The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNIVERSITIES have been reopened after a 62-day-long unscheduled closure following the untoward incidents of August 20-22. The halls have been reopened for the students. Classes resumed on the 28th of last month. The stalled examinations are now being held after a lapse of two months. A minor incident at the Dhaka University playground on August 20 flared up into violent agitation and spread to other major public varsities of the country. The incident led to the closure of the universities and suspension of classes and examinations while the residential halls were vacated.

Such a turn of the incident was probably the outcome of a long sequel of extra-academic developments on campus life. The universities produced many scholarly teachers and brilliant students who played important roles at different junctures of the national life. Their roles in the great language movement, movements against autocratic regimes during Pakistan period and the Liberation War of 1971 are parts of a glorious history. But regrettably, the students of these institutions are nowadays too much involved in partisan politics. It is alleged that political parties use them as tools. The trend has developed to such alarming proportions that they are supplied with deadly weapons for internecine clashes.

A section of teachers is also divided on the basis of their political affiliations. The situation is such that, very often, political leanings of the teachers and students surpass their academic interests. Some teachers stay outside the country for years together causing much harm to the educational pursuits of the students. Parents of the students are compelled to bear extra expenses for the extra years of study in the institutions of higher learning. The students lose valuable years before they can qualify for jobs.

Such an anarchy in the institutions of higher education is most unfortunate. It is expected that all concerned quarters will play due roles in maintaining congenial academic atmosphere in the campuses for the greater interests of the nation. The university authorities and a vast majority of the teachers and the students definitely realise the gravity of the situation. The government must also help maintain congenial atmosphere and refrain from resorting to harsh measures in dealing with the affairs of the students. Let the August incidents not leave any permanent scar on the minds of the teachers and the students.

THE Bangladesh Bar Council, a highly regarded body of the lawyers, issued a call the other day that the government should immediately start the process of freeing the judiciary from inefficiency and corruption, particularly from the higher judiciary. The Bar Council leaders also underlined in their statement that if such a cleansing move is not initiated and thoroughly carried out now, then the people would not get the benefits from separation of the judiciary that has recently been effected.

The suggestion offered by the lawyers has indeed, merit being taken very seriously. The present caretaker administration has, no doubt, fulfilled a constitutional obligation of separating the judiciary from the executive. But the fruits of this achievement will not be reaped as long as judges lacking in efficiency and integrity in the highest court continue to be in charge of court proceedings. Truly efficient or exalted decisions, decisions without partiality or political influences, cannot be expected from such individuals who allegedly lack competence and integrity. Good governance, rule of law and proper dispensation of justice without fail, cannot be expected from an inefficient and backward-looking judicial system. Thus, judicial reforms in this regard are a must. Besides, under the new scheme of things or a judiciary enjoying independence, supervision, accountability and restructuring of the lower judiciary would become fully the responsibilities of the higher judiciary. But the question which cannot help but arise in the present context is, how efficiently the higher judiciary in its present state will be able to play the guardian role over the lower judiciary?

Even the President, Dr Iajuddin Ahmed, is on record clearly expressing his views about the judiciary when on 11 January of this year he addressed the nation on the occasion of reconstitution of the caretaker government. The President's address reflected national sentiments and aspirations. Among the major ailments of the nation, as the President noted at that time, was the existence of individuals of dubious competence and character in the upper echelons of the bureaucracy. The President, at that time, declared that reform and cleaning of the judiciary would be among the main objectives of the new caretaker government. Thus, the conscious sections of people and the concerned ones in the judiciary itself, are all for pushing through such reform activities in the judiciary immediately so that this vital task can be completed within the tenure of this government. The government may establish a judicial commission to prepare the modalities for scrutiny and restructuring of the upper judiciary. The present mode of appointing High Court judges mainly by the President should also undergo changes. The process may be made a transparent one so that the President acting in this matter, upon consultation with the Chief Justice, appoints judges from a short list proposed by the latter.

Dr. M. Azizur Rahman

Businessmen are losing confidence to invest as the government is suddenly putting a hard effort to eliminate corruption. Businessmen are afraid of legal action against them and probably high rate of taxes such as income tax, customs duty, etc. and imposition of some restriction on the withdrawal and transfer of money from the bank account. The existing business laws in Bangladesh might be inadequate and not updated to facilitate business. Business-related laws may be full of loopholes, which are hard for the businessman and investor to digest and run the business free of corruption.

As a result of anti-corruption, economic growth and development are threatened. Moreover, our export earnings from the Apparel Sector have already decreased by 24 per cent. Foreign investment has decreased substantially. More alarming is that many businessmen who used to be the builders of this society have started to think of going abroad and settling there. Many talented students studying abroad used to come back home. But, they are now fairly confused about their returning home. If we become unable to save the business by any means, economic growth will continue to go down for the next decade. So, what to do now? We do not have options except to the formation of Truth Commission and to make amendment to the existing business-related laws to eliminate the unnecessary and unwanted provisions/clauses from the frame of law, if any, that might make its implementation difficult and some business actions in reality might be easily defined as corruption.

We need to save the business and the businessman because the businessman finances himself, other businessmen and the people working for him. Businessmen finance the private-and public sector, 'and the Government and the people working for the Government through tax. They are the major tax payers in any society. Businessmen are both producers and consumers. They finance the production and consumption of goods and services. Businessmen produce goods and services at home and sell it to domestic consumers, Government and export to foreign countries at the maximum price. They import goods and services cheaply produced abroad for domestic consumption, business and Government. It we do not save the business, none of us can survive. The Government needs tax from the business for its activities. According to Daily Ittefaq of October 7national economy, its growth and development are mostly contributed by the business.

The amendment to the business-related laws should be made in such a way that it provides incentives to the businessman for hard work. Because people attempt to maximise their satisfaction in life based on their ability. We are all selfish by birth. We want more of everything. We perform the best if we work for ourselves. How does the selfishness benefit the society? Let's make lemonade out-of-Iemon. As we are selfish, we work hard for ourselves and our families. Ultimately, we work hard for the society or the nation. Selfishness means that we utilise our efforts to maximise our benefits, not by taking away the other's pie. More we are selfish, more we do things for ourselves. Selfishness let the people help themselves in their effort to maximise their satisfaction in life. The whole society will get benefit from the human's unselfish efforts and hard work.

The businessman will use the business-related law to achieve his objective of profit maximisation which is the 'indirect' benefit for the society. Business laws are, therefore, made to put the business effort to maximise benefit for the business as well as for the society. Business laws are made by law-makers who are Members of the Parliament (MPs). MPs are politicians or businessmen or both politicians and businessmen and are considered well conversed about the business. MPs make a business law to achieve some business and social objectives of economic growth and meet basic needs including those of food, clothes, shelter, education and health. Documents on these laws are, however, drafted by some trained and untrained experts. Quite a few unnecessary and difficult provisions or clauses might have been put in the draft law that make the implementation of law relatively difficult. For example, the 1992 Private Universities Act says, each of the Private University will have its own campus on a plot of 15 bighas. This provision of Private University Act is impractical in Dhaka City. Inability to implement this law is neither illegal, nor is it a corruption. Objectives of making law may not be achieved because of the above mentioned difficulties and the whole society and the economy may, therefore, be in trouble.

The draft document on the business law should be shared by both the representative of the business and the Government. The business law may not be assumed to be free of any conflict of interest between the businessman and the Government. The businessman would like to utilise the law to maximise their benefit, which will tend to minimise the social or Government benefit. On the contrary, the Government would like to use the same law to maximise the social or Government benefit, the effort of which is likely to minimise the businessman's benefit. The businessmen and the Government or its draft experts of business law are clearly two separate parties or entities, or individuals or group of individuals with conflict of interest. If only one group of individuals/party is alone given the responsibility of making a law and its draft document on business law, it will be very difficult to implement that law. The stakeholders/investors will look for the loopholes. Once again, it may, therefore, be mentioned that draft document on business law should be shared by all parties including stakeholders, investors and representatives of businessmen and Government so as to maximise the benefit of all parties and harm none from the use of the law.

Formation of Truth Commission is likely to face a challenge of discrimination. The law under which Truth Commission will work may be applicable to all parties including the businessman. Punishment in different degrees may be sanctioned according to the nature of crime. Action by Truth Commission alone is, therefore, not enough. As a complement to the proposed action by Truth-Commission, we may make an amendment to the business related laws to eliminate some unnecessary and difficult provisions and clauses within the law, if any, which may make them tough to implement.

As mentioned above, a committee may be formed on an urgent basis by including the representative of the businesses and the Government to amend the business-related laws. Truth Commission must include stakeholders, investors. and businessmen, social scientists and economists as members to better understand the problems and prospects and magnitude of crime in business and its causes.

(The writer is Vice-Chancellor and Economist, Uttara University)

Ferit Ergin

The tenth of the Regular Reports on Turkey, which are published annually since 1998, and the Enlargement Strategy Paper outlining expectations regarding the future of Europe, have been made public on November 6,2007 by the European Union Commission.

Turkey is committed to the aim of full membership. This objective enjoys the support of our Government, the Turkish people and public opinion. Our determination is unswerving in this respect; and our commitment to addressing our shortcomings and the effective implementation of reforms is in no way diminishing. To the contrary, our resolve to this end has only increased. We will continue with the reforms until we raise our country to the highest levels in terms of democracy and human rights.

As acknowledged both in Turkey and by our EU partners, we are carrying on with this journey towards full EU membership in good faith and utmost effort.

The EU Commission prepares similar reports on candidate and negotiating countries on an annual basis. These reports only include adopted legislation and implemented measures. They do not take into account legislation or measures that are under preparation. Reference to shortcomings, as well as to areas that require improvement is in line with the mandate of the Commission in its preparation of progress reports. As such, shortcomings in legislation and implementation will continue to be included in future reports on Turkey until we become a full member.

This year's report is structurally similar to those of previous years. The areas, in which further improvement are expected, appear in this report, much as they have in the previous iterations. In this framework, expectations which have been outlined in the previous report and not yet met may continue to be included in the subsequent report.

The purpose of the inclusion of some issues in the report, which may appear in a negative light, should be interpreted as the identification of areas in need of attention and focus of effort. The report also contains elements that we do not concur with. Our views and points of clarification on these elements will be conveyed to the Commission in due course as customary, taking into account the fundamental philosophy and legal foundations of the EU.

Turkey is fully aware of its responsibilities as regards harmonization with the acquis.

The relative slow-down in reforms due to electoral process is a common phenomenon in all countries. What needs to be borne in mind is that reforms are not confined to solely legislation. Indeed, significant ground has been covered in the implementation field in recent months.

Our new Parliament has been in session for only three weeks. The groundwork for reforms has already started and being submitted to the Parliament.

On the other hand, the Enlargement Strategy Paper, which presents a general assessment of enlargement and proposals for the ensuing stage in the process of membership for each candidate, in accordance with findings in the respective progress report, also includes a section on Turkey. References to Turkey therein include the following:

Turkey continues to sufficiently fulfill the Copenhagen political criteria.

In the light of the Preamble, as well as Article 28 of the 1963 Association Agreement, and of the Council Decision of 3 January 2005-agreed unanimously by all Member States, the aim of negotiations is clearly accession; this reflects Turkey's major strategic role from the early foundations of the European Union,

It is essential that the European Union honours its commitments and keeps the negotiation process on track and that chapters are opened as soon as the technical conditions are met, in line with the Negotiating Framework of October 2005; in other words, the political obstacles should not be raised during the process of negotiations,

Turkey presents a unique interface between the West and the Muslim world, and that its accession to the EU, based on profound democratic transformation is followed with interest in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world, and that this has been brought out clearly by the Alliance of Civilizations initiative,

The parliamentary elections were free and fair, and the new government presented an EU-oriented reform agenda,

Turkey's contributions to ESDP, as well as its potential of becoming a major energy route, and therefore a key actor for the security of Europe's energy supply are recognized.

We are pleased to note the acknowledgement of the contractual obligations of the EU with regard to Turkey's membership process, and reference to the strategic importance to the EU of our membership, reaffirming our long-held views.

To relegate the future of the deep-rooted relations between Turkey and the EU to the inclinations of political leaders in some Member States, or to reduce our relationship to the implementation of the Additional Protocol will indeed be a dubious course of action, not least from the point of view of the decisions that Europe will take on its own future.

We are fully confident that our friends in the EU will display the strength of will in opposing efforts to put impediments that are not related to the process before us.

We are also of the opinion that the EU will become more aware of the potential contributions that Turkey's accession will provide, and that our relationship from this point forward will be characterized by this enhanced wisdom.

(The writer is the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Bangladesh)

Dr.Abdul Ruff

In his historic visit to Italy, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican - the first audience by the head of the Roman Catholic Church with a Saudi monarch. The Vatican described the private meeting as "warm" and said the two men discussed the presence and hard work of Christians in Saudi Arabia. For quite some time now Pope has been critical of the so-called "Islamic terrorism"- an expression so close to the hearts of Neo-cons in Washington,supporting the US-led terror wars in Islamic world. The Saudi Kingdom and Vatican have no diplomatic ties, although when Abdullah was crown prince he met the late Pope John Paul II. Correspondents say the visit comes as relations between the Vatican and the Muslim world are improving, more than a year after the crisis caused by a papal speech appearing to associate Islam with violence. King and Pope focused in their brief talk on inter-faith dialogue. Pope Benedict warmly greeted King Abdullah at the Vatican on 06 Nov, Tuesday, grasping both his hands before leading him to a library for their brief private meeting, which lasted only 30 minutes, with both leaders speaking through interpreters. Afterwards, the king offered his host a gold sword encrusted with jewels. He was given a 16th Century engraving of the Vatican in return.

King Abdullah, who is styled the Custodian of the Two Sacred Mosques - in Mecca and Medina - is an advocate of cautious reform in Saudi Arabia, as pressed by the USA, often against the wishes of the powerful Islamic religious establishment. An estimated 1.5m Christians live in Saudi Arabia but are not allowed worshiping publicly. The Vatican said Abdullah requested the audience as part of his European tour. The King has already visited Britain and held talks with Premier Gordon Brown in London. The 84-year-old Saudi monarch is on the third leg of his European tour after visiting the UK and Switzerland. He will travel next to Germany and Turkey.

Both sides emphasized the need for a "just solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vatican said. "The most important thing is to get the possibility to gather in freedom and security for our worship". The historic encounter was expected to focus on two issues: the rights of Christians in Saudi Arabia and the wider relations between Christianity and Islam. The Vatican said the talks allowed a wide discussion on the need for religious and cultural dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews "for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values, especially in support of the family." BBC says the symbolism of the meeting was huge for those who believe there should be more dialogue between Islam and Christianity, especially after the pontiff's controversial September 2006 speech at Regensburg University. In it, he quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire, who said in the 14th Century that the Prophet Muhammad had brought only "evil and inhuman" things. The pontiff incurred the wrath of many Muslims around the world for comments associating Islam with violence. Recently, 138 Muslim religious leaders wrote to the Pope, stressing that the time for polite ecumenical dialogue had passed, with religious violence on the rise, and saying that the common future of the two faiths was at stake. The Vatican has often stressed the need for reciprocity in its request to build churches, noting that Muslims are free to worship in many Christian countries. The pope later apologized and made efforts to reach out to other religions, stressing that these had not been his own words and expressed regret for any offence they had caused.

West has been harping on freedom of religions in Saudi Arabia, knowing too well Islamic faith is final in the Kingdom. About a million Catholics, many of them migrant workers from the Philippines, live in the Islamic desert kingdom, which is the home of Islam's holiest shrines. They are allowed to worship in private, mostly in people's homes, but worship in public places and outward signs of faith, such as crucifixes, are forbidden. The Saudi authorities cite a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that only Islam can be practiced in the Arabian Peninsula.The West iskeen to apply pressure on Arab nations on the issue of religion in order to secure energy at low prices.

Encouraged by the Western media to create rift in the society, Christians complain that Saudi rules are not clear and Muslim authorities sometimes crack down on legitimate congregations. "The most important thing is to get the possibility to gather in freedom and security for our worship, our masses and our activities," said Bishop Paul Hinder, responsible for Catholics in Arabia, in an interview with Western Reuters news agency. The most important fact about Saudi Kingdom is that it never tries to secure conversions forced or other wise. It is a vivid testament of the fact Islam never forces religious conversions. And that Islam has no role in the "terrorism" perpetrated by the anti-Islamic countries in order to paint Islam in dirty colors and target the Muslims for torture and harassment.

It is unfortunate that of late Pope has assumed an activist's role for Christianity and against Islam. The cases of Abdul Nasser Madani in Indian jails and Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef in Australia testify the cruelly attached to the anti-Islamic propaganda, shamelessly unleshed by these countries and their media. Pope is advised to ponder over the real facts concerning the cruelty against Muslims globally and express deep concern about the plight of Muslims in the "Terrorized" world being established by the US and help the Muslims live like honorable beings.