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Leading News
BNP’s 5 SC members' letter to EC
Khandoker Delwar Hosssain legitimate Secretary General
Staff Correspondent
In a new development, five out of eight standing committee
members of BNP on Sunday apprised the EC that Khandoker
Delwar Hossain is the legitimate party Secretary General
and thus the EC should correspond with him for any party
affairs.
The five standing committee members are: RA Ghani,
Khandoker Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Chowdhury Tanveer Ahmed
Siddiqui, M Shamsul Islam and Abdul Matin Chowdhury. It is
to be noted that first four of these were present at the
much-disputed October 29 standing committee meeting on the
basis of which the EC dispatched its invitation to Maj (retd)
Hafiz Uddin Ahmed for EC-BNP electoral talks.
The standing committee members sent a letter to the
commission through their emissaries -BNP joint Secretaries
General Nazrul Islam Khan, Goyeshwar Chandro Roy and
former MP Shamsuzzaman Dudu. The letter said "party
Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia according to the Article 5
(C) of the party Constitution expelled the then Secretary
General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan for his anti-party activities
and appointed Khandoker Delwar Hossain party Secretary
General and the decision was hailed by party leaders and
workers of all tiers."
Referring to the so-called standing committee meeting on
October 29 held at Saifur's residence, the letter said,
"Four out of six standing committee members who attended
the meeting at the residence of Saifur Rahman on that day
have already apprised the High Court that there was no
standing committee meeting of BNP on October 29 which was
also conveyed to the EC earlier through its lawyers. So
there is no scope for the EC to take any decision of that
so-called meeting into cognizance."
The letter hoped that the EC from now on would not engage
itself in any controversy and would correspond with
Khandoker Delwar Hossain for any matter as regards of BNP.
The letter, however, cautioned the EC against taking any
move that might cause split in the party saying,
"Otherwise, the EC would be held responsible for creating
a division in BNP."
After holding one and a half hours-long meeting with
commissioners, Nazrul Islam Khan told newsmen, "The EC has
listened to us and assured us of taking it into
cognizance." In reply to a question, Khan said, "They have
requested us to be reunited and we told them that we all
wanted to be united and we are already united as some six
out of eight available standing committee members are in
our favour. It is immaterial for EC whether the unity
takes place or not they should communicate with Khandoker
Delwar Hossain as the party Secretary General for any
party-related issue and we hope the EC will follow the
right path in line with the existing rules and
regulations." Asked about the deadline given by the EC for
being united, Khan said, "We asked the commissioners about
the issue, but they refused to make any comments."
No election commissioner including the CEC faced the media
on Sunday. Newsmen were repeatedly requested by the EC
officials to leave the place saying, "Sir (the CEC) asked
us to request you to leave the place."
Financing for fuel oil imports gets
dearer
Petroleum price was not adjusted to avert new economic
shock: Finance Adviser
UNB, Dhaka
Financing for fuel oil imports is going to be costlier
with the major lender, Islamic Development Bank (IDB), now
asking for increased rate of interest as the government
negotiates a US$ 200 million loan.
The IDB sought a rate not less than 5.5 percent,
abandoning their previous LIBOR (London Inter-bank Offer
Rate) plus amid fluctuating exchange rate of US dollar and
the volatile global money market, said a senior official
of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
Finance and Planning Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam had a
meeting at the Planning Ministry on Sunday with Chief
Adviser's Special Assistant for Power and Energy Dr M
Tamim and senior officials concerned on the loan proposal.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed was present.
IDB has been a major fund provider, over one billion
dollars per year, to BPC since 1977 with highest interest
charged at LIBOR plus 1.75 percent.
"Now they (IDB) are asking for not less than 5.5 percent
irrespective of the LIBOR," the Finance Adviser told
reporters after the meeting.
He, however, said the government would try to negotiate
the rate down.
The government was trying to get the loan to meet the
liquidity crisis of already cash-strapped BPC, he said.
"We will have to take the loan even at higher rate."
The government had also approved another loan of US$ 300
million for BPC from Standard Chartered Bank on March 31
this year at LIBOR plus 1.79 percent.
Replying to a question, the Finance Adviser said the
government is forced to take the harder term loans despite
increased fiscal burden. "There is no alternative option."
He added: "The prices of petroleum products were not
adjusted to avert a new shock on the economy after the two
recurrent floods and cyclone Sidr."
BPC officials said the state-run oil company was incurring
a loss of over Tk 500 crore per month due to increased
prices of fuel oil in the international market while their
outstanding loans stood at around Tk 7,000 crore.
The international price of petroleum oil was US$ 62 to US$
63 per barrel in April last year when the domestic price
was last increased, but the price on the international
market now reached around US$ 110 per barrel.
Budget
must be welfare oriented, generate employment: speakers at
discussion
Staff Correspondent
To overcome food crisis and financial hardship, economists
and politician on Sunday suggested the government to
create more employment opportunities and invest in the
agriculture sector in the next budget.
"We all have to attach more importance for creating job
markets and increase investment in the agriculture sector.
The next budget will have to be people welfare oriented.
At least 10 per cent of the development budget will have
to be sanctioned for generating employment. If the job
market is created, GDP will increase which will reduce
poverty," they suggested.
Economist Kazi Kholikuzzaman, Jatiya Samjtantrik Dal
President Hassanul Haque Inu, Jatiya Party Presidium
Member GM Kader were discussing on Budget 2008-09:
Agriculture, Food Security and Public Service Sector at
CIRDAP auditorium yesterday.
"So we need a people mandated government for overcoming
the present situation. Parliament will have to be
effective and accountability and transparency are a must
in this regard. To prepare a pro-people budget, government
will have to sit with the political leaders. Without
consulting the political leaders as the present caretaker
government had passed the last budget, it failed to
implement various projects. As a result people didn't get
any benefit from the budget," they observed.
They called upon the government for placing a practical
budget which will be able to erase sorrows, sufferings and
financial hardship of the commoners. "The present budget
preparation needs to be changed. People will need to be
included while budget is being prepared. Side by side, to
control population, allocation will have to be increased
in this sector. If the trend of population growth is not
controlled, it is not possible to be self reliant in food
production. We are also strongly demanding introduction of
rationing system," they added.
They also urged government to remove regional
discrimination for eradicating poverty. "Government will
have to sanction special allocation for the people who are
living in hilly, char, coastal and haor area," they added.
Diarrhoea
takes serious turn
Hot spell coupled with power and water crisis makes life
miserable
Amena Khatun Urmee
Diarrhoea has taken a serious turn across the country as
many people are infected with the diseases every day, the
simmering heat coupled with frequent load shedding,
serious water crisis also made life miserable for most
people particularly city dwellers.
Many people, mostly old men and children, were admitted to
different hospitals and clinics infected with diarrhoea
and other water born diseases caused by hot spell and
contaminated water.
In the capital increasing number of patients with severe
diarrhoea are crowding the city's ICDDR,B hospital
everyday, said Azharul Islam Khan a physician.
"The situation is normal. Usually between the month of
April and May people are infected with diarrhoea due to
scarcity of pure drinking water and hot spell. Of the
patients suffering from diarrhoea, 80 per cent are old
persons. Besides, a number of children are also being
infected with the disease" said the physician told The
Bangladesh Today on Sunday.
Over 501 patients were admitted to the ICDDR'B hospital
with severe diarrhoea in 24 hours ending at Saturday.
Apart from these, the administration of most essential
public utilities like water and electricity is in serious
jeopardy in the capital as well across the country. Most
of the city dwellers have been experiencing water crisis
and frequent load shedding for long.
Residents of the city's Ahmednagar, Maddhapaikpara, Shah
Sahebnagar Moddha of Mirpur, many parts of the old Dhaka
have been facing acute water crisis. They are staging
demonstration with pitcher and bucket. They also laid
siege to the WASA Zone 4.
Talking to this correspondent an official of WASA said
erratic power disruption intensified the current water
crisis in the capital.
"Our power pumps are not being supplied power smoothly.
Following frequent power outage, WASA is failing to pump
out around 40 crore liters of water. The Dhaka WASA
supplies about 170 crore litres of water every day against
the demand for 220 crore litres in the capital and
Narayanganj during the summer. But now WASA is supplying
100 crore liters of water," talking to The Bangladesh
Today an official of WASA said.
When asked whether army personnel will be deployed or not
in aid of the civil authorities to ensure uninterrupted
water supply in the capital, the official said "Today we
will send a letter to the concerned authority requesting
to provide army men for assisting the pump houses of WASA,
including lifting and supply of water. But it is yet to be
decided when they will be deployed. After deployment, army
will distribute safe drinking water in the problem-ridden
areas of the capital using army or WASA water trailers and
bousers."
Besides, the terrible power situation is deteriorating day
by day with no sign of improvement in future. To free the
rural areas of load shedding for boro cultivation the PDB
has reduced power supply to different metropolitan cities
including capital Dhaka.
Meanwhile, the hot spell now sweeping the country will
continue for another two or three days, Met office sources
said.
The mercury rose to highest 40.0 degree Celsius in
Chuadanga on Sunday and the lowest 19.08 degree Celsius
was recorded at Dinajpur. The capital Dhaka experienced
36.04 degree Celsius, Chittagong 32.0 degree Celsius,
Rajshahi 39.04 degree Celsius, Khulna 37.0 degree Celsius,
Barisal 36.0 degree Celsius and Sylhet 34.05 degree
Celsius.
"The heat wave has returned with full fury from Thursday
in the North West and the south west which may continue
for some more time before the welcome showers begins with
the arrival of the south west Monsoon," the expert said.
Hasina
may be produced before court today
JML submits memorandum to CA office for her release
Staff Correspondent
The detained Awami League President and former Prime
Minister, Sheikh Hasina, is likely to be produced before
the Special Judge Court at the Parliament Complex in
connection with MIG-29 scam case today ( Monday) as her
health condition apparently improved.
This was stated by Deputy Inspector General (Prisons)
Shamsul Haider Siddique while addressing a press briefing
in capital's Square Hospital, where the ailing AL
president were undergoing treatment for the second time of
her admission on Saturday noon.
"Madam Sheikh Hasina is quite well now. Doctors continue
to oversee her health condition as regular basis. The
physicians performed her ECG and a blood test and found
everything as normal. Her pressure is 120/70," he said
adding, "As per the decision of her physicians she was not
produced before the Court yesterday."
Replying to query, the DIG prisons said, "She is
physically fit enough to face the court and she may be
produced before the Court today (Monday) if the doctors
recommends her to do so."
Earlier, Jubo Mohila League (JML), a women's youth front
organisation of Awami League, submitted a memorandum -
with as many as two lakh signatures of women countrywide
favouring the demand for unconditional release of detained
former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina - to office of Chief
Advisor Dr Fakruddin Ahmed on Sunday.
On behalf of the Chief Adviser's office, Administrative
Officer Abdul Khaleque received the memorandum at about
11:25am yesterday.
AL Presidium Member Motia Chowdhury, Advocate Shahara
Khatun and Dr Dipu Moni accompanied the JML President
Nazma Akter and General Secretary Prof Apu Ukil while
submitting the a four-page memorandum to the Chief
Advisor's office. After the submission of the memo, AL
Presidium Member Motia Chowdhury talked to the newsmen.
She said, "We went to call on Chief Advisor, but due to
bureaucratic difficulties we failed to meet."
Referring to the ongoing Mass Signature Campaign of AL,
the former AL Agriculture Minister said, "Such signature
campaign is a silent protest by AL leaders and activists
challenging the arrest of the former Premier Sheikh Hasina
on charge of different false and fabricated cases. The
government is afraid of such programmes."
Back Page
Export Oriented
Industry
Enactment of an independent labour law urged
Staff Correspondent
Entrepreneurs on Sunday
urged the government to enact an independent labour law
for the export oriented industries in order to achieve
targeted export growth of Readymade Garments (woven &
knit), Frozen Food, leather and footwear, Jute goods,
ceramics and home textiles productivity.
"A separate law is needed for the export earning sector.
Modernization of labour law constitutes a key element for
the success of the adaptability of workers and
entrepreneurs. A Labour Law needs to be devised in the
light of the community's objectives of full employment,
labour productivity and social cohesion. One of the
objectives of the labour law is to promote skilled,
trained and adaptable workforce and labour market
responsive to the challenges stemming from the combined
impact of globalization," they said.
"This has taken into consideration of most of the
international requirements and compliance to its
provisions so that it can contribute to considerably
improving the working and living conditions of the
workers, the employer-employee relations and thus improves
productivity and competitiveness of our export sectors.
Capacity building is needed so that we can negotiate and
identify the requirements and compliances which are
arbitrarily imposed and do not match our environment,"
they said.
International Labour Organization (ILO) representative
Nurunnabi Khan said every organization should have
separate institutional mechanism, independent monitoring
system, training and capacity building and it should be
done in regular basis.
Speakers made some recommendations including setting up
training institute for the workers, reassessing the
relationship between owners and workers for ensuring
better production.
UP
Oikya Jote wants Local elections before National
Staff Correspondent
The Union Parishad Oikya Jote leaders have called for
elections to local government bodies including upazila
parishad and district parishad antecedent to the general
election which is scheduled for December 2008 as per
roadmap.
"In a bid to establish effective democracy, it is
necessary to strengthen local government bodies. The local
government bodies can be strengthened by way of their
election. But it is a matter of regret that the last
political governments neglected the issue", said Oikya
Jote President Mahbubur Rahman after coming out of meeting
with four Emergency Government's advisers at state guest
house Meghna yesterday.
The government stakeholders who attended the meeting with
UP delegates are LGRD, communications, law and education
advisers Anwarul Iqbal, Ghulam Quader, Hassan Ariff and Dr
Hossain Zillur respectively.
Referring to their demands forwarded to the government
through advisers, Mahbubur Rahman said an eight-member
team of UP leaders demanded of the government to hold
local government election prior to the parliament election
for the reason that if it is not done, local government
election will be politically influenced.
About demand by political parties for general election
first, he said that as elections to the local government
bodies have no link with politics, it will not hamper the
general election anyway.
Oikya Jote Secretary General Matiur Rahman told the
Bangladesh Today that they have also demanded some reforms
in the local government system to stamp out interference
of MPs in the activities of local government bodies.
"In the past we experienced that instead of their own
responsibilities, the MPs and ministers were interested to
poke into the affairs which exclusively fall within the
jurisdiction of local governments. So, we proposed changes
to ensure that the MPs will have no scope to interfere",
he added. LGRD Adviser Anwarul Iqbal said the UP leaders
demanded for some reforms such as elevation of their
status, elimination of intrusion by MPs in the development
programmes under the local government bodies and
introduction of direct election to the district parishad
like upazila parishad.
A reliable source said the UP leaders have been holding
such meeting with important government bodies including
the Election Commission to press home their demands for
election to local government bodies, allocation of 40 per
cent annual development budget for local governments,
decentralisation of their power, 40 per cent women
representation, placing of local government staffs under
its authority and constitution of an independent
commission to regulate the local government bodies. The
attending advisers relayed the government's view that the
general election will be held as per roadmap while
election to local governments prior to it may be
considered.
ACC - Scotland Yard jointly work to recover siphoned off
money
UNB, Dhaka
Outgoing British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury on
Sunday said human rights of the corruption suspects being
prosecuted and charged should be respected and people
should be treated fairly and transparently.
As there has been a purge underway in Bangladesh in the
interim period against serious crime and corruption, he
emphasized the need for following due process. The
suspects should be treated fairly and transparently and
there must be transparency in the cases against them, he
said.
"What we have said on this issue is that, no matter who is
being prosecuted, who is being charged, their human rights
are observed. People are treated fairly and
transparently," Anwar said in reply to a question
regarding respecting human rights of the corruption
suspects-many of whom are high-profile persons like past
rulers and bureaucrats. He was talking to the reporters
after making a farewell call on Anti-Corruption Commission
(ACC) Chairman Lt. General (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury
and other Commissioners.
"There must be transparency in these cases and there must
be due process. That has been our position right from the
beginning," the British High Commissioner added.
Echoing British Foreign Minister David Miliband, who
recently visited Bangladesh, he said the approach must be
without fear or favour.
Asked if all he mentioned are being followed by the ACC,
Anwar said that is not for him to comment, rather that is
for the Bangladeshi people to comment. About cooperation
between Scotland Yard and the Commission in bringing back
the siphoned-off money, he said the London police
headquarters is cooperating with the anti-graft body so
that the money siphoned off to his country could be
brought back to Bangladesh.
UN sponsored scheme for Dhaka-London train link
BSS, Chittagong
If everything goes well in line with a UN sponsored
scheme, it will no more remain a dream for a traveler who
can visit London from Dhaka by train having glimpses of
many historic cities and places of tourist attraction
across Asia and Europe.
According to a report of the online edition of the on
Sunday's The Sunday Times, the 7,000-mile Trans-Asian
railway will follow the traces of the historic Silk Road
through Istanbul, Tehran, Lahore, Delhi and its final
destination Dhaka. Dean Nelson of The Sunday Times in his
report datelined New Delhi said, "Rail enthusiastic with a
sense of adventure and 23 days to spare will be able to
travel by train from London to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi
capital, when a new link opens later this year."
The recent re-launching of Bangladesh-India rail link has
created the opportunity to expand the train route much
longer than the 5,772 miles Trans-Siberian railway. As per
The Sunday Times report, the rail link between two
neighbouring countries has been reopened after "more than
43 years after it was blocked during the Indo-Pakistan war
of 1965."
Gram Sarker abolished
Gram Sarker (Rescission) Ordinance, Bangladesh University
of Professionals Ordinance 2008 okayed
UNB, Dhaka
The much-debated Gram Sarker
as the lowest tier of local government stands abolished as
the Council of Advisers of the caretaker government on
Sunday finally approved the Gram Sarker (Rescission)
Ordinance 2008.
With the making of the new ordinance the Gram Sarker Act
2003 that introduced the village government will be
scrapped.
A regular weekly meeting of the Council of Advisers with
Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair also gave
final approval to the Bangladesh University of
Professionals Ordinance 2008 to bring all educational and
training institutions of Bangladesh Armed Forces under a
single university.
Earlier, those institutions were under various
universities.
In 2003, the Gram Sarker Act 2003 was endorsed in
parliament. The same year, a writ petition was filled with
the High Court against the Gram Sarker law. The Act was
later declared void by the court.
Earlier, the council of advisers had approved in principle
the Gram Sarker (Rescission) Ordinance 2008 and the
Bangladesh University of Professionals Ordinance 2008.
The other objective of the University of Professionals
Ordinance is to "keep pace with advanced world in
engineering, medical science, technology, war strategy and
security and other areas".
Its objective is also to create and expand opportunities
for higher studies and research at national level and
pursuit of modern knowledge.
The President will be Chancellor of the proposed
Bangladesh University of Professionals.
An in-service or a retired Major General would be
appointed by the Chancellor as Vice-chancellor of the
university to a three-year term.
The university will be situated at Mirpur cantonment in
Dhaka.
Crime
Woman
slaughtered
UNB, Laxmipur
An unidentified young woman was found slaughtered at
Bajirchar village in Raipur upazila on Friday.
Police said, local people found the body of the woman aged
about 25 lying on the bank of Janata Canal in the morning
and informed them.
Later, police recovered the body and sent it to hospital
morgue for autopsy. Police said miscreants might have
slaughtered her after gang rape. A case was filed.
3 cops of BMP suspended within 24 hrs
A Correspondent, Barisal
Within 24 hours Barisal Metropolitan Police authority
suspended Assistant Sub Inspector Manirul Islam of
Amanatganj police post on the allegation for demanding
bribe and harassing innocent people.
ASI Manirul was suspended after a five-member inquiry
committee including Yunus Mia, Mainul Huq, Habibur Rahman
Tipu, ward commissioners of wards 4, 5 and 6, Abul Kalam
Azad, a businessman and Sub Inspector Anwar of Kotwali PS,
submitted their report on Saturday afternoon.
In another incident, a team of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-8
based on a tip-off arrested one Delwar, 22, from the
downstairs of the office of the deputy commissioner and
Barisal Collectoriate compound. After searching body RAB
recovered 10 bottles of Phensidyl tied under the garments
of Delwar. Delwar was handed over to Kotwali police
station at afternoon after interrogation in RAB camp.
In interrogation drug peddler Delwar confessed that he and
his associates regularly collected the Phensidyl from the
store of the court with the help of the cops on duty
there. As Phesidyl bottles seized and recovered regularly
smashed by the law enforcing authorities without any
count, so it became easy to smuggle those from the court
compound store by the corrupted cops, he added. Then SI
Abdur Rahman and Constable Masum Billah were suspended on
Saturday night.
Nephew kills uncle
UNB, Pabna
A man was killed allegedly by his nephew at Islampur
Gurulia village in Sujanagar upazila early Sunday.
Police said Shah Jamal, 24, hit his uncle Mirza Abdul
Latif, 25, with a rod when he was sleeping on the veranda
of his house at about 3:30 am leaving him dead on the
spot.
Family sources said problem erupted between the uncle and
nephew as Shah Jamal demanded Tk 200 from Abdul Latif,
which he borrowed from Jamal earlier, but was refused.
Shah Jamal went into hiding soon after killing his uncle.
Fake RAB busted
A Correspondent, Rajshahi
The Rapid Action Battalion of Rajshahi arrested a fake RAB
man at Naldanga area in Natore on Sunday. The arrested was
identified as Mukta Gazi, 30, of Senbag Lakkhikul under
Naladanga in Natore.
According to the RAB sources, a team of Railway Colony
camp raided the Bashbecha village of the same area and
arrested Gazi.
A case was filed.
AK-47 recovered
A Correspondent, Chittagong
RAB-7 of Chittagong seized an AK-47, two magazines and 49
rounds of bullets on Saturday at 3:00 pm from west Mokami
Para of Noapara union under Raojan thana. On a DB source,
RAB-7 raided the spot and recovered the arms.
Terrorists left the spot detecting the presence of the law
enforcers.
Firearm recovered
A Correspondent, Madaripur
Rab-8 of Madaripur in a drive recovered a locally made
firearm from Paschimpara village of Aumgram union under
Rajoir upazila of the district on April 18 at 10:30 am.
Acting on a tip-off the team of Rab-8, lead by Captain Md.
Saleh Uddin and ASP Abdullah-Al-Mahmud raided the
Paschimpara village and recovered the firearm from a
building of Bonerbari Community Clinic. No one was
arrested in this connection.
Later the firearm was handed over to the Rajoir thana. A
case was filed with the Thana at the same time.
Robbers loot valuables
UNB, Barisal
Robbers looted cash and valuables worth about Tk 4 lakh
from a house at Char Diashur village in Gournadi upazila
early Friday.
Sources said a gang of armed dacoits entered the house of
expatriate Jahangir Kaviraj, who recently backed from
Saudi Arabia, identifying themselves as policemen at about
2:00 am.
The dacoits took away foreign currencies, demand draft of
Tk 2 lakh, 4 mobile phone sets, gold ornaments and other
valuables at gunpoint.
The robbers beat up Jahangir and his son Kabir mercilessly
when they tried to resist them. They were admitted to
Gournadi upazila health complex. Police visited the spot
and a case was filed.
Two held, heroin seized
A Correspondent, Rajshahi
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-5 of Rajshahi arrested
two drug peddlers along with heroin from Charghat area in
Rajshahi on Sunday.
The arrested were identified as Abul Kalam, 50, of
Holidagachi village under Charghat and Sheikh Mamunur
Rashid alias Juel, 32, of Khelna Borobari village in
Gopalganj. According to the RAB sources, a team of
Binodpur camp of RAB-5 raided the Holidagachi village on
early Sunday and seized 12 grams of heroin from the two
persons. RAB handed over the arrested to the Charghat
police while the police produced them before the court on
the same day.
7 arrested in anti-drug
campaign
UNB, Nilphamari
Police have arrested seven people and seized a
substantial amount of heroin and phensidyl smuggled from
across the border.
Special police squads raided drug peddlers and corners in
Nilphamari and Syedpur towns as complaints mounted that
drug dealers are spoiling the youngsters.
Those arrested are Monwara Begum, Anwara Begum, Ali
Hossain, Sahida Begum, Atiqul, Sahabul and Badruddoza.
Husband of Monwara and her younger sister are already in
jail for drug peddling.
During interrogation they admitted of smuggling heroin and
phensidyl through the plains of Hili border. Informed
sources said drug smuggling and selling have increased in
the border districts in connivance with a section of
corrupt police officials. The main operators in drug
smuggling and trade remained untouched.
Bombs, bullets, phensidyl recovered
UNB, Chapainawabganj
Rapid Acton Battalion members seized nine bombs, 20 rounds
of bullet and 22 bottles of phensidyl and Rs 10,000 from
Huzrapur Zora in the town on Sunday.
Acting on a tip off, members of RAB-5 raided Amin Traders,
a C&F agency, at about 12.15 pm and recovered the bombs,
bullets, phensidyl and Indian rupees. None was arrested in
this connection but police was interrogating Ruhul Amin,
owner of Amin traders, and his staff till filing the
report this evening.
One held with wine
BSS, Rajshahi
Members of National Security Intelligence (NSI) arrested
one person with 10 letters wine at main entrance of
Rajshahi University (RU) here on Saturday.
The arrested was identified as Aslam, 25, of Tikapara area
of Rajshahi. Police said, acting on a tip-off, a team of
the NSI raided the area and arrested Aslam along with
wine.
Aslam was handed over to Motiher Thana police.
A case was filed in this connection with Motiher thana.
Two terrors held
BSS, Jessore
Police arrested two listed terrorists from Singjhulin
village under Chaugacha upazila of the district on
Saturday. The arrested were identified as Mainuddin, 35,
son of Amar Dofadar and Time, 30, son of Abdul Jalil.
Police said, acting on tip-off, a team of police arrested
them from Sinhjhuli village under Chaugacha upazila. The
sources said, cases of dacoity, snatching and smuggling
are pending against them in different thanas including
Chougacha.
Muggers arrested
UNB, Savar
Police with the help of local people arrested four muggers
while fleeing after robbing valuables from garment workers
at Jirar Bazar under Ashulia than Friday night.
Police said the snatchers equipped with sharp weapons
swooped on the garment workers at about 11pm on their way
home from work places and took away cash and valuables
from them.
Hearing the screams of the victims a police patrol team
with the help of the locals caught the muggers identified
as Saidur, Sohel, Sumon and Jewel. Police recovered three
sharp weapons from their possession.
Editorial
Women’s Rights and the Religious
Backlash
Disregarding
every other essential social, economic and political issue,
the religious right, this time in the form of an umbrella
organization by the name of Islamic Constitution Movement (ICM)
have honed in on equal rights for women in Bangladesh. The ICM
is insisting that any changes in laws which allow for equal
rights to women, particularly in regard to property, would
have to be on the basis of injunctions in the Holy Quran. The
ICM is of course, ready to take any measures, including
violence, to force the Nation and the State to accept their
points of view; this is quite evident from events in the last
few weeks when the ICM organized thousands of demonstrators to
take to the streets after Friday Juma prayers, breaking the
EPRs and battling with the Police.
The reason for the ICM's coming down hard on equal women's
right is highly complex. Women in Bangladesh are the most
unempowered portion of the populace although they make up 50%
of our population and although the Constitution allows them
equal rights in everything. Nonetheless, the entire social,
political and economic system is weighted heavily against
women in a highly exploitative vicious-circle and therefore,
no one, least of all the State is ready to stand up for their
rights, thus making women easy targets for the religious
radicals. But matters do not merely end here with opposition
to equal rights to women. The ICM, as the name implies, is the
van-guard of the "religious right" which aims to change our
Constitution and our entire social, political and economic
systems; the attack on women being the weakest link in the
fabric, is but one of many steps towards that redefinition of
what our Nation-state is all about.
This is certainly not the first attempt by the "religious
right" at re-defining our Nation; these attempts had started
through the genocide during our Liberation War in 1971 and
have continued in an independent Bangladesh in one form or
another without much success. To date, the most successful
attempt by the "religious right" at hitting back at our
nationality has been to ride piggy-back on the BNP to State
power and thence to a dislocation of our politics from 2001 to
January 2007, when the Emergency was declared. What the
"religious right" seems to forget is that for a re-definition
of National identity at least two requirements must be met:
first, the political and economic elite of the country has to
be generally supportive and enthusiastic about the move and
secondly, the population has to be willing to acquiesce to the
identity redefinition. The "religious right" simply fails in
fulfilling these two criterions and so would be unable to
redefine Bangladesh as they desire to.
Unable to go on a head-on collision with the powerful and
entrenched economic and political elites and even more unable
to move the skeptical and apathetic masses, the "religious
right" has taken the alternative strategy of fighting a sort
of a protracted insurgency war in which any vulnerability in
the social-economic-political fabric is a legitimate target
for attack. The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was one
such tragic-comedy which targeted the Judiciary and which
ended with the hanging of the gang of criminals involved in
the mass murders; the violent opposition to women's equal
rights is another such attempt at attacking vulnerabilities.
The point of the fact is that the "religious right" will never
be able to make any headway in Bangladesh; all that they can
do is to create disruptions at critical junctures of our
Nation's path to progress, development and nation-building and
it is these disruptions which must be prevented by both the
law and public opinion. The "religious right" is on the
one-way street to the gallows and the State must not shy away
from using those gallows as frequently as is necessary and
convenient.
Disaster related Education
There
is no alternative to integrating disaster related education
into the national educational policy. Its reasons,
characteristics and methods were discussed in a recently held
seminar on "Disaster and Education". It is necessary to do our
own disaster management in relation to the country's
socio-economic nature and structure and available resources.
These talks are held at such a time when the whole world is
concerned about environment especially climate change. Low
lying countries like Bangladesh must under take over all
development measures keeping in view aspects of disaster
management, which is at the same time sustainable. In order to
do that the people need to have a good understanding of the
environment and the effects of climate change on lives and
living. In the last ten years education policy has gone
through drastic changes and is still under going
experimentation. Subjects like computer science, agriculture,
practical and technical lessons were included to enable
students to meet the challenges of the new century. Its time
for us to put focus on disaster related education and add it
in the secondary and higher secondary level.
A sustainable knowledge based education is very essential to
enable people at the grass root levels to take the right
decisions in the right time. Disaster preparedness, mitigation
and the availability of resources like supply of food, aid,
infrastructure and manpower etc. are also crucial in this
regard. Natural calamities, like cyclones, floods and earth
quakes, cannot be stopped but if the people are well informed
about the nature and scale of the upcoming threat they can
easily prepare themselves against it and thus can minimize the
catastrophe. The curriculum should also train children to
recognize disaster warnings, to rescue and treat the injured
and to help people to get to shelters safely. We cannot nip
the problem at its bud but we can surely control the damage
through a short-long-middle term policies. In order to do that
well trained and efficient people are needed positioned in the
right place at the right time. Introducing disaster related
education can do it for us.
Enabling people tackle disasters is half the job done; the
rest must be done by the government by providing
infrastructural, logistics and other resources. It is very
tragic that cyclone shelters fail to accommodate all the
people of the area or warning systems are not there when it is
needed; during and after Sidr these were the horrible
experience of the distressed people. Still there will be a lot
of ground for us to cover after we include disaster related
education in the curriculum.
Analysis
Food Crisis from Climate changes?
The price of rice, Asia's staple food, has
soared by 74 percent in the past year to an all time high.
Mohammad Shahidul Islam
The
price of agricultural commodities has jumped into record
heights and supply of daily foodstuffs such as rice, wheat,
meat, fish, vegetables, eggs and dairy and poultry products
has become scare, and a big question has been gnawing all: is
climate change, droughts and floods in the Asian region
causing shortages of foods?
It is now clear that all around the world governments are
beginning to negotiate "secretive" barter arrangements as well
as building up "reserve" for at least the next six months in a
shot to face swelling social unrest.
The concern expressed by UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon on
the global rise in food prices would no doubt ring alarm bells
in the corridors of power in Bangladesh which is already
virtually under siege by a surge in world commodity prices.
That no less a figure than the UN Secretary General should
take serious note of the phenomenon does not bode well for
Third World countries like Bangladesh whose economies would
not be able to withstand such an eventuality.
Time was when Governments were stressed to subsidize food
items subjected to the vagaries of global price hikes which in
a way induced stupor among the populace who anticipated the
state to be their benefactor forever. The impact of high food
prices has triggered unrest in dozens of countries, the latest
in the Philippines, subsequent riots in Haiti and Egypt.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) has estimated prices
are likely to remain high for at least 10 years. "Rising
prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries. The
threat of malnutrition on a massive scale is looming." FAO has
confirmed it is cutting food handout rations to some 73
million people in 78 countries. "Food prices are now rising at
rates that few of us can ever have seen before in our
lifetimes," opined John Powell of the World Food Program.
The price of rice, Asia's staple food, has soared by 74
percent in the past year to an all time high. It went up by
more than 10 percent in a single day in the past week. "Prices
will keep going up as production fails to keep up with soaring
demand," cautioned the International Rice Research Institute
recently.
As food shortages grow and cereal prices soar, it is provoking
riots throughout the Third World, the world's poorest people.
The Philippines, once self sufficient in rice, is in the grip
of a food crisis as "massive queues" formed to buy rice from
government stocks. In a move to crack down on looters and
hoarders, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has "drafted" the
military to distribute rice supplies.
ASEAN member countries Vietnam and the Philippines have failed
to conclude a rice agreement. In a crisis meeting with the
Philippine President Arroyo, Kevin Cleaver, from the UN
International Fund for Agricultural Department told her there
is now a "food crisis" facing the world, triggering unrest in
dozens of countries around the world. Floods in central China
this year displaced millions of people and devastated rice and
corn crops. "Overall, China's harvest has fallen by 10 percent
over the past seven years."
Rice-importing countries Bangladesh, Vietnam and Afghanistan
have been thumped hardest, as the world's biggest rice
producers including China, India and Indochina are restricting
exports to protect their stocks and limit inflation.
It is bad to know that presently our country is facing its
worst food shortages. Twice hit by severe flooding last year
and a devastating cyclone have left hundreds of families
surviving on one meal a day after spending up to 80 percent of
their income on food. Economists estimate 30 million out of
the Bangladesh's total population of 150 million could go
hungry if the present situation goes on.
Australia, one of the world's largest grain producers,
suffered its worst drought last year, the worst for more than
a century. Its wheat harvest fell by 60 percent. The World
Bank predicts that global demand for food will double by 2030.
The current state of the economy debilitated by the past
governments and the consequences of galloping world oil prices
would put the Government in a conundrum to meet the looming
crisis head on. According to a UN spokesperson urgent steps
had been called for to assure world food security while no
specific reasons have been ascribed to the emerging scenario.
Perhaps one reason could be that booming industrialization has
resulted in agriculture being relegated to the periphery with
less production which in turn had given rise to the rising
global food prices. While the need for maintaining food
security had been raised time and again it is apparent little
had been done in this regard.
However, as most experts contend today had we pursued this
policy with some sacrifice on the part of the populace the
country would have reached the stage of self sufficiency in
food production by now and equipped to face the looming
crisis. As is the case with Bangladeshis we always wanted
quick fixes to our problems not looking ahead to the future.
One could only hope that the present food drive initiated by
the Government would proceed with vigor and attain its
intended results before the global situation aggravates
further. This undertaking has now assumed great importance
given the warnings emanating from world authorities. Therefore
every Endeavour should be made to accelerate the food
production drive even by making special budgetary allocations.
The effort will certainly be worth it in the long run.
(Mohammad Shahidul Islam is a Tourism Worker. Email:
mohd-s-islam@myway.com)
Building Ecotopia: Sustainable
Homes
Clearly our current methods of building homes
are extremely taxing on the environment! But many natural
building techniques go a long way towards promoting more
sustainable living.
Chuck Hall
The
good news with greener building methods is that such
techniques are currently in vogue all over the world. The bad
news is that many builders make a few changes here or there in
standard industrial building techniques and call it 'green,'
without going nearly far enough towards a truly sustainable
building practice. Modern building methods are very taxing on
the environment. Cement production is one of the most energy
intensive of all industrial manufacturing processes. Cement
production now accounts for over 8% of total carbon dioxide
emissions from all human activities. Cement kilns in the
United States are the third largest source of dioxin
contamination. Part of this is due to the fact that kiln
operators are allowed to burn toxic wastes as fuel. Concrete
trucks require about 500 gallons a day of highly alkaline wash
water to operate. This type of water is toxic to fish and
other aquatic life.
Steel, another predominant building material, is made from
iron ore and other non-renewable resources. Steel production
is energy intensive due to the amount of heat required. The
fuels used to fire steel forges are also a major source of
carbon dioxide and other forms of air pollution.
Vinyl siding and other plastics used in the construction
industry are made from non-renewable petroleum by-products.
Plastic manufacturing requires toxic chemicals and produces
more toxic waste. Plastics don't breathe like natural building
materials. Many plastics emit toxic fumes. Some plastics can
take up to 50,000 years to deteriorate!
Commercially harvested lumber products are usually treated
with preservatives that are highly toxic. For example, arsenic
is a component in many pressure-treated lumber products.
Commercial forests harvested for lumber often use hazardous
pesticides and preservatives. Irresponsible deforestation
causes soil erosion, contamination of waterways from silt and
pesticide runoff, and loss of biodiversity in the forest
ecosphere. Composite wood products such as plywood and other
particulate boards are often held together with toxic
compounds which in addition to contributing to the degradation
of the environment, are suspected to cause allergies and other
health problems.
Commercially manufactured building materials cause problems
for health and the environment at all stages of their life
cycle, from production and manufacturing, to use in building,
to disposal when buildings are razed. Additionally,
long-distance transportation of building materials contributes
heavily to transportation costs, not to mention the additional
pollution caused by the large diesel-burning engines required
to transport them.
Clearly our current methods of building homes are extremely
taxing on the environment! But many natural building
techniques go a long way towards promoting more sustainable
living. By using materials readily found in nature, building
supplies don't have to be shipped great distances, or
manufactured in factories that pollute the environment.
There are many natural building methods. Some of these would
include straw bale building, earth bag building, and stone
building. While all of these have their advantages, I prefer a
method that uses materials readily found on almost any
building site: clay, sand and straw. This ancient method is
known as 'cob building.' Next week we'll look at this
versatile building style.
(Chuck Hall is an internationally renowned freelance
columnist writing on environmental and climate change issues.
You may contact Chuck by email at: chuck@cultureartist.org.)
Two Arab worlds drift further apart
Demonstrations protesting retail prices and the availability
of basic foodstuffs and services are on the rise again
throughout the Arab world outside the Gulf.
Rami G.
Khouri
As oil prices and income
to some Arab producers continue to rise, we can witness
sharper polarisation between the wealthy energy-producing,
small population states of the Gulf, on the one hand, and the
more populous, energy-importing Arab countries all around it
in the Levant region, the Nile Valley, and further west into
North Africa.
Any person who travels to such places as Dubai, Doha, Bahrain,
Amman, Cairo, Casablanca and Beirut moves between two very
different worlds that are united by investment and labour
flows but are being pushed further apart in most other spheres
of life. A set of polarisations defining the Arab world today
lies along fault lines largely drawn by way of income levels,
but also comprising other criteria. The Arab world is steadily
disaggregating into two very different sub-worlds,
characterised by the following polarisations:
1. Wealth vs. poverty. The continued rise in oil and gas
prices has seen the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
amass enormous sums of cash income - trillions of dollars in
the past decade - which they cannot spend, and may
increasingly have trouble investing safely. Per capita real
incomes and real purchasing power in the rest of the Arab
world remain flat and, in some cases, are even in decline.
2. Growth vs. stagnation. Wealth in the hands of the public
and private sectors in the GCC has translated into
increasingly ambitious projects in real estate, entertainment,
public works, education - even entire new cities conceived and
designed from scratch. Some of these novel lifestyle ventures
and real estate developments are now being exported to other
countries in the form of gated communities and massive
shopping complexes that cater primarily to the rich.
Most of the rest of the Arab world finds itself in a situation
where macroeconomic growth often registers impressive levels
of five to seven per cent, yet the fruits of this growth
rarely filter down beyond a small elite segment of the
population. The vast majority of citizens continues to see
family budgets squeezed, as government budgets are pared down
and inflation rises steadily.
Demonstrations protesting retail prices and the availability
of basic foodstuffs and services are on the rise again
throughout the Arab world outside the Gulf.
3. National cohesion vs. fragmentation. Security and material
development are fostering a growing sense of national identity
and social cohesion in the GCC states, while the rest of the
Arab world suffers varying degrees of social fragmentation and
national fraying. Countries like Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon,
Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and Algeria already experience varying
degrees of national dysfunction.
In some cases, these countries find themselves ruled by
multiple authorities and armed forces that coexist uneasily.
4. Pluralism vs. insularity. One of the striking aspects of
the GCC states - check out any airport, shopping mall,
restaurant or other prevalent form of public space - is the
very rich variety of nationalities that live and work there.
Most of the individuals do not mix with each other beyond
commercial or service encounters, making a sense of community
elusive; yet the sheer variety of nationalities is impressive.
The trend in many parts of the rest of the Arab world is in
the opposite direction, towards slow separation of diverse
populations that traditionally lived together peacefully. In
the most extreme cases, ethnic cleansing is practiced.
Vibrant cosmopolitan quarters with a variety of faiths,
ethnicities and nationalities are now restricted to just a few
pockets of the Arab world.
5. Order vs. disorder. Wealth and developmental strategies
have seen the Gulf countries place a high premium on order and
security, with only occasional acts of violence. In many other
parts of the Arab world, violence is an increasingly common
norm, intermittently expressing itself in recurring warfare.
Militias, private armies and commercial security firms are
among the fastest growing sectors in that part of the Arab
world where the state is unable to provide the basic security
that citizens expect from it.
6. The rule of law vs. lawlessness. One level below the
dichotomy of order vs. disorder is the deeper fact that some
Arab societies are governed by the rule of law, while others
are sliding into greater lawlessness. This transcends security
and warfare, and is reflected in two common phenomena:
ordinary citizens' growing need to pay bribes, commissions and
generous tips to complete basic public sector transactions
where these are available; and, growing delinquency in the
state's provision of basic services - security, water,
education, telephones and healthcare - to all its citizens.
7. Religiosity vs. secularism. Some quarters of the Arab world
that enjoy material well-being and basic security tend to
become more secular; other large segments of the Arab
population increasingly turn to religion for the sense of hope
and dignity that they do not receive in their status as
citizens of a state.
Source: jordantimes.com
Viewpoints
Whither India and Pakistan?
Had Pakistan finally managed to separate itself
from its permanent engagement with India, it may well have
become a stable and prosperous country.
Kamal Wadhwa
With
the modernization of their armed forces, both India and
Pakistan are again locked into a military lockjaw that may
ultimately lead to that fatal embrace - given the new
developments on the sub-continent such as the setting up of an
Indian Air Force base in Tajikistan. Except that now there is
no turning away from good neighborliness and the unpleasant
realities of forever having to stare at each other - be it
from field binoculars or the look-down facility offered by
reconnaissance airplanes and spy satellites.
Not too long ago, the deposed former Prime Minister of
Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, sought to unlock his nation
from the permanent hostility of the Indo-Pakistani embrace
after his dream of a secular and democratic Pakistan had been
resoundingly rejected by everyone of note in that ill-starred
country. He now turned the eyes of the Pakistani nation
towards the Muslim world where Pakistan was respected and
looked up to as a natural leader of great energy and vision.
Pakistan thereafter became an Islamic republic with Islam
enshrined as the State religion in its very Constitution.
Bhutto now focused his eyes on creating the only platform that
could yet enable Pakistan to secure a place on the world map -
on the fragile Pakistani economy- that could not yet free
itself from American largesse and the resultant interference
in Pakistani foreign policy. Pakistan may well have become a
great Islamic nation because the entire Muslim world was a
ready receptacle for Bhutto's grand vision-even willing to pay
for it without recompense- unlike those hated Americans whose
influence in Pakistani affairs was finally to lead Bhutto to
his grave.
Had Pakistan finally managed to separate itself from its
permanent engagement with India, it may well have become a
stable and prosperous country. Bhutto was even ready to put
the Kashmir issue on the backburner to attain that end.
Indeed, India too could have benefited immensely from Bhutto's
vision and secured its own development budget against the
periodic imbalances caused by unpredictable military
expenditures. Alas, that dispensation was not to be and the
deadlock between the two neighbors continues to this day.
Perhaps, India too could have realized and retreated from its
cousin across the border. Surely, India has more in common
with the Buddhist countries of Thailand, the Koreas, Vietnam
and Cambodia than an Islamic Pakistan that openly emphasizes
its religious and cultural differences with India! Even in
lowly neighboring Bangladesh, there are periodic outbursts of
anti-Indian sentiment voiced vociferously and zealously by
large sections of the populace who threaten to march to New
Delhi to do justice to their Islamic forebears and heritage.
Then, too, most Muslims outside India believe Hindus to be
idolatrous and Hinduism an unworthy religion. This is the
mindset in much of the Islamic world and it is reflected in
the refusal of Saudi Arabia to allot jobs to Hindus even when
they are well-qualified. Yet no Indian government has taken up
serious issue with this valid concern because it has a large,
established and vociferous Muslim minority within its own
borders. This is the permanent and surreal tragedy of the
Indian republic from which there seems to be no real escape!
However, it is the bonhomie and conviviality of Indo-Pakistani
diplomacy that tell a different tale, no less sordid in other
aspects. After the periodic bloodletting on their borders,
both India and Pakistan send their seasoned and topmost
diplomats for parleys, negotiations and Confidence Building
Measures (CBMs). Hospitality is shared, pleasantries exchanged
and a flurry of diplomatic memos is passed between peers who
have illustrious lineages, expensive foreign educations and
sartorial elegance that would put British royalty to shame!
And, what's more, they like each other's company!
Yet, curiously enough, nothing concrete or substantial has
emerged from this decades-long diplomatic endeavor between
India and Pakistan though sides express full satisfaction at
the pace and seriousness of the dialogue undertaken by their
diplomats. Diplomatic parleys are buttressed by Indo-Pakistani
cricket tours where the very decency and civility of the game
create feelings of camaraderie and brotherhood so that all
loose talk of Kashmir is drowned out in the resounding din of
adulating crowds who by now can judge each bowler or batsman
on his own merits - be he Indian or Pakistani! In brief,
Indo-Pakistani diplomacy and cricket have survived the British
Raj on the sub-continent!
However, it is the occasional and unexpected act of resentment
by some lowly official in India or Pakistan that shows the
hardening of attitudes on both sides of the border. When a
former Prime Minister of Pakistan is snubbed by his generals
who refuse to meet a visiting Indian premier, or indeed when
an Indian ex-Prime Minister is not given deferential treatment
worthy of his status by officials at the Wagah border
checkpoint, the state of Indo-Pakistani relations begins to be
seen in its true perspective. For most Indians and Pakistanis,
there can be no half-war, half-peace daily bombarded as they
are by images of violence perpetrated by the other side - on
TV, radio and the print media. Yet most maintain a complacent,
even indifferent, attitude to the reality of Indo-Pakistani
confrontation as they are caught in the daily toil of earning
a livelihood. Until the demagogue and politician again take
center stage at public meetings and exhort the crowds to
commit greater acts of desperation and frenzy - and violence!
That is the saga of Indo-Pakistani affairs as they stand now!
(Kamal T. Wadhwa .B-405, Rajdoot Bldg., Raheja Complex, Off
Yari Rd., Versova, Mumbai-400061.Tel: +91 22 26366326.Email:
wadhwakamal48@yahoo.com)
Israel: Manifest Destiny?
There is
no escape from the inevitable conclusion: The government is
not working for peace.
Uri
Avnery
Next
month, Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The
government is working feverishly to make this day into an
occasion of joy and jubilation. While serious problems are
crying out for funds, some $40 million dollars have been
allocated to this aim. Bur the nation is in no mood for
celebrations. It is gloomy. From all directions the government
is blamed for this gloom.
It is hard not to blame the government. Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert speechifies endlessly, at least one speech per day,
today at an industrialists' convention, tomorrow at a
kindergarten, saying absolutely nothing. There is no national
agenda, nor an economic agenda, nor a social agenda, nor a
cultural agenda. Nothing.
When he came to power, he presented something that sounded
like an agenda: "Hitkansut", a word that can be rendered as
"contracting", "converging", "ingathering". That was supposed
to be a historic operation: Israel would give up a large part
of the occupied territories, dismantle the settlements east of
the "Separation" Wall and annex the settlements between the
Green Line and the Wall. Now, two years and one war later,
nothing of this remains, even the word has been forgotten. The
only game in town is the "negotiations" with the Palestinian
Authority, which were a farce to start with.
What is the farce for? Each of the participants has his own
reasons: Olmert needs an agenda to fill the void. George Bush,
a lame duck who leaves behind him nothing but ruins in every
field, wants to present at least one achievement, fictitious
as it may be. Poor Mahmoud Abbas, whose continued existence
depends on his ability to show some political achievement for
his people, clings to this illusion with all his remaining
strength. And so the farce goes on. But anyone who believes
that the government has no agenda, and that the State of
Israel has no agenda, is quite wrong. There certainly is an
agenda, but is hidden. More precisely: it is unconscious.
If you ask Olmert, he will strenuously deny that he has no
agenda. He has a perfect agenda: to make peace (which is
nowadays called "permanent status"). And not just any peace,
but a peace based on "Two States for Two Peoples". Without
such a peace, Olmert has pronounced, "the State is finished".
In that case, why is there no negotiation, only a farcical
pretense? Why does the massive building activity go on, even
in the settlements east of the Wall, well within the area that
government spokespersons propose for the Palestinian state?
There is no escape from the inevitable conclusion: The
government is not working for peace. Behind the fictitious
agenda, which appears in the media, there hides another agenda
that does not meet the eye.
The hidden agenda is opposed to peace. Why?
Conventional wisdom has it that the government does not pursue
peace because it is afraid of the settlers and their
supporters.
But the settlements are only a symptom, not the heart of the
problem. Otherwise, why doesn't the government freeze them, at
least, as it has undertaken again and again? Clearly, the
settlements, too, are in reality only a pretext. Something
more profound is causing the government - and the entire
political system - to reject peace. That is the hidden agenda.
What is the heart of peace? A border.
When two neighboring peoples make peace, they fix, first of
all, the border between them.
And that is precisely what the Israeli establishment opposes,
because it negates the basic ethos of the Zionist enterprise.
True, at different points in time the Zionist movement has
drawn up maps. But all these maps were only games. The real
Zionist vision does not recognize any maps. It is a vision of
a state without borders - a state that expands at all times
according to its demographic, military and political power.
This explains, among other things, the phenomenon described in
the report of senior prosecution lawyer Talia Sasson on the
settlements: that all the organs of the establishment, the
government and the military, without any official coordination
but with miraculously effective cooperation, acted to set up
the "illegal" settlements. Every one of the thousands of
officials and officers who spent decades involved in this
enterprise knew exactly what to do, even without receiving any
instructions.
That is the reason for David Ben-Gurion's refusal to include
in the Declaration of Independence of the new State of Israel
any mention of borders.
In this respect, too, Israel resembles the United States,
which was founded along the Eastern seaboard and did not rest
until it had reached the Western shores on the other side of
the continent. The incessant stream of mass immigration from
Europe flowed on westwards, breaching all borders and
violating all agreements, exterminating the Native Americans,
starting a war against Mexico, conquering Texas, invading
Central America and Cuba. The slogan that drove them on and
justified all their actions was coined in 1845 by John
O'Sullivan: "Manifest Destiny".
The Israeli version of "Manifest Destiny" is Moshe Dayan's
slogan "We are fated". Dayan made two important speeches in
his life. The first and better known was delivered in 1956 at
the grave of Roy Rutenberg of Nahal Oz, a kibbutz facing Gaza:
"Before their (the Palestinians in Gaza) very eyes we turn
into our homestead the land and villages in which they and
their forefathers have lived ... This is the fate of our
generation, the choice of our life - to be prepared and armed,
strong and tough - or otherwise, the sword will slip from our
fist, and our life will be snuffed out."
He did not mean only his own generation. The second, lesser
known speech is more important. It was delivered in August
1968, after the occupation of the Golan Heights, before a
rally of young Kibbutzniks. When I asked him about it in the
Knesset, he inserted the entire speech into the Knesset
record, a very unusual procedure in our Parliament.
This is what he told the youth: "We are fated to live in a
permanent state of fighting against the Arabs ... For the
hundred years of the Return to Zion we are working for two
things: The building of the land and the building of the
people ... That is a process of expansion, of more Jews and
more settlements ... That is a process that has not reached
the end. We were born here and found our parents, who had come
here before us ... It is not your duty to reach the end. Your
duty is to add your layer ... to expand the settlement to the
best of your ability, during your lifetime ... (and) not to
say: This is the end, up to here, we have finished."
Dayan, who was well versed in the ancient texts, probably had
in mind the phrase in the Chapter of the Fathers (a part of
the Mishnah, which was finished 1800 years ago and formed the
basis of the Talmud): "It is not up to you to finish the work,
and you are not free to stop doing it." Approaching the 60th
anniversary of the state, we must draw a line under this
chapter of our history, exorcise the dybbuk and say clearly:
Yes, we have ended the chapter of expansion and settlement.
This will enable us to change the course of the river. To put
an end to the occupation. To dismantle the settlements. To
make peace. To effect a reconciliation with the neighboring
people. To turn Israel into a peaceful, democratic, secular
and liberal state, that can devote all its resources to the
creation of a flourishing, modern society. And first of all:
To agree on a border.
Source:www.arabnews.com
Whose land is it anyway?
Elliot Sperling
FOR
many Tibetans, the case for the historical independence of their land is
unequivocal. They assert that Tibet has always been and by rights now
ought to be independent. China's assertions are equally unequivocal:
Tibet became a part of China during Mongol rule, and its status as a
part of China has never changed. Both of these assertions are at odds
with Tibet's history.
The Tibetan view holds that Tibet was never subject to foreign rule
after it emerged in the mid-seventh century as a dynamic power holding
sway over an Inner Asian empire. These Tibetans say the appearance of
subjugation to the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th and
14th centuries, and to the Manchu rulers of China's Qing Dynasty from
the 18th century until the 20th century, is due to a modern, largely
Western misunderstanding of the personal relations among the Yuan and
Qing emperors and the pre-eminent lamas of Tibet. In this view, the
lamas simply served as spiritual mentors to the emperors, with no
compromise of Tibet's independent status.
In China's view, the Western misunderstandings are about the nature of
China: Western critics don't understand that China has a history of
thousands of years as a unified multinational state; all of its
nationalities are Chinese. The Mongols, who entered China as conquerers,
are claimed as Chinese, and their subjugation of Tibet is claimed as a
Chinese subjugation. Here are the facts. The claim that Tibet
entertained only personal relations with China at the leadership level
is easily rebutted. Administrative records and dynastic histories
outline the governing structures of Mongol and Manchu rule. These make
it clear that Tibet was subject to rules, laws and decisions made by the
Yuan and Qing rulers. Tibet was not independent during these two
periods. One of the Tibetan cabinet ministers summoned to Beijing at the
end of the 18th century describes himself unambiguously in his memoirs
as a subject of the Manchu emperor. But although Tibet did submit to the
Mongol and Manchu Empires, neither attached Tibet to China. The same
documentary record that shows Tibetan subjugation to the Mongols and
Manchus also shows that China's intervening Ming Dynasty (which ruled
from 1368 to 1644) had no control over Tibet. This is problematic, given
China's insistence that Chinese sovereignty was exercised in an unbroken
line from the 13th century onward.
The idea that Tibet became part of China in the 13th century is a very
recent construction. In the early part of the 20th century, Chinese
writers generally dated the annexation of Tibet to the 18th century.
They described Tibet's status under the Qing with a term that designates
a "feudal dependency," not an integral part of a country.
And that's because Tibet was ruled as such, within the empires of the
Mongols and the Manchus. When the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, Tibet
became independent once more. From 1912 until the founding of the
People's Republic of China in 1949, no Chinese government exercised
control over what is today China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Dalai
Lama's government alone ruled the land until 1951.
Marxist China adopted the linguistic sleight of hand that asserts it has
always been a unitary multinational country, not the hub of empires.
There is now firm insistence that "Han," actually one of several
ethnonyms for "Chinese," refers to only one of the Chinese
nationalities. This was a conscious decision of those who constructed
20th-century Chinese identity. (It stands in contrast to the Russian
decision to use a political term, "Soviet," for the peoples of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics.) There is something less to the arguments
of both sides, but the argument on the Chinese side is weaker. Tibet was
not "Chinese" until Mao Zedong's armies marched in and made it so.
Source:www.khaleejtimes.com
International
US commanders seek
authority to attack inside Pakistan
AFP, Washington
US military commanders operating in Afghanistan have
sought permission to attack Pakistani militants hiding in
tribal areas inside Pakistan, but so far have been denied
it because of diplomatic considerations, The New York
Times reported on its website Saturday.
Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said senior
officials in the administration of President George W.
Bush fear that attacking Pakistani radicals may anger
Pakistan's new government.
Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas have
slowed recently to avoid upsetting the negotiations
between the country's government and the militants.
US intelligence officials believe the threat emanating
from Pakistan's tribal areas is growing, and that
Pakistani Islamist groups there are becoming an ally of
Al-Qaeda in plotting attacks against Americans and their
allies in Afghanistan, the report said.
In light of this, the US military's proposals included
limited cross-border artillery strikes into Pakistan,
missile attacks by Predator aircraft or raids by small
teams of CIA paramilitary forces or Special Operations
forces, the paper said.
The list of potential targets, which has been discussed
with US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson, included a
group commanded by Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the
legendary militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, as well as
the network led by Baitullah Mehsud that is believed to
have been behind Benazir Bhutto's assassination, The Times
said.
But the question of attacking Pakistani militants was
especially delicate because some militant leaders were
believed to still be on the payroll of Pakistan's
intelligence service, the report pointed out.
Chinese media urges calm amid anti-Western protests
AFP, Beijing
China's state-controlled press urged calm Sunday after
protests erupted around the nation against alleged Western
bias towards Beijing's handling of Tibet ahead of the
August Olympic Games.
Hundreds of Chinese protested Saturday in major cities
against France and other nations where the Beijing Olympic
torch relay was disrupted in recent days by protests over
China's human rights record and its handling of Tibet.
"The more the Dalai Lama clique tries to disrupt the
Olympic torch relay and some Western politicians and media
take advantage to launch attacks and condemn China, the
more we need to unify and with the people of the world
hold a successful Olympic Games," Xinhua news agency said.
People interviewed in cities where protests occurred
condemned the Tibetan spiritual leader for attempting to
sabotage the Beijing Games. One man urged citizens to
"stay rational and clear-headed," the report, carried by
all major dailies, said.
Saturday's protests, the largest anti-foreign
demonstrations in China in three years, mainly targeted
branches of Carrefour, the French supermarket chain
accused by some Chinese of supporting Tibet.
Carrefour's denial of such allegations was carried by some
newspapers Sunday.
China has strongly condemned anti-Chinese protests and
riots that shook the Tibetan region starting in mid-March
and then reacted with angry anti-Western rhetoric to the
protests that marred the Olympic torch relay in London,
Paris and San Francisco this month.
But in recent days, state media have called for calm in
commentaries that have underscored the need for social
stability ahead of the Olympics, the first time the nation
has hosted such a prestigious event.
"As citizens, we must responsibly and coolly express our
patriotism in an ordered and legal fashion.... in order to
safeguard overall social stability and an environment
beneficial to the peaceful development of China," the
leading People's Daily said in a Sunday commentary.
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