The New Nation - Internet Edition

PEOPLE in the northern and central districts of the country are experiencing biting cold. The regions are likely to experience mild to severe cold waves during the second half of this month. In its long-range forecast for the month of January, the expert committee of the Met Office in Dhaka informed that two cold waves might sweep over certain regions of the country beginning from the middle of the month to its end. The areas to be affected are Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions, and the districts of Jessore, Kushtia, Mymensingh, Tangail and Comilla. It is likely that the temperature might range from eight degrees Celsius to six degrees Celsius as moderate cold wave and six to four degrees in case of severe cold wave. During the second half of last month the same regions experienced a mild cold wave. Incidences of cold waves are already there in the north and north-western areas. Temperature has started falling and thick fog is hanging over most of the time of the day.

During severe cold waves, life virtually comes to a standstill in rural areas. Poor day labourers and other toiling masses in the above mentioned areas suffer the most. They are forced to remain confined to their houses and pass their days half-fed and sometimes even go without food. Due to price hike of rice, poor people have fallen in a very insecure situation. At the same time, they suffer much from various diseases like cold, cough, pneumonia, asthma and diarrhoea during the season. Respiratory diseases and diarrhoea sometimes assume epidemic proportions. Every year scores of infants and elderly people die of cold-related ailments in these areas. This year people's sufferings from cold related diseases are likely to be more as they have suffered serious material losses in natural disasters and are ill prepared to fight the biting cold.

The availability of blankets, warm clothes and adequate supply of food and medicine can help save the people from such sufferings. The local government bodies and community-based organisations must extend necessary help to poor people to face the situation. Sufficient quantities of warm clothes, emergency food and medicines should be distributed among the people suffering for lack of those. Cold waves are annual events. So, it is expected that preparations should have been taken well ahead of the winter. All-out efforts need to be made now to reach warm clothes and blankets to those who need them most. To supplement the government initiatives, affluent sections of the society should come forward to support the poor at the hour of their distress.

ACCORDING to an estimate, an amount of 65 million US Dollars or over 300 crore Taka on average is being spent a year by Bangladeshi patients for treatment abroad in neighbouring countries. If the total amount of resources spent for medical treatment by Bangladeshis in other countries is taken into account, the same would obviously make a much bigger figure. A decrease in this expenditure has started occurring since last year as some hospitals of international standard started functioning in capital Dhaka. But the expenditures on foreign medical treatment by Bangladeshis still remain largely undiminished. Therefore, the question that cannot help but arise is, whether such a drain of the country's limited resources on medical or health care abroad is justified when the country is hard pressed to carry out its import of industrial raw materials, capital machinery and indispensable consumer items with its present state of foreign currency earnings. The answer may be in the negative and this may create a compulsion on policy makers to set in motion policy decisions designed to check this drain.

The first thing in order would be the taking of immediate steps to improve the existing state of medical and health care in the country. The public health care system is in a deplorable state. If it is improved substantially, then this will check the desire of some sections of people to get foreign treatment. Much greater positive results can come from regulating and bringing up to standard the private clinics, hospitals, diagnostic centres. Many such establishments fall far short of the mandatory requirements of professional standards and would lose their licences if the rules are enforced properly. Therefore, it is imperative to enforce the rules against them so that their owners or operators feel effectively persuaded to much improve their quality of services. Furthermore, the government should make its own investments for the establishment of more general hospitals as well as specialised hospitals.

The private sector should also be persuaded to come forward to set up more such hospitals and facilities for specialised medical care considering these to be investments with prospects of good returns because there exists a huge demand for such standard medical care in the country. Only by pursuing such a kind of strategy, the phenomenon of the drain of resources on foreign treatment can be brought down very substantially and the country can save much resources that can be invested in other productive sectors. One may say that costs will be incurred even in the setting up of new medical services. But one has to take note of the fact that these would be one-time investments but the same may to a great extent stop the present regular drain of resources for foreign treatment.

Razzak Raza

Zorina Bewa is an octogenarian woman who lost her husband some 20 years ago. She has two sons and four daughters and a dozen of grand children. She possesses 50 decimals of land which became the bone of contention among her children and grand children. Upon a promise of providing with two meals in a day, Zorina donated her land to one of her grand children, Jamal. Shrewd Jamal wrongly thought that the old lady would find her way to the graveyard in few years, if not few months, and thus, he would gain the land easily by not feeding his grand mother for years. He fed his grand mother for few months. But he is not a well-to-do man. He refused to feed the helpless old grand mother. Zorina went to the local headmen. But nobody could break in recusant Jamal. He would neither provide the old woman with food nor would he give back the donated land to her.

Finding no other ways, the old lady went to the police station and describes her woes to the Officer-in-Charge. The Officer in Charge was a law abiding police officer. He found no sections in his law books to prosecute Zorina's grand child, Jamal. He told the lady that it was not a problem with the police to solve. The police enforce criminal laws of cognizable nature. Her problem was of civil nature and she could go to the civil court for redress. The old lady went back home blaming the Creator for granting her a long life.

In the meantime, the Officer-in-Charge got transferred. A new Officer-in-Charge joined the police station. With a hope to get redress of the injustice from her grand child, Jamal, the old lady re-visited the police station and saw the new OC. The new OC gave a patient hearing to the old women. But the new OC also found the problem of the old woman undefined in his charter of duties. He perused the Criminal laws anew. But no procedure was suggested in the Criminal Procedure Code to address this problem. The Police Regulations, Bengal, too, incorporated no rules to solve these sorts of problems. The framers of Indian Penal Code, failed to visualise that old woman like Zorina Bewa would approach to the police stations to get rid of such social problems. The Children Act-1974 protects the young generations from probable offences and negligence, but the Officer-in-Charge discovered no legal guarantee for the old human being from social injustice.

But police discretion begins where the law ends. The OC decided to help the old woman by applying his discretion. He sent an officer to nab the grand child. The Section 54 of the Cr.PC gave a legal footing to him to help the destitute lady. The power of arrest is a powerful weapon to the police. Everybody is afraid of being arrested. And it is also widely believed that the police can do any thing and many things with the weapon of section 54. Jamal gave in to the OC. He was forced to give back the land to the old lady. The lady redistributed the land to her two sons. They took the responsibility to feed the old woman. This non-police problem was solved by the police in front of the local elites and headmen. The local people promised to work as watch dogs to ensure that the old lady was given with food and lodging properly by her sons.

There are numerous non-police problems like one that of old Zorina which a police officer needs to solve. These problems have hardly any link with the regular police responsibilities. These are purely social problems which arise when traditional and established social norms are broken and social values are overlooked. The leaders of the society, social workers, and the social welfare departments of the government should solve these problems. Civil matters are directly tried by the civil courts. Police are not allowed to interfere with the civil cases. But, police, though primarily a crime-fighting organisation have to solve all these social problems, because no other means has been found to solve them. They are the residual problems of society. The public want a general-purpose emergency government service, available to handle problems that arise. This job falls to the police. Policing involves society's dirty work: the tasks that no one else wants to do. People call the police when everything else has failed.

Why people call the police? Are they endangered by violent crime or their security is at stake? People call the police to solve their domestic problems, to get back lent money from their acquainted persons or their business partners. Petty civil maters are brought to the police to get rapid remedy. In a study in the USA police departments it was found that out of hundred calls only 19 percent of calls involves crime and only 2 percent of the total calls involve violent crime. Excluding two percent of internal operation calls the rest 79 percent calls are of non criminal nature. But police had to attend all those calls. These are the social service the police have to render for the society.

The crime fighting image of Bangladesh police, though still prevalent, has decreased enormously. The lion share of a police officer's time, especially of an officer working in a police station, is spent to render social services. It is true that the number of cognizable cases has increased over the years. But at the same time the non-crime duties increased manifold. The verification of antecedences of the Government servants, the pass-port verifications, issuing police clearance, attending traffic accident and enquiring public petitions, arbitrating land disputes, patching up broken relations between husband and wife and thousands of other non-criminal works keep the police ever busy all the year round.

Paradoxically, the social service role of the police work is not evaluated in the official statistics. Only the cognizable cases and execution of warrants are shown in the monthly and annual conference. Statistics available at Police Head Quarters shows the number of recorded crimes in sixteen heads. But how many VR or PVR were enquired were not included in the statistics. How many old people like Zorina Bewa were attended by the officers is completely missing from the performance list. Official Web Site of Bangladesh police, www.police.gov.bd, shows that the police officers were busy with 1, 30,578 cognizable cases in 2006. But the thousands of other performances that consume the lion share of their time have blatantly been overlooked.

The framers of the existing Police Act (Act 5 of 1861) never thought of Zorina Bewa. They wanted to raise a police force only to fight against crime. No commitment towards the community was depicted in the police Act. In 1861, police officers never encountered such kind of social problems as one the old lady in question brought to. By the passes of time our flags changed twice, our society developed, population grew manifold and modernity broke the old aged homogeneous social fabrics. But our police are put to the same statutory cache.

If the Officer-in-Charge who tried to give old Zorina Bewa a redress, paid a deaf heed to her, no legal proceeding could be drawn against him. On the contrary, he could be prosecuted for illegal arrest of the old lady's grandson. This is the law by which our police are expected to solve social problems.

The world of policing has changed its direction from merely fighting against crime to rendering social service. The era of community policing began in the western world in the early seventies of the last century, and in Bangladesh, it is knocking at the door. Police are not merely a crime fighting force in modern days. It is a service providing uniformed government agency. In lieu of arrest of criminals, police are expected to stop the process of criminality.

Not every problem arising in the society could be and should be enlisted and defined in the statutes. Like the police of developed countries, Bangladesh Police, now, need to develop a mechanism to address social problems with the close coordination with the members of the society.

It is hopeful that Bangladesh Police have changed their attitudes in recent years. The increasing number of people of all strata visiting the police-units everyday can feel the positive change in police attitudes. The post of a service delivery officer has been created in the police stations for attending and counseling the visitors to initiate the legal process. Recent news-paper-reports on police performance speak volumes of the change in the police approach to help the destitute like Zorina Bewa.

But the individual approach or the initiatives without legal obligation cannot institutionalize the change. We need a change in the police act and regulations. So, the old aged police act must be re-written. Police must be declared as a government agency for rendering social services. The crime fighting role of the police must be overrun by the social service liabilities.

The draft police ordinance 2007 circulated by the Police Reform Programme has addressed this issue. It declares and addresses social problems of the democratic society in its preamble. It has bound the police officers to the public with reciprocal obligations-

It shall obligatory for every police officer to-

a) behave with respect and courtesy towards the public;

b) render requisite assistance to the victim of crime, exploitation, accident, natural calamities and disaster;

c) promote sense of security amongst the public with special emphasis to the poor, disabled or physically weak and elderly persons;

d) guarantee the fundamental right and freedom as enshrined in the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh;

e) prevent all forms of harassment against women & children; and

f) Foster community partnership in policing.

Police Officer shall make every effort to-

a) afford relief to people in distress situation,

b) provide support to victims of crime and accident'

c) assist accident and crime victims or their heirs or their dependants, where applicable, with such information and documents as would facilitate their compensation claims; and

d) Cause awareness among the victims of crime and accidents of their rights and privileges.

I think these are the voices of the common people of the country who have been dreaming of a democratic and exploitation free even society since the independence. We want to change our police. The police of the colonial era cannot serve a free nation. So, let us have a police force that will shake off their colonial attitudes. And for its prerequisite, we must introduce a new police act and send the existing one to the museum.

Subhash Chopra

Immigration and the settlement of new arrivals in any society or country always throws up umpteen difficulties, which sometimes turn into substantial problems. Europe has been facing such problems for quite some time now. Some of them have their roots in the old race- or colour-related issues while others are of more recent origin. The emergence of difficulties related to the Islamic faith appears to be among the latter category and, unfortunately, these seem to be getting worse. The sixth anniversary of the events of 11 September 2001 on the U.S. mainland has just been marked with promises of more determined battles. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, al-Qaeda's unremitting profile, and the cartoons controversy have aggravated the disequilibrium of emotions between the native and immigrant communities.

In Britain, for instance, a recent Gallup opinion poll revealed that 15 per cent of British people do not want to live next door to a Muslim family. The poll, conducted in conjunction with Coexistence Trust, whose members include Sir Gulam Noon, Lord Hameed, Lord Jarmer, Lord Mitchell and others, also finds that 62 per cent of Britons believe that minorities must be more flexible to blend in with the majority, while 54 per cent of Muslim Londoners think the majority should do more to accommodate the minorities' religious customs. A more recent YouGov poll has revealed even worse findings.

This year's Glasgow airport suicide bombing attempt and the memory of July bombings of bus and underground trains that left over 50 people dead and scores injured two years ago could be a strong reason behind this phenomenon.

A prominent explanation for alienation of Muslim youth from mainstream British society is the comparative lack of opportunities and jobs, which must be tackled with greater attention by the govemment. Acknowledging this as a part of the problem, Noon said in an exclusive interview at his London office: 'A frustrated Muslim youngster is prone to fall into the trap of extremist mullahs or wrong imams.' The so-called imams (Noon refuses to call them true imams) 'must be confronted - unka sarona kama padega' if the Muslims have to find their rightful place and regain the trust of the mainstream society.

Noon, who was appointed to the British govemment's Muslim Task Force after the July 2005 bombings, has been outspoken over the role of mullahs in poisoning the minds of young Muslims. He blames the British authorities for going soft on the extremists. Pointing to the case of the Egyptian Islamist Mullah Abu Hamza, he attacked the failure of British courts to deal adequately with the likes of Hamza. If someone is convicted for a terror or hate-related crime, the full force of law should apply, he told the London Times recently. Hamza had been jailed for seven years but he will not serve it, under the lax regulations. He would come out soon and be up to the same mischief yet again.

When I suggested to him that people like him, who have no elections to face, were better placed than prospective or sitting Muslim MPs and municipal councillors to speak out against the fundamentalists, he agreed wholeheartedly and said more community leaders must come out and speak openly against the extrerrusts.

Asked about his views on the British government's policy of encouragement and funding help to new faith or religious schools, Noon shook his head, saying: 'Falling (the government) into the same trap. You (minorities) can't cocoon yourself' Religious training must be given at home at the weekends and parents must watch and supervise what the imams teach the young children, Noon strongly believes.

Talking about the headscarf and burqa or veil tradition among Muslim women, Noon said the headscarf was understandable but not the eye-slits full burqa. Those who want such a lifestyle 'should go and live somewhere else'.

Incidentally, Noon, who hails from Mumbai and heads a food empire and was questioned in the cash-for-peerage scandal that rocked Tony Blair's government, has been cleared of any wrongdoing. He stood his ground during the investigations and his stand has been vindicated. He remains a supporter of the Labour Party under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Reflecting the native British perception of Islamist fundamentalism, or at least part of it, Boris Johnson, Tory MP and candidate for the position of London Mayor at the next London Assembly elections, is known to have strong opinions. He is a strong advocate of inculcating 'Britishness, especially into young Muslims'.

He fervently believes: 'We should teach English and we should teach in English. We should teach British history. We should think again about the jilab (hijab), with the signals of apartness that it sends out, and we should probably scrap faith schools. We should forbid the imams from preaching sermons in anything but English t we cannot continue with the multicultural apartheid.' Localism, he once said, could lead to Sharia law because 'large chunks of Muslim population did not feel British.' 'Supposing Tower Hamlets or parts of Bradford were to become governed by religious zealots believing in that system?' he asked.

Such rhetoric may not be totally representative but it does strike chords in many hearts and therein lies a disruptive danger to wider community life. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on the other hand, was extraordinarily careful in the aftermath of the Glasgow suicide bombing and London car bomb attempts by never referring to the bombers as Islamists or Muslims. He simply called them terrorists and steadfastly refused to give them the MusLim label. Instead, he has been talking about winning the battle of hearts and minds. He also has a different attitude to the Iraq war, more pragmatic than his predecessor Tony Blair's line.

Prime Minister Brown in announcements on Iraq over the fortnight around the end of September and beginning of October has announced a graduated withdrawal of British troops from the war theatre. On a visit to the troops in Basra at the start of October he declared that one thousand out of five and a half thousand British troops in Iraq will be home by the end of the year, with the prospect of almost half out of Iraq by next spring.

The timing of the announcement, while the Opposition Conservative Party annual conference was in progress, has been seized upon by the Tories as a point-scoring gimmick before a likely snap general election. They are not opposed to the withdrawal of troops, only to the timing and place of the announcement. Whatever the internal differences, the British are steadily but surely pulling out of Iraq, which all parties seem to say is costing them the goodwill of millions of people in the Islamic world.

At the same time, they are tightening the dragnet on terrorist outfits. Tory leader David Cameron in his speech at the party's annual conference said that, if elected, his government would ban Hizb-ut-Tehrir, a theoretically peaceful group but widely suspected as a terrorist outfit by security agencies. Cameron also said his party would review the human rights legislation which is hindering the fight against terrorism.

Notwithstanding official or diplomatic words of restraint, the courts, police and administrations across Europe are hardening their stance on terrorism, al- Qaeda, or Islamic fundamentalism. Police and intelligence agencies are increasingly more watchful and courts are passing harder sentences. Gone are the days when the fundamentalists could claim the benefit of the doubt or get instant cover of civil liberties and human, rights. Hideouts are becoming fewer by the day. At the same time, the authorities also insist that their fight is not against law-abiding Muslims, only against the fundamentalists among them.

The militants, who claim to represent the Ummah or international Islam, are being singled out, not just by the West but also by moderate regimes in Muslim countries from Pakistan to Algeria. In fact, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been targeted as an enemy in al-Qaeda's latest video release. The video from Osama bin Laden's hideout declares war on General Musharraf and his apostate army as revenge for the attack on the Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

'We in al-Qaeda organisation call on God to witness that we will retaliate for the blood of Abdul Rashid Ghazi (the chief imam of Red Mosque) against Musharraf and those who help him', Osama is quoted as saying in the video. 'Pervez, his ministers, soldiers and those who help him are all accomplices in spilling the blood. He who helps him knowingly and willingLy is an infidel like him.' Scores of Pakistani soldiers have been killed during the last three months in the north and south Waziristan areas of the NWFP (North West Frontier Province) and the skirmishes seem to be getting fiercer by the day.

Al-Qaeda's warning also promises more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa, and Sudan's Darfur region. It is clear that Al-Qaeda is not just fighting the West, it is challenging Islamic regimes all over. It is holding a veiled threat to the govemments represented in the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) as well. It is fighting to become the sole spokesman of the Ummah or global Islam.

Europe, in turn, is facing another dilemma, a long-standing one-the issue of allowing Turkey to join the European Union or keeping it out. Turkey has been a member of the Euro-American NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) alliance since 1952 and has been an associate member of the European Club since 1963. How long will Europe keep it waiting outside the door? Turkey's credentials as a staunchly secular applicant are impeccable. The human rights objections are widely seen as an excuse which cannot wash any longer. What is holding Turkey's membership? Is it because Turkey is a Muslim country and the European Union is a Christian club? That certainly is the wide perception in Turkey and large parts of Europe, though never officially admitted and always diplomatically obfuscated.

Europe's Turkish or Islamic dilemma has acquired a fresh and immediate urgency with the eLection of foreign minister Abdullah Gul as the country's president. A devout Muslim and an acknowledged former Islamist, he was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP or Justice and Development Party's nominee for the nation's top post. Gul poses a dilemma not just for Europe but for Turkey's own military, who are the traditional guardians of the staunchly secular republic founded by Kemal Ataturk in 1923. The army has intervened four times over the years and is unlikely to lower its guard in the coming times if the situation so demands. The generals boycotted the new president's first official reception, though a later meeting took place several days after the investiture.

The AKP, in its former avatar as Welfare Party, was banned and its leader Erdogan was jailed in 1998. The turbulence between the army and the Erdogan-Gul combine continues, despite the party leadership having done its utmost over the past five years to actively pursue a moderate, secular, Liberal and pro-European agenda. Fears of creeping neoIslamism still remain very much on the surface, having prompted the head of the armed forces, General Yasar Buyukanit, to issue a warning of threat to secularism by the 'centres of evil' only a day before the presidential election.

Gul has been opposed by the secularists not just because of his persona but aLso because of his wife Hayrunnisa's image. She wears a head-covering scarf, forbidden in official Turkey. Her headscarf is not a face-covering or a top-to-toe hijab or burqa but the Kemalist republic of Turkey cannot countenance the First Lady of the republic challenging the ban. The scarf, however colourful and splendid, is a symbol of separation and cause for objection in large and powerful parts of Europe too - from President Sarkozy's France to Austria and others, though in the words of the new British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Britain and some others should 'reach out to Turkey.' It is not just Turkey's dilemma, it is Europe's dilemma too.

-Asianaffairs