The New Nation - Internet Edition

Revised Boro production target

THE interim government, as reported recently by media, revised the Boro production target upward to 17.5 million tonnes from the earlier target set for 16.9 million tonnes. Boro rice is to be produced from an estimated area of 45 lakh hectares including hybrid paddy on 12 lakh hectares with the aim to offset the Aman production deficit caused by the two successive floods. The earlier target was 16.9 million tonnes on 43.75 lakh hectares along with the hybrid rice cultivation on 10 lakh hectares in the country. A task force with a joint secretary as its head has been formed to oversee the Boro cultivation and ensure its maximum production with the upward revised target. The task force, according to the media report, would work at the field level to respond to all possible problems if and when farmers face during the season.

Natural calamities - like the recurring floods that swept the northern districts early in last year and later the November 15 devastating cyclone 'Sidr' that lashed the southern region - created the compulsion for the government to make extra efforts for a higher Boro yield to make up for the losses and reduce food import bills as well.

The taskforce would identify the problems faced by the farmers during peak season almost every year and suggest quick remedies. A 'Boro monitoring cell' will keep watch on field level farming activities and supply of inputs including fertiliser and fuel. The taskforce's responsibilities include ensuring coordination among agriculture ministry and related agencies to facilitate Boro farming and achieve the revised production target. Besides, the agriculture ministry has involved some 30 officials to oversee overall Boro production in different districts throughout the country. The officials would monitor allocation and distribution of urea and other fertilisers, diesel supply and payments of subsidy to the farmers and irrigation activities in districts.

Last year Boro was cultivated on 43 lakh hectares and the production was about 15.5 million tonnes. Demand for urea has been estimated at 12 lakh tonnes for the current January-March Boro season. The country has about 13,26,000 irrigation pumps and some eighty-five per cent of the pumps are operated by diesel. Estimated demand for diesel for irrigation purpose is about 1.2 million tonnes during the Boro season as mentioned in the report. Mere revision of production target and formation of a taskforce, however, are not enough. What is vital is seriousness on the part of the government officials either assigned or involved with the responsibility to make the move a success at this dire need of the nation. Smooth and regular supply of fertiliser and fuel would have to be ensured at any cost to achieve the target of Boro production revised afresh to meet the shortfall to whatever extent it is possible.

Bird flu cannot be taken casually

A BIRD flu epidemic like situation is now sweeping Bangladesh. Notwithstanding reassuring statements to play down the grave health threat from it by the official spokesman, the reality is that Bangladesh is now a dangerously bird flu afflicted country. It would be only irresponsibility of the highest order and self-defeating not to recognise this grim reality. Only such recognition will create the ground for tackling it with the seriousness it deserves. A government spokesman said that that Bangladesh is still not a worst case of the disease like neighbouring West Bengal. But the flue has been detected in 37 districts of the country and hundreds of thousands of poultry birds have been culled. The deadly virus of bird flu has been detected in the capital city and other major towns. Thus it has become like an epidemic in Bangladesh also that needs to be tackled on a war footing in the interest of public health.

Only very lately, sale of live poultries in the capital city has been prohibited. But the sale of dressed birds is outside the prohibition. Care should be taken so that unscrupulous persons cannot sell the infected and culled birds as dressed ones to get around the ban. This would, otherwise, create worse problems. Therefore, no time should be lost making the restrictions effective. Sale of poultries and even eggs should be restricted for a period of time and the restrictions should be sternly enforced. West Bengal authorities have done this and there is every reason for Bangladesh to do the same if the government really wants to be successful in safeguarding the people's health. The enforcement of a comprehensive ban of certain practices should be accompanied by all out vigilance against poultry traders who are reported to be deliberately selling or disposing of infected birds to avoid or limit losses.

This trade must strictly be restricted by any means. All hotels and restaurants in the city must be ordered to take particular care while catering dishes with poultry meat. Vigilance must ensure compliance with such orders. Massive and regular publicities must be launched in the media to warn households and the ordinary consumers of poultry meat. For the culled birds and till the restrictions on sale remains, the affected poultry farms should be paid compensation money. The rate of payment may be enhanced and payment should be regular and prompt so that the poultry sector can create its capacity for recovery and resumption of business after the end of the epidemic. The outbreak, again, may not be over in just a year or so. The disease has been there in different countries of the world for about four years. So when the intensity of the attack of the diseases comes down, the restrictions now being imposed should also be gradually withdrawn making sure that the public health is not endangered.

Iran: On institutional transformation phase

Dr Manoucher Mohammadi

Most of the writers and the thinkers of the revolutions and especially the theoreticians of revolutions believe that a revolution is a transient phenomenon in the history of human beings. In fact, it has arrived into existence for the toppling of a political system and the establishment of a new one. Whenever the new political system is established, the mission of the revolution is accomplished and in fact a revolution itself will be converted into a system. Herein, the writer has tried to analyse this theory in the Islamic Revolution of Iran.

A revolution in the most comprehensive form which usually is known as the great revolution has fundamental differences with other political / social developments such as military coup d'etat, political reform, and liberation movements and it can be defined as follows:

A political/social revolution is a mass movement with violation in the direction of quick and fundamental change of the dominant values and beliefs, political institutions, social structures, leadership, governmental polices and activities of a society.

Formation of every revolution of this type includes the birth of a social power facing the governing political power. This is based on three pillars of the extensive appearance and participation of people, appearance of social leadership and the design of the ideology of the revolution.

While a revolution is an offensive, fundamental, evolving and destructive movement, the political power is a stationary structure and conservative which moves more toward institutionalization. A revolution has more and more an offensive status, whereas a system with its defensive status defends and protects its existence.

The Islamic Revolution is a distinct Revoution and independent from other World Revolutions.

Considering a revolution as the struggle of the social groups against the governing political system and political power as materialistic powers such as military, political, economic abilities and also international support and the social power with spiritual tools of power such as mass participation strong leadership and publicly accepted ideology, the review of the conditions and status of the conflict within the similar revolutions will give us this appropriate answer.

Reviewing and comparing the social, political conditions and status of France, Russia and Iran, one will notice that although there were some similarities among the conditions and abilities of the political system between the well-known French and Russian revolutions, but not only there was not such a similarity with the conditions and abilities of the political power in Iran and its social-political status governing Iran before the revolution, but in fact, opposite conditions existed in that country. For instance, while the French and Russian governments economically were in the worst situations, in fact, they were on the verge of final bankruptcy, the government of Iran due to the sudden and unpredictable jump in oil prices and thanks to the huge foreign currency resources and the financial abilities, was in the most suitable economical conditions.

The government of Iran and the Shah, despite the fact of bipolarism in international systems, and with the fact of the end of the cold war and the commencement of the tranquillity period and peaceful coexistence, were fully supported by both superpowers and other great powers and also the regional ones up to the last days of his government.

Whereas the Islamic revolution in Iran did not come automatically but this revolution was made by the will and determination of a nation and benefiting from a powerful leader and in united and in harmonious form especially during the early stage of the Shah's collapse. She believes that there is no doubt or even a place for discussion that the reasons for the upcoming of the revolution in Iran was different from what had occurred in the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions and there was a great difference between them.

This point takes us to the conclusion that in theory, the conditions and situations in Iran contrary to France and Russia, were in the most unsuitable condition for inflicting strike upon and topple of the regime of the Shah.

The revolutionists in Iran, in a quarter of a century, from the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in 1963, that is 15 years before and ten years after the revlution, had been benefiting from the indisputable, unchangeable, powerful and charismatic leadership of Imam Khomenini. His leadership had religious, political and social legitimacy. He was governing the hearts of millions of Muslims. This itself was one of the secrets of the stability and continuation of the revolution. This kind of leadership with the inspiration from the doctrine of Islam which was also the doctrine of the revolution was instituationalised within the principle framework of the Velayet Faqih, Jurisprudence, leadership. In this way, the continuity of the presence of the leader of the revolution went beyond merely the management of the political system.

The success of the revolutionary ideology of Islam has been a valuable parameter and it has been the distinguished elements of the world view of the Islamic revolution in Iran. This ideology was a powerful response to the recent political needs and, at the same time, disappointed the believers of the materialistic doctrines. This ideology was used with benefits from all the technological and experimental advantages and ideological and political movements of the west. In other words, this ideology had a remarkable advantage over communism which was in contradiction with religion.

Instead of creating a replacement for religion, as the communists did, the Islamic revolution utilised the active and progressive religion that existed and was equipped with ideological devices for struggle in the political scene. With this action they gave a great and outstanding help to the history of the world.

In this way, it can be seen that the secret of the victory of the Islamic revolution over the Shah's regime can be found in the maginficent management and the extensive application of the three pillars of the Revolution: that is, the people, the leadership and Islamic ideology. These factors could, contrary to predictions and calculations of the analysts and to the surprise of the entire world, bring the ancient and powerful kingdom to its knees and topple it.

As the historicial incidents and phenomena of three revolutions show, the victory of the French and Russian and even Chinese, Cuba revolutions not because of well-organised, strength and the power of revolutionary forces but because of the weakness of the then current governments.

Based on these comparisons, we can say that the glory and unique status of the Islamic Revolution of Iran is an obstacle to the application of these theories in the case of Iran. Wheatever was true about those revolutions is not necessarily true about this Revolution.

A quick review on the years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution shows that those who were involved in the revolution, wanted or unwanted, followed a path that Islamic Republic system not only was established as a new political system strengthened on the military, economic, and cultural pillars; but from this passage has made the necessary ground for the continuity of the movements and the hindrance of the stagnation of the revolutionary motions.

In the first year of the victory of the Revolution, and despite of all kind of crisis, with the motivation of the leadership of the Revolution all the legal institutions were established and completed with numerous elections. Because of the acceptablity of and popularity of the leadership of the revolution Imam Khomeini could have established all the above-mentioned institutions. He, instead, for the strength of the votes and with his astonishing power of futuristic views in all areas such as determining the type of government, the election of the Constitutional Experts Assembly, the approval of the above law, election of the President, election of the representatives to the Islamic Parliament referred to the votes of the people and established the foundations of the political systems. This method of action is extremely scarce in the history of revolutions.

The Islamic revolution is the first revolution in which in the chaotic conditions, but in a democratic way, prepared the background for the participation of the people for establishment of the political system. By doing so the future generation can not simply let a change and the destruction of the popular institutions by an order or command of a ruler.

The anti-revolutionary activities in different parts of the country with the foreign support and then later on the imposition of the war upon the country, imposed a situation upon the revolution by which the country had to provide a strong base in the pillars of the military system. A system that can prepare the country for facing invasions and potential internal and foreign enemies.

The leader of the Revolution first purged the unsuitable elements from the military and police organisations. By doing so, these organisations not only were not disintegrated but regained their prestigious status.

There is no doubt for anyone that the Islamic Revolution is a cultural revolution before it is a political and/or an economic revolution. It was a revolution for the revitalisation of religious values.

The Islamic Revolution, by returning to the values acceptable to that society, contrary to the imaginations of many western scientists, in relation to the passage of the religious era in the society made everyone surprised. In particular, adaptation of religious values to a modern society of the late twentieth century seemed impossible.

The Islamic Revolution, with the help of the thinkers and religious learned, and by using the committed experts, demonstrated that not only is the era of the domination of religion not over, but by considering the disappointment and despair of the western capitalistic societies and eastern communists, the time for returning to the divine nature of human being has arrived (ripened) which is appropriate to the sovereignty of culture and religious principles.

US threat perceptions

Dr.Abdul Ruff

It looks funny that the most powerful country on the globe, USA is awfully frightened by small-scale "terrorists" and keeps inventing newer threat perceptions to stay in Afghanistan and Iraq and keep killing the Muslims in these countries as much as else where. Such vague threat perceptions do come handy for the anti-Islamic nations, particularly USA, Israel and India, to torture Muslims and to advance their global agenda. What is shocking is the fact that the country with most sophisticated remote equipment could not locate the video-tape specialist Osama Bin Laden and the world is wondering as to how save itself from US terror wars.

President George W. Bush remains down in the polls. In an opinion poll conducted earlier this month, only 34 percent of those surveyed said they approve of the job Bush is doing. That's low for a president and about where Bush has been since the fall 2006. Yet the State of the Union always commands some public attention, maybe more so now because of the widespread economic concerns. It is perhaps Bush's last good chance to frame the debate. In the East Wing of the White House, he is going through practice runs of his speech in the family theater. Attention is fleeting. Within a matter of weeks, Republican Party voters will likely choose a new face for their party, preferably McCain. Even those who pay modest attention to politics are interested in whom the next president will be. Bush, therefore, does not project himself as the failed president, but his through his firmness he warns against "Islamic terrorism" - an emotionally charged, though funny, call that even the opposition Democrats support.

President Bush's strategy reflects what he is up against: little time left in office, confrontational relations with a Democratic Congress and a diminishing role on the national stage. Bush asked Congress to make permanent the tax cuts that are set to expire in 2010. He will prod Congress to extend a law allowing surveillance on suspected terrorists, renew his education law and approve free-trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. He is also likely to recycle ideas on alternative energy, affordable health care and housing reform.

Once USSR and China were "deadly threats" to USA, then Afghanistan became a threat and fear complexes were extended to include Iraq and Iran. The list could be enlarged further as time passes on. USA unwittingly states that Iran now remains the key threat to US security but the fact remains that any country that does not support US interests in the region becomes an enemy and hence threat to USA. USA keeps adding troupes to Islamic world. The vast majority of deployed U.S. troops are still in Iraq, although the force of nearly 160,000 is set on a downward trend. In recent weeks U.S. officials have spoken of Iraq as moving toward stability, with al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters weakened and possibly forced to make a last stand. The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has grown over the past two years from about 20,000 to the current total of 28,000. That is the highest number of the war, which began in October 2001. The total is to jump by 3,200 this spring with a new influx of Marine reinforcements, including 2,200 combat troops who will bolster a NATO-led counterinsurgency force in the south.

The alarming situation in Iraq and Afghanistan makes the US-led forces to keep shifting their resources from one country to the other. But there is no wholesale shift of U.S. military firepower from Iraq to Afghanistan. Gates recently rejected a Marine Corps proposal to move the 20,000-plus Marine contingent in Iraq to Afghanistan, reflecting a worry that Iraq's progress is still fragile. There is growing recognition that the United States risks further setbacks, if not deepening conflict or even defeat, in Afghanistan, and that success in that country hinges on stopping Pakistan from descending into disorder. It is apparent that as security conditions in Iraq seemingly improve, the administration is looking closer at what needs to be done in Afghanistan to counter recent gains by the Taliban. The Taliban ruled the country in the late 1990s and provided support for the video tape specialist Osama bin Laden as his global "terrorist network" laid the groundwork from Afghanistan for the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the USA. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that the war in Afghanistan is a secondary priority. "In Afghanistan we do what we can. In Iraq we do what we must," he said.

The Bush administration is attempting to re-energize its terror war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the original target of a post-Sept. 11 offensive. The U.S. also is refocusing on Pakistan, where a regenerating al-Qaeda is posing fresh threats. Now some senior U.S. military commanders say Pakistan's tribal areas are at the center of the fight against the so-called "Islamic extremism"; more so than Iraq, or even Afghanistan. These areas border on eastern Afghanistan and provide "haven" for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters to regroup, rearm and reorganize. This view may explain, at least in part, the administration's increasingly public expressions of concern.

The Pentagon says it has fewer than 100 troops in Pakistan, including personnel who are training Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps in the western tribal region along the Afghanistan border. The U.S. military has used other means, including aerial surveillance by drones, to hunt Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda leaders believed to be hiding near the Afghan border. Ground troops on the Afghan side sometimes fire artillery across the border at known Taliban or al-Qaeda targets, and U.S. officials have said special operations forces are poised to strike across the border under certain circumstances. In recent days, administration officials have said they would send more U.S. forces, including small numbers of combat troops, if the Pakistani government decided it wanted to collaborate more closely.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is leading a NATO effort to produce a statement of goals for Afghanistan that spells out clearly what is at stake. The purpose is to bolster NATO governments' efforts to convince their publics that fighting and dying in Afghanistan is an investment worth making. The statement is supposed to be ready for adoption by President Bush and other NATO leaders at a summit meeting in April.

Gates said that while the U.S. respects the Pakistani government's right to decide what actions are needed to defeat extremists on its soil, there are reasons to worry that al-Qaeda poses more than an internal threat to Pakistan. "I think we are all concerned about the re-establishment of al-Qaeda safe havens in the border area," Gates said. "I think it would be unrealistic to assume that all of the planning that they're doing is focused strictly on Pakistan. So I think that that is a continuing threat to Europe as well as to us." But he has refused to admit that USA has already become the most serious threat to Pakistan, its long-time ally.

Although hard-pressed, President Bush is no fan of looking back. His mission is to chart a course for what's left and remind people that he's still here and engaged. He was written off as a lame duck last year but then used his veto authority with great success, staying relevant and forcing changes in legislation. Inside the White House, Bush's advisers know the obstacles. And despite a sudden interest in cooperation on the economic boost, Bush and the Democratic Congress are at odds on most matters. "I predict that after hearing the president's speech, Americans will be more convinced than ever that it's time for a change," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. In foreign affairs, Bush promotes the U.S.-backed Middle East peace effort and his administration's efforts to fight disease and hunger. On Iraq, Bush is expected to tout security improvements and restate that more U.S. troops will come home only as conditions merit. Given the military progress there and the Democrats' inability to force a change in strategy in 2007, he is in a different position this time around. "A year ago, he was in a very precarious situation when he announced the surge of U.S. troops.

President Bush only pursues the US policies vehemently and he is quite conscious of that. Hence nothing seems to stop Bush from going ahead with his war strategy, recommended by his Neo-cons, notwithstanding even the opposition from Gulf leaders. For this purpose, irrespective of the color of ruling dispensation, USA would always keep the "threat perceptions" alive. And, thus, the other political party, the Democratic Party also plays double game with people by supporting the Republican Bush plans for the world. The global game plan of the United States, it seems, would go on for ever.