The New Nation - Internet Edition

Alternative fuels

IT was reported some time ago that the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) was taking steps to produce ethanol from molasses in all sugar mills under it. The progress in this project is not known. But it certainly needs to be expedited. The ethanol to be produced would be used as alternative fuel for vehicles. The project sounded commendable and if its utility gains are proved, then it could be considered for implementation.

Bangladesh presently spends a great deal of resources on imported petroleum-based fuels. If dependence on these imports can be decreased, then that would mean a worthwhile saving. At a time when prices of petroleum products are found to be continually rising in the international market, alternative fuels can turn out to be notable savers of precious resources.

There is a scope for producing ethanol also from other sources such as agricultural and municipal wastes. Ethanol is considered an ideal fuel in many cases. It is renewable, for it can be produced from plant materials. It burns cleanly, producing virtually none of the pollutants associated with gasoline or diesel oil. There is also the potential of producing diesel for use in automotive vehicles in Bangladesh from jatrofa plants. The seeds of the plants are crushed to make a liquid similar to diesel called bio-diesel. Bio-diesel from jatrofa plants is significantly meeting requirements of fuels for transporters in India.

However, a key question has been raised by environmentalists about the suitability of turning lands from agricultural use to one producing bio-fuels, especially at a time of food grains crisis being faced worldwide. They say that production of bio-fuels would hit hard the poor who depend on cheap food items. Instead, energy planners in Bangladesh should opt for solar and bio-gas energy and develop the coalmines instead of increasing the pressure on precious agricultural lands.

Crisis of textbooks

ABOUT two months into the current academic year, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) is yet to publish English version textbooks for primary schools. The English version of textbooks are published for the students of English medium schools and kindergartens that offer education as per the board curriculum. Texts in six books for students of classes 1 to V have been changed this year but the students have no option but to buy the old books, those too pirated copies. The NCTB is responsible for production and distribution of primary, secondary and higher secondary textbooks.

Textbook board officials reportedly had 'no assessment of the demand for such textbooks' and they were 'very busy' last month to deal with the crisis of secondary school textbooks. But some printers enlisted with the board gave a different story that the board had not enough paper in stock for printing these books. The enlisted printers were not interested in printing the English version books because the board did not provide them with 'security paper' meant to check piracy of textbooks though papers were available for Bangla version of textbooks. Taking advantage of this, a section of dishonest printers have been publishing pirated copies of the textbooks. The NCTB has failed to publish such textbooks on time last year.

The board published English version textbooks in last July. Secondary school level students at many places across the country are yet to get textbooks on a number of subjects. Even in the district of Manikgonj, not far away from Dhaka, text books of various subjects are not available in the market. Innumerable printing mistakes, missing pages are noticed in some books that are available. Booksellers again, are reportedly charging higher prices as, they allege, the publishers in Dhaka have doubled the prices of books. Banned guides and notebooks have meanwhile flooded the market. Immediate steps are needed to address the problems.

Falsehood brings erosion of moral values

M.T. Hussain

The changes and modification brought about in some places to make a icon of a person in particular school textbook contents effective from the school academic year 2008 have logically and reasonably called into question the political neutrality of the Caretaker Government (CG) of Bangladesh now led by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmad. The changes have further created controversy if the CG had not overstepped beyond constitutional jurisdiction (58D-1), as well, for taking recourse to facts having no substance with reality at all. One must wonder, in addition, if the changes and modification brought about by the CG would be retained during the administration of the next elected government of either persuasion that is likely to take on in a matter of months by the end of year 2008.

It is not untrue that in the last decades following independence of Bangladesh in 1971, there had been no changes in contents in textbooks as the one made recently but done one after another in turn with changes of government of opposite persuasions. All such changes were, however, done not in any case by the CG but by the political party governments. In fact, in modern democratic newly independent states, such changes are not unusual for government in power more often than not seeks in the process to project their own image and specifically for particular leader/s of the ruling party. Thus, we had changes to project one or the other in turn of events and in changed political scenario in the past decades.

Educational curricula by its inherent own demand for updating need may be changed and modified from time to time for inclusion of relevant authentic facts of knowledge. Unfortunately, the changes made in 2008 have no factual basis for events of 1971. The events of 1971 are not factually well known to the new progeny as those are in memory of all like me had been conscious onlookers and painful sufferers, as well.

The month of March 1971 until the 25th had not only been uncertainly agonising but extremely fearful too in near anarchic situation that took still another vicious form from about the midnight of the 25th for we lived in the capital city of Dhaka with family members and young children.

Since the first day of March when the newly elected National Assembly session scheduled to sit in Dhaka was suddenly postponed, we began to experience anarchy all over the city. Agitating students of the Dhaka University took the lead ahead of the politicians, even ahead of the leader of the majority party elected leader so much so that they declared independence of Bangladesh through raising the proposed flag of the country on the 3rd March.

In this backdrop when the leader announced the programme of his public meeting at the then Ramna Race Course for the 7th March, many people including myself expected that he would make the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). But the lakhs of people who attended the public meeting including myself wondered that the leader did not make the UDI.

Then went on continuing agonising moments and days between 15th March to the 25th, people expecting arriving at compromising formula between the President of Pakistan and the East Pakistan majority party elected leader for power transfer to the elected representatives of the people, but all appeared to come to vain on the night of the 25th March midnight in fearful scenario of firing and shells overflying as I saw in case of my four-storey government quarters located at the Tejgaon Industrial Area along with announcement of curfew imposed in the Dhaka city that continued the next day without any interruption.

Later on we knew that the leader did ask his close comrades who stayed until about 10 or 11 that 25th March night to enforce the 27th March Hartal, and immediately afterwards he himself surrendered like a good guy without the slightest resistance, much less went on hiding, to the federal army men who took him away from his home at the Dhanmondi Road No. 32 (Old). Had he made the UDI, he would have either go underground or went away to lead the impending war.

Curiously enough before giving himself up, he did not make anything verbal or written statement that could have been taken as the UDI. Thus the people were in utter confusion as to what they should do. An unknown army major of the federal army but a native of this land posted nearly 300 kms away in the port city of Chittagong rightly in the confusion declared not only the independence of Bangladesh on the 26th March but also himself the President of the newly created republic, as we knew in Dhaka afterwards.

That soon after the 1971 war ended in December and the leader returned to Dhaka from detention in prison from Islamabad to take on the administration of independent Bangladesh, a leaflet was circulated that claimed that the leader had made the UDI before his arrest on the 25th March, but very few people believed that. Even so, people lived with the mystery for some time.

The mystery started to unfold sometime later on as the leader's fury started to fall on Tajuddin Ahmad, the Prime Minister of the 1971 Government in Exile and the real architect of 1971 independence. Many cynics naturally interpreted the sword on Tajuddin as disapproval of the way issues had been handled and sorted out by bringing in Indian armed interference. The cynics proved not wrong in facts of Tajuddin not only soon being sacked from the Ministry by the leader but also ended up in the Dhaka Central Prison.

Soon other events like famine deaths in thousands, emergency, banning of all political parties except the leaders own one (slightly changed nomenclature), proscribing newspapers etc. followed by the 1975 August coup and the 7th November uprising and changes of the government that brought further in prints about the issue of declaration of independence on the 26th and 27th March having had nothing of any direct nod, much less any written, neither typed nor handwritten paper from the leader.

The fact about the leader's no consent whatsoever became clearer some time later on. For example, I had had one information directly in London in the fortnightly IMPACT INTERNATIONAL that quoted the renowned lawyer and the main Counsel in the famous treason case of 1971 against the leader A.K. Brohi stating that the leader did not want to break Pakistan (28th September, 1987, P.19), the other one in Stanley Wolpert's Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan wherein the leader stood for 'Confederation' (1993, OUP. P.175), still another in Sarder M. Choudhury's The Ultimate Crime therein noted from his first hand information that the leader had had a very close understanding with President Yahya Khan since as early as March 1969 (Lahore, 1999), P. 98). All these not incredible facts should suffice to show that the big party leader of 1971 did not only go to make the UDI for Bangladesh but also opposed the break up of Pakistan. Like many, I personally clearly recall another fact of pre-1971 tragedy when the leader refused with all force at his command to be labeled as the 'secessionist'.

If the facts cited in these documents and evidence are to be repudiated, one must put up credible documents for the leader in the matter of UDI in support of the changes and modification made in the school textbooks. Otherwise, it would not only be misrepresenting of facts in school textbooks but also be obvious feeding of falsehoods to our younger generation.

The fact remains though that no matter whatever had been the real intention of the leader and substance in the UDI, many in their good faith fought for the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 for passion of charisma of the leader. But such passion in no way proves anything that the leader went duly to make the UDI on the 26th March 1971.

Should we not ponder a bit in depth that when our society is flooded with erosion of moral values almost at all levels and so we need to put up efforts to raise the moral standard of the next progeny through inclusion of truth and truth alone in learning contents in schools, inclusion of factitious or baseless contents about national leader/s can do no good but only add further to erosion of moral values ?

The fictitious changes thus made in 2008 in the contents of the relevant school textbooks should immediately be dropped by the CG.

We are all migrants

Aijaz Zaka Syed

I've been to Bombay, or Mumbai as it's known today, only twice. Once for an interview; and secondly to catch a transit flight to Dubai! Yet this great city is part of my cultural consciousness. Just as it's part of the consciousness of most Indians and of everyone familiar with the fantasyland called Bollywood.

Bombay belongs to the billion plus population of India. Cosmopolitan cities like Bombay, London, New York and our own Dubai of course do not belong to a particular state or people. They belong to all of us. They make you feel at home, whoever you are or wherever you come from.

This is why this fuss over the so-called outsiders by Raj Thackeray, a little known politician, is so absurd. Besides, this is so disingenuous. After all, his uncle Bal Thackeray, the original rabble-rouser of Bombay, has exploited this issue for over four decades now.

In fact, he has squeezed the last drops of political mileage out of it. First it was the South Indians and then the Muslims who became the target of Thackeray's poisonous politics. But desperate men turn to desperate measures. And the second generation Thackerays appear real desperate for recognition.

However, the strong adverse reaction the campaign against the so-called outsiders has generated leaves no one in doubt that the days of 'divide-and-rule' politics are over.

It might have worked in 1960s, '70s and even '80s but it doesn't work any more in the new post-modern, post-market reforms, 21st century India. The world's biggest democracy is not only home to the world's outsourcing, IT and call centres industry but it is also looking to lead the world as one of the two emerging big powers.

More important, this wired and connected India is part of the global village where there are no borders and no walls of chauvinist nationalism and ghetto mindsets. The Mumbai that shuts the doors on its own people is so out of place in this all-embracing India.

Today the Indians, and South Asians in general, are being recognized the world over as some of the most diligent, hard working and brightest professionals around. How ironic is that they are unwelcome in their own country?

But like I said, desperate men turn to desperate, and tested, measures. The politicians everywhere are an unimaginative lot. But they do know that the shortest and surest way of expanding their base and reaping the electoral windfall is the demonisation of the Other. That is why from Mumbai to Manhattan and from Toronto to Tokyo, the vilification of the Other, in this case the migrants, is the favourite pastime of desperate politicians.

The migrant is the prime target and convenient whipping boy everywhere. High rents? Blame them on the migrants. No jobs? Blame them on the outsiders. Corruption? Crime? Inflation? You know who is to blame!

Ironically, most of those complaining about the outsiders taking away their jobs and being an unwelcome burden on their economies were themselves outsiders once.

Many of those raising a storm over the so-called Bhayyas from UP and Bihar (big North Indian states) themselves migrated to Mumbai from the inner towns and villages of Maharashtra and neighbouring states. If you expand the analogy, those endlessly complaining about the Arab and Muslim invaders had themselves been invaders once.

Most North Indians are understood to be the descendants of the Aryans. They came from up north - from southern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus - to settle down in the north of India, Iran and what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Aryans subjugated the Dravidians, the original natives of the sub-continent, to rule this great land. India as such is a country of immigrants. Its culture and civilization, evolving over the past five thousand years, are rich today largely because of this constant wave after wave of migration the country has attracted from around the world.

Similar double standards prevail in the US. Those demanding a total closure of the country's borders and freeze on new arrivals today themselves were not long ago immigrants. From the Spanish conquistadors of Christopher Columbus to the Boston Brahmins of New England, everyone is an immigrant in this beautiful country.

Those who can really claim to be the original natives of this land can hardly be seen anywhere. No other race has perhaps been so systematically cleansed and obliterated the way the Red Indians or Native Americans have been.

Today they are seen only in some protected territory and sanctuary as if they were an endangered species of animals. But then they are an endangered species-in their own country! And down south in Latin America and Africa, it's the same story of endless exploitation by European colonizers. Ditto the poor Aborigines of Australia who are fighting for survival in their own land.

So much for the fabled tolerance and magnanimity of Western civilization!

But the West has no monopoly over this exploitation and the vilification of invented enemies. Whoever we are and wherever we are, we are compelled by this need to find or invent some 'alien' or the other so we can dump all our insecurities and problems at his or her doorstep.

When the labour minister of a Gulf state recently warned of an 'Asian tsunami' of expatriate workers threatening the region, he was only responding to the same need.

The honourable minister needed to appear concerned over this 'threat' for the sake of his own gallery. This concern is understandable, if a bit unwarranted, when you are outnumbered by expat population to a ratio of 20:80. Otherwise the minister knows as well as we do that this is a mutually benefiting relationship.

If the expatriates are here, it's because they needed these jobs. But they are here also because their expertise and services are needed. This is a two-way street. No one is doing anyone any favours.

If the expats like us have benefited economically and enjoy a lifestyle that is the dream of many of our countrymen back home by living and working in the Gulf, this region has also benefited from our expertise and experience.

In fact, the hard work and sweat of the expatriates in general and the South Asians in particular have vitally contributed to the building of the UAE and other Gulf countries-literally. How can anyone imagine these glitzy glass-and-steel skyscrapers and trillions of dollars of projects across the Gulf without the migrant construction workers from Asia?

A great majority of these construction workers come from my country, especially from Andhra Pradesh, my state. Every time one sees them toil tirelessly and diligently in extreme weather conditions, one is filled with great pride.

They deserve our gratitude for doing what they have been doing. Actually, they deserve more than gratitude. They are humanity's soldiers, these men are. They travel thousands of miles from homes and put themselves at great risk so their loved ones back home could have a decent life. Few sacrifices in the world can match this.

In fact, there's something divine about the very act of migration itself. All of us migrate at some point of time or the other. From the land of our birth to the land of our choosing, from innocence to experience, from ignorance to knowledge and from life to death. We are all migrants. All divine religions celebrate migration; Abraham's migration across Arabia, Moses' migration from Egypt to the Promised Land and of course the migration of the Last Prophet.

The migration is so central to Islam that the passage of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, from Makkah to Medina forms the starting point of Islam's history. Hijrah, the Islamic calendar, literally means migration.

So next time you think of throwing someone out as an outsider, try not forgetting that we are all migrants-wherever we are, in Mumbai or Manhattan. This big, beautiful world belongs to all of us. God has given it to us to share it, not split it into bits and pieces.

(Aijaz Zaka Syed is a senior editor and columnist of Khaleej Times.)

Demise of king's party

Asif Haroon Raja

The demise of king's party and particularly its leading lights came as a shocker to its mentor President Musharraf and a pleasant surprise to the winning political parties. PPP's victory was never in doubt because of rejuvenation of the party as a result of arrival of Benazir on 18 October, timely selection and submission of election papers of its candidates and later on the huge sympathy vote it received. PML N on the other hand remained handicapped because of second banishment of its leader on 10 September which not only depressed the party workers but also put a stopper on expected desertions from Q League to the mother party. The party suffered because of the late arrival of Sharif brothers' in November amidst restrictions imposed on public meetings in the wake of emergency and security concerns and hostility of the Establishment and PCO judges. Besides acute shortage of time for campaigning, invalidation of Nawaz and Shahbaz to participate in elections became a serious drawback. The entire local government in Punjab was in the grip of Q League and the interim government was also an extension of former rulers. Under the grim circumstances to win 67 National Assembly seats and 101 Punjab seats was creditable. Nawaz's unequivocal stance on the issue of judges as against non-committal stance of Benazir and then by Zardari, and his vocal anti-Musharraf tirade turned the tide in Punjab in favour of PML-N.

Q League's confidence to win the race emanated from its plan of pre-poll, during poll and post-poll rigging. The president, caretakers, the election commission and the judiciary were to look the other way to all the irregularities committed. Arrival of Nawaz and his alignment with PPP upset its calculations to emerge as the single largest party. It grudgingly accepted the changed situation but still hoped to win sizeable chunk of seats at the centre, Baluchistan and Frontier, with dominance in Punjab and to emerge as second largest party after PPP by manipulating results on the D-day.

While it succeeded in carrying out pre-poll rigging and put the party at a distinct advantageous position as opposed to other contestants, rigging on the polling day had to be abandoned due to massive internal and external pressure and presence of hundreds of foreign observers. The regime had already come under extreme pressure on account of Benazir's murder inquest and chest thumping by opposition parties that elections will be rigged. They had threatened to boycott election results and to launch violent agitations. More so, the new army chief's decision to keep the army out of politics and civil affairs nailed the manipulators. These unforeseen developments plunged the fortunes of Q League and deprived it from emerging even as a runner up. The post-poll rigging has now been set in motion in connivance with USA to form governments friendly to US policies and having liberal outlook.

Although PPP has emerged as the single largest party winning 88 national assembly seats out of 342, 78 seats in Punjab, 17 in Frontier, 65 in Sindh and 7 in Baluchistan , yet it is not in a position to form governments at its own either in the centre or in Sindh. PML-N could make its presence felt at the centre and Punjab only and could not gain a single seat in Sindh and Baluchistan . Although Q League has miserably lost the race, however, it has managed to win sizeable seats in national assembly as well as in all the four provincial assemblies. ANP has improved its performance considerably by acquiring highest tally of seats in Frontier, ten in national assembly, two in Sindh and one in Baluchistan . MQM has improved its strength at the centre and in Sindh by resorting to organised rigging and coercive tactics in Karachi . It could not win a single seat outside urban Sindh since the masses had rejected its fascist policies and has thus continued to remain a regional party.

PPP has several choices available to form governments at the centre and in provinces. At the centre it had the choice of either co-opting PML-N and ANP or PML Q and ANP to attain the magic figure. It has been decided to team up with PML-N and ANP. In Frontier it can join up with ANP, BNP and independents. In Sindh, it can form a government with MQM alone or with other parties.

Although it will be in the interest of Sindh if the PPP-MQM marry up, but going by the rules laid down in Charter of Democracy, all the parties had pledged not to get aligned with MQM because of its fascism. In Baluchistan PPP can team up with PML Q or with independents and other smaller parties. The independents will be in hot demand while the winners in Q League would be itching to move over to greener pastures. PML-N fortunes can upturn in case of flurry of desertions from the winners in Q League to whom Nawaz has already thrown bait. Patriots could also return to mother party. Since all of them are turn coats, it would not come as a surprise if they decide to change their loyalties. The process of making and breaking and under hand deals has already commenced.

Both PPP and PML N are so far in no mood to get friendly with Musharraf and have given open hints that he should resign. Even if the PPP-PML-N coalition agree to work with him, Article 58 (2)(b) would remain a sticking point. Even they would like to snatch away appointment of services chiefs, governors and judges from the president, and convert NSC into NDC under the PM. The big question is whether Musharraf who has basked in glory for over eight years would accept getting converted into a ceremonial figurehead and tolerate the overbearing attitude of the Executive for the next five years.

Although USA as well as President Musharraf have lost their role of kingmaker to form another dummy legislature, USA will continue to pressurise Zardari and Nawaz to reject policy of confrontation and instead co-exist with President Musharraf. The latter and Q League would keep hoping for a conflict between PPP and PML-N over issues or over portfolios resulting in its early collapse.

(The writer is a defence and political analyst.)