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Leading
News
Truth Commission to start work
soon
National Security Council under
consideration
Rabiul Islam
The Truth or Accountability
Commission will start work either from 1st April or 1st
day of Bengali New Year, a member of the three-member
commission said. According to the commission, all corrupt
people will get chance to escape jail after confessing to
financial crimes and paying fines. Law Adviser A F Hassan
Ariff at a weekly briefing at the Secretariat on Thursday
said the truth commission will be formed within a month.
The Government is constituting the commission to avoid the
long trial process of big corrupt suspects, he said. The
Law Adviser observed that if the truth commission was
formed earlier, the trial of corrupt suspects could be
expedited. Asked whether the Anti-Corruption Commission
has any objection to the truth commission, Arif said, "We
have not received any objections or reservations from the
ACC". On the commission’s influence on the existing
judicial system, he said it will not destabilise the
judicial system. Asked if there will be any discrimination
in the application of the commission, the Law Adviser said
there is no scope of discrimination within the structure
of the law of the truth commission.
On the formation of the much-talked about National
Security Council, he said the issue is being discussed at
various levels. "It is still at a primary stage as what
will be the nature and responsibility of the council, is
being discoursed", the law adviser said, adding the draft
is yet to come in the Law Ministry. Asked on what grounds
the Government has initiated to form such a council, Ariff
said if there is such a body, national disaster like the
deterioration of law and order and cyclones can be faced.
Besides, in view of the security concept in the 21st
century, the Government is considering such a security
council, he added. Asked who will be included in the
council, Ariff said the President, the Prime Minister and
the Armed forces, all who are involved in running the
country, will be in the council.
On amendment of Foreigners’ Act, he said the act is being
amended as the existing one is very old and it requires to
be updated. Asked whether the existing law allow the
foreigners to interfere in our politics, the law adviser
asserted the law doesn’t allow that. In reply to another
query whether the Government would take any step in this
regard, he said steps are being taken. The Home Ministry
would not allow arranging of press conference by
foreigners, he added. On foreign diplomats, he said their
affairs are different as they are diplomats and the
foreign ministry can say about that.
Finance Adviser invites
concrete proposals for safety net to face food price
UNB, Dhaka
Finance Adviser Dr Mirza
Azizul Islam on Thursday said the government has no option
other than the ongoing interventions to mitigate hardship
of the people due to high prices of food.
"We’ve no other option at this moment without
strengthening and widening the ongoing social safety net
programmes," he told reporters, replying to a question
after a pre-budget meeting with editors of print and
electronic media at the Finance Ministry.
The Adviser said all the quarters he has so far met in
pre-budget discussions, including the economists, former
finance advisers and finance secretaries, were of the
opinion that something has to be done as the family budget
is failing to buy food.
"What could be that ‘something’? Nobody came up with any
concrete suggestion," he said.
Replying to a question, he said feeding 1.5 crore people
with 1-1.5 kg rice free of cost is not possible. "One has
to think of the resources required to feed them free."
Dr Aziz said that the present subsidy regime needs to be
adjusted to some extent to make it sustainable. "We’ve not
yet decided to reduce or increase the subsidy," he said,
replying to a question.
The Finance Adviser said there is a wrong perception that
the government could have utilized a little part of the
high reserve of foreign exchange to help bring down the
food prices.
"It’s not a government property and, at the same time,
it’s not too high a reserve considering the absolute
requirement of keeping a reserve equivalent to three
months of import payments," he said.
He added that the reserve that rose just over US$ 6
billion was not too big in view of the increased bills for
food import. Until March 15 of the current fiscal year,
rice import stood at 30 lakh tonnes, which is 6 lakh
tonnes higher than the total import of 24 lakh tonnes in
the previous fiscal year.
"Financing for the increased import would have been
difficult unless we had that reserve position," said the
Adviser.
Dr Aziz said the media representatives asked whether the
government would be able to maintain the present growth of
revenue collection in the future, and whether the
government could reduce unproductive expenditure.
They also stressed the need for accelerating ADP
implementation. They recommended giving more emphasis on
the agriculture sector in view of the high food prices,
and considering more incentives for agro-based industries
like jute and sugar mills. About increased incentives to
agro-based industries, the Adviser told the meeting that
the industries would have to increase their productivity
and efficiency.
He said the main incentive for RMG industry is duty-free
import of raw materials under bonded facility. But
agro-based industries have no such scope as they use local
raw materials.
About ADP implementation, he apprised the editors that the
government’ s attention was diverted from the development
works due to floods and later the cyclone Sidr.
Increase in prices of construction materials also hindered
the progress of development works, he added.
Govt
should consider dialogues with political parties before
declaring budget: Dr Akbar
UNB, Dhaka
Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC)
Chairman Dr Akbar Ali Khan on Thursday suggested the
caretaker government to consider holding dialogues with
the political parties before adopting the national budget
sans parliament.
He apprehended that the upcoming budget that is to be
presented to the nation without parliament in place for a
second time during the present regime would not be
acceptable to the political parties if their suggestions
were not taken into consideration.
"I fear that the next elected government will cancel the
budget as some parties already have given such hints.
Awami League presidium member Tofail Ahmed in an interview
has spoken in this vein. So, I think, the government
should consider dialogues with the political parties on
the budget," he said.
He was talking to journalists after a seminar titled "PRSP
and Next Budget: Share of the Coastal People" held at the
CIRDAP auditorium in the morning.
Shamannay, Community Development Centre (CODEC) and the
Daily Prothom Alo jointly arranged the pre-budget seminar.
Shamannay chairman Dr Atiur Rahman presented a keynote.
The prominent bureaucrat, who has also served as a top
executive of the World Bank, also talked on the demerits
of the donor-sponsored Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)
as development policy for Bangladesh. He observed that the
present Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is
"date-expired" for which it cannot create any impact on
the country’s development. "We are now working with a PRSP
which expired in 2007. I don’t understand why the
government is following the old PRSP, as the existing PRSP
is no more applied."
"You can follow a strategy paper when its hypotheses
remain realistic and proved true. But most of the
hypotheses done by the present PRSP proved not true. It
had said country’s inflation would increase not above 5
percent by 2007. Even the mentally retarded people of
Pabna Mental Hospital will not agree to such hypothesis!"
Akbar Ali said. It had also been stated in the PRSP that
total investment would increase at 26 percent, which also
proved unrealistic, he observed.
"Another ridiculous matter with the PRSP is that it said
that pure drinking water would be available to 100 percent
people of the country by 2007. Just give a look at the
city. Where we are not able to provide necessary water,
PRSP has said that pure drinking water would be available
to 100 percent people by 2007. So how we can expect
country’s development following such a PRSP?" he wondered.
Now the country needs a realistic poverty-reduction
strategy paper that will judge and address country’s
problems considering diversity of needs, region and
ecology.
" I had worked with World Bank as executive representative
of Bangladesh. I found that PRSP for all the countries are
more or less same. PRSP for Bangladesh and PRSP for an
African country carry no difference," he said.
Even poverty-reduction strategy cannot be same for all the
people of a country. " People living in the coastal areas
are facing one type of problems and mainland areas are
facing another type of problems. Even you will find
various dissimilarities between the problems of two
coastal belts—Khulna-Barisal and Noakhali-Chittagong."
"Hence PRSP will have to be formulated as per the
variations of problems of the respective regions.
Otherwise PRSP like the present one cannot put any
positive impact on the country’s total development," he
said.
The former adviser also said that there should be special
adequate allocation for the people of coastal districts in
the upcoming budget as last year’s Sidr has caused a
severe loss to public life there. The budget should
include employment scheme, projects for development of the
damaged infrastructures in the coastal districts and the
number of Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) cards must be
increased to make it available for all poor people. The
former adviser of the caretaker government, now assigned
to the task of preparing a re-script of country’s outworn
laws, rules and regulations, also stressed the need for
strengthening the local government for development of the
rural areas he billed backbone of the country.
"We are in some sort of a danger with our governing
system. When we talk about the global climate change, then
we say that Bangladesh is too little to address the
threat; again when a village needs government support to
be developed, the government says the government is too
big to handle such small issues. So I called upon all for
working to strengthen the local government," he said.
AL
preparing for movement to free Hasina
Staff Correspondent
With a view to gearing up the organizational activities
and ensuring immediate release of detained party president
Sheikh Hasina, Awami League is taking preparation for a
mass movement.
Acting AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam hinted
this at a press conference after the meeting of AL
Secretaries at Dhanmondi AL Office in the capital on
Thursday. As part of the party's plan, AL will hold
exchange-views-meeting with leaders of six divisions and
all districts after holding the AL Working Committee
meeting on March 29. AL high command would seek opinions
on the prevailing political situation.
The three-hour meeting of AL Secretaries reiterated their
demands to release their detained party chief and former
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and send her to the United
States for the better treatment within the shortest
possible time as per the recommendations of the doctors.
Referring to the letter earlier submitted to the Chief
Adviser's Office - requesting to take necessary steps for
sending Hasina abroad, Syed Ashraful said, "It would not
be a wise decision of the Caretaker Government to 0delay
with regards to Hasina's better treatment. Such
procrastination of sending her abroad may damage the
hearing of the AL chief forever."
"The authorities concerned must consider our appeal
realising the sentiment of partymen and people of
Bangladesh as they will not tolerate it," he observed
adding "In our country, there is no proper treatment of
ears were which badly damaged following the grisly grenade
attack on 21 August in 2004."
Demanding early parliamentary election, the AL General
Secretary said, "Don't try to give lame excuse and waste
times, take preparation only for the next Parliamentary
Election which is the main task of this interim
government."
About the closure of different Trade Unions across the
country, the AL meeting also urged the government to
resume the activities of Trade Union terming it the
violation of the Human Rights and rules of the
International Labor Organization (ILO).
The meeting also expressed grave concern over the price
spiral of the essentials, including rice and edible oil,
and called upon the government to arrest the price spiral
as an emergency basis.
"The people are passing miserable days. They are very much
fed up as this government absolutely failed to control the
price hike of necessary commodities," he opined cautioning
the authorities concerned, "Otherwise the overall
situation of the country would deteriorate further." Asked
about a possible movement, Syed Ashraf said, "We always
evaluate the opinions of the party leaders and activists
from all levels. They want movement for freeing Sheikh
Hasina. The upcoming ALWC meeting will decide the agenda
of the next meetings with roots-level leaders. After
taking overall summary from their discussion, we will take
decision. "The treatment and the release of the party
chief Sheikh Hasina will dominate the next emergency ALWC
meeting on March 29," he added.
Replying to a query, the Ashraful said, "AL's stand is
clear that we will never attend any programme of the
government if it (Govt.) invites the war criminals
including the Jamaat-e-Islami. As the war criminals are
invited, we will not take part in the function at the
Bangabhaban on the occasion of the 'Independence Day' on
March 26."
Hannan
Shah continues with reunification agenda
Taib Ahmed
Despite the opposition of the party Secretary General as
well as of the party rank and file, BNP Chairperson’s
adviser (Brig) ASM Hannan Shah is continuing his efforts
to reunite the warring factions of the party.
Although Hannan Shah seemed to have backtracked from his
stand on unity following a statement of the party
Secretary General, Khandoker Delwar Hossain, from New
York, Hannan has not shifted his stand; rather he has
expedited his efforts. He meantime held a series of
meetings on the sly with the reformist leaders. According
to sources close to Hannan Shah, the flamboyant BNP leader
will reunite the two factions of the party at any cost.
Talking to the correspondent, party insiders said, "His
desperation to reunite the party would make Hannan Shah
‘zero’ in the same way he became hero for his
outspokenness in favour of Begum Khaleda Zia during the
crisis period of the party."
On Wednesday, Hannan Shah called in a reporter of a
vernacular daily to his New DOHS residence and apprised
him of his unity move and told him that he has finalised
the draft which will be signed by Hannan Shah on behalf of
the loyalist faction and Maj (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed.
Earlier on Monday night, Hannan Shah held a meeting with
Osman Faruk, a reformist leader and on Tuesday night, he
held a meeting with acting Chairman and Secretary General
of the reformist faction M Saifur Rahman and Maj (retd)
Hafizuddin Ahmed in a residence of New DOHS. The discussed
the pros and cons of the draft as well as the party
reunification process.
Sources said, the meeting also discussed what would be the
situation if Khandoker Delwar does not approve their
agreement. A source close to Hannan Shah said, the
reunification process can be finalized through official
declaration at any time before March 26. Another source
said, Hannan Shah wants to finalise his unity process once
Khandoker Delwar returns home after his treatment in New
York.
"Khandoker Delwar Hossain will be compelled to approve my
unity efforts," Hannan Shah was quoted to have said by a
close associate, as he asked Hannan Shah what if Delwar
does not agree.
Sources said, in his meeting with pro-Delwar leader Rizvi
Ahmed on Monday, there was an exchange of hard talks
between the two leaders. When Rizvi told him as to why he
is going ahead with the unity agenda as Delwar Hossain
knows nothing, Hannan replied, "Begum Zia conveyed her
message of unity to me, how could the party Secretary
General know and moreover, it is not important that
everything should be known by the Secretary General.
Back Page
Govt forms Market
Monitoring Cell
Staff Correspondent
Commerce Ministry on
Thursday formed a market monitoring cell to oversee the
prices of essential commodities specially rice, lentil and
edible oil in the local and global markets in a bid to
reduce people's sufferings from the skyrocketing price
hike and to foil the whole-seller's target for making huge
profit.
Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman will act as
Chairman of market monitoring cell while NBR Chairman,
Commerce Secretary, Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor, TCB
Chairman and BDR Director General as members. The decision
was taken at a meeting held at the Commerce Ministry
yesterday. Former Finance Adviser and renowned economist
Wahiduddin Mahmud was invited to the meeting.
After the meeting Commerce Adviser said the Market
Monitoring Cell will inform the people about the prices of
rice, lentil and edible oil regularly through print and
electronic media including state-owned BTV and radio.
"The Cell will inform the people about the prices of rice,
lentil and edible oil in the local market, neighbouring
countries market and international market. So people can
easily understand the present prices of essentials. On the
other hand, Cell has also taken an initiative to prevent
the whole-sellers from making more profit which is fueling
the hike of prices of essentials," Zillur said.
He said the meeting discussed various issues relating to
prices of essential commodities. "We have discussed about
the quantity of local production, import and deficit. With
a view to encouraging import of edible oil, duty on edible
oil has been withdrawn," he added.
Talking to the journalists Wahiduddin Mahmud said the
meeting decided to put moral pressure on the businessmen.
"As the rationing system has been abolished, we have
suggested the government to go to the vulnerable group and
sell rice, lentil and edible at cheaper rate to them," he
said.
Power crisis takes serious turn
Staff Correspondent
Power situation has taken a
serious turn as the country has been experiencing about
1500 MW of electricity shortfall due to inadequate
generation by the Power Development Board (PDB).
"The PDB has the capacity to generate 3900 MW to 4000 MW
electricity against the demand for 5550 MW during the
summer. On Tuesday, PDB generated 3901 MW against the
demand for 4300 MW," an official of PDB told The
Bangladesh Today.
Officials of Rural Electrification Board (REB), Dhaka
Electric Supply Authority (DESA) and Dhaka Electric Supply
Company (Desco) and the PDB said the actual demand is
5,500 mw. As a result the country is experiencing about
1500 mw shortages daily. Almost all the areas in the city,
except some VVIP and important areas, had to face power
outage for hours together in different spells today.
In the capital, frequent power disruption and load
shedding is seriously affecting the city dwellers,
educational institutions and business establishments as
the supply of electricity fell drastically
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.
"The terrible power situation will deteriorate day by day
as most of the power plants are old. Many power units of
different power plants in the country with a generation
capacity of 1500mw of electricity remain out of order," a
source in the Power Development Board said.
Meanwhile, thousands of small and medium scale industries
at different places including the old part of the city are
facing an uphill task to maintain required output level
due to random power failure, sources said. Due to power
shortage, the factories may not be able to meet the
production target, likely to cause them losses in millions
of taka, they added.
Not only the business activities of these areas are
paralysed, but also the normal activities of thousands of
people are being disrupted due to frequent power outage.
Sufferings of the people, especially children and the
aged, have mounted due to rise in temperature and frequent
loadshedding. Meanwhile, people living at many places of
country including six metropolitan cities have been
expressing utter disappointment over the worsening power
situation.
BD Workers in Malaysia
We should think about their welfare: Dr Iftekhar
Staff Correspondent
Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury on Thursday said
Bangladeshi people working in different companies in
Malaysia can switch over to other companies if they
prefer.
"When I visited Malaysia earlier I talked to the Malaysian
Government on the issue. Malaysian government assured me
that Bangladeshi people, who are working in different
companies, will be able to work in another company." The
foreign advisor said this while inaugurating a three-day
long fair 'Showcase Malaysia- 2008' started at a city
hotel on Thursday.
He said the Bangladeshi labours have been working in
Malaysia despite various problems and difficulties and
sending a huge amount of money back to the country.
"About eight lakh Bangladeshi people went to Malaysia last
year and sent seven billion US dollar remittance. We
should think about their welfare. During my visit I made
an earnest request to the Malaysian government so that it
takes action accordingly to solve the problems the
Bangladeshi workers are facing in Malaysia.
Success for economic cooperation between two countries
depends on degree of compatibility of their economics.
Trade and commerce occupy an important position in
Bangladesh-Malaysia bilateral relations. There is ample
scope for further advancement of this relation to benefit
both the countries. Bangladesh offers an excellent
investment environment. The investors from Malaysia can
make best use of this offer.
Crime
Robbery on Dhaka-Aricha highway, two held
A Correspondent, Manikganj
Cash, mobile sets and valuables worth Tk three lakh were
looted by robbers from a Paturia-bound passenger bus on
Dhaka-Aricha at Kalia under Dhamrai thana in Dhaka Highway
on Wednesday. Later two robbers were arrested.
The arrested robbers are Shahadat Hossain, 21, of Islampur
and Firoz, 20, of Palli village of Dhamrai in Dhaka.
According to the police sources, a gang of robbers
numbering nine boarded on the bus of Jatrisheba from
Gabtoli of Dhaka from Nabinagar in guise of passengers.
At the time of robbery the out post policemen came to the
spot and by the help of passengers Shahadat was caught
from the spot. Later the Ashulia thana poice arrested
Firoz in thuis connection.
One held with
yaba in city
Staff Correspondent
At least seven alleged drug traders including a woman were
arrested and huge amount of yaba tablets and ganja were
recovered from their possession from different parts of
the capital on Wednesday night.
Acting on a tip-off, a patrol team of DB police led by
senior assistant police commissioner, SM Mehedi launched a
day-long drive at city's Bijoy Nagar, Uttara, Gabtoli and
Aminbazar areas and arrested Razon, 26, Karim, 23, Kamal,
38, Locman Hakim, 47, Rony 29. The law enforcers recovered
around 2100 of yaba, around Tk three lakh and 31 thousand
with seven mobile phone sets. The arrestees are the
members of an organized drug trading gang, according to DB
sources.
Meanwhile, on the basis of secret information, a team of
police led by sub-inspector Bachu Mia raided a house at
about 12 noon at Khilkhet and arrested Fuleshori Bagum,
32, an alleged narcotic items trader. Around 5kg ganja
worth about Tk 60 thousand were recovered from her
possession.
Cases were lodged under narcotic Act.
Youth slaughtered in Jessore
UNB, Jessore
A youth was slaughtered by some unknown assailants at
Bharatpur in Monirampur upazila Tuesday.
Sources said Masood Rana, 26, son of Mohiuddin of Per
Khajura village of the upazila, went missing since a youth
called him out of his house on Sunday night.
Being informed by local people, police recovered the body
from a garden at Bharatpur village on Tuesday and sent it
to hospital morgue for autopsy.
Motive behind the killing could not be known immediately.
A case was filed.
2 poachers detained by forest dept
BSS, Bagerhat
Members of forest department in Sundarbans detained two
poachers from the Posur river when they were returning
home after hunting deer on Wednesday.
The forest department personnel recovered 22 kilograms
venison after searching the boat of the poacher.
The arrested men were identified as Kamalash, 23, and
Rafiqul Islam, 28. The poachers were sent to Bagerhat
Judical Magistrate's Court.
A case was filed under Wildlife Act in this connection.
Prisoners on hunger strike protesting poor food
UNB, Meherpur
Inmates of the district jail have gone on hunger strike
since Thursday morning protesting poor and inadequate
food.
Jail Super Masudul Kabir admitted the fact. He said
detained Meherpur pourasava chairman Mutassim Billah was
obstructed by a jailer boiling egg inside the cell, which
is a violation of the jail code. That angered him and
declined to take food. Other jail inmates joined him.
More than 200 people are in the age-old 39-capacity jail.
Murder case against OC, 4 cops, 3 others
UNB, Khulna
A case was filed against seven people, including
officer-in-charge of Batiaghata Thana and four other
policemen, on Wednesday for killing a man.
Abul Hasan filed the case with the Chief Judicial
Magistrate Court against OC of Batiaghata thana Delwar
Hossain and Sub Inspectors Abdul Malek, Saban Ali and
Akkas Ali, ASI M Sayed, police source Ansar Gazi and
Moslem Gazi for killing his brother Abul Hossain in jail.
In his complaint, Abul Hasan alleged that his brother Abul
Hossain was arrested from Sallamari area in the city for
possessing drug on March 7 this year and brought to
Batiaghata thana.
He alleged that a Sub Inspector as per the instruction of
OC Delwar demanded Tk 1 lakh from his family over the
mobile phone for releasing Abul Hossain.
He said Abul Hossain was found dead in the thana hajat on
the following day and he was told that his brother
committed suicide.
A three-member committee was formed to investigate the
matter and the committee was asked to submit its report
within seven days. But he alleged that no report was
submitted although 10 days have passed.
Butcher shot dead, father wounded
UNB, Jhenidah
A butcher was shot dead and his octogenarian father
wounded by bullet in a gun attack at Kumrabaria in Sadar
upazila on Wednesday night.
Police quoting local people said assailants fired three
shots on Jamal Hossain, 40, and his father Idris Ali, 80,
through the window of the house at about 10:30pm, leaving
them fatally wounded.
They were rushed to the Sadar Hospital where Jamal died
shortly after admission. Condition of Idris was stated
critical.
Police suspected the gun attack was made in a sequel to
"previous enmity".
A case was filed with the Sadar police station.
Theft at Teletalk office
UNB, Bogra
Muggers took away scratch-cards worth Tk 25 lakh and Tk
50,000 in cash from the divisional office of mobile phone
Company Teletalk in the town.
Sources said the officials left the office locking its
door on Tuesday evening and found the grill of a window
broken on the following morning.
Later, they found scratch cards of different values worth
Tk 25 lakh and Tk 50,000 in cash missing from the office.
On information, police rushed to the spot and also
detained its two guards for interrogation.
Pirate busted
BSS, Bagerhat
A notorious pirate leader of Bay of Bengal was arrested by
police in a pre-dawn swoop on Wednesday from the Kalapara
area of Pautakhali.
The leader was identified as Abul Hossain, 35. He is the
leader of Abul Bahani. Police super of Bagerhat AKM
Shaheedur Rahman told BSS that Hossain was arrested in a
robbery case in a fishing trawler at Bay of Bengal on
February 28.
A gang of pirates, led by Abul Hossain, attacked that
trawler named AF Sagar-1 where 7 fishermen out of 9 still
missing and looted fishes, nets and other goods, sp said.
He said a good number of cases are pending in different
thans of the district against Abul Hossain. Abul has been
attacking trawlers and fishing boats in the Bay of Bengal
since long after formation of the bahini.
Headmaster held for embezzling relief
UNB, Bagerhat
Police arrested headmaster of a government primary school
from Pikepara village in sadar upazila Wednesday for
embezzling relief goods.
Sources said Asit Kumar Das, headmaster of Sunagar
Government Primary School, took 25 packets of powder milk
of relief to his house instead of distributing those among
the students of his school.
Local people recovered the milk from the kitchen of his
house and handed him over to police.
A case was filed.
Editorial
Fears of Social and Political Unrests
A
Daily Star report on 19 March 2008 cited various WFP officials
as apprehending social and political unrests if food prices
continue to rise much beyond the buying capacities of people.
One doesn't have to wait for this cautionary message from WFP
officials to understand that Bangladesh and its people are
perhaps passing through their most critical times since
Independence. Never in our history of 37 years of state-hood
have we faced such apparently insurmountable problems of such
massive and all-encompassing scope - our politics are in
disarray, our economics are in worse disarray and our society
is uncertain, divisive and unstable. True it is that for the
last few years we have been living with uncertainties of all
sorts, uncertainties being a part of human conditions, but
never to a magnitude and to an extent which threatens to tear
apart the very fabric of our nation-statehood.
This slide into chaos started towards the end of the last
BNP-Jamaat alliance government, when that government decided
to pre-engineer the forthcoming elections to bring them back
to power for a consecutive second term. With the AL and the
BNP intransigent and unwilling to compromise the stage was set
for either an outright martial-law or an emergency strongly
backed by the Army. Largely manipulated by foreign powers such
as India, the USA and UK, the Emergency was ill-planned and
ill-conceived from the very beginning. The Emergency
Government was composed of individuals who had little, if any,
discernment of what Bangladesh was all about and what the
ground realities are. The expectations of the populace were
high. A sea-change in politics, in governance and in the
economy was expected but what the people got was a change of
personnel and modus operandi in such areas as the EC, the
Anti-Corruption Commission and the lower judiciary (much
touted as the independence of the judiciary); areas which do
not really affect the lives or living of the "common man". As
for the rest, it was business as usual. Changes in the core
state institutions, such as in the system of justice and
judiciary, in the police and the system of law-enforcement, in
the bureaucracy and the system of public administration and in
the military were never even in the agenda; age old core state
institutions which were the cause of and provided the roots of
miss-governance continued functioning as they always did, with
inefficiency and with ineptitude.
When natural disasters and a global economy in recession badly
hit our own fragile economy, it created inflation, large-scale
unemployment, food shortages and a galloping increase in
prices of essential commodities. With political processes and
institutions in disorder, a divisive society in fearful
uncertainty, a populace getting increasingly disillusioned and
angry, the Emergency Government could or can do little to
tackle the situation; neither does it have the leadership
capabilities to see through a Nation in deep predicament.
Under the circumstances, social and political unrests, strife
or even conflicts are a foregone conclusion. We wanted the
Emergency Government to save us from the chaos of political
and social conflicts, what it has done is to aggravate and
accelerate the process of disintegration of our entire social,
political and economic systems; a complete breakdown now
remains in the offing.
BD Workers Abroad
Bangladeshi
workers are facing a very tough time in foreign countries due
to different reasons including adverse labour policies of the
manpower importing countries as well as the failure of the
Bangladesh missions concerned to handle the issue properly. It
has been alleged that Bangladeshi workers are languishing in
different countries as Bangladesh government and its missions
abroad failed to handle the situation effectively. According
to press reports, hundreds of Bangladeshi workers have been
arrested in different countries including Saudi Arabia and
Malaysia while many others are being sent back home forcibly.
The situation turned for the worse specially in Saudi Arabia
as Rohynga Muslims of Myanmar, who managed to go there with
Bangladeshi passports, are committing rape, murder and other
crimes and the Bangladeshi workers too are forced to bear the
responsibilities of these .
A TBT report on Thursday quoted a diplomatic source as saying
that the Saudi Government still sticks to its decision to
reduce the number of Bangladeshi workers and is even reluctant
to hold any discussion on the issue with Bangladesh. It may be
mentioned here, as many as 54 lakh Bangladeshis are now
working in more than 100 foreign countries, and of them 17
lakhs are in Saudi Arabia. Fresh bloods continue to be infused
in ailing Bangladesh economy as the expatriate Bangladeshi
workers are sending huge amount of foreign exchanges
regularly. But this process is now threatened with a serious
debacle as a large number of them are facing serious
difficulties at their work places and are being detained or
repatriated.
It may be mentioned that Bangladeshi workers are being
recruited through 769 government approved agencies. But some
recruiting agencies are allegedly cheating the workers by
sending them abroad without valid documents and confirmed
jobs. The authorities have so far utterly failed to take these
dishonest manpower recruiting agencies to task.
Worse still, the labour wings of the Bangladesh missions
abroad have been failing miserably to look after the welfare
of the Bangladeshi workers despite issuance of repeated
directives by the ministry of foreign affairs to do so. Those
responsible for promoting employment of Bangladeshis in
foreign countries and protect their interests there are
apparently unable or unwilling to accomplish their tasks as
many of them are allegedly involved in activities of personal
interests. The government should look into this allegation and
take stern action against those found guilty. Besides, the
government should try to persuade the foreign governments
concerned to revise their labour policies and consider the
cases of Bangladeshi workers sympathetically and leniently.
Analysis
Road Back from Perdition
The brutality inflicted on our own countrymen
37 years ago is nothing to be proud of or to be shoved under
the carpet, this is a lasting shame we must live with.
Ikram Sehgal
If
anyone thinks Pakistanis know more about the political
complexities of their present predicament, think again. Every
Bangladeshi I met during a recent visit to Dhaka had some
advice on how to solve our problems. More importantly, they
were passionately sincere in hoping things would work out for
Pakistan. Given the residual anger about 1971 atrocities (and
recent calls for bringing of war criminals to justice), the
turnaround of emotions is quite something!
The brutality inflicted on our own countrymen 37 years ago is
nothing to be proud of or to be shoved under the carpet, this
is a lasting shame we must live with. Those who perpetrated
those atrocities deserve perdition. However Biharis (and
others hailing from former West Pakistan) also need atonement,
they were also on the receiving end in 1971, particularly
between 2 Mar and 25 Mar, and after Dec 16, albeit on a much
smaller scale. Pakistan has an obligation of conscience to
repatriate the forgotten "stranded Pakistanis" back to
Pakistan, they belong here. While neither forgiving nor
forgetting the horrendous crimes of 1971, why re-open old
wounds by targeting a few dregs of humanity? Let's harness the
inherent goodwill of today and use that as the bedrock of the
present and future relationship between the two countries.
Pakistan and Bangladesh may not be similar, they have
remarkably similar problems. On Oct 12, 1999, the then PM (Mian
Nawaz Sharif) tried to oust the COAS and was himself deposed
in a counter-coup by the army remaining loyal to its Chief,
Gen Pervez Musharraf took over as Chief Executive rather than
imposing Martial Law. Musharraf took over as Chief Executive
rather than imposing Martial Law. Inheriting a terrible
economic situation alongwith numerous social and political
woes, Pervez Musharraf was heartily applauded on assuming
power. The much criticized u-turn after 9/11 gave a great
boost to our economic fortunes. Musharraf initiated
significant reforms, including giving women a reserved
position in governance, freeing the electronic media, setting
in motion (with the help of 9/11) several years of economic
boom, etc. It is the done thing for persons occupying seats of
power to want to cling on to power, how many Nelson Mandelas
in this world? The rigging and manipulation of elections 2002
put paid to all Pervez Musharraf's reformist agenda, his
attempt at longevity came a cropper. The compromising of
accountability, failure in dealing strongly with Jehadi
elements, the economics of "trickle-down" refusing to trickle
down to the masses, the stifling of democratic forces in his
ambitions to retain absolute power, etc, reversed the many
gains of nearly a decade.
The ultimate catalyst for change was of his own doing, albeit
on very bad advice from his three hand-picked Intelligence
Chiefs, Nadeem Ijaz, DGMI, Ijaz Shah, DG IB and Nusrat Naeem
DDG ISI (incharge of internal security). The attempt to remove
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on Mar 9, 2007 was an
unmitigated disaster. Before they run the three blind mice
need to answer for their excesses, they should also answer to
Musharraf for comprehensively destroying what could have been
a tremendous legacy. There is a moral here, merit and
integrity must always supercede blind loyalty. The lawyers got
hold off his heels and have not let go. Musharraf the survivor
still has a few rabbits left in his magic hat, will Musharraf
the patriot delay the inevitable? More appropriately, at what
cost to himself and to the nation?
As Defence Attaché of Bangladesh posted in Islamabad in Oct
1999, (then) Brig Gen (now Gen) Moeen Ahmad must have learnt a
thing or two from Musharraf's assuming of absolute power.
Khaleda Zia blatantly attempted to rig the elections in late
2007, friend and foe alike exhorted Moeen, by then CAS
Bangladesh Army, to take over, either by imposing outright
martial law or do a Pervez Musharraf, i.e. become Chief
Executive of the government. To his undying credit, Moeen only
partially followed the Musharraf formula, refusing to become
Head of State or of Government. The Presidency was activated
to declare an emergency and install a genuinely neutral
Caretaker Cabinet. Thus was "the Bangladeshi model" created, a
refined behind-the-scenes military rule with actual civilian
governance instead of a civilian façade, the initial results
were remarkably good. Moeen did not post uniformed officers
wholesale a la Musharraf into the civilian bureaucracy to fix
everything including the kitchen sink. However power is
difficult to resist, army officers did manage to creep into
governance over time. An Anti-Corruption Commission a la
Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) went after the
chronically corrupt. Instead of eliminating a hundred or so
hard-core habitually corrupt from the body politic, Moeen's
men seem to have taken on too much by going after every
corrupt person, big or small, across the broad spectrum. The
bull-in-a-China-shop interference by the uniformed lot also
targeted importers of foodgrain and edible oils; the cycle of
vital imports dried up. Compounded by the vagaries of mother
nature, scarcities have resulted in skyrocketing prices for an
already impoverished people.
The generally left-of-center Bangladeshi intelligentsia or the
teeming masses certainly do not want a return of the old
corrupt set-up. The Catch-22 is that if general elections are
delayed, frustration and bitterness at food shortages will
boil over. We may have a replay of the developing Pakistan
situation, politically and economically, Bangladesh traversing
in less than two years what Pakistan has done in nine. Moeen
must emulate his Pakistani counterpart, Gen Kayani, belatedly
but effectively. Recall all Army officers from civilian jobs
and stop intelligence officers from interfering with politics
and politicians, only exceptions being what concerns the
security of the State. His anti-corruption drive has a few
months narrow "window of opportunity" left, focus must be on
prosecuting the corrupt few whose elimination from the system
is vital. The vacuum will allow genuine leadership of
political parties to naturally emerge without manipulation. No
army in history has ever successfully created a political
party that has lasted for any length of time. Leave politics
alone and plan a quick transition to genuine democracy after
free and fair elections.
If Moeen really wants change for his nation, and there is no
reason to believe otherwise, then the electoral system must be
made truly democratic. The "first-past-the-post" system is not
democratic, it is a farce. If any candidate does not get more
than 50% of the voters cast, a "second run-off" election
between first two candidates getting the most votes is a must
to have a clear winner. Other than hard-core supporters,
disparate forces in every constituency will band together to
vote out scoundrels that have filtered thorough the
"corruption screen", fostering unity across the broad spectrum
of the body politic. The Bangladesh Election Commission, by
the way quite independent and thus credible, must ensure that
the majority will is clearly and unambiguously expressed.
Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has put the Pakistan Army on the road
back from perdition. As someone who has always believed Moeen
Ahmad is marked by destiny, he must do the same for
Bangladesh.
(Ikram Sehgal is an internationally renowned columnist and the
Editor of the Pakistan Defense Journal)
Kosovo's First Month
While Serbia has a strategy to divide Kosovo, the
international community does not have a clearly defined and
coordinated response.
A
month has passed since Kosovo declared independence on 17
February 2008. Much has gone well, but there is a real risk,
as made most evident with the violence on 17 March around the
courthouse in north Mitrovica that partition will harden at
the Ibar River in the north and Kosovo will become another
frozen conflict. To seek to prevent this, more countries must
recognize and embrace the new state, the international
missions (European Union and NATO) must be more proactive and
coordinate their operations and, most importantly, it must be
demonstrated to Serbia, supported by Russia, that it will not
be permitted to break up the new state.
Kosovo's government has made positive gestures to the Serb
minority and committed to protect minority rights, including
through decentralization of local government and preservation
of cultural and religious heritage. Countries that have
recognized Kosovo should now follow up with high-level visits,
investments, trade agreements and assistance packages that
will demonstrate independence is an irreversible reality and
give the new state the confidence and wherewithal it needs to
act responsibly.
Concerns that many had about the first month of independence -
mass exodus from the enclaves, economic/energy boycotts or
even military action by Serbia - have proven unfounded. Nor
has there been widespread destabilizing violence. But the
global community's so-far tepid embrace of the new republic,
Belgrade's efforts to expand its hold over Serb areas so as to
advance a partition strategy and the failure of international
bodies and Pristina to coordinate a counter-strategy suggest
longer-term dangers remain very real. These include the
perpetuation of a dispute that until it is accepted as settled
by all parties leaves the post-Yugoslav peace project in much
of the Western Balkans fragile; one of the regions most
important states - Serbia - seriously at odds with neighbors
and the West; Russia with a standing temptation to make
mischief; the UN's conflict resolution prestige wounded; and
the European Union's ability to punch at the political
heavyweight level it strives for severely tested.
Kosovo's independence ceremonies and celebrations were
dignified and well organized. The new government reached out
rhetorically to the Serbs and adopted state symbols, including
a new flag, which showed sensitivity to the concerns of the
international community. It pledged to implement the plan for
conditional independence devised by the UN Secretary-General's
special representative, Martti Ahtisaari, and invited the
International Civilian Representative (ICR), the EU rule of
law mission (EULEX) and NATO (KFOR) to assume major
responsibilities for implementing that plan. Kosovo's
parliament has begun passing the Ahtisaari laws and is soon to
finalize the new constitution.
The EU acted with remarkable unity, even in the face of some
member states' hesitancy to recognize Kosovo. On 18 February
it took common note of the independence declaration and
committed to play a leading role in helping the young state.
Earlier it had authorized EULEX as its largest mission ever,
as well as an EU special representative, and deployment has
begun. EU High Representative Javier Solana, Swedish Foreign
Minister Carl Bildt and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer were the only senior officials to visit Kosovo in the
first month of independence. On 28 February in Vienna, several
EU member states and the U.S. took the lead to establish an
International Steering Group to supervise Kosovo independence.
The reaction in Serbia was marked with street violence and
government disunity. The rejectionist and racist anti-Albanian
tone contrasted poorly with the inclusive and sober messages
coming from Pristina and demonstrated again both how big a
blow the loss of Kosovo is and the failure to break
definitively with Milosevic-era attitudes. Commendably,
Belgrade did not follow through on threats to cut electricity
and impose an embargo, kept its army back and restrained
extremists from escalating violence in Kosovo.
The Serbian government - a coalition primarily between
President Tadic's DS party and Prime Minister Kostunica's DSS
party - fell on 10 March, largely over differences on how to
respond to EU states' recognition of Kosovo and the deployment
of EU missions. But Tadic and the DS have in effect acquiesced
to Kostunica's domination of Serbia's Kosovo policy, including
the refusal to cooperate with the new EU missions. Little
change can be expected in this regard from the 11 May
parliamentary elections.
Instead, Belgrade is likely to perpetuate a stand-off in
Kosovo Serb areas. It facilitated violence in Kosovo on 19, 21
and 25 February, when Serbs attacked customs and border posts
in the north (though Serbian riot police prevented a further
attack by army reservists on 9 March). The consequences of its
provocations were evident in the violent aftermath of the
effort by UNMIK and KFOR to clear the regional court in north
Mitrovica on 17 March of former employees who had occupied the
building demanding that they be returned to their jobs. These
consequences included scores of injuries to protestors and
internationals alike.
Serbia is implementing a sophisticated policy to undermine
Kosovo statehood by strengthening parallel institutions in
Kosovo Serb areas, intimidating or buying off any inclined to
cooperate with Pristina. Nationalist politicians in Belgrade
hope at a minimum to secure partition into Albanian and
Serbian entities, or to incite Kosovo Albanians to react
violently and so do great damage to the international standing
of their state-building project. The situation is made more
complicated by Russia's continued firm support of Serbia,
efforts to discourage recognitions and resistance to UNMIK
downsizing.
While Serbia has a strategy to divide Kosovo, the
international community does not have a clearly defined and
coordinated response. The 17 March UNMIK/KFOR operation
appears to have been more an ad hoc reaction to provocation
than part of a carefully choreographed plan. Legitimate
questions have arisen as to whether its timing, tactics and
potential consequences were fully considered in advance.
More broadly the EU and the UN are late in agreeing to a
handover process and have stopped talking about transition.
The UN is suggesting that it may remain beyond the first 120
days, at least in the north where the EU has been forced to
pull back by the violence of the Serb response. NATO is
concerned that it will be called on to assume more policing
duties if Serb radicals backed by Belgrade continue to try to
undermine UN and Kosovo Police Service (KPS) authority,
especially along the border and in north Mitrovica.
International political resolve is needed now to tell Serbia
bluntly that it must accept Kosovo independence and move on.
Specifically in the next weeks:
l
The EU and U.S. should stimulate more bilateral recognitions
of Kosovo, lobby for its admission into international bodies,
send high-level political visitors to Pristina and provide
immediate financial assistance and capacity-building support
to the new government.
l
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should state clearly and
without delay that he welcomes cooperation with the EU in
Kosovo and that the UN will downsize to adjust to developments
and changes on the ground.
l
The EU, UN and NATO should agree on a common, comprehensive
strategy for the Serb north of Kosovo. Serbia's efforts since
independence to extend its state institutions there should not
be accepted. The UN should seek to effectively control the
border, police stations, courts and jails; cooperate with the
EU and NATO in reshaping its northern presence to aid
transition; and gradually introduce EULEX, first at border and
customs posts, later at police stations and courts.
l
The Kosovo government and its international partners should
mount a sustained media and information campaign to
communicate to Kosovo Serbs the benefits of the Ahtisaari
plan, focusing on decentralization and the creation of new
Serb-majority municipalities.
(The above is a brief by the International Crisis Group,
released 18 March 2008. Source: www.crisisgroup.org)
Viewpoints
Practicing Community
Policing: The Bangladeshi Perspective
The Bangladesh police have been experimenting
with the philosophy of community policing for ages. But no
effective strategies have yet been followed.
Razzak Raza
Since
the inception of London Metropolitan Police in 1829 by Sir
Robert Peel, the history of policing experienced several new
approaches. But, perhaps, "the most important development and
the most creative approach is the community policing". Though
the concept of community policing began taking roots in
1970's, but it drew global attention in 1990's when the U,S.
Department of Justice (DOJ), established the office of the
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in 1994 to render
federal assistance for community policing approaches to the
states and regional police departments .
Community policing programs take many different forms. Some
emphasizes disorder and quality-of-life issues, while other
focus on serious crime. Some primarily address drug-related
crime. So, it is fairly difficult to define the community
policing in a single sentence. The Community Oriented Policing
Services defines community policing as "a policing philosophy
that promotes and supports organizational strategies to
address the causes and reduce the fear of crime and social
disorder through problem solving tactics and police community
partnership."
In a community policing approach the police need to work
closely with the public as one of the partners of the
community. This philosophy opposes the "inward-looking
bureaucracy" that is traditionally common across the globe.
The basic idea behind the community policing is that it tries
to establish a rapport of trust and a sort of reliance between
the police and the public.
It is true that Sir Robert Peel founded the base-stone of
modern policing. His famous nine points are the basic
guidelines for every police department. His 7th point states,
"police, at all time, should maintain a relationship with the
public that gives the reality to the historic tradition that
the police are the public and the public are the police; the
police being only members of the public who are paid to give
full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every
citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence."
Though community partnership is an essential characteristic of
Robert Peel's nine points, he did not clarify that developing
the quality of citizen's lives would be his central theme. His
standard of evaluating police performance was "absence of
crime and disorder". The 1st point, so, describes, "The basic
mission for which the police exist is prevent crime and
disorder".
However, the debate of determining the master mind of
community policing philosophy would be endless. But it is true
that the base of American approach of community policing lies
on Tom Porter's philosophy. In 1972 the Portland Police
Department, under the leadership of Tom Porter started the
journey of community policing. This idea was adopted by the
other police departments of the United States of America. And
in 1990's this got the USA federal guardianship. In 1994, in
the USA, 'the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act'
was passed both in the House and in the senate, authorizing
8.8 billion dollars expenditure over six years. The office of
COPS was created to distribute and monitor the funds. The COPS
project has extended beyond its stipulated time. It disbursed
fund to the states and regional police departments who adapted
the philosophy of community policing. Under the COPS project
thousands of new police officers were recruited, training
centers were setup to impart necessary training to the
existing and the newly recruit ed police officers who would
work as community police officers. The then president Bill
Clinton during his campaign for the second term election,
promised his voters to allocate additional funds for COPS and
a new recruitment of 100,000 new police officers for community
policing activities.
The philosophy and practice of community policing of the USA
has diffused worldwide. The semi-military top-down and inward
looking police bureaucracy has started to decentralize the
decision making authority to root level officers and the
police are changing their garments of law enforcers putting on
the jacket of problem solvers.
The Bangladesh police have been experimenting with the
philosophy of community policing for ages. But no effective
strategies have yet been followed. The Police Reform Program (PRP)
has been working for massive reform in the police system of
Bangladesh. However, its focus is in the structural and
attitudinal change of the countries colonial police set up.
The idea of community policing might be addressed later on.
But some of the senior police officers are very much
enthusiastic on community policing activities.
Earlier, in Bangladesh, community policing was viewed as an
act of organizing community members of the crime affected
locality to perform night patrol along with police. Owner
groups of the huts, bazaars and business institutions are
encouraged to form patrol committee to perform night patrol on
shifts. Some dacoity prone rural areas also came under the
night patrol style community policing.
This style of community policing are practiced under the
patronization and directives of the Officers-in-Charge of the
local police stations. The performance of an Officer-in-Charge
of a police station is evaluated mainly upon his effective
control over crime against property. A dacoity is considered
more grievous an offence than the murder of few people due to
personal or gang enmity. So, the Officer-in-Charge of a police
station tries heart and soul to deter dacoity. To make his
jurisdiction free of dacoity, he would force the community
members of the dacoity-infested area on the street for patrol.
But the other forms of crimes remain un-addressed. Patrolling
in the night cannot remove the causes of crimes.
In the traditional strategy of crime control, police never
address the roots of criminal activities. And, at the same
time it is also true that the police have no mechanism and
authority to eliminate the causes of crimes. As community
policing is a new philosophy, it demands a positive shift from
the traditional policing attitudes. So, the age-old mindset of
the police-persons must be changed. But this is perhaps the
most difficult task for the organization to change them. Human
beings are traditionally conservative and when they are
organized once, it is tough to reorganize. The police
department is more conservative than any other organization.
It was believed once that the change of police is impossible.
Community policing categorically emphasizes the sea change in
the policing philosophy. It emphasizes the change in the
organizational, tactical and external elements.
In the organization, community policing loose the string of
command and control decentralizing the decision making
process. The rank and file officers will be given enough
leverage to single out community problems, analysis them and
find out a solution for it community policing encourages the
use of non-law enforcement resources within a law enforcement
agency. Volunteerism involves active citizen participation
with their law enforcement agency.
Tactically community policing take a proactive and preventive
action and address the root causes of crimes and disorders.
Police officers, community members and other public and
private organizations work together to solve the problems in a
community. As community members are viewed as partners by the
police, both of them have to shoulder equal responsibilities
in problem solving. The prerequisite of implementing community
policing is the change in the attitudes of the both police and
the public. Therefore training on community policing is needed
for the police officers as well as the community members.
In the USA under the COPS project massive training are
imparted to the police officers on community policing. There
are several Regional Community Policing Training Institutes
where police officers, as well as, the community members are
being trained. COPS has developed Problem Oriented Guides for
Police Series by a group of highly respected researchers.
These COPS publications provide a wealth of information for
detectives and patrol officers on current practices and
innovations to deal with old and new problems.
In Bangladesh, though community policing has become a buzz
expression now a days, the real phase of community policing is
yet to be started. The existing police establishment never
encourages the participation of the community in police works.
Bangladesh police, with their present law, rules and
regulations is an immensely bureaucratic organization. So,
inserting decentralized philosophy of community policing is
nearly impossible. To make room for community participation,
Bangladesh Police must change their existing police act.
Without changing the existing centralized police structure,
community policing can never be practiced.
The rank and file officers of Bangladesh police are trained in
an academy where not an iota of community policing is taught.
The training manual of Bangladesh Police Academy remains
unaltered since 1912; and in 1912 the idea of community
policing was not formed even in the USA. So, the philosophy of
community policing is still a vague expressing to most of the
Bangladeshi police officers. Many officers of Bangladesh
police use the word without understanding the real theme.
Police officers of subordinate ranks getting involved into
community policing web only because, the superior officers
want them to do it. But without the whole hearted devotion,
community policing will be only the individual boss's idea
that will die as soon as the boss departs.
It must be understood that the program of community policing
is not a program of only the police department. It is rather,
a program of the whole community. So, the community
mobilization is one of the major tasks for the community
policing advocates. But the fact is that at present the
Bangladeshi approach of community policing is exclusively a
police activity. Neither the Government nor the non government
forces except the police are engaged in community policing.
Special fund is needed to materialize the community policing
philosophy. The fund must come from the development budget.
Additional police officers as well as non-police experts must
be appointed. Bangladesh Police have an acute shortage of
human resources. They can hardly perform their routine works
with these resources. The community policing program demands
extra manpower. So, fresh recruitment of officers, for the
implementation community policing program, is needed. However,
canceling LPR of the able bodied experienced police persons,
the number of officers could be augmented. Besides this
retired police officers of commendable quality could be
appointed on contract basis for this purpose.
(The author is a freelance columnist specializing in
law-enforcement issues. E-mail: razzak_raza@yahoo.com)
Third oil shock
We are now living in one of history's defining moments, the
third oil shock when North Sea Brent and West Texas crude
trade at $110.
Matein Khalid
THE two oil
shocks of the 1970's had a seismic impact on the world's
industrial constellation, financial markets, geopolitical
alignments and competition for energy resources.
Stagflation in the US, the worst economic recession since the
Great Depression, a monetary policy revaluation under the
Volcker Fed, twenty per cent inflation and Treasury bill
rates, stock market crashes, international banking failures
and the sovereign bankruptcy of Latin America, the collapse of
British trade unions and American airlines, the emergence of
Saudi Arabia as the power broker of the Arab world, the
Reagan-Thatcher free market ideologies can all be traced to
the 1979 oil shock when Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the
Shah's regime in Iran. We are now living in one of history's
defining moments, the third oil shock when North Sea Brent and
West Texas crude trade at $110. The third oil shock will
change the world as we know it, create new realities of
geopolitical power and influence. Technology, politics,
financial markets, climate change, exploration trends in
natural gas and coal, banking systems, the war on terror,
central bank monetary policies, commodities prices, business
processes and strategies, even social norms will not be immune
from the third oil shock. That much, at least, is certain.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR left the
US as the planet's sole superpower, with its Washington
consensus the dominant economic paradigm enforced by the IMF
and the World Bank after the 1998 debt crises in Russia and
the Far East. Yet the first decade of the new millennium, the
reign of George W Bush in the White House, has not been kind
to Pax Americana. The enlargement of the EU, wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle
East, the resurgence of Russia, the Silicon Valley tech bubble
bust, 9/11, the failure to contain Iran or crush Hezbollah,
Hamas and Al Qaeda terrorism, colossal current account
deficits, the Wall Street credit meltdown and the collapse of
the US dollar in the foreign exchange markets all demonstrate
the decline of American power in the world. The third oil
shock will accelerate this trend. Russia, with its $500
billion hard currency reserves and ownership of one fourth of
the world's gas reserves, has stymied Western oil companies'
ambitions to own equity gas. The Kremlin has arm twisted Shell
to give up control of its Sakhalin project to Gazprom and used
its energy resources as an instrument of foreign policy from
Kiev to Berlin, Tashkent to Beijing, Tbilisi to Qom.
Pax Americana in the Middle East also faces grave threats in
the future. Iran's Ayatollahs, also beneficiaries of $110
crude oil, have forged an anti-American, anti-status quo
alliance that embraces, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Gaza in
Palestine and Shia militias in Iran. While US allies like
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the GCC states have not
abandoned Washington's security umbrella, their economic
linkages with China and Russia have become crucial. The US,
with its consumption excesses, crippled money centre banks,
collapsing dollar, impotent Treasury and current account
deficits is hardly a persuasive economic role model for the
Arab world. This is a revolutionary U-turn from the early
1990's when America won the Gulf War, the Soviet Union
disappeared into the garbage heap of history, the IMF and Wall
Street were the world's financiers and the dollar was king in
the currency markets.
If Clinton or Obama win the White House in November, $110
crude oil can easily persuade America to embrace the new ideas
on climate change and energy, as happened with Japan, Taiwan
and South Korea after the economic insecurities of the second
oil shocks. Washington will use regulations and the tax code
to force consumers, utilities and businesses to embrace fuel
efficient protocols, meaning the golden age of the gas guzzler
SUV and the light truck is living on borrowed time. Detroit's
future may rise in hydrogen cars and diesel trucks. Of course,
every oil shock contains the seeds of its own destruction. The
US consumer is no less than 20 per cent of the global GDP and
the buyer of the last resort for Asia's exports that define
the demand curve for oil and gas. As in 1974 and 1982,
economic recession in the West could well mean yet another
historic collapse in crude oil prices.
Of course, since the US is no longer the world's sole economic
superpower, China has emerged from behind the Bamboo Curtain
and India has abandoned the License Raj, the world's ability
to recycle petrodollar surpluses is that much greater. Yet
chronic inflation, fed by soaring prices of gasoline, heating
oil, cement, grains and construction equipment, has become the
macroeconomic Achilles heel of Russia, the GCC, India, China
and the EU. As in the 1970's higher inflation rates increase
political risk for incumbent regimes across the emerging
markets because the masses are often the victims, not
beneficiaries of inflation. This is the ominous message a
capricious electorate delivered to General Musharraf in
Pakistan, to Abdullah Badawi in Malaysia, to the South Korean
socialist coalition in Seoul. If oil, food, cement and
fertiliser prices continue to soar, the Tories will oust New
Labour from Downing Street, the Congress-Left Front will lose
the next Indian general election, riots and demonstrations
could even challenge the dictatorships of the Arab world.
The impact of $110 oil on the GCC will naturally accelerate
the region's economic transformation. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and
the UAE will see trade surpluses soar as well as imports,
defence spending, remittance flows, central bank and sovereign
wealth fund reserves. Algeria, with its large population and
chronic unemployment, will find it difficult not to raise food
subsidies with its $50 billion petrodollar war chest. Libya
has become the newest province of black gold after Colonel
Gaddifi's diplomatic U-turn with Washington, the lifting of UN
sanctions and the $2.5 billion settlement for the Pan Am Jumbo
jet his intelligence agents destroyed in the skies above
Lockerbie, Scotland.
Source:
www.khaleejtimes.com
International
Iraq marks fifth
anniversary of bloody war
AFP, Baghdad
Iraq on Thursday will mark the fifth anniversary of the
US-led invasion that toppled brutal dictator Saddam
Hussein, but also plunged a nation of 26 million people
into chaos and bloodshed.
On March 20, 2003, US planes dropped the first bombs on
Baghdad, to signal an invasion that would within three
weeks topple Saddam's regime and leave US forces in charge
of a resentful and rebellious people. On Wednesday, Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani said the invasion ended Saddam's
era of torture and tyranny.
"The brutal regime of the dictator fell ... the regime
that ruled Iraq for decades, the decades of darkness. The
decades that were of tyranny," said Talabani in a
statement.
During Saddam's iron-fisted rule, he said, the prisons
were full of "innocent prisoners. These cells were
Saddam's theatres for torture and brutal crimes."
But five years since that day, Iraqis and US and allied
forces still face daily attacks from insurgents and
Islamist militants, and fighting between armed factions
from both sides of Iraq's Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide
goes on.
As the conflict enters its sixth year, peace activists
launched protests acround the world, and US President
George W. Bush once again defended his tainted legacy.
Bush acknowledged that the war has "come at a high cost in
lives and treasure," but defended both the decision to
invade and to boost the number of US troops in Iraq last
year.
"The answers are clear to me: removing Saddam Hussein from
power was the right decision-and this is a fight America
can and must win," he said in a speech at the Pentagon, US
military headquarters.
Anti-war activists are not impressed and launched sit-ins
and marches across the United States on Wednesday,
demanding an immediate withdrawal of US soldiers. "This
war needs to end and it needs to end now," Leslie Cagan,
national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, told
AFP.
Demonstrators said they would target government agencies,
lawmakers, oil companies and "corporate media" for helping
to promote and sustain the war. Bush has taken heart from
recent signs that the bloodshed in Iraq has fallen, but
even US commander General David Petraeus admits that the
country has made insuffienct progress towards national
reconciliation.
"Scoring a military victory is easy, but a political
victory is more difficult to achieve," said Mustapha Alani,
director of security studies at the Dubai-based Gulf
Research Centre.
He said Washington had dismantled Saddam's regime and was
now "unable to put it back together". The day-to-day
reality on the ground is grim.
The war has killed more than 4,000 US and allied soldiers
and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians-between 104,000
and 223,000 died between March 2003 and June 2006 alone,
according to the World Health Organisation.
Bhutto’s son in Pakistan for PM announcement: Party
AFP, Islamabad
The teenage
son of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returned to
Pakistan on Wednesday to announce her party's nomination
for the post of prime minister, a party spokesman said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a 19-year-old student at Britain's
prestigious Oxford University, was named Bhutto's heir
apparent in December following her assassination at a
political rally.
The untested Bilawal is completing his studies, and in the
interim his father Asif Ali Zardari has taken the reins of
the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which won the most
seats in last month's parliamentary elections.
"Bilawal will announce the name of the prime minister. He
has come to Pakistan, he is in Karachi," party spokesman
Farhatullah Babar told AFP.
"The name of the prime minister will be announced when the
(parliament) is reconvened for the election of the prime
minister," which is expected next week, the spokesman
said.
Bilawal earlier travelled to the mausoleum in rural
southern Sindh province where Bhutto was buried and paid
his respects, accompanied by his sister Bakhtawar and aunt
Sanam Bhutto, witnesses said.
At the tomb in the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, at least
five thousand people gathered to see him and chanted
slogans including: "O God, Benazir is innocent" and "Benazir
is alive in the face of Bilawal."
Bhutto is buried in the tomb alongside her father Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto, also a former prime minister, who was hanged
by military ruler Ziaul Haq in 1979.
Bilawal later travelled to the Bhutto ancestral home in
the nearby town of Naudero. He is expected to leave for
Islamabad on Thursday, Babar said.
Party insiders say the current front-runner for the
position is Yousuf Raza Gilani, a long-term Bhutto
loyalist who was parliamentary speaker during her
government from 1993-1996.
They say the prime minister named by Bilawal may only hold
the post for a few months until Zardari himself becomes
eligible to become premier.
Zardari did not contest the elections because candidacies
were filed before his wife's assassination but is likely
to fight a by-election in her home constituency in May.
Dalai Lama pushes for talks with China
AFP, Taipei
Tibetan
spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday appealed for
a resumption of talks with China following a wave of
unrest in his Himalayan homeland.
In a letter released from his base in northern India, he
asked world leaders to help push for dialogue with China
and to press Beijing to show "restraint" in dealing with
the violence in the remote region.
"We remain committed to... pursuing a process of dialogue
in order to find a mutually beneficial solution to the
Tibetan issue," the Dalai Lama wrote.
"I also seek the international community's support for our
efforts to resolve Tibet's problems through dialogue, and
I urge them to call upon the Chinese leadership to
exercise the utmost restraint in dealing with the current
disturbed situation and to treat those who are being
arrested properly and fairly."
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday that Beijing was
willing to hold talks, but only after the Dalai Lama gave
up what is viewed in China as a campaign for Tibet to be
granted independence. Although the Dalai Lama repeated his
accusation that China |