On the Professor and the Parliament

Daily Sun

June 10, 2012

M. Serajul Islam 

Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed has unwittingly provoked a serious debate in our politics. The members of parliament with Ali Ashraful as the acting Speaker took serious umbrage over a statement that the Professor was accused to have made on politics of the country and against them. The members were furious. They asked the Professor not just to render an unconditional apology; the acting Speaker said that he should come to the Parliament, kept standing before the members while he uttered public apology! 

Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed is one of the very few eminent citizens of the country who has, by the simple life he leads, established the principle of plain living and high thinking that has won him the unquestioned respect and admiration of the nation on a bipartisan basis. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts for "cultivating in the youth of Bangladesh a love for literature and its humanizing values through exposure to the great books of Bengal and the world” through his leadership to the Biswa Shahittiya Kendra and his very successful project “books on wheels”.   

The members of parliament based their case against the Professor who is a living legend of the country on newspaper reports and acted as the judge; the prosecution and the jury. They passed judgment on his conduct without giving him the right of self defense. Even if the worst case scenario was true; that as accused the Professor called the members of parliament “thieves” and “dacoits”; the way they dealt with him hardly did their image any good turn. In fact, if there was any way to judge public reaction taking the worst case scenario, there would be overwhelming public sympathy and support for the Professor at the way the members of parliament attacked and tried to humiliate him.. 

The members have raised a public debate on their own conduct by the way they attacked the Professor.  In the last 20 years during which 3 parliaments have completed their terms and the current one already 2/3^rd there, the members who claim to be flag bearers of democracy, have ensured that the principal organ of government that the country has chosen to make democracy functional, has been kept non-functional by the parliamentarians themselves. It is not an AL or a BNP thing in which the MPs can get away by playing the blame game. It is much deeper. Today, the public see it clear as daylight that the parliamentarians have disappointed and frustrated the nation. 

The AL parliamentarians started what has now become a “tradition” in our so-called parliamentary system that in opposition, they must choose the streets for doing politics and disregard the Parliament by abstaining from its proceedings.  The opposition members however have allowed themselves all the benefits of pay and privileges including a luxury car duty free without any question asked! Clearly, those who take pay and benefit and then do not attend their place of work cannot by any stretch of imagination claim the lofty pedestal in which the members of parliament placed themselves in attacking Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed with verbal and body language that not only offended the Professor but the nation. 

There are many honest and hardworking parliamentarians in the current parliament of 300 plus women members. With due apologies to them, as a body, the parliament has disappointed the people deeply.  These days, courtesy the private TV channels, we see a lot of debates in parliament live that are utterly frustrating to the people. These sessions bring out the worst in the parliamentarians where they abuse their political opponents in languages that should shame any individual with even the barest minimum sense of decency.  

In such debates, members of parliament distort history at will. A member of parliament and a Minister called late President Ziaur Rahman an agent of the Pakistani spy agency and his party members cheered him. When the opposition members had their time before the TV camera, they denigrated the Father of the Nation in language no less absurd. Where members of parliament show such disregard and disrespect to the country’s most eminent sons, it is hardly surprising that they would react the way they did to the Professor without checking facts. It suits the way they are by the examples they have set. 

The truth is the members of parliament have lost their ability to act independently and consequently their respect. In fact, a constitutional provision that they have themselves inserted bars them to any independent action.  They toe party lines and in doing so, they bring to the floor of the parliament, the same ugly face of confrontational politics that the two mainstream parties play out outside the parliament. As a consequence, the standards of parliamentary debates have fallen to incredibly low levels. Members of Parliament are at their best when they are hurling abuses at each other across the political divide.

In the present parliament, there is no one who attracts the attention of the people except in ways that are utterly negative. With the parliament now a body where only the members of the ruling party meet, the air of sycophancy rules almost every aspect of what happens inside it. The ability of any individual member to rise and shine as a parliamentarian has been stunted and made irrelevant. In fact, most members of the current parliament use their time on the floor of the parliament to assure the Prime Minister on their loyalty to her and shower praises at the Father of the Nation to please her. Many of them abuse Shahid President Ziaur Rahman not because they hate him but because they believe that this will please the Prime Minister! 

In effect, the two mainstream parties have turned the parliament into a fan club of their leader. If this is not bad enough, they have also turned it into a meeting place for abusing their political opponents. Therefore when the members claimed the parliament as sovereign and demanded to hold the Professor in contempt for humiliating this sovereign institution, all they did was bring about a sarcastic smile in the faces of the people who share none of the lofty views the parliamentarians have of themselves. In fact a leading legal expert humbly reminded the parliamentarian that the constitution rests the sovereignty on the people and by no means on the legislature. 

In a dramatic twist, it has now been revealed that the Professor did not mention the name of any country or any parliamentarian at the TIB event where he made the speech that infuriated the parliamentarians. It has further been revealed that two newspapers distorted his speech that in turn drew the wrath of the parliamentarians. The good Professor revealed certain facts about his life that should make those who attacked him hide their heads in shame, if they have any self respect. 

He said that he lives in a rented two room house in Dhaka and does not own a car. He referred in particular to one parliamentarian who humiliated him and said how saddened he has been that this parliamentarian was a student of his. He said that he has no wish to pursue the matter legally or the desire to demand an apology. TIB in which the Professor is a Trustee nevertheless has strongly demanded that the derogatory remarks about the Professor should be expunged with an apology. 

 It really does not matter whether this is done or not because the members of parliament with the Acting Speaker who presided over the session who censured the Professor did themselves and the parliament a very bad turn by attacking someone the nation holds in high esteem in an uncivilized manner without checking the facts. In the people’s mind, the sordid incident has ended with the Professor’s image among the pubic enhanced and that of the parliamentarians considerably diminished. 

The writer is a former Ambassador to Japan.

Deaths on roads: No signs of respite

"As I See It" column

The Independent

June 9, 2012

M. Serajul Islam

Our roads are these days in control of killer drivers. The government has surely gone both deaf and blind to people’s concerns on the deaths on the road. If it had even minimum sight and hearing ability, it could not have been so immune to the tragedies on the road. Anyone who uses our roads and highways these days does so by daring death. 

One of the strangest things that has happened so far with the tragedies on the roads is the way the Minister for Shipping has backed the right of drivers to drive on the roads with forged licenses and for new drivers to be allowed on the roads without proper tests when the nation is united to bring these killers on the road under a legal framework. 

The Minister backed his support for the drivers because he felt that he owed their association loyalty for his connections with it. No one has contested how a Minister can have connections with a pressure group! It is not that he just has connections with this pressure group; he has placed his loyalty to this group ahead of the oath he has taken as a Minister even to the extent of fighting for the “right” of its members to drive on roads with forged driving licenses and without tests.  

For a government that makes such a huge cry over its love for the law and the constitution, it is unbelievable that it stands silently where a Minister says publicly that the interests of the pressure group to which he belongs is more important than the oath he has taken as a Minister! Under such a situation, the thought to ask a few legitimate questions just falls out of the window. Nevertheless such question lingers in the minds of the people.  Can a Minister publicly claim connections with a pressure group? Is there no legal conflict in doing so?

These questions are nevertheless important  because the families of victims of road accidents cover every aspect of Bangladesh and can be left unanswered only by an insensitive and irresponsible government. There is no place in the country that has not had road death victims. Such fatality has not distinguished between the rich and the poor though on balance, deaths on roads have occurred much more to the poor than the rich; or between religion and any division that one would wish to consider. At this rate, it would not be too long before it covers Bangladesh right up to the family level.  

The problem of road accidents is today a major issue of concern of people in the country. It is of course unfortunate that the government is either oblivious of it or does not know what to do with it. The Minister of Home who has her own ways of upsetting people, has used road deaths to cover her own Ministry’s public criticisms when she said that the law and order situation in the country is far better than before  because there far more deaths on the roads than due to law and order situation! What do you do with a government that gives such an explanation as an excuse to avoid responsibility? Or a government that is so immune to public concerns that cut deeply across the country’s absurd political divide? 

Nevertheless, the government and its ministers notwithstanding, and notwithstanding their strange conflicting and contradictory statements in public on their jobs and jobs of their colleagues, there is an angle to these road accidents that needs to be considered to deal with what has today become a reality in our lives; that no one can go on the roads confident of coming back home safe and alive. The drivers of course are the major culprits. The new Communications Minister upon assuming office from his predecessor who was forced to leave on public wrath over his inability to provide safe roads has acknowledged about the unbelievable number of drivers with forged licenses and the need to correct the situation. Unfortunately, neither he nor has anyone else in government spoken on the condition of our roads and its relation to deaths on the roads. 

We have been independent for over 40 years. All past governments have claimed credit for connecting some parts of Banagladesh with Dhaka. This is of course true for today; there is no part of the country that one cannot travel to by road. What these governments have not said is the type of roads they have built. Consider Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It connects the national capital with the business capital of the country; a vital road by any description. Yet after 40 years of independence, this is still a one lane death trap where people, goats and cows share it with the fast moving traffic! In fact, the Shipping Minister was correct when he said that all the intelligence that the driver, licensed or otherwise, needs to drive on our highways is to be able to distinguish the goats and the cows on the road! He must have been trying to say that human beings, using their god given intelligence, would in any case move away from the traffic that goats and cows cannot! 

The legitimate question is whether these governments had any vision when they built these roads/highways? Of course, when these roads/ highways were built, the traffic was insignificant and even the one lane so called highways that were built were reasonably safe. Unfortunately, the roads/highways did not keep pace with the humungous growth of transport and people’s usage.  In fact, the roads have deteriorated and have gradually become the death traps they are today. Therefore, unless the roads/highways connecting Dhaka with the divisional and district headquarters are made into modern highways with lanes and dividers, the deaths on the roads will increase.  

Thus those who are creating public awareness on deaths on our highways must pressure the government to modernize the national highways as a first step. Unfortunately, the last Caretaker Government left the Dhaka-Chittagong four lane highway unattended when all it had to do is go ahead and build it. In 3 years of this government, there have been tall claims but no major headway in building the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. At this rate connecting Dhaka with the rest of the country with modern, safe highways is something that the country cannot even dream at this stage! 

In this unfortunate state of affairs on our roads, those using it are also responsible for the deaths. The passengers in the bus must come into the act and ensure that they refuse to travel on a bus where the drivers drive dangerously. The police must straighten the truck drivers from dangerous driving. Those riding in personal cars must caution their drivers to drive carefully. Unfortunately, the bus passengers are as much part of the problem as the solution for they seldom caution the drivers because they are more interested about travelling to their destinations than the dangers. The police, in its present form, would surprise everyone if it acts positively to caution the truck drivers and others using the road for the nexus of misdeeds on our roads are sources for their corrupt fortunes. 

The country is thus entrapped in a vicious circle of death with its roads and highways with little sign in the horizon for reprieve because of a variety of reasons to which all governments including the present one and the people have contributed to varying degrees. There is nothing on the drawing board to suggest that even a start is being made to deliver the country from the hell in which it is at the moment with its roads and highways. 

The writer is a former Ambassador to Japan.

Who is the Awami League fighting in politics?

Holiday

8 June, 2012

M. Serajul Islam

Who is the Awami League fighting in our politics these days? It seems that it is doing its best to force the people to look for an alternative in the next general elections because even if the ruling party itself conducts it, its chances of returning to power are fading due to its hard to understand nature of governance.  In the spate of unrests in Dhaka in recent days, the police have assaulted journalists, students, defiled a girl after forcibly taking her away from the magistrate’s court and the general public.  

The extra-judicial killings and the disappearances of political rivals that have become concerns of the international community are of course there. Even in the height of anti-people oppression of the regime of President Ershad, the police was not seen in such a role as it is these days. There are over these concerns , the failure  of the government in delivering on its election promises on prices of essentials; electricity; corruption, etc  that are frustrating the people with the ruling party that they voted to power with so much hopes and expectations. The change the AL promised is there but for the worse and not better. 

In talk shows the night after the incident of defiling of the young girl by the police office occurred, talk show guests were so outraged that one of them, a well known university law professor asked the police chiefs of the country and Dhaka city by their names, quite an unusual gesture, about how they slept at night with such people in their forces; whether they had a conscience and whether they had mothers and sisters to remind them how women were being dishonoured in police custody. 

The professor was not the only talk show guest so outraged. Others too have expressed themselves the same way at the way the law enforcing agencies are taking the law into their own hands and literally doing pretty much what they want.  Even the Judges have been outraged. Two High Court judges asked 7 police officers who have been named in the media in connection with the defiling of the young girl to appear before them and have also asked for a report from the authorities on the incident that has outraged the nation. 

The judges’ strong action and outrage among the people notwithstanding, the Home Minister gave full marks to her police force. When asked to comment on the action of the Judges, she said that the 1, 41,000 strong police force has never been as good as it is today! Her deputy, the State Minister for Home, not to be undone in defending the police made a statement that brought to surface the absurdity that these Ministers are serving the people in defending the actions of the government. He advised the journalists to keep “safe distance” from the police while covering events so that they do not get beaten up while covering news. He was reacting to the action of the police in manhandling the media people in their line of duty. 

The absurd responses of the Ministers in the media on issues of public concern underscore a sad fact; that the government is moving with little sense of direction. One understands without of course agreeing when the ruling party in a country such as ours speak ill of the opposition. One also understands the reasons without agreeing when the government pursues the opposition in a number of ways that are un-democratic. What astounds people these days is that these Ministers and others who speak on behalf of the Government seem to have concluded that the whole country is against them and not just the opposition. Otherwise it is impossible to justify why the Government would go against people who are by no means with the opposition in the latter’s anti-government movement. In fact many who are vocal critics of the government today have not yet forgiven or forgotten the sufferings under the BNP’s last term. 

Take for instance the recent decision of the Bangladesh Energy Regulation Commission. It came out with another absurd proposition to sell to those interested for interrupted power supply, electricity at almost three times the current costs for industrial use. In making this absurd proposal, the government that calls itself pro-people failed to consider the fact that whoever concocted this proposal did so very insensitively. With the whole country, barring a few rich people,  reeling in unbearable miseries due to shortage of electricity, a public announcement by BERC for giving electricity uninterrupted is to say the very least, an anti-people proposal of the worst kind. 

The proposal of course has caused deep concerns in the public mind.  They are perplexed about where the government would get the electricity for uninterrupted supply to those who want it and are willing to pay for it with the total supply far short of demand that has led to power outages of the kind that the country has not seen at anytime in the past.  Surely, the extra electricity for the industries would have to come by cutting supply to the general public who are already living in hellish conditions for lack of electricity.

When this absurdity of the policy, particularly its strong pro-rich and anti-poor bias, caused public outcry, the authorities stated that the uninterrupted supply would not be mandatory. That was again another absurd explanation that people in business were quick to point out. They said that with the rates at what they are at the moment, Bangladesh is barely floating with production costs in the market, both local and international. With charges to be increased almost 3 times, only the stupid or imbecile business people would be encouraged to take up the government’s “generous” offer! Why then did BERC make such an offer?  

Quite expectedly the BERC’s offer is on way to a natural death. Nevertheless, those in charge of power did not learn anything for this absurd proposal that tried to make a joke of the people’s miseries. The Adviser for Power has now “advised” the people to wait for the rains for respite from power outages that has hurt the people’s sentiments even more; like pouring salt to the injury.  It was he who not too long ago had claimed this government’s success in power production. One wonders why he is now suggesting that the people should look up to the Almighty for delivering them from their misery. One also wonders where has the extra power that this government has generated has gone. The mother of all question in this context is where has all the rental power for which the country has paid through its nose to near bankruptcy, gone! It is not the opposition that has gone public with critical view about the Power Adviser’s claims on power production. The Finance Minister said very recently that there has been no improvement in power in the last three years!  Meanwhile the Power Adviser has called the critics of rental power as “anti-state.” 

The way the Ministers/Advisers talking in public these days leaves no doubt that there is no coordination at all among them; that they have lost their ways in the maze of governance. They just not contradict one another; often they contradict their own public statements at will. In doing so, they take away any sense of optimism among the people about being delivered from their miseries. Some of the Ministers do not even realize that the stories they try to sell to the people to defend government policies or their predicaments are so bizarre that people can only accept them by pretending to be stupid. 

That is what the former Railways Minister seemed to have done when he demanded his job back (from whom?) after the investigation of the Deputy Secretary of the Railways Ministry cleared him of wrong doing. He forgot conveniently that he had ordered that investigation and that the Minister who replaced him said in public that the Railways Ministry is a den of corruption. The General Manager (East) who was suspended because he was carrying the Taka 70 lacs to the Minister’s residence has now been accused of giving 2000 jobs illegally  while the former Railways Minister was in office by back dating the appointments.  The driver who blew the whistle that blew the Minister from his job has meanwhile vanished! Why does not the former Railways Minister demand of his colleague the Home Minister to help find him instead of demanding his job back based on the report of an investigation that he had ordered in which no one believes?  

The AL Joint Secretary who is one of the principal spokesmen of the government (one wonders how a party official can be a government spokesman) finally regretted the action of the police in defiling the young girl. He did so after the Minister for Home was not interested to take action. She went on defending the police force under her as the best in Bangladesh’s history. The Joint Secretary said that some hidden power is working in the police force to discredit the government. Although the Ministers/Advisers/party leaders are pretty much saying whatever they feel like saying and often contradicting one another; there seems one area where they are converging. They are all targeting the people for their criticism of the government for its inability to deliver. Ironically, the BNP seems to have found some respite in the backdrop of such eerie behaviour of the leaders of this government against individuals and groups who have no links to the opposition.

All past governments have disappointed the people to varying degrees. This government is doing the same but with a major difference. It seems to be enjoying the miseries and hardships of the people. The Home Minister was right about the law enforcing agencies’ efficiency. The people should overlook their failure over tracking the killers of Sagar/Runy; the Saudi diplomat; or the disappearance of Ilyas Ali and all other disappearances and the extra judicial killings at the hands of the law enforcing agencies. Instead they should marvel at their efficiency at the speed with which they have arrested the opposition leaders and filed cases against them! 

 Seriously, the police force is now the yardstick of the extent to which this government has politicized the administration and fallen in the process in governance. Police officers today are behaving as party activists. That they are was clear to the people when they saw on live TV how the police officers kicked and beat up the BNP whip Jainal Abedin Farukh. That is now clear also by the way they are acting against the media and the general people who are not opposition activists but have become their eyesore because they are critical of the government! To these police officers particularly at the level of the Thana OCs, the critical level of contact between the police and the people, it is finally their government and they don’t need orders to beat up anyone to submission for opposing any government action. They consider it their duty to do so.  

Thus the Government is hardly fighting the BNP these days. By its police actions and the way its Ministers are speaking on issues of public miseries, it is fighting the people. It is doing more for the BNP than the BNP is doing for itself to come into public reckoning to form the next government.  What is unbelievable is that no one in the ruling party seems to realize that the Ministers are doing the BNP the service that they are missing with all its top leadership behind bars.  

 In their frustrations, many of the talk show guests have appealed to the Prime Minister to deliver the government and the country from the weird nature of governance that the Ministers and the Advisers are indulging in at the moment for the country cannot take it anymore. 

The writer is a retired career diplomat and former Ambassador to Japan and Egypt

On prime minister’s advice to diplomats

Defence and Diplomcy Page (first issue) 

Daily Sun

Wedday, 6th June, 2012

M. Serajul Islam

As a retired career diplomat, a part of my existence lies in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) where I have spent 30 years of my life. I was very happy and encouraged that the prime minister paid a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently. To me, it meant that the prime minister is finally giving the ministry some of the importance it deserves.

Diplomacy has changed over the years. In recent times, the changes have been both extensive and dramatic. Globalization had a major impact in bringing these changes. It has brought down national barriers and has led to the need of countries to watch and observe the international environment manifold. This has in turn brought foreign affairs into the centre of governance all over the world. In the changes, everywhere, the head of government has emerged the country’s number one diplomat.

In these contexts, it is therefore very heartening that the prime minister recently went to MFA to address the officers/staff there, the first time in her second term. She had visited MFA a decade ago in her first term. In her address, the prime minister stressed upon two themes in directing the MFA officers/staff on what the country required and expected of them. She asked them to be mindful of the 8 million expatriates who send the foreign remittances to help the country’s economic development by literally putting their lives on the line. The prime minister also stressed upon the need of the officers/staff of the ministry to help build the image of the country.

Quite evidently, the prime minister played the political cards. The issue of our expatriates is a very sensitive one. With 8 million expatriates, the issue touches almost every home in the country. Thus any good thing said in favour of the expatriates has political mileage. Then there is the issue of remittance. Everybody knows about the importance of remittance to the economic development of the country. Hence there is always great political value for any politician when he/she speaks favourably on remittance. Likewise, the country’s pitiable image abroad is also an issue with which everybody is worried and concerned. Therefore talking on the need of helping remove the country’s negative image also has significant political value.

Unfortunately, on the two themes that the prime minister stressed, the diplomats of MFA cannot do much even if they wanted to lay down their lives to make her happy. In her approach on the issue of expatriates, there is a major error in perception of the role and function of the MFA by the prime minister. In the whole issue of sending our expatriates abroad, the MFA has little role to play. It is the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment that is responsible with almost everything to do with sending our people abroad for employment.

Likewise in the missions too, the diplomats of MFA have limited role to play. That role becomes even more irrelevant when the head of mission happens to be a non career diplomat. The visa and consular functions in the Embassy are carried out in accordance with rules and regulations of the Ministry of Home where there is immediate need for reforms for giving the type of service that the prime minister has demanded. In most missions, these functions are performed by officers sent from other ministries. These officers go on a one time posting and thus are unaccustomed to working abroad where diplomatic skills and training that they do not have are indispensable.

The image building issue is equally a huge ask that the prime minister has placed upon the rather weak shoulders of the MFA diplomats. In pursing this objective, the MFA would require finances and the diplomats, adequate allowances to even scratch what the PM is asking of them. Readers would appreciate the context if they knew that it is a fact that we do not spend as much on maintaining our diplomatic missions as for example India spends on projecting its image building abroad through its diplomatic missions.

The major issue in building a positive image abroad is domestic. The EU in a recent address to the media laid it all with the Italian Ambassador bluntly underscoring why his country’s investors would not come to Bangladesh. The government’s handling of Dr. Yunus and GB are ironies because if the prime minister is serious in building good image of Bangladesh, taking the Nobel Laureate and the GB on its side would have greatly helped in what she has asked from the diplomats.

One wonders what went through the minds of these diplomats when she was talking to them on the image building issue. Surely, they must have been wondering why the prime minister was allowing her ministers to humiliate Dr. Yunus who could help remove the negative image the PM is worried about in a major way!

Despite her best intentions, the prime minister has not touched the core issues to gear the ministry for playing its expected role. The prime minister seems to have concluded that the main function of an Embassy/High Commission is consular. This is not the case for the Embassy/High Commission’s main role is diplomatic; to build and strengthen bilateral relations. Consular assistance is just a small part of the Embassy/High Commission’s role. Here, if the prime minister would like MFA and its diplomats to play the major role in consular assistance, she would need to give them the leading role which currently is in the hands of other ministries and their officers.

One of the core issues to bring the MFA back from outdated times in terms of its role in a modern government is to give it within the country the major coordinating role in building national consensus on issues the country needs to pursue in the international environment.

There is no research wing in the Foreign Ministry. The MFA partly finances two think tanks jointly, the BIISS and BILIA. Of late, its influence over both has declined. The MFA officers are therefore left to research, evaluate and provide policy options almost without any research assistance. It is another core problem that needs to be addressed immediately.

The mother of all problems facing MFA is of course the fact that today it has been deprived of most of its legitimate role in foreign policy formulation and implementation. In fact, its name is beginning to haunt its officers for most elements of foreign affairs are these days the domain of just any minister or adviser of this government. The most important elements, the bread and butter of MFA, are no longer its functions. The MFA no longer even issues diplomatic passports! We saw this much to our regret when our relations with India was taken from MFA and given to the prime minister’s advisers. Thinking of the MFA without India as its responsibility is like thinking of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark!

The country desperately needs a strong Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately under this government, the prime minister’s visit to MFA notwithstanding, the MFA has been systematically weakened. The result is palpably evident in the way it has messed up relations with its major development partners like USA, Japan; the international financial institutions. With China, it has set its sail away from it, putting into jeopardy decades of successful diplomacy with a country that is emerging to take the place of the Soviet Union as the next Super Power, if not one already. This government’s firm belief in India has also back fired, leaving the country facing international odds almost alone.

Therefore, while building good image and looking after expatriates are important issues, these are insignificant ones compared to what requires to be done with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A strong MFA is the need of the moment for the country’s sake. With a strong MFA, not only will the country be served better; the issues that the prime minister raised in her meeting at MFA would be automatically achieved.

The writer is a retired career diplomat and ambassador

NATO Summit in Chicago and the war on terror in Afghanistan

Daily Sun

June 3rd., 2012

M. Serajul Islam 

The NATO Summit in Chicago, the home town of the US President, was the first NATO Summit in USA since the one in Washington in 1999. With the US President in a re-election year with chances of another term not assured, the NATO Summit met with eyes focused on how much political mileage President Obama would be able to extract from the war in Afghanistan that is one of the key issues upon which the US voters would vote in the Presidential elections on November 4^th.  

In fact, the Chicago Summit was billed as one that would set the road map for Afghanistan after withdrawal of US and NATO combat troops and how the allies would be engaged in Afghanistan after the withdrawal in 2014. In Europe, there is already a war fatigue and most countries are impatient to get out of Afghanistan. The change of guards in France has further enhanced the mood of other European nations to withdraw.  

In USA too, the mood is against keeping combat troops in Afghanistan any longer. In fact, the need of revenge in the hearts of most Americans for the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that had killed 3000 Americans for which they held Osama Ben Laden responsible was served when US Navy Seals killed him last May in his Abbotabad hideout. The killing of most of the top leadership of Al Qaeda that has helped turn it into a much less formidable terrorist outfit has also made the average American less interested in continuing the war in Afghanistan. The mounting death tolls, with over 2000 US troops killed so far together with 1000 more allied troops, have made most Americans yearn more for bringing the troops home without further delay. 

Nevertheless, in an election year, President Obama has to tread a fine path to ensure that his handling of the Afghan war does not land him in trouble in the elections. Before becoming the President, he had opposed the war in Iraq and was also in favour of ending the war in Afghanistan. Upon assuming office, he accepted both the wars in the same spirit as his predecessor. In fact in Afghanistan, he sent more troops than there was when President Bush was in charge. He wanted to end the war on terror by claiming victory not just by killing the top Al Qaeda leadership including Osama Ben Laden, he also wanted to hound  the Talibans out of Afghanistan and leave the country in the hands of the Afghans capable of running the country democratically and also able to deal effectively with security. 

Unfortunately the US and its allies have not been able to ensure a Taliban free Afghanistan their success against Al Qaeda notwithstanding. In fact, after more than a decade long war on terror in Afghanistan, the Talibans continue to remain a potent force there. Many apprehend that once the US and NATO combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan, the Talibans would be able to make easy meat of the government of Hamid Karzai that they would leave behind to lead the country. In view of such an eventuality, the US has directly encouraged the Karzai government to hold talks with moderate Talibans in order to bring them to the mainstream of democratic politics and break the strength of Taliban. 

The initiatives with Taliban have not been successful. The emergence of the Haqqani terror network in Afghanistan has added to the worries of the US. These worries have led President Obama to initiate the Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan under which the US would remain in Afghanistan for 10 years after all foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014 to assist the Afghan government with financial aid and training so that the good work against the terrorists over the last one decade and of course the huge financial and human costs incurred so far do not all end in failure with just the deaths of Osama Ben Laden and his associates. 

The US would need similar commitment from its NATO partners to implement its plan and vision for a post-withdrawal Afghanistan. It was with this objective in mind that the US President led his country in the NATO Summit. He asked of his NATO colleagues a road map for Afghanistan. His colleagues however were not upbeat. France’s new president Francois Hollande was a stumbling block. He has just won an election with promise to bring France’s 3500 troops in Afghanistan quickly. In Chicago, he reiterated that stand and said French troops would be back home this year. 

In fact, it was only the US President who was upbeat in Chicago about a post-withdrawal Afghanistan. The worst news for him came from Pakistan. President Zardari was invited at literally the eleventh hour.. He however put the spanner on a successful handing over of security responsibility to the Afghan Government. The Pakistan Government had halted the container supply route, absolutely critical to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan to end the combat phase of its involvement in Afghanistan, after the US air strike in Salala inside Pakistan last November that killed 24 innocent Pakistanis.  

The Pakistanis demanded an unbelievable increase on charges to allow the containers to move from its territory to Afghanistan; from US$ 250 a container to US$ 5000! However, there were two even tougher conditions. Pakistan wanted an apology for the Salala attack and a commitment that it would not carry out any future drone attacks without keeping Pakistan informed. In an election year, the last two conditions were ruled out because the Republicans would be critical while the US$ 5000 a container demand was difficult for US and its NATO partners to accept because it is nothing short of blackmail. 

The only alternative to the Pakistani route is the northern distribution network which winds its way from Baltic and Caspian ports through Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. This route would be 21 times costlier than the costs through Pakistan before the route was closed! To make an early resolution of issues with Pakistan more complicated, Pakistan has jailed for 30 years the doctor who had helped lead the US Naval seals to the doors of OBL despite US appeal on the doctor’s behalf. Without the supply routes opening again, the way the US and NATO wants to bring the curtain on the combat phase of the war on terror on Afghanistan would be difficult to achieve. 

Thus the NATO Summit that had met with finding the road map on Afghanistan as the main issue in the agenda did not make much headway.  At this post-Summit news conference, the President was upbeat and said “We have delivered…We leave Chicago with clear road map”. His upbeat mood was punctured when a journalist questioned if he had an agreement with President Zardari and he was forced to admit in the negative. In fact, the two did not even meet during the Summit underscoring the current deep differences between the two countries. 

Another journalist totally shattered any optimism that was left in the President when responding to his question on premature withdrawal from Afghanistan; he was forced to admit that “the Taliban is still a robust enemy”. The President then said that leaving an “imperfect Afghanistan” made sense because then “we can start rebuilding America and making some of the massive investments we have been making in Afghanistan here back home.”

Those words left no one in doubt that US is not just getting ready to withdraw from Afghanistan but ready to leave it to face the resurgent Taliban! The mood in Europe is no different and with US showing the way, a long winter is again about ready to descend upon Afghanistan that should send chills down those in that country who had believed that the US and NATO forces would end the Taliban rule for good and put Afghanistan on road to democracy and what follows with it. Hamid Karzai must have left Chicago worried most of all! 

The writer is a former Ambassador to Japan

The Malaysian market:  good news for overseas job seekers

As I See It column

The Independent, June 1st, 2012

M. Serajul Islam

The Minister for Expat Affairs has angered the private sector manpower recruiting agencies’ coordinating body Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) over the new recruitment policy for sending Bangladeshi manpower to Malaysia. After a visit to KL recently, the Minister said in a meeting with the media that Malaysia would recruit more manpower from Bangladesh and the recruitment would be managed by the Ministry of Expatriates’ Affairs at Bangladesh’s end. 

What was music to the ear of those aspiring to go to Malaysia was what the Minister said about the costs. The Minister said that each prospective expatriate going to Malaysia would pay Taka 50,000.  If the Malaysian employer paid the airfare, the costs would come down to taka 35,000! This is at least half to 4 times less than what the average worker paid in going to Malaysia and Middle East destinations in the past. In many cases, these expatriates have been forced to borrow the money from loan sharks to pay the high costs to the manpower agents/brokers or sell their lands/meager belongings at low prices to go abroad. On arriving at their places of employment, many found that they were receiving substantially less pay than promised.  

One of the many untold episodes in the lives of our expatriates that no one mentions is the premature deaths of expatriates due to tensions on issues of high costs and poor condition of work. Instead, the government and the manpower exporters compete with each other to claim credit for foreign remittance and its impact on our economic development. It is therefore no wonder that BAIRA went public on the new policy for export of manpower to Malaysia because it threatens to expose some of the plights of the overseas job seekers.   

It has long been known that our overseas job seekers are charged exorbitant amount of money by manpower agents. There seemed to be a powerful nexus sustaining the exploitation of the poor expatriates. Even when the overseas job seekers have been cheated blatantly at home, little action has been taken against the culprits. In case of Malaysia, manpower agents have sent large number job seekers against call-visas that were not employment visas. These job seekers became illegal migrants. Many also became illegal after overstaying to pay back the high costs they incurred to go to Malaysia. Their cases are being legalized as a result of recent initiatives of the Government after years of inhuman sufferings.  

The case of exporting manpower to Malaysia, a major market for Bangladeshi manpower, by the Ministry under the new plan is therefore a major development in a critical economic activity of the country where there has been very little fairness to those who literally place their lives on line for Bangladesh. If the Ministry succeeds in bringing costs down substantially for the Malaysian market, it will also be able to do so for the ME market as well. 

BAIRA’s reaction to the Minister’s announcement about the Malaysian market was therefore expected. Manpower agents are apprehensive that with the Ministry entering into the manpower business in a major way as announced by the Minister, it is not just costs that would come down for the overseas job seekers.  It would bring a lot of transparency that in turn would expose the exploitation that manpower agents and the middlemen have been carrying out with quiet approval of the government in overseas manpower business so far. In fact, this new initiative announced by the Minister is the first major step taken by the Government for overseas job seekers where so far they were being systematically victimized. 

However, the new initiative is first step in the right direction. Much more would be needed to be done. The whole manpower business should be given a legal framework. At present, when job seekers are cheated or dealt in any unfair manner, he/she has no access under the law for quick redress. For the job seekers, it is the case of “justice delayed is justice denied “ for the laws that are there just take too long to come to their rescue. This is why we see job seekers cheated by manpower agents regularly while manpower agents are seldom brought to justice for their misdeeds. The legal framework should make it mandatory that contract of every job seeker is legally examined so that any discrepancy in contract is accounted for.

The Ministry must also ensure that our expatriate workers do not go abroad without training or without some preliminary knowledge of the conditions they are expected to face in their place of work. The expatriate workers must know their legal status in their places of work so that they do not run into conflict with local laws. Most important of all, the expatriate workers must know that they have consular assistance just for the asking from Bangladesh Embassies/consulates. They should be provided with all the information they need to know in case they want to seek consular assistance from Embassies/consulates. 

The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassies are not an integral part of the manpower business as in case of other manpower exporting countries. The countries importing manpower do so under laws that are not arbitrary and conform to international standards. Our expatriates unfortunately fall into hands of unscrupulous manpower agents, brokers, etc both at home and in countries where they go to work because in most cases, they have no legal assistance either at home or abroad. Abroad, the Embassies must become a critical part of the legal process of the country’s overseas manpower business. They must know the local employers of our expatriates and the conditions of their appointment. In case our expatriates are contracted by the government, then the Embassies could ensure that there is no discrimination against them. Even where the expatriates are contracted in the private sector, the Embassies can be of tremendous assistance to ensure fair and equitable treatment for our expatriates that is not so to a very large extent at present. Discrimination and injustice in their places of work is a major misfortune of our expatriates in their place of work. The Embassies must ensure that our workers do not face such discrimination. 

This government has established a bank for the expatriates. One wonders whether it has been established for bringing remittance home or for assisting the expatriates in dealing with their problems to go abroad for jobs.  If it is for remittance, then it is an effort totally wasted for without it, the country is doing fine with foreign remittance.  A bank such as this is needed desperately to provide loan to the prospective expatriate avoid the killer loan shark to go abroad. It is not just this bank but all private sector banks that must be encouraged by the government to provide loan at reasonable interests to the prospective expatiate to avoid the loan shark. Surely, those who send home US$12 billion a year cannot be questioned on credibility about their ability to pay back loans with the burden of collateral that he/she cannot raise at the point of leaving for an overseas job. Banks should provide loans to these overseas job seekers without collateral once they show proof of a valid overseas employment. 

BAIRA’s concerns and anger with the Minister suggest that they are afraid that the Ministry would bring transparency in the business and with it justice in a system where injustice has been deliberately imposed by a nexus that manpower agents have built with bipartisan political support in government. The result of that nexus has been unbelievable amounts of money for manpower agents and misery for the expatriates; a zero-sum game at its worst. The Minister is on the right track and should expand the Malaysian case to develop a comprehensive; legally sustainable and transparent policy for the overseas manpower sector.  

The writer is a former Ambassador to Japan and Egypt. 

US, AI, Economist on Dhaka: Rationality needed to stop criticism 

The Holiday

Friday, 1^st June, 2012

M. Serajul Islam

What does the former Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retired) Shakawat Hossain has in common with the British Minister Alistair Burt, US Secretary of State  Hillary Clinton, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister  Katsuya Okada,  Indian Finance Minister  Pranab Mukherjee,  The Economist;  reports of the US State Department and Amnesty International? They have all spoken about the need in Bangladesh for a system that would encourage both the ruling party and the opposition to participate in the country’s next general elections in less than 2 years’ time. These international leaders; magazine and institutions have all hinted that without a consensus on the next general elections, Bangladesh could slide towards a disaster. 

The government has accused the Economist to have written its reports on Bangladesh on the caretaker government and a host of other issues critical to it after taking bribe from the BNP! It is of course a sigh of relief that the government has not accused the British Minister, the US Secretary, the Japanese DPM, the Indian Finance Minister, AI and the US State Department of taking bribe from the BNP to have said or written what the former Election Commissioner has said about the need for an acceptable system for the next general elections and on other criticisms of its governance. 

Free, fair polls

For the sake of Bangladesh’s future, it would serve some useful purpose to examine the Brigadier’s comments on the need for consensus on holding the next general elections. He is one who has been intimately involved with the Election Commission during the last five years and should know better than anyone else on the ability of the EC to hold the next general elections freely and fairly under a party government. Speaking at a seminar organized by SUJAN recently; he said:   “There is no guarantee that the election will be free and fair when three hundred MPs will be in power. No-one can say they would not intervene in their respective constituencies.” His categorical dismissal that a party government can hold an election freely and fairly comes out of his first hand experience with the mainstream political parties. 

Not too long ago, the former CEC Dr. Shamsul Huda who was the Brigadier’s boss at the EC during his five years there said the same thing about holding the next general elections under a party government not too long ago. He too had dismissed free and fair elections under a party government. Very recently, the current CEC too has said that it would be up to the two mainstream parties to decide on the system for the next general elections. He did not express the conviction that the Prime Minister and her close aides have expressed that the EC would be able to hold free and fair elections under a party government. 

With the Prime Minister, a few of AL and Mahajote leaders are leading a media campaign to dismiss what the opposition,  rest of Bangladesh and friendly countries, etc.,  abroad have been recommending for the country; that a way must be found to encourage the opposition to participate in the next general elections. The AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam who addressed the media recently with Mahajote leaders said that there is no way to go back to the caretaker system. In favour of this argument, he said that it would be impossible to restore the CG system because a Supreme Court judgment abolished it and the parliament wrote that judgment in the constitution. Mahajote leaders like for instance Rashed Khan Menon also backed   Syed Ashraf’s argument that as the constitution has abolished the CG system and introduced the party government to hold the next general elections, there was no way to accede to the opposition’s demand.

Politics of conflict

In dismissing the possibility of restoring the CG, these leaders failed to acknowledge a few facts. First, the SC judgment that led to the abolition of the CG system from the constitution also recommended that the next two general elections should nevertheless he held under the CG system because of the politics of conflict between the two mainstream parties. Clearly, the Chief Justice who wrote the judgment was fearful that politics in the country was still not mature for general elections under a party government. Second, the AL also failed to acknowledge that what is not in constitution is not an argument against trying to introduce an amendment putting something new into the constitution. The AL literally held the first BNP Government and the country at ransom to force the CG system to be written to the constitution.

In fact, in the constitutional history of the country, the AL has a record of using its strength in parliament and outside it to introduce and repeal constitutional provisions at will. It has never bothered in the past either to change the constitutional provisions to meet its political ends or to force its political interests to be incorporated in the constitution.  It used its parliamentary majority in 1974 to gag democracy and change the nature of government from a parliamentary one to one party presidential dictatorship with the 4th amendment, also known infamously as the BAKSAL amendment. Under the first BNP Government, it used its power in the streets to force the 13th amendment of the constitution introducing the CG system. In its present tenure, it has used its 3/4th parliamentary majority to abolish the CG system from the constitution with the 15th amendment. In case of the 4th and 15th amendments, the AL deliberated 9 and 4 minutes in parliament respectively to make the fundamental constitutional changes! 

Therefore using the argument that the constitution cannot be changed to deny the demand of the opposition for restoration of the CG system for the next elections that now all right thinking people of the country feel is holding the key to Bangladesh’s political stability is indeed a very lame excuse to say the least.  In fact, in the SUJON-arranged seminar, there was a consensus that the ruling party and the opposition must sit down and find a way out from the danger that looms large for the country should the ruling party goes for election under its own supervision without the opposition participating in it. Those who participated in the SUJON seminar were from both the ruling and the opposition parties together with some eminent citizens who did not belong to any of the mainstream parties. 

There are some from the ruling party who continue to send optimistic signals that a compromise with the opposition would be possible. Very recently, the Speaker suggested that his good offices would be always available should the opposition decide that it would sit down with the ruling party for discussion. He of course made light of his offer when he said that he would even foot the bill for the tea and refreshment for holding the talks! There are some members of the ruling party who have suggested that the opposition must come to the parliament and place their proposal for the system of elections under which it would be willing to participate.

Double standards

The insistence of these members that the opposition must come to the parliament to place its proposal for a system of elections under which it would participate in the next general elections is also a weak one. These AL leaders have forgotten that it used the streets as the forum during the BNP’s first term to force upon the government its demand for a caretaker government. Clearly, the AL is getting caught in using double standards in politics. While in power, it uses one standard and another while in the opposition. 

In fact, as a result of this, the AL is becoming increasingly isolated from the people in the country and Bangladesh’s friends abroad. Hinting at it even Pranab Mukherjee could not help telling Khaleda Zia in his meeting with her during his recent visit to Bangladesh that India is interested in maintaining relations with Bangladesh and not with a political party. It is therefore no wonder that Hillary Clinton, Katsuya Okada and the British Minister have all spoken in the same line as the Indian Minister. 

The fact that the ruling party is becoming isolated with its politics was brought to focus with two articles carried in one issue of The Economist. It is rare that a weekly such as The Economist to find space for two stories on Bangladesh in one issue. In fact, as a regular reader of this magazine, I don’t remember ever that such a thing has happened in the past. The AL Joint Secretary has accused the weekly of being bribed by the BNP. The Joint Secretary’s pointing fingers at BNP clearly exposed the utter despair to which these leaders have sunk trying to answer international critics of the regime. In fact, the recent reports of the US Department of State and Amnesty International have been more critical than even the anti-people regime of President Ershad.  

It is indeed sad that the party which the people had elected with such high hopes to bring about a paradigm shift in governance is making such a mess of it and attracting the attention of the international community and media in such a negative way. The ruling party would do itself a world of good to inquire into the reasons why it is attracting such criticisms at home and abroad instead of dismissing them the way its Joint Secretary did with The Economist. In fact, it is not that the ruling party’s interests alone are dependent upon rational approach to the criticisms being made against its governance; the very future of the country has become dependent on the sanity of the ruling party in sorting out the political problems the country is facing.

The writer is a retired career diplomat and Ambassador to Japan.