The New Nation - Internet Edition

For balanced local govts

SPEAKERS at a roundtable organised by Free Thinkers Forum, Bangladesh in the city the other day urged for a balanced development of the local government bodies. Regarding the alleged problem of contradiction of the Members of Parliament or Ministers with the local administrations, the discussants underlined the need for strengthening local government institutions and devolving power at different tiers in such a way that the local administration is not hampered by such disputes.

In the past, allegations of undue and unwanted interference by MPs or Ministers in the day-to-day functions of the local bodies, especially at Upazila and Zilla Parishad levels, were brought. Very often priorities of the local bodies and the MPs or Ministers did not complement each other and gave rise to disputes. Such unwarranted interference hampered the development of the local bodies. These contradictions not only obstructed smooth running of administration but also delayed development activities.

As part of their suggestions, the speakers underscored the need for overcoming conceptual problems regarding the role of local governments. They also underlined the need for finding out the reasons behind the alleged frictions. Necessary amendments to local government laws and rules should be made to clearly define and demarcate powers and jurisdictions of all concerned to avoid conflicts. The discussants suggested reduction of excessive domination of administration over the local governments. All these are indispensable for decentralisation of administration. Elections to the local government should be held at regular intervals to bring out honest and capable leaders and make local administration more effective. Smooth functioning of the local bodies should be ensured for the overall development of the country.

Displacement, highest in decade

AS reported in the media recently, armed conflicts and violence displaced more than 26 million people within their own countries in 2007, the highest number in over a decade as recorded by the Norwegian Refugee Council. While there is growing international attention to the plight, there has been no breakthrough in reducing their numbers or improving their situation. The number of such displaced people was 24.5 million in 2006, but that figure continued to grow.

The number of displaced people rose sharply in war-torn Iraq where there were almost 2.5 million victims by year-end as well as in Democratic Republic of Congo with 1.4 million and Somalia with 1 million. In Sudan and Colombia, significant numbers of people were displaced internally - 5.8 million and up to four million respectively. These refugees were also 'too frequently victims of the gravest human rights abuses', facing continuing attacks as well as hunger and disease.

Many national governments in 2007 were still unable to prevent people being forced from their homes, or provide adequate protection and assistance to those who had been displaced. The UN high commissioner for refugees also pointed to the unwillingness of some governments to provide their own uprooted people with adequate protection and assistance. The displaced were among the most vulnerable to rising food and energy prices that have sparked riots and instability in many developing countries.

Many of the displaced people end up among the urban poor, or if they are in rural areas they do not usually have direct access to farming, as remarked by the UN high commissioner for refugees adding 'they are impacted (by rising prices) in their lives, in their suffering, but also by the fact that rising food prices extend poverty, are generating instability and confrontations, and they themselves help to trigger war and conflict.

Yet more plaudit for Lalu

Dr. M. S. Haq

Lalu Chacha - I mean, India's central rail minister Lalu Prasad Yadev - was once again at the center of attraction and prominence in the last evening (27 July 2008) episode of a Star Plus TV serial conducted by renowned Indian film actor Shahrukh Khan. I used the word "once again" because it was not the first time for Lalu Chacha to occupy a position of above nature in TV shows - the Zee TV show on singer talent competition in the recent past is one of the examples in that respect.

The Star Plus serial (hereinafter: the serial unless indicated otherwise in the article) was prima-facie a quiz competition - two days a week. Core aims of the serial included inter alia: one, charity; and two, to provide financial assistance to participating children in support of their future education after they attain the age of 18. The contestants comprised super-duper personalities from within and outside of the entertainment world.

The maximum prize money for each of the episodes of the serial was one crore (10 million) Indian rupees. The winners donated the prize money to charities.

Lalu Chacha was the last evening's contestant. He was successful in giving right answers to all the questions posed by Shahrukh. The attending and intervening elements of fun and humor of the show were instrumental in, among other things, holding the attention of both in and ex-country Star Plus viewers - to whom it might concern though, and sustaining their satisfaction, through the entire duration of that show. The children participated with Lalu Chacha in the show appeared to have come from at least upper middle class of Indian society. What about the poor but talented ones? Lalu Chacha won eventually one crore Indian rupees and the money went to charities. Lalu Chacha - Well done!

Interactions of Lalu Chacha with for example, human plus other physical elements and physical plus virtual environments - all associated with the show afforded the viewers yet another opportunity for identifying and enjoying, and taking lessons from, certain special aspects of Chacha's personality - I mean, the sum total of his behaviors. In that respect, a brief analysis of the story - about purchasing silk sarees - he had narrated before the audience - physical and virtual - during the show would reveal inter alia:

1. all that glitters is not gold;

2. the influence of factors - such as and appropriate (a) the present day power of marketing tactics including inter alia those associated with present day price gimmicks and (b) the present day tensile strength - used in an engineering sense - of marketing skills - on price sensitive buyers and others is such, it (I mean, the influence) has been instrumental in inter alia creating an instant motivation, as well as satisfaction in their minds, leading eventually to buying decisions with regard to respective product or products.

Interesting though, in above events, the buyers or end users or both start realizing the degree of deception by marketers only when the product-s bought or used (or both) by them start revealing their real faces at operation level, per se. In Lalu Chacha's case, he started realizing the degree of deception when he started receiving complaints about operational worthiness of those sarees;

3. Lalu Chacha attempted to give a message to all concerned about the nature, as well as scope of affordability of a politician and a cabinet member of his position and stature under the present market situation. It indicates inter alia - how intelligent and political he was in conveying to all concerned the pocket situation of his, for example? and

4. how can factors like, disproportionate profit motives of marketers, quality-price compromises, price-quality compromises, and pocket limitations of buyers or end users or both deprive of their (say, buyers + end users) entitlements for actual value for money, per se?

The bottom line is: Lalu Chacha, Shahrukh and others including the children did well with regard to the serial. In that connection, I will be failing in my duties if I do not mention the contributions of Star Plus and others towards making the serial an excellent one in several respects. Congratulations to all of them!

It is expected the Star management will be able to present more such entertaining and knowledge-based shows in the future with further improvements in pertinent areas and with personalities such as, Lalu Chacha, and PM Bajpayee - provided that he could withstand the show related load between now and the foreseeable future.

Lalu Chacha is a brilliant rail minister of India. His leadership qualities, initiatives, efforts, team spirits, people-centered behavioral skills and foresightedness have been instrumental in, among other things, transforming a continually loosing (at least for certain periods of time) Indian Railway into a highly profitable public organization. It will not be out of place to mention here: his team and he did not go for traditional organisation measures such as staff reduction when it comes to repositioning the railway in its present position. I believe one of the reasons behind his visible success in the railway is: he was successful in bringing constructive political will into managing dimensions of Indian Railway with the support of all concerned via harnessing their ownership in pursuits of turning Indian Railway into a profitable entity.

It is expected Lalu Chacha will be able to bringing about similar successes when it comes to alleviating poverty from all over India, particularly Bihar. When I was visiting India this year (2008), I heard from people - representing a cross section of Indian society - "Lalu did well in the railway but he did not do enough for the people of Bihar".

The last word: Bangladesh Railway is in bad shape at present. The country should explore and exploit inter alia opportunities like: how best and quickest it could benefit from experiences, expertise and successes of Lalu Chacha and his team in making Bangladesh Railway a profitable concern, once again. Let us work towards that.

In the land of big smiles

Aijaz Zaka Syed

To be greeted with folded hands is hardly unusual for people like me, born and bred in India, the land of namste. But the Thai greeting is vastly different from what one is used to in India. It is much more warm and gracious in nature.

What really floors you in Thailand is the genuine warmth and welcoming nature of its people. From Thai airhostesses welcoming you with folded hands, bowed heads and bending over forward to salespersons profusely thanking you with repeated bows, Thailand is a large and enthusiastic host which genuinely loves its guests. And it tries its best to make them feel welcome and at home as long as they are around.

Total strangers greet you with a warm smile wherever you go-on the ever-humming sky-train in Bangkok, its myriad shopping malls or on its heavenly beaches up north. Not for nothing Thailand is celebrated as the land of big smiles.

Language may be an issue at times but it's not a barrier as one would face say in Paris. The amazing people of this incredibly beautiful land go to great lengths to help you with directions, shopping tips or whatever it is you want, even if they can't speak English or you find yourself overwhelmed by their felicity with the Thai.

Which is perhaps why the tourists or mere curious johnnies like us are everywhere. In the Siam City Hotel where I am staying, in the Nana market that reminds you of Delhi's Palika Bazaar or Dubai's own old maze of souqs and the posh Bangkok Hospital, I run into throngs of Arab families.

In recent years, Muslim countries like Malaysia have emerged as a popular destination for millions of rich visitors from the Middle East. Repelled by the reception they have been getting in the US and Europe after 9/11, more and more Middle Eastern tourists are heading eastwards.

Malaysia and other countries in the neighbourhood have benefited immensely from this geopolitical shift, thanks to a certain Saudi billionaire.

I saw the Middle Eastern tourists everywhere during my visit to Malaysia last year. But what you see in Thailand is nothing short of a phenomenon. The Middle Eastern tourists have virtually taken over Bangkok.

The Nana market in Bangkok, where I picked up some cute stuff for my kids while my friends looked around for some 'clean and respectable' massage parlours, looks like a Dubai or Jeddah neighborhood with its numerous Lebanese restaurants and shawarma and sheesha joints.

The weather is great, especially for people like us tormented by temperatures hovering above 50 degrees in the Middle East. It was mostly raining or drizzling during my weeklong stay, a huge relief from the insane humidity of a Gulf summer.

And shopping is even 'more better,' as some of my Egyptian friends would say, with Emirati dirham, Saudi riyal and most Gulf currencies being ten times stronger than the Thai Baht. A much better option against Malaysian ringgit-almost equal to UAE dirham and Saudi riyal-or Euro and dollar.

No wonder the Gulf tourists are descending on Thailand in their droves. The Thai Airways now runs direct daily flights from Dubai, Doha and other major cities in the region, not to mention the service offered by other prominent airlines such as Emirates. And not surprisingly these flights are almost always running full.

Another area where Thailand is seriously challenging neighboring Muslim countries is in medical tourism. Home to some of the finest and most affordable hospitals, the country is seriously wooing and attracting patients-or medical tourists as they are now called-from the Middle East in big numbers. The Bangkok Hospital is more like a five-star hotel.

By employing Arabic-speaking doctors and nurses and by offering halal food and, most important, friendly services, hospitals like these are tapping into a huge and largely unexplored market of the Middle East.

The message lies in finer details like offering directions and public announcements in Arabic along side Thai and English and reserving prayer space for those accompanying patients.

But the enterprising Thais are far from content with the constant flood of visitors. They are now eyeing the global halal market and Islamic banking. Even though unlike in Malaysia, you still have to watch what you eat here, the country is looking for its share of the big halal pie.

For Thailand, a country that likes to style itself as the Kitchen to the World, halal food market, estimated to be upwards of 1$ trillion, seems an obvious avenue to pursue. It has set up a Halal Science Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, claimed to be the first in the world; it's certainly first in a non-Muslim country.

But Thailand doesn't necessarily see itself as a non-Muslim country. Thanks to its large Muslim population (in majority in at least three southern states) it has been part of the OIC as an observer.

It is even flirting with the Shariah banking by setting up the Islamic Bank of Thailand. Emulating Western financial giants like HSBC and Merrill Lynch that are into Islamic banking big time, Thailand is looking out for a bigger playing field in the Middle East and the larger Muslim world.

And the continuing unrest in its Muslim south and the concern - and bad Press - it generates in the rest of the Muslim world are certainly not helpful when you are wooing big money from the Muslim world.

This is perhaps why the Thai leadership is so keen to reach out to the Muslim world. The Thai foreign ministry has been regularly inviting the world media, especially those from the Muslim countries, to come see for themselves the government initiatives to reach out to the Muslims in the South.

This was certainly necessary after what the now deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra did in the South. In the infamous crackdown unleashed by the regime, more than 500 young Muslims were killed in 2004.

The atrocities were widely condemned by human rights groups in the West and the media in the Muslim world.

Under siege, Thaksin tried to give the whole issue a religious spin linking the unarmed protesters demanding news about their loved ones to global terror groups and his war on the innocent to America's terror war. Nearly 3,000 people have died since the conflict broke out in 2004.

Thankfully, Thaksin's successors have proved more reasonable. Even though the present government is still headed by Thaksin's party, there's been a watershed change in its approach to the South. The emphasis now is on reconciliation, rather than repression. Instead of cutting the disturbed region off from the rest of the world, the Thai leadership is inviting the world community to see how and what it is doing to deal with its 'Southern discomfort'.

What is remarkable about this whole business is the transparency and honesty with which the country is dealing with the insurgency. Unlike other countries facing a similar challenge, Thailand is not pretending the problem doesn't exist.

Following one's constant interaction with the Thai mandarins, governors of the three troubled Muslim provinces and local Muslim leaders, one could see that Thailand's leaders are conscious of the excesses of the past. More to the point, they want to make amends and make a fresh start.

Apirath, my gracious host from the foreign ministry, goes out of his way to help find answers to my often rankling questions. As long as people like Apirath are around, Thailand will never run out of friends. And as long as it tackles tricky issues like the restive Muslims with a big smile, it will remain an oasis of peace and prosperity. Khob-kun-Krub. Thank you, Thailand!

Why it is time for US-Iran Detente

Dr Muqtedar Khan

For the past two years Iran and its nuclear programme have dominated the US foreign policy agenda. Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium, which in its opinion it is entitled to as a signatory of the NPT treaty but the West believes, is an effort to develop nuclear weapons and the oft repeated statement by Ahmadinejad that "Israel will soon disappear from the map" have made Iran the number one enemy in the eyes of the West.

But now there seems to be a change taking place in US-Iranian relations and prospects for a detente seem real. Now not only is Ahmadinejad saying nice things about US diplomats, but also Iran is responding positively to US overtures.

American failures in Iraq, in Afghanistan, on energy pricing, in housing and financial markets in addition to the weakening of the dollar, have handcuffed the Bush administration or else we would have surely witnessed a war against Iran. Lack of domestic appetite for another war, which would surely shoot oil prices through the roof, has removed the use of force option from the table. The Bush administration after asserting for years that we will not talk to Iran unless it agrees to all our demands is now engaging in direct negotiations. The decision to send William Burns, a very senior US diplomat, to meet with Iranian nuclear negotiator along with Europeans last week, clearly signals a strategic shift in the US policy. It remains to be seen, however, whether this is an isolated episode or the beginning of a new modality in US-Iran relations. The talk that the US might even announce the opening of a US mission in Iran next month, which has already been welcomed by Iranians, is genuinely path breaking. If President Bush follows through, then there is no doubt in my mind that Iran could become an important partner of the US in shaping the emerging Middle East.

But before US and Iran can start normalising relations, it is important that the mutual demonisation that both sides have indulged in over the years be deconstructed. Iran has been painting the US as the "Great Satan" and the source of all evil in the Middle East and the US has consistently labelled Iran as a terrorist sponsor and as a threat to global peace.

Reports from Iran clearly suggest that Iranians are increasingly alienated with their own leadership and its failure to provide better governance and yo deliver on populist promises made in electoral speeches.

Their resentment towards their leadership is manifesting itself in higher regard and esteem for the US negating the anti-US rhetoric of some of its leaders. Azadeh Moaveni wrote in the Washington Post on June 1, 2008 "It might startle some Americans to realise that Iran has one of the most pro-American populations in the Middle East." Scholars of the Middle East have repeatedly pointed out this paradox of US foreign policy. The US had become most hostile to the people who were most favourably disposed towards the US in the Middle East. It will take little to win the Iranians over. A gesture of friendship from Bush, a surprise visit to Teheran by Rice, or a gift of six passenger aircraft, should be enough to send Ahmadinejad packing in the elections due in 2009. While Iranians are becoming pro-US, Americans are becoming increasingly anti-Iran. If the US-Iranian relations have to improve and flourish, it is essential that politicians and opinion makers stop demonising Iran and recognise its positive contributions.

US intelligence agencies are convinced that Iran abandoned its efforts to acquire nukes in 2003 (National Intelligence Estimate, November 2007). Iran helped Western powers in establishing the new government and democracy in Afghanistan and has cooperated with the US to stabilise southern Iraq and restrain Shia militias in Iraq. While Ahmadinejad does rant about making Israel disappear, he is not in charge of Iranian foreign or military policy and his claims are not repeated by those who actually do manage Iran's external affairs.

A regular acknowledgement of these realities and positive Iranian contributions will help prepare American public opinion for better US-Iranian relations.

The perception that a nuclear Iran ruled by a madman poses a major threat to the world is the driving force behind Western paranoia about Iran. A sensible foreign policy from Washington is not possible until this misperception is deconstructed. Iran is not a threat; it is not capable of posing a serious threat.

Iran's air force is defunct. Its economy is in a bad shape. High oil prices do not help Iran too much since it is a net importer of gasoline and its crude oil exports are inferior to its competitors. Add to this the fact that the US, France, Britain and Israel all have powerful air forces and huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

Additionally, Islamic Iran has not invaded any country for any reason since the Revolution in 1979. A record that neither the US nor Israel can match given America's unnecessary invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Israel's in Lebanon in 2006. Both the US and Iran now have an extraordinary opportunity to change their mutual destinies, will they hold the line?

(Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, United States (www.ijtihad.org)