Polls financing major source of graft: WB

World Bank (WB) Country Director Christine I Wallich yesterday said election financing is a major source of corruption, which has retarded the country's infrastructure development, investment climate, and ultimately the development process. "The cost of getting elected in Bangladesh is said to be among the highest in the world," she said addressing a two-day workshop on infrastructure in the city adding that Tk 200 billion were said to be spent by the parties in the elections. She urged the Election Commission (EC) to implement rigorously and relentlessly the recent High Court directive to gather information regarding the candidates' income, assets and liabilities.

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Bangladesh Polls cost highest in Asia : WB

Tuesday August 30 2005 10:09:23 AM

The World Bank country director, Christine Wallich, on Monday said election campaign expense in Bangladesh is among the highest in the world, fuelling corruption and hindering infrastructure development.( The New Age BD )The finance minister, M Saifur Rahman, and the state minister for power, Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, however, refuted her and termed her observation ?sweeping comments on a poor country?.They were speaking in the inaugural session of an international workshop on ?Infrastructure Financing in Bangladesh? at the Dhaka Sheraton hotel, jointly organised by the Bangladesh Bank and the Board of Investment with the assistance of the World Bank.?Current problems of infrastructure governance lie outside the infrastructure sectors themselves and lie in Bangladesh?s system of corruption,? said Wallich, while delivering her speech as special guest.Terming election financing one of the major sources of corruption, she quoted some ?apocryphal? figures saying $3.3 billion, which is about five per cent of the GDP, were spent by the parties in the last elections

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North Korea: The War Game

The Atlantic Monthly July/August 2005

Dealing with North Korea could make Iraq look like child's play—and the longer we wait, the harder it will get. That's the message of a Pentagon-style war game involving some of this country's most prominent foreign-policy strategists
by Scott Stossel

On the third weekend in March, while America was transfixed by the most exciting NCAA basketball tournament in years, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in the Far East, in the midst of a series of meetings with her opposite numbers in six Asian countries. Arriving in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, she boarded a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and flew to Command Post Tango, the underground bunker that would be the nerve center for the U.S. military in the event of a war against North Korea. While not quite on the order of Ariel Sharon's parading around the Temple Mount in Israel, Rice's move was undeniably provocative. No high-ranking American official had ever visited the bunker before—and the choice of a military site as the secretary of state's first stop seemed to represent a gentle rattling of the sword. What's more, Rice spoke against a backdrop of computers and television screens monitoring the 20,000 South Korean and American soldiers who were at that very moment engaging in one of their regular war-game exercises—practicing, in effect, to fight a war with North Korea no sane person hopes ever to see.

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The Fall of the House of Saud

The Fall of the House of Saud

Americans have long considered Saudi Arabia the one constant in the Arab Middle East—a source of cheap oil, political stability, and lucrative business relationships. But the country is run by an increasingly dysfunctional royal family that has been funding militant Islamic movements abroad in an attempt to protect itself from them at home. A former CIA operative argues, in an article drawn form his new book, Sleeping With the Devil, that today's Saudi Arabia can't last much longer—and the social and economic fallout of its demise could be calamitous

by Robert Baer
.....
n the decades after World War II the United States and the rest of the industrialized world developed a deep and irrevocable dependence on oil from Saudi Arabia, the world's largest and most important producer. But by the mid-1980s—with the Iran-Iraq war raging, and the opec oil embargo a recent and traumatic memory—the supply, which had until that embargo been taken for granted, suddenly seemed at risk. Disaster planners in and out of government began to ask uncomfortable questions. What points of the Saudi oil infrastructure were most vulnerable to terrorist attack? And by what means? What sorts of disruption to the flow of oil, short-term and long-term, could be expected? These were critical concerns. Underlying them all was the fear that a major attack on the Saudi system could cause the global economy to collapse.

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The unanswerable question of an innocent child

New Age/24 August/2005

Konka Rahim...... narrates how killing and intimidation in the name of Islam has made it that much more difficult for a mother to introduce her young son to the great religion
The August 17 serial bombings that left two persons dead and over a hundred injured were obviously not meant for large-scale killing. But the underlying message of the blasts was only too clear: We have the ability to kill and maim people in the thousands. And if the text of the handbills found at the explosion sites really has something to do with the explosions, the incident has a politically qualified message: We are determined to set up an Islamic theocratic state in Bangladesh, and we are literally ready to kill any number of people who will stand in our way. If it really so happens, the democratic forces divided into various camps are in real danger, politically. They have to face it politically. Meanwhile, the serial blasts have exposed myself, a liberal democratic mother aspiring for my young children to get acquainted with liberal spiritual Islam, to a serious problem.

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A new force arrives

Daily Star/Vol. 5 Num 443 Wed. August 24, 2005

M.B. Naqvi

Aright-wing fringe Islamic party organised an attention-grabbing demonstration by exploding virtually simultaneously more than 400 bombs in all the major cities and towns of Bangladesh last week. This is a forceful demonstration by, historically speaking, a new revolutionary force. It is sure to become even more extreme and would probably be more thoroughgoing. Needless to say, its progression will be marked by more terrorist acts against an established Muslim state -- its goal is to establish a new revolutionary Islamic state, on the lines of Talibani Afghanistan.This revolutionary force rejects what obtains: a more or less secular democratic structure run by mainly conservative Muslim parties. What is desired to replace it is now no mystery. All orthodox Islamic schools of thought in the Subcontinent have now come to approve as truly Islamic what the Taliban did in Afghanistan -- establish a Caliphate. It was run by Mullah Umar whose word was final in all spheres of life: politics, religion, economy, and culture. He was the apex of decision-making and he may or may not consult anyone in arriving at any particular decision. A revolutionary new Islamic state in Bangladesh would have a local version of Mullah Umar as its Amirul Momineen, whose word would be final in politics, religion, economy, and culture. He would be above even the Chief Qazi and would establish total sway of Islam over the society, as he understands it.

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Joi Bangla to Zindabad, Khuda Hafiz to Allah Hafiz

The constitutional principle of secularism was arbitrarily replaced by a belief in Allah, an act that was later given legal sanction through the fifth amendment to the constitution. Joi Bangla, the rallying cry of the nation in the War of Liberation and after, went fugitive in official circles. The Islamisation of Bangladesh took fresh, almost strident new steps during the regime of the nation’s second military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad, writes ...

Syed Badrul Ahsan

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How India Reconciles Hindu Values and Biotech

NY Times. August 21, 2005

PANKAJ MISHRALONDON — In 2001, President Bush restricted federal financing for stem cell research. The decision, which was shaped at least partly by the Republican Party's evangelical Christian base, and which disappointed many American scientists and businessmen, provoked joy in India. The weekly newsmagazine India Today, read mostly by the country's ambitious middle class, spoke of a "new pot of gold" for Indian science and businesses. "If Indians are smart," the magazine said, American qualms about stem cell research "can open an opportunity to march ahead."

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State of denial?

State of denial?
Daily Star

Vol. 5 Num 440 Sun. August 21, 2005 State of denial?Mozammel H. Khan writes from TorontoThe worst did not happen, but could have happened. The perpetrators of last Wednesday's country-wide bomb attacks were somewhat kind for the fact that they did not use the deadliest weapons as available in the arsenals of their international comrades. If they had, there would have been a national catastrophe of astronomical magnitude. The precision with which half a thousand or so bombs were detonated in every district town of the country except one, with the utmost accuracy in a time span of only thirty minutes, not only underscored their superb technical know-how, but reflected the discipline and synchronicity of their network as well. Next time around, God forbid, people of the country may not be so fortunate......

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We can't say that we haven't been warned

Zafar Sobhan

The only possible silver lining to the horrific serial bomb blasts that reached into every nook and corner of the country on August 17 (apart from the fact that the death toll was thankfully low) is that now at least we can perhaps agree that the debate on the presence of religious extremists in Bangladesh, their scope, and their intentions can be put to rest.
There can be no doubt (not that there should have been before, but anyway) that there exists a well-organised movement that wishes to replace our democratic system of government with a religious theocracy, and that they are prepared to use any means necessary to achieve their ends.

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'If Bush Is So Acceptable To Manmohan And The Congress, Why Lose Sleep Over Modi?'

The world is a small place. At least it is to the Booker-winning author. She talks on, perhaps, every defining topic of our times. S. ANAND
I was about to buy batteries for my recorder for this interview and was avoiding, as usual, a certain unrepentant brand associated with the Bhopal gas tragedy. Sometimes, such independent choices are not even possible in this world which some say is becoming flat. What are your thoughts?We live in an Age of Spurious Choice. Eveready or Nippo? Coke or Pepsi? Nike or Reebok?—that’s the more superficial, consumer end of the problem. Then we have the spurious choice between the so-called "corrupt" public sector and the "efficient" private sector. The real question is, does democracy offer real choice? Not really, not anymore. In the recent US elections, was the choice between Bush and Kerry a real choice? Was the choice between Blair and his counterpart in the Conservative Party a real choice? For the Indian poor, has the choice between the Congress and the BJP been a real choice? They are all apparent choices accompanied by a kind of noisy theatre which conceals the fact that all these apparently warring parties share an almost complete consensus. They just exchange slogans depending on whether they’re in the opposition or in the government.

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Pt.Ravi Shankar was jealous of first wife

New Delhi, June 23, 2005
The only female surbahar player in the country, Annapurna Devi, is a musician in her own right. Yet few have listened to her, thanks to "jealous" husband, Pt Ravi Shankar, who did not allow her to sing in public, a new book reveals.
"... Ravi was justifiably jealous. And so he elicited a vow from his (first) wife that she would no longer play in public," says the first authorised biography of Annapurna Devi, a legend, who has led a reclusive life and stayed away from public performances for several years. "There are many versions of this anecdote afloat, mostly apocryphal. Annapurna, however, told me that something worse had happened than Ravi attempting to make her take this oath. But she added that she would divulge it to none...," says author Swapan Kumar Bandhopadhyay, in the book 'An Unheard Melody: Annapurna Devi, An Authorised Biography.' Bandhopadhyay, one of her disciples, says this was bound to happen "if the husband and wife share the same profession. It is the male ego. For Ravi Shankar, it was worse. He was ambitious and ego-centric, he would not allow anyone to rule the world. Truly, he was the sun and loved to shine alone in the sky. So perhaps he decided to take her away from public performances."

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V.S.Naipaul at Home

NY Times

August 7, 2005
PROFILE; The Irascible Prophet: V. S. Naipaul at Home By Rachel Donadio Two monuments rise like emblems from the green countryside of Wiltshire, England, not far from the secluded house of V. S. Naipaul: Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. They are signposts in a landscape Naipaul has been traversing for more than half a century, one in which the impulses of culture, civilization and progress have always existed in close and uneasy proximity to the impulses of paganism, religion and disorder.

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Mustaque Approached US Embassay in Dhaka

Mustaque group approached US embassy in Dhaka Lawrence LifschultzBird had unearthed some curious files at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace left over from a major study at Carnegie concerned with American policy and Bangladesh's War of Independence. The project, headed by Roger Morris, a former aide to Kissinger at the National Security Council, had been aborted under murky circumstances. According to Morris, Kissinger himself had pressed for the project to be abandoned. However, the remaining files, mainly raw interviews with nearly a hundred and fifty American officials ranging from the State Department to the Pentagon and the CIA, was a gold mine of detail for someone with a knowledgeable eye.
During this visit to Washington I decided to contact Eugene Boster, the American Ambassador at the time of the 1975 coup, who was based at the State Department headquarters in the capital. I had met Boster on several occasions in Dhaka and had visited his home when the American Ambassador to New Delhi, Daniel Moynihan, on a brief visit to Bangladesh had asked to meet me to discuss an article I had written for The Washington Post which had been somewhat critical of Moynihan. Ambassador Boster organized a small meeting of the three of us over drinks at his residence. However, I had not met Boster since the 1975 coup. I hadn't been quite ready to see him. I wanted to be certain that when I did I was clear about the specific questions I wanted to pose.

More:http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/08/16/d5081601033.htm

The long shadow of the August 1975 coup

Was the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members on August 15, 1975 merely the result of personal malice and an act out of sudden fury of some army officers?
Long investigation by veteran US journalist Lawrence Lifschultz has made it clear that there was a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the dark episode of August 15.
Lifschultz in a number of investigative reports published in newspapers made it clear that Khandaker Moshtaque and a quarter of US embassy officials in Dhaka were closely involved with the small section of army officers in the August 15 coup.
At long last, Lifschultz disclosed the name of his "very reliable source", the then US ambassador in Dhaka Eugene Booster with whom he has maintained close communication for the 30 years.
Booster repeatedly objected to the conspiracy leading to the August 15 assassination, even issued written instruction in this regard, but failed to prevent the then station chief Philip Cherry of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Dhaka office from doing the conspiracy.
Lifschultz's plan to publish an interview of Eugene Booster in this regard remained unfulfilled as Booster passed away on July 7 last.
The new-born Bangladesh could not save herself from the wrath of then foreign secretary Henry Kissinger who could never forget that Bangladesh was born in opposition to his suggestion.
Along with Salvador Allende of Chile and Taiyoo of Vietnam, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was in Kissinger's political vendetta.
What USA started during the Liberation War in 1971 with attempt to split the Awami League using Khandaker Moshtaque and his accomplices continued after the independence following a direct US instigation, resulting in the carnage on August 15, 1975.
On basis of his 30 years' investigation that included interviews with the US sources, Moshtaque and others concerned, Lifschultz has written a series of that tale.

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Can Pakistan Work ?

Can Pakistan Work?
A Country in Search of ItselfBy Pervez Hoodbhoy
From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2004
The Idea of Pakistan. Stephen Philip Cohen. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2004, 367 pp.$32.95

When he founded Pakistan in 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah-an impeccably dressed Westernized Muslim with Victorian manners and a secular outlook-promised the subcontinent's Muslims that they would finally be able to fulfill their cultural and civilizational destiny. Although the new nation arose from a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing and sectarian violence, and its fundamental premise was that Hindus and Muslims could never live together, its early years nevertheless held some promise of a liberal, relatively secular polity. But with time, Jinnah's Pakistan has grown weaker, more authoritarian, and increasingly theocratic. Now set to become the world's fourth most populous nation, it is all of several things: a client state of the United States yet deeply resentful of it; a breeding ground for jihad and al Qaeda as well as a key U.S. ally in the fight against international terrorism; an economy and society run for the benefit of Pakistan's warrior class, yet with a relatively free and feisty press; a country where education and science refuse to flourish but which is nevertheless a declared nuclear power; and an inward-looking society that is manifestly intolerant of minorities but that has never seen anything like the state-organized pogroms of India, Afghanistan, Iran, or China.

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Clan Democracy

Clan democracy
By Cedric Gouverneur
SINCE the end of the dictatorship in 1991, two clan-run parties have alternately held power in Bangladesh: the Awami League (AL) under Sheikh Hasina, and the Bengali Nationalist party (BNP) led by Khaleda Zia. Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first Bangladeshi head of state after independence in 1971, who was killed in 1975 together with his family in a pro-United States coup. Khaleda Zia is the widow of General Zia, who governed Bangladesh from 1976 until his assassination in 1981. Both women claim to be the heirs of their deceased relative, whom each claims was the founding father of Bangladesh.
Hatred of the opposition's leader is the main criterion for recruitment into each party's youth organisation, known for tyrannising streets and campuses.
On the political chessboard, the BNP is allied to the Islamists while the AL claims to be secular, but both are neoliberal and use similar practices. Both begums accuse each other of corruption and human rights violations.
In Bangladesh power signifies both money and immunity. Electoral defeat means considerable loss of revenue for the politician and his or her clan, hence the refusal to contemplate losing power. The opposition, whichever party it is, will boycott parliament and organise hartals (strikes), during which opponents may see their shops burned down, to trigger early elections. Bombs have been set off at opposition meetings as well as in NGO offices.
Vote buying is a common practice during elections. According to a poll in a Dhaka slum in 1999 by Bangladeshi political scientists, 17% of the electorate voted for the party that had given them free cigarettes, 10% had received soft drinks, 9% cash bribes; 12% were threatened. "In the village where I work a vote costs $1.55," says a western aid worker. "If the results don't match the payments, the mastaans will identify and punish those that haven't complied." Ignorance will do the rest. "During the campaign, the opposition's main argument was my alleged atheism," complains Firuz Ahmed, a lawyer for the poor and leftwing candidate for Khulna in 2001.
According to the United Nations, Bangladesh's literacy rate is 41%, so low that some people see it the result of a deliberate policy. "Illiteracy suits the elite, it enables them to manipulate people," says a Bangladeshi journalist. Political science posits that the middle class with its social aspirations in a stable environment is a major factor in democracy. Yet 80% of Bangladeshis are below the poverty line. In the streets of Dhaka the range of motor vehicles goes from beaten-up old buses to luxurious air-conditioned SUVs. The elite paralyse society but they are still elected. Strictly speaking, Bangladesh is a democracy.

Bangladesh in the grip of globalized trade

EXPORTS FOR THE NORTH MEAN EXPLOITATION FOR THE SOUTH
Bangladesh in the grip of globalised trade

Globalisation in Bangladesh means manufacturing clothes and raising shrimps for western markets. This has caused poverty and human rights violations. Representative democracy has broken down; Bangladeshis are turning to voluntary associations to practise direct democracy.
By Cedric Gouverneur
THE hamlet of Baro Ari in the Khulna region of southwest Bangladesh is lost in the reaches of the Ganges. It is difficult to find, and yet globalisation has already arrived there, along with its unique market opportunity, shrimps and prawns. Local bigwigs opened the dykes of polders in 2000, flooding with salt water land that belonged to poor farmers. With the connivance of a corrupt police force, they then transformed the drowned land into lucrative crustacean farms.
“We’ve got nothing left,” says Suranjan ­Kumar, his face hollow with undernourishment. The 20 or so men around him nod in agreement. “We sometimes get work as daily farm labourers for 78 cents.” The conditions border on servitude. Farmers have to hand over as much as two-thirds of their harvest to the landowner. “The salt has destroyed ­everything,” says Abu Sahid Gazhi, who spent 11 months in jail for objecting to the theft of his land.

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