments and other
valuables worth Tk 9 lakh.
Separate cases were filed with the police.
Daring dacoity, 2 injured
BSS, Jhalkathi
A dacoity was committed at a house at Amtoli village of
Mollahat union under Nalchhiti upazila in the district on
Wednesday.
Police said a group of dacoits numbering 10 to 12 stormed
into the house of union parishad member Shah Alam Howlader
by breaking open the door and looted cash, ornaments and
other valuables keeping the inmates hostage.
House owner Shah Alam and his brother Afzal Hossain was
injured as the dacoits beat them.
Police arrested one Miron on suspicion. Police super Uttam
Kumar visited the spot.
Looted rice recovered, 1 held
A Correspondent, Sirajganj
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-12 and police
jointly seized at least 44 bags of looted rice in
Sirajganj on Friday morning.
RAB sources said, acting on tip-off, they seized those
looted goods from a warehouse at Shimata Bazar area in
Kazipur upazila of the district at about 4:00 am. Later
they arrested the owner, Md. Abul Kalam Azad Liton and
handed him and the recovered rice to Kazipur police.
Sources also added, a Dhaka-bound truck with at least
260-bags of imported Indian rice of Sree Prodim Kumer,
from Sona Maszid port was missing on the way on Tuesday.
ASP Md. Shaid Ullah, a RAB official confirmed the
incident.
Outlaw arrested
UNB, Barisal
Police arrested a notorious leader of outlawed Sorbohara
Party from Gournadi upazila bus stand area here Thursday.
The arrested was identified as Talukdar alias Hatkata Kalu,
31, leader of Sarbahara Kamrul group and also a dacoit
gang leader.
Police said he was arrested for committing dacoity at the
house of tribesman Usha Mong Chowdhury of South Bijoypur
village of the area.n
Artefact recovered
UNB, Barisal
RAB members recovered a touchstone made statue worth over
Tk one crore from Dakkhin Shihipasha village in Agoiljhara
upazila here Tuesday morning.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rapid Action Battalion
Unit-8 of Madaripur went to the house of Aminul Islam
Sardar alias Bazlu in guise of buyers and arrested him.
According to his confession they recovered the statue
weighing 120 Kg from his kitchen.
Champa Begum, wife of Aminul said they found it during
excavation of their pond some days ago.
A case was filed.
32 arrested in Rajshahi
BSS, Rajshahi
Police, in anticrime drives, rounded up 32 persons on
various charges from different areas in the city and nine
upazilas of the district in last 24 hours till yesterday
evening.
Of them, seven were picked up from different areas in the
metropolis, while 25 others from nine upazilas of the
district.
Police also seized 40 bottles of contraband phensidyl
during two separate raids on different places in the city.
However, none could be arrested in these connections.
Traffic police lodged 32 cases under the motor vehicles
ordinance and seized a motorbike without valid documents
during the time.
RAB arrests 10; recovers firearms, drugs
BSS, Chittagong
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested eight
members of an organized burglars gang and two drug
peddlers after conducting separate drives at different
parts of the city and district in last 24 hours ending at
4:00 pm on Friday.
During the drive, separate squad of the elite force
recovered one light gun with a cartridge, two machetes and
96 bottles of phensidyl, a RAB press release said.
Acting on a tip off, a RAB team recovered the firearm and
ammunition along with the machetes in an abandoned state
from Shitalpur area under Sitakunda upazila in the
district on Thursday
Another team of RAB arrested Liton Das, 25 , son of Gopal
Das of Phultala under Chandgaon thana in the city and Shah
Alam alias Mitu, 23, son of Sohel Pervez of Suchiya under
Chandanaish upazila in the district along with 96 bottles
of phensidyl from Jubilee Road area under Kotwali thana on
Thursday
A RAB team also arrested 8 members of an organized
burglars gang in a pre-dawn raid today at Alanker Cinema
Crossing under Khulshi police in the city.
The arrested were identified as Mohammad Jasim, 26,
Mohammad Mohiuddin, 28, Mohammad Hanif, 34, Mohammad Habib
shah, 24, Mohammad
Rubel, 0, Mohammad Dulal, 33, Mohammad Alauddin, 27,
Mohammad Mamun, 25.
Firearms, bullets recovered, one held
A Correspondent, Meherpur
Rapid Action Battalion arrested an extremist on Wednesday
from a village of the district and recovered firearms and
ammunitions from his possession.
According to Ft. Lt. Galib, Assistant Director, RAB-6
stationed at Gangni under Meherpur district, on secret
information on Wednesday night raided the Modnadanga
Technical and Business Management College area two
kilometers away from the district police lines and managed
to held the extremist, Tipu Sultan, of village Malshadah
under Gangni Police Station, who used to reside at his
father in law's house at village Modnadanga of Sadar
Upazila.
As per his confessional statement he was taken to his
rented house at Gangni Chowgacha and recovered two bombs
from the yard of the house. RAB also recovered one shutter
gun along with four round ammunitions from near the
Modnadanga Technical and Business Management College where
he used to spend his time with other associates.
Editorial
Looking for Panaceas?
We
are looking for panaceas to solve all our problems for us but
panaceas are not easily forthcoming. Almost one and a half
years back we welcomed the Emergency with open arms and were
all glad to see the backs of our politicians whom we accused
of corrupting our entire polity and now once again we want the
politician back. A couple of days back, some well known
economists claimed that election are the only way out of our
economic problems as elections would encourage businessmen and
investors to run their businesses and invest in different
sectors.
If one remembers correctly, it is the same economists and
businessmen of course who, claiming that politics and
politicians had destroyed all economic “environment”, were the
first ones to support the Emergency unconditionally. By no
stretch of the imagination can one term our economy as an
industrialized one where “business, industries and
investments” form a significant part of that economy. The
point therefore, and we have said this many times over, is
that one cannot confuse the national economy with “business,
industries and investments” although that might form some part
of our economy. Our economic problems stem from our shortages
and high prices of food and our lack of foresight in getting
that food cheaper when we had a chance to do that a few months
back. To an overwhelming extent our economic welfare depends
on what happens to our agriculture and that has been brought
home forcefully after floods and a cyclone devastated our
crops; the Emergency Government has realized that and
therefore, their emphasis on revitalizing the agriculture –
how much of that will work out immediately is difficult to
say.
The road to industrialization and capitalism along with its
twin political philosophy of liberal democracy has been rocky
for Bangladesh to say the least. Our past decade of economic
boom has been the outcome of laissez faire economics which has
created our versions of “robber barons”. Laissez faire
economics coincided with laissez faire politics or our version
of parliamentary democracy. For a time both politics and
business flourished and for a time too it was difficult to say
which was which, business and politics being so mixed up with
each other. It is these businessmen, now demanding a return to
democracy, who were the fulcrum of a corrupt and entirely
debilitating nexus of politicians, big business and government
bureaucrats. It is these businessmen cum politicians or
politicians cum businessmen who rapaciously looted away the
wealth of a nation-state by holding its politics, its society
and economics hostage. The Emergency Government’s
anti-corruption drive has broken up this wholly evil and
horrible nexus of big business and big politics. Business,
industries and enterprises built up on looted wealth are
disintegrating putting large numbers of people out of jobs and
significantly shrinking the job markets for all classes of
people. The economy would have gone into a severe recession
even a prolonged depression even without the current
world-wide recession.
There are no panaceas for us; we have to tighten our belt and
wear or wait this out until our agriculture and its related
aspects bounce back and space and opportunities open up for
new industries, enterprises and businesses. In the meantime
and henceforth businessmen, industrialists, politicians and
economists will have to accept the fact and live with it that
the age of laissez faire economics and politics are over for
good. They have also to owe up to the reality that from now on
Bangladesh will see the rise of a new class of men and women
willing to develop its productive resources for the market,
impelled by reason and “enlightened self-interest” – meaning
people with a profit motive but also social and political
responsibilities to the entire Nation.
Analysis
No more than a gamble
Predicting what might happen in Iraq over the
next five years may be no more than a gamble. But it is a
challenge that is difficult to resist.
Safa A. Hussein
In the last seven years, I have become more reluctant to make
predictions about the future of Iraq because of the bitter
experience of making a series of wrong assessments. First,
against all expectations I witnessed the end of Saddam Hussein
and his regime when, for ambiguous reasons, the United States
decided to invade Iraq. Also, the war was unexpectedly short
and did not destroy Baghdad and its infrastructure. The scale
of looting and burning of many state-owned institutions was
another unexpected surprise.
Shortly after the war, I expected Iraq to rise again like
post-war Japan and Germany. But a few months later, huge
unemployment caused by the mistakes of the Coalition
Provisional Authority, coupled with the emergence of the
insurgency and the rise of al-Qaeda, clearly indicated that
Iraq was taking another path.
Again I made a mistaken assessment that within two years,
progress in the political process and the build-up of Iraqi
forces would lead to the defeat of both the insurgency and al-Qaeda.
Yet the year 2005 witnessed deterioration in stability and
signs of sectarian violence that increased rapidly in 2006.
More than one million Iraqis were displaced either by force
for sectarian reasons or because of insecurity and chaos. In
the beginning of 2007, when the famous “Fardh al-Kanoon”
security plan was announced, realistic expectations were for
slow and modest improvements in security. Yet for various
unanticipated reasons, the end of 2007 witnessed an
improvement in security that challenged all expectations.
In view of all this experience, predicting what might happen
in Iraq over the next five years may be no more than a gamble.
But it is a challenge that is difficult to resist.
There are many reasons to believe that al-Qaeda will continue
to retreat. By 2009, it may lose its bases in Diala and Mosul
provinces, and by 2012 it may become a marginal terrorist
group based in remote areas along the borders of Diala, Kirkuk
and Mosul provinces. However, before the next provincial
elections that are planned for the end of this year we may
witness a new type of violence: Shi’ite against Shi’ite in the
southern provinces and Sunni against Sunni in Anbar and the
northern provinces. These struggles may be settled more
rapidly in the Sunni provinces than in the South, largely
because there are more resources to fight over in the latter.
These struggles will also divert the focus of the local
population to the provinces rather than to Baghdad and this
may eventually weaken the insurgency. It would then be up to
the central government to choose whether to play the role of
arbitrator between competing groups or support specific
factions and thereby create a new insurgency.
On the national level, it is difficult to see a boost in
reconciliation or in government activities, whether in
providing basic services or realizing economic growth. The
current political system, based on ethnic/sectarian political
parties that share power, makes government decision-making and
reform difficult. The main political blocs benefit from the
existing system. Thus only partial reform is envisioned, and
one may anticipate painfully slow progress in all directions:
national reconciliation, basic services, economic growth,
fighting corruption, etc. Such slow progress will impact
hoped-for security gains, and a certain level of tension and
violence may continue delaying the return of displaced people.
Failures may happen, but none will bring Iraq to the edge of
civil war as in 2006-2007. Thus, during the next five years we
may witness a “new normality” where some of the things that
used to be possible, like freedom of movement, are no longer
available, but the danger level drops and everyday concerns
replace the obsession with mere survival.
A slow withdrawal of American forces may be carried out during
the next five years. This may not impact security negatively,
because it will be compensated partially by the growth of the
Iraqi forces and, more important, it will improve the Iraqi
government’s standing both inside and outside Iraq. Even if a
new Democratic president is elected in the US, he/she will
come under pressure to sustain the US military commitment to
Iraq, perhaps with some modifications.
On the other hand, pressure from Iraqi refugees on the
European Union countries may continue, especially from the
more than one million Iraqis already resident in Syria and
Jordan. The EU may be required to do more about this
humanitarian crisis.
The Arab countries, impacted by the changing nature of the
internal Iraqi conflict from inter-sectarian to
intra-sectarian, may slowly shift from inflaming the sectarian
insurgency to a passive monitoring role. After the next Iraqi
elections, they may become convinced that the new political
system in Iraq has prevailed and that it is better to live
with it. This may move them toward a more positive role.
(Safa A. Hussein is a former deputy member of the dissolved
Iraqi Governing Council. Prior to joining the Transitional
Government he served as a brigadier general in the Iraqi Air
Force and worked in the military industry as director of a
research and development center. Currently he works in the
Iraqi National Security Council.
Nepal’s Election and Beyond
The post-poll period will likely
be difficult and dangerous. Under the best of circumstances,
it will probably take three weeks to determine final results.
Nepal’s
peace process faces a crucial test this month. Elections for a
Constituent Assembly (CA) are likely to go ahead on 10 April
2008 as scheduled but political unrest and violence could mar
– or even derail – preparations, and the aftermath could bring
turbulence. Elections in a delicate post-conflict situation
are never straightforward and Nepal has many possible
flashpoints, not least that the two armies that fought the war
remain intact, politically uncompromising and combat-ready.
Once results are in, all political players must be prepared
for a difficult period in which they will need to compromise
to make the CA an effective body, extend the number of parties
with a role in government and urgently tackle crucial issues
left aside during the campaign, including security sector
reform. The international community has an important election
observation function and should listen to Nepal’s political
and civil society groups in assessing the credibility of the
process.
Successful elections for a CA charged with writing a new
constitution and serving as an interim legislature would be a
major step forward. It would be a psychological and concrete
achievement for the political leadership after two failed
attempts that would vindicate the sometimes controversial
concessions made to recalcitrant groups, which made the peace
process possible. It would also be welcomed by the
international community. India wants a successful conclusion
to the roadmap it was closely involved in designing, while
credible elections would open the way to a significant scaling
back of the UN role. Although underlying issues remain,
holding the polls would signal the short-term success of the
recent deals with protesting groups.
There are many positive signs. All parties moved quickly into
campaign mode, nominating candidates and launching programs to
attract voters. A vibrant media reporting news and offering
critical scrutiny is narrowing the deficit in public awareness
of the electoral system and party positions. Given the
momentum, it would be hard for any major party to back out of
the elections, although some, including the Maoists, are still
wary of the process.
Nevertheless, major challenges remain. The campaign has been
dogged by violence and intimidation. While the Maoists appear
to have been responsible for most assaults on rival
candidates, they have had eight of their party workers killed
– a fact which the mainstream media has chosen to downplay.
Public security has been dismal throughout the ceasefire, and
armed groups in the lowlands have carried out killings,
bombings and abductions and threatened further violence. The
considerable technical challenges of holding an election have
been exacerbated by a complex, nearly opaque parallel
electoral system that involves three separate means of
selecting members of the CA. The widely respected Election
Commission, charged with managing all aspects of the exercise,
has no experience of logistics. In previous elections, those,
along with back-up security, were managed by the army, which
the peace agreement has now largely confined to barracks.
The post-poll period will likely be difficult and dangerous.
Under the best of circumstances, it will probably take three
weeks to determine final results. Significant repolling is
expected to be required in areas where there was violence or
disruption on election day – adding weeks more to the
schedule. There will certainly be appeals from losing parties,
and public frustration at the delay in learning results may
add to a tense atmosphere. Parties will trade allegations of
fraud and violence. The behavior of powerful losers will shape
the immediate aftermath. Some, in particular the Maoists, may
even be tempted to reject the entire election: the best
possible results for them will not reflect their actual power
on the ground (exercised through continuing parallel
structures). Royalists cannot hope to gain enough seats to
block the move towards a republic.
If the major political forces accept the results and move
forward without severe confrontation and acrimony, the
transition will be manageable. However, each step will present
obstacles that demand maturity and cooperation from party
leaders. The formation of a new unity government – which will
need to include members beyond the current seven-party
coalition – will prompt much haggling. The convening of the
CA, whose first sitting must take place within three weeks of
final poll results and which is set to discard the monarchy,
will be even more problematic. Transitional arrangements are
only vaguely covered by the Interim Constitution; how they
work out in practice will depend on political compromise. Yet,
the CA will have to deal with tough issues, including the
drafting of the constitution and addressing security sector
reform, federalism, the role of the monarchy, secularism and
inclusiveness.
While attention has focused on the elections, there has been
no progress on the fundamentals of the peace process. Many
critical agreements have not been implemented, inter-party
consensus and mutual trust are fragile, and the military
ceasefire, which has held since April 2006, has yet to be
transformed into structures for a sustainable peace. Public
aspirations for peace and socio-economic reform remain high
but are matched by skepticism towards political leaders. This
is the best chance for politicians to redeem themselves.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To the Government of Nepal:
1. Improve security so as to ensure an environment conducive
to free and fair elections on 10 April 2008 by:
(a) providing solid guidance and political support to the
Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, and training and
deploying temporary police, ensuring they are non-partisan and
carry out their duties with neutrality;
(b) improving security arrangements for candidates and party
campaign workers; and
(c) basing all security plans on local community support and
respect for human rights.
2. Build on the agreements with protesting groups by:
(a) implementing fully the agreements with the United
Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) and the Federal Republican
National Front;
(b) pushing for negotiations with armed militant groups on an
election ceasefire, while strengthening security in sensitive
areas; and
(c) encouraging moderate Madhesi leaders to use their
influence to urge armed groups to drop plans to disrupt the
polls.
3. Guard against giving openings for Maoist People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) and Nepal Army (NA) militants to assert
more influence over proceedings; clarify the code of conduct
for both armies in the election period; and move urgently to
begin discussions on security sector reform so the PLA has an
incentive to remain in cantonments.
4. Move beyond solely seven-party cooperation to involve all
parties contesting the elections in discussions on security
and the creation of a free and fair electoral environment.
5. Keep working on other critical elements of the peace
process and in particular:
(a) implement the 23-point agreement and other accords; and
(b) abide by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and
ceasefire code of conduct.
To the Election Commission of Nepal:
6. Enforce the election code of conduct strictly and
impartially, maintaining pressure on all parties to cease
intimidation and other malpractice, such as the widespread
misuse of state resources for campaigning.
7. Continue with voter education and other publicity efforts
and in particular prepare the public for potentially slow
announcements of results by increased publicity explaining the
count procedure and realistic timeframes.
8. Make plans for dealing rapidly with politically sensitive
post-election appeals and repolling.
To National Election Observers:
9. Carry out observation and reporting impartially and
professionally, dismissing any observers who are linked to
political parties and avoiding inflammatory assessments before
and after the elections.
To the Media:
10. Adhere to the standards set out in the election Code of
Conduct and exercise responsibility in the accurate and
impartial reporting of election-related violence.
To the Political Parties:
11. Commit unambiguously to free and fair elections by:
(a) Promising to accept the results of a credible poll,
whatever they may be;
(b) Abiding by the election code of conduct, including ceasing
all violence and intimidation;
(c) exercising restraint and responsibility in mobilizing
student and youth cadres for legitimate election campaigning,
not as private security forces; and
(d) Educating voters about the electoral system.
12. Prepare for the difficult post-election period by building
cross-party consensus on managing the transition, including:
(a) Forging a minimum agreement on dealing with post-election
recriminations and maintaining consensus on moving forward;
(b) Using formal procedures to resolve any complaints
regarding the election process or results;
(c) Agreeing on the broad framework for negotiations to form a
new government; and
(d) Clarifying and publicizing the procedure by which
pre-election agreements, including the implementation of a
federal democratic republic at the CA’s first sitting, will be
implemented.
13. Build common ground on procedural issues such as the
formation of CA committees and the division of business
between the CA as a constitution-drafting body and as a
legislature.
14. Make clear commitments for public participation in the
constitutional process.
To the International Community, in particular India, China,
U.S., EU and UN:
15. Election observers should:
(a) Publicize international electoral standards and the
principal benchmarks by which they will assess the polls, as
well as explain the consequences of failure to meet those
standards and benchmarks;
(b) Coordinate their deployment to maximize coverage across
the country and make the most of relatively small numbers; and
(c) Coordinate on main statements to avoid public confusion
and achieve as much unity as possible on the overall
assessment.
16. Condemn all election-related violence, pressure all
parties to abide by the code of conduct and encourage the
Election Commission and security forces to use their powers in
a non-partisan manner.
17. Prepare for the post-election period by:
(a) Reminding all parties they must accept the outcome;
(b) Supporting the Election Commission, politically and
practically, on any necessary repolling;
(c) Urging and supporting the formation of a power-sharing
unity government; and
(d) Listening to judgments by Nepali political and civil
society groups in assessing the credibility of the electoral
process.
18. Offer technical and financial assistance for establishing
mechanisms to ensure meaningful public participation in the
constitutional process and work to coordinate proposed
training and orientation programs for CA members.
(The above is a Press Release dated 2 April 2008 by the
International Crisis Group.
Source: www.crisisgroup.org)
Viewpoints
The US Army belongs
to Iraq
The army has immersed itself so thoroughly in
Iraq that senior officers back in the United States worry that
the force is “out of balance”, as US Army Chief of Staff Gen.
George Casey put it, and is too fixated on counterinsurgency.
Lawrence Kaplan
US
General David Petraeus elicited a few chuckles when,
testifying before the US Congress last September, he
inadvertently referred to Iraq as “home”. But in the
constellation of American bases that loop around the Tigris
and Euphrates river valleys, in the spectacle of young
Americans knowing Iraqi neighborhoods as well as they know
their own, in the profound and sometimes disquieting sense of
ownership the US army has about this war—in all of these
things there is evidence that Petraeus meant exactly what he
said.
Over the years, I’ve watched the same scene in western and
southern Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi, Sinjar and Tall Afar:
American units slowly melt into the landscape, becoming in
effect the most powerful of their area’s tribes. Absent a
functioning government, the US army administers nearly every
visible facet of the state, above all the role of honest
broker.
Not unlike the Americans in Vietnam and in the Philippines a
century ago, the US army in Iraq has even acquired the flavor
of its surroundings. This is not the army that resides in the
city-states otherwise known as Forward Operating Bases, with
their Pizza Huts, traffic cops and morgues. Officers in the
“Grand Army of the Tigris”, as one of its senior officer calls
the American force, dine with local elders at “goat grabs”,
greet them with “man-kisses” and routinely punctuate their own
conversations with the casual “inshallah”. The vernacular has
even followed the American army home: In the halls of the
Pentagon, where nearly every army officer has served at least
two tours in Iraq, officers ask whether this or that official
has “wasta”—Iraqi shorthand for “influence” or “pull”, though
with a slightly more corrupt tinge.
The army has immersed itself so thoroughly in Iraq that senior
officers back in the United States worry that the force is
“out of balance”, as US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey
put it, and is too fixated on counterinsurgency. But there is
another way to view this: Just as the US army that punched
through Germany in 1945 bore slight resemblance to the
amateurish force routed in North Africa three years before,
the hardened units that America fields in Iraq today know the
terrain in a way the army of 2003 and 2004 never did.
Whether measured in terms of tactics and techniques improved,
operational schemes perfected or the clan loyalties of every
house on every street catalogued and memorized, the
accumulation of experience counts for everything in this war.
In Iraq, roughly half of all casualties tend to be suffered
during the first three months of a unit’s deployment. What is
true in microcosm is also true writ large. In a war where it’s
nearly impossible to detect intellectual coherence, the Army’s
learning curve tells a clear story.
In 2005, with other brigades bulldozing through towns or
hunkering down on their outskirts, the Third Armored Cavalry
Regiment literally “went native”, fanning out across the city
of Tal Afar and planting itself in the midst of a once-hostile
population center. In 2006, the First Armored Division’s First
Brigade Combat Team borrowed and improved the template by
establishing its own outposts across the brutal city of Ramadi
and “flipping” the local tribes. The “surge” brigades then
purposefully applied the examples of both cities to Baghdad.
Perhaps too late for the home front, but Gen. Petraeus has
enshrined the lessons of these places in a theater-wide
strategy that is generating undeniable results.
There is, of course, an obvious downside to having an army
that all but qualifies for Iraqi citizenship, even apart from
the tally in dead and wounded. If the well-worn cliché that
the US Army inhabits a different universe from the Iraqis
around it is no longer quite true, the reverse certainly is:
not even seven thousand miles can fully measure the US army’s
remove from American society. Having bled so much in Iraq, the
officer corps has very little use for the prospect that it may
“have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in
vain”, as Centurion Marcus Flavius predicted in his famous
letter back to Rome. Five years on, the US army belongs to
Iraq.
(Lawrence Kaplan is editor of World Affairs.)
Bigotry
in the land of freedom
A black man and a white woman vying for the United States
Democratic Party nomination have sent the American people and
media into spasms of primordial emotions over questions of
race, religion and gender.
Vidya Subrahmaniam
Commentators
in the U.S media have slandered Hillary Clinton and questioned
Barack Obama's Muslim connection. The Indian record shines by
comparison.
A black man and a white woman vying for the United States
Democratic Party nomination have sent the American people and
media into spasms of primordial emotions over questions of
race, religion and gender.
The same press that offered lyrical praise to Barack Obama has
also worried over his Muslim middle name, insinuated an
extremist connection by virtue of that name, and topped this
slight with shockingly coarse personal attacks on Hillary
Clinton. Sena tor Clinton has been called unacceptable names
in print, pilloried for being both masculine and teary-eyed,
condemned as shrill, manipulative and ambitious and, at the
same time, knocked for standing by her wayward husband.
On the campaign, a bunch of uncouth hecklers asked America's
possible first woman President to "iron my shirt." Yet this
slander might seem inoffensive judged by the raging
anti-Hillary commentary in the mainstream press - much of it
unfit for reproduction. From the perspective of the Indian
media, all this must appear a puzzling paradox and not only
because it is the land of "freedom and opportunity" that is
unceasingly exclaiming over Mr. Obama and Ms Clinton. A bigger
reason is India's own history of easy, unsung accommodation of
a plurality of political identities. For all that India
abounds in horror stories of caste, community and gender
oppression, it is a country that is truly comfortable with
diversity in the political sphere. Gender and denominational
concerns rarely influence voter preferences here, and the
evidence is in the splendidly varied social composition of the
political and constitutional leadership. There is a refreshing
broad-mindedness about the way the Indian polity chooses its
leaders - showing itself to be consistently progressive on
questions of gender and ethnicity, and innately averse to
crossing the line between private and public. It is a rule
that even the news media, barring the scurrilous variety,
respect. Two examples would suffice. The more xenophobic the
Bharatiya Janata Party got on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin,
the more the ordinary voter gravitated towards her. Her gender
and her Italian antecedents did not matter to her voters just
as they did not matter to a media (excluding the saffron kind)
otherwise trenchantly critical of the dynasty. The Indian
media went overboard with its scrutiny of Pratibha Patil's
presidential candidature but the scrutiny was of her politics,
not her personal life. Nobody commented on Ms Patil's age or
her looks, and certainly no one asked her to knit cardigans
for her grandchildren. The world's mightiest democracy might
like to look at the roll call of India's heads of state: Three
Muslims, one Sikh, one Dalit and one woman. Indira Gandhi took
the oath of office as Prime Minister in 1966 - 42 years before
Hillary Clinton entered the Democratic primaries to some
acclaim and a lot of sexist derision. Our first Muslim
President Zakir Husain was elected in 1967 - 41 years before
Barack Hussein Obama, bowing to collective and persistent
demand, avowed that he had no Muslim connection. Our first
President of Dalit origin, K.R. Narayanan, poignantly and
forthrightly spoke for the former untouchables, the closest
any Indian ethnic group comes to blacks, years before the
world would applaud Mr. Obama on his race relations speech.
There are aspects to the American presidential election that
are deeply discomfiting, starting with the vicious sexist
attacks on Ms Clinton. A recent Newsweek cover story on Ms
Clinton, quoting the non-partisan Center for Media and Public
Affairs, noted that between December and February 2008, 83 per
cent of network coverage for Mr. Obama was positive as against
only 53 per cent for Ms Clinton. Per se, this is not
objectionable. The American media openly take sides and not
infrequently endorse candidates. The attractions of Mr. Obama
are evident: his youthful charm, his perceived idealism and
courage of conviction, the air of change around him, and the
comparisons with Kennedy, all make him a hands down media
favourite. The Obama kind of unsullied appeal is the greater
for the ravages of the Bush years. Conversely, there is
Senator Clinton, very capable, very experienced but saddled
with the Bill Clinton legacy and without the freshness of
approach that gives an edge to her obviously much younger and
charismatic rival. Had analysts critiqued Ms Clinton on her
policy and her vision of the White House, there would have
been no cause for complaint. Indeed, not a few of those who
have been discomfited by the smear campaign against Ms Clinton
strongly disagree with her militaristic foreign policy
positions, including her support for the U.S. invasion of
Iraq. Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University
of San Fransisco, and a leading critic of the U.S foreign
policy, recently lamented the confusion that the attacks on
Senator Clinton had caused among women voters. The slander
outraged "millions of conscientious women … even those who
would not be prone to support her based upon her policy
positions." Indeed, as the abuse grew, so did grow Ms
Clinton's support among women, especially enraged older
generation women. Women voters rushed to save her in Ohio and
Texas just as they saved her earlier in New Hampshire.
Political theorist, feminist activist and best-selling author,
Robin Morgan, catalogued the insults in an article for The
Women's Media Center. Among them, Carl Bernstein's disgust at
"Hillary's thick ankles," political pundit Roger Stone's
"Hillary-hating 527 group," and MSNBC talk show host Chris
Matthews' "relentless misogynistic comments." "Let's not
forget, and I'll be brutal," Mr. Matthews said, "the reason
she's a U.S. Senator, the reason she's a candidate for
President, the reason she may be a front-runner, is that her
husband messed around."
Commentators have micro-analysed Ms Clinton's physical
features and dress sense, commenting on her age, her eyes, her
laugh, her hairstyle, even her decolletage. Patrick Healy of
The New York Times called her laugh "Clinton Cackle."
Commentator Dick Morris found it "loud, inappropriate … A
scary sound that was somewhere between a cackle and a
screech." Radio host Rush Limbaugh went further. He asked his
listeners: "Will this country want to actually watch a woman
get older before their eyes on a daily basis?"
Easily the worst has been Maureen Dowd commenting in The New
York Times. Reacting to Ms Clinton's tears at a vulnerable
moment on the campaign, she said: "She [Hillary] won her
Senate seat after being embarrassed by a man [husband]. She
pulled out New Hampshire and saved her presidential campaign
after being embarrassed by another man [Obama]." More
recently, after Ms Clinton triumphed in Ohio and Texas, Ms
Dowd compared the New York Senator to The Terminator,
prophesying that "unless every circuit is out," she would
"regenerate enough to claw her way out of the grave."
Not that media darling Barack Obama has been spared the stick.
A month ago, Mr. Obama went live on prime time television to
counter the "charge" that he is a secret Muslim who worships
the Koran. Days ago, in a speech hailed far and wide as
epoch-making, Mr. Obama acknowledged his relations with his
former pastor Jeremiah Wright even as he denounced the
latter's "incendiary language" with respect to the U.S.'
treatment of black Americans. The speech was a reaction to
relentless media targeting of pastor Wright.
Whipping up the anti-Obama hate campaign was Fox News which as
early as January 2007 accused him of attending a madrassa as a
child. Asked Steve Doocy, the horrified programme host: "Why
didn't anybody ever mention that that man right there was
raised as a Muslim and was educated in a madrassa?" The issue,
momentarily lost in the rush of heady media affection for Mr.
Obama, resurfaced after the Iowa Senator received an
unsolicited endorsement from the Nation of Islam Minister,
Louis Farrakhan, reaching a crescendo with the Wright episode.
The curious thing about the anti-Obama campaign is the way it
has been countered by his supporters in the media. Consider
the choice of words. Mr. Obama has been dogged by "smears and
innuendo" that he is a Koran-reading Muslim. The senior Obama,
though raised as a Muslim "lost his faith" and became a
confirmed atheist. Mr. Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was a
"non-practising" Muslim and, in any case, he did not shape the
young Barack's mind. And finally there was no question that
Mr. Obama could go to a "madrassa," learning an "extreme form
of Islam."
The point is: Why should a Muslim connection be treated as an
offence? Mr. Obama's supporters ought to have been proud of
his middle name, holding that up as a symbol of American
multiculturalism. Instead, they have cringed at the thought
that he could be mistaken for a Muslim. Perhaps this is the
truth of a country that is still grappling with race,
continues to be squeamish about gender and goes ballistic at
the mention of Islam.
Source: www.hindu.com
International
Uranium enrichment
‘non-negotiable’: Ahmadinejad
AFP, Tokyo
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview
published Friday that he would reject any new incentives
offered by world powers in return for suspending uranium
enrichment.
"This is a non-negotiable subject," Ahmadinejad was quoted
as telling Japan's Kyodo News when asked about possible
incentives carrying conditions that Iran suspend its
enrichment activities.
"Iran is a nuclear country and has no reason to give up
the technology. If there are to be any preconditions, we
must propose preconditions," he said.
The Security Council last month tightened UN sanctions on
Iran for refusing to halt nuclear fuel work as six major
powers offered to resume talks with the Islamic republic
to end the standoff.
The five permanent UN Security Council powers plus Germany
reconfirmed and pledged to expand a 2006 offer of economic
and trade incentives to Iran in exchange for a freeze of
its uranium enrichment activities.
But Iran last month ruled out further talks with the six.
Ahmadinejad told Kyodo that the suspension of its uranium
enrichment programme was an issue related to the past as
"we have passed this stage."
He again rejected any new talks with the European Union
over Iran's nuclear programme, saying Tehran would
negotiate only with the UN atomic agency.
Thai women take up arms to battle insurgency
AFP, Pattani
A golden
Buddha amulet is Nattapat Khongkhoun's spiritual armour
against separatist militants who killed her father and
continue to terrorise residents in this southern Thai
province.
She is one of the 300 female army rangers tasked with
quelling an insurgency in the kingdom's Muslim-majority
south which has left more than 3,000 people dead since
early 2004.
Before joining the army the 28-year-old was a bank clerk,
but her life took a dramatic turn when rebels shot dead
her father, an army officer, in March 2006 in Pattani, one
of three restive provinces bordering Malaysia.
"I decided to follow in the footsteps of my father.
Solving this crisis was my father's responsibility, and I
wanted to fulfill it," she said.
Wearing the ranger's all-black T-shirt, trousers and
combat boots, Nattapat conceded the job was harder than
she had expected.
"The situation is getting worse. Militants are using
brutal tactics like beheadings and mutilation of corpses
to show off and scare villagers," she said at an army
barracks set up in the compound of a Buddhist temple.
"It is difficult to capture them because they always
mingle with villagers. That's why cooperation with
villagers is very important to tackle the violence,"
Nattapat said.
Muslims account for 90 percent of the 1.7 million
population in the three troubled provinces of Narathiwat,
Pattani and Yala, which once made up an independent
sultanate until mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed it a
century ago.
Muslims, Chinese tense neighbours in ancient Kashgar
AFP, Kashgar
The muezzin's call to prayer at Kashgar's main Id Kah
mosque is a loud reminder that millions of Muslims here in
China's far west answer to a higher authority than the
Communist Party.
Muslim residents of this dust-coated 2,000-year-old Silk
Road city in Xinjiang province express quiet anger when
asked about recent clashes in a nearby city between
Muslims and Chinese police, calling it just another
example of oppression by Beijing.
"There is violence, here and there, sometimes. But you
people will not hear about it, will you?" a carpet
merchant, who gave his name as Musa, told a foreign
journalist while flashing a wry, knowing smile.
About 1,000 people fought with police in the remote desert
town of Khotan on March 23-24, according to exiles from
the local Uighur minority, a central Asian people who are
the dominant ethnic group in Xinjiang and have long chafed
under Beijing's strict control.
The clash was sparked by the death in police custody of a
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