The New Nation - Internet Edition

For private power houses

THE Council of Advisers of the Caretaker government has decided to encourage private entrepreneurs to set up power generation plants and distribution lines in some areas of the country. A competitive environment would hopefully be created as a result of this initiative. The consumers of electricity are expected to benefit from this.

The Power Development Board for a long time remained the sole agency for generation of electricity and the distribution thereof. The government has already set up state-owned distribution companies like the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd. the Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) and the Rural Electrification Board (REB) for reaching power to consumers. But the move of these agencies to meet the increased demand for power turned ineffective due to production shortfall because of the fact that some plants turned outdated and dilapidated. Along with that, the supply of gas and coal for generation of electricity turned uncertain.

Experiences of the consumers at large are quite frustrating. They face frequent load-shedding and stoppage of supply of electricity to their homes, commercial enterprises and factories. As a result sufferings of people at large and the owners of business enterprises and factories have increased. The ultimate effect of such uncertainties of the supply of electricity falls on the economy.

That being so, the people at large may welcome the policy decision of the government to involve private entrepreneurs for generation and distribution of electricity. The private entrepreneurs in the past set examples of effective management of factories and establishments. Facilitation of their full participation in the power sector with safeguards to protect the right of the people to the basic utility service would hopefully give good dividends.

Full customs automation

THE customs administration is by far the single biggest revenue earner. But its outmoded prevailing mode of conducting customs procedure--manually--makes a huge difference in revenue collection from the various manipulations and corruptions which have become an integral part of the system. Partial automation of customs has been attempted. But the need is full automation for getting the much bigger benefits from the same.

Some businesses have vested interests involved in retaining the present system because it enables them to evade full payment of various customs duties or paying them in proportion to the imported commodities. A section of employees in the customs department also form part of these interest groups. They visualise automation as threatening their dominance of the system and extra earnings. But generally, businesses have no objection to such automation because the same will actually help them with hassle-free operations and spare them from making underhand payments.

Thus, automation of customs have multiple prospects. First, it should lead to a big rise in the collection of revenue. The operations of honest and scrupulous businessmen would become easier from proper introduction and enforcement of the system. Business costs will further go down, notably, after the switchover to fully automated customs. The annual earnings of the Chittagong Customs House is expected to increase from 110 billion Taka to 150 billion Taka provided the customs administration is reformed and automation fully enforced in every tier. Some 45 complex manual procedures that create inordinate delays in the clearance of goods will come down to 25 with the automation for speed, accuracy and fairness in evaluation of duties. But the automated procedures alone will not achieve the intended outcome. Other measures such as giving greater responsibility to honest and efficient officials should be ensured.

A few predictions about future military wars

Dr. M. S. Haq

Human expectations, sciences, arts, engineering and outcomes concerning wars (for example: military war-s) have been undergoing changes, in varying degrees and on a continuous basis - relative to time, space and other variables, though. One of the reasons for that, is: the demand side and the supply side of human needs and wants, environmental (physical, virtual, others) dynamics, and the outcome of contemporary regimes of governance, technology and development - that have been affecting domains of war, peace, progress and prosperity in the universe - are being increasingly instrumental in shaping objectives, as well as goals of future wars and the future of wars, among other things.

People's efforts, initiatives and other related things have so far been instrumental in, among other things, starting or sustaining or escalating or promoting or halting or wining (or otherwise) wars of various types and magnitudes - either directly or otherwise. A few of those wars are: wars against diseases - with the help of say, bio-medical engineering and technology (one of the core bases of present day bio-medical engineering and technology is defense innovations); wars facilitating spreading of diseases - with the help of say, biological weapons; wars against environmental degradations; wars against hunger and poverty; wars against terrorism, wars against human rights violations - with the help of say, imaging technologies; wars against poor governance; wars against deprivations; and wars against inequities, inequalities and injustices.

Factors such as and as appropriate: military wars against uncertainties; military efforts and initiatives towards zero human casualties (at least in a direct sense) at wars; military wars for creating challenges and for grabbing, owning and harnessing opportunities - including inter alia those pertaining to what I would call universe's commons - in pursuits of say, satisfying ever increasing wants and needs at local, national, global and other levels; military wars in favor of or against (or both) markets and competitions at various levels of human societies or endeavors or both; military wars for destruction or restoration or preservation or promotion (or otherwise) of human civilizations and civilizations of other living things (used in a deeper sense); and military wars in favor of or against (or both) sharing the usable wealth or creating wastage or minimizing wastage (or any combination of them); are, among other things, expected to dominate core focuses of military war related discoveries, inventions and innovations through the foreseeable future.

It is also expected: outcomes of those discoveries, inventions and innovations will, in varying degrees, continue to facilitate strengthening and enrichment of for example foundations and guiding principles of other disciplines of knowledge and application (I mean other than those associated directly with military areas, per se) - relative however to time, space and other variables.

But the availability of ultimate benefits - arising out of say, above developments - to maximum number of people especially the poor, the opportunity for beneficiaries to harness those benefits in their own favor (per se) in a timely, cost effective and result-oriented fashion, and the size of return from recycling those benefits would depend on inter alia and relative as appropriate to time, space and other variables:

A. the amount and the tensile strength of people's power (used in an average sense) particularly that of the poor when it comes to retaining, enhancing and promoting the people's share in respective domains of military activities at local, national, global and other levels - against the backdrop of for example, a progressively re-integrating world;

B. the quantity, quality, sustainability and result-orientation of civil-military synergy and military-civil synergy in pursuits of say, creating, owning and promoting benefits via joint discoveries, joint inventions and joint innovations in relevant areas;

C. the rate and the speed of transformation of military benefits into civilian benefits and civilian benefits into military benefits in pertinent areas of discovery, invention and innovation;

D. the nature and the degree of challenges, as well as opportunities for solving diseases associated with needs and wants of human and other living beings at any given time in the foreseeable future; and

E. the focus of for example civilian and military visions, plans, programs, strategies and activities when it comes to creating, sustaining and promoting the future of universe at any given time in the foreseeable future.

In light of what has been discussed and not discussed in the article so far, it now appears factor that could for example influence or impact upon (or both) the future of military wars and future military wars include inter alia - not presented in the order of priority and importance:

1. spaces (used in a wider sense) would continue to remain as one of the main goals of military wars. But virtual spaces, spaces in other parts of the universe (the Moon, the Mars, etc.), economically or weapon-wise (or both) prospective spaces, market spaces, and spaces under the ground would become inter alia main attractions for military wars;

2. progress and prosperity at local, national, global and other levels would be increasingly instrumental in inviting inter alia military wars and antidotes to military wars - for example;

3. degrees of loss, damage and destruction as a result of military wars would be higher than that at present in a more interdependent and borderless world than that again at present;

4. defense industries and RDE (research, development and engineering) initiatives in areas such as and as appropriate (i) space engineering and technology (involving inter alia a more extensive and meaningful use of what I would call higher levels of geometry and calculus), (ii) nano engineering and technology, (iii) automation engineering and technology (involving inter alia a more extensive and meaningful use of what I would call super high artificial intelligence), (iv) robotics, (v) zero human (war) casualty engineering and technology, (vi) engineering and technology associated with genomics, (vii) protection engineering and technology (shelters, etc.), (viii) anti-weapons engineering and technology (anti-nuke weapons, etc.) (ix) more resources friendly engineering and technology than that at present (x) weapons protection and preservation engineering and technology (xi) materials engineering and technology (involving inter alia a more extensive and meaningful use of lighter, more heat resistant - at up cycles and down cycles of heat treatment, per se, more self-lubricating, more tensile strength bearing and more efficient engineering materials and composites) (xii) secrecy management engineering and technology (internet security, etc) and (xiii) forecasting engineering and technology would flourish or increase (or both) at least at a rate of arithmetic progression on a monthly basis, for example. It will not be out of place to mention here, higher precision, more reliability and higher result-potential of say, defense industry products than that of the existing ones would constitute the critical mass of quality of those products, per se;

5. wars would be supported by a more extensive and meaningful use of technology aided intelligence than human and other types of intelligence;

6. forecasters, scientists, mathematicians, war strategists, war managers, data managers, statisticians and weaponists (I would like to call it in that way) would, among others, play a lead role in military wars. Further, a part of defense personnel comprising NCOs (non-commissioned officers), JCOs (junior commissioned officers) and COs (commissioned officers) would survive as for example, trained data collectors and data analysts of various types and levels;

7. the core war winning strength would be knowledge and its proper applications to various stages of military wars. The duration of military wars would inter alia be relatively short;

8. defense forces and establishments - at least in its present form and size - would undergo changes in a significant manner;

9. the ramification of knowledge based future of military wars in a knowledge based universe would be instrumental in inter alia shaping political culture, defense culture, culture of governance, international relations culture, poor and ordinary people's culture, culture of sharing and culture of isolation, as well as integration at local, national, global and other levels. In that respect, it is expected children of poor people will be able to enjoy for example human development opportunities similar to those of the children of honest military personnel, honest rich people and others particularly in poverty stricken countries in not too distant a future;

10. RDE in inter-disciplinary areas of knowledge, understanding and application will get additional thrusts from efforts towards creating and sustaining the future of military in the universe;

11. the fall out of military war would have significant impacts on intra and inter-generational areas at medical, non-medical and other levels;

12. the cause, effect and causality of military wars would not be of great help to cope with growing matrices of needs and wants - used in an average sense; and

13. the future of war would be instrumental in inter alia ushering a new era of what I would call - universe order - in the foreseeable future.

The list is not exhaustive.

Last word: are world people and institutions (including inter alia governments, United Nations, NATO, World Bank and WTO) ready for facing and meeting challenges and harnessing opportunities associated with for example, the universe order in a proactive, reactive, pragmatic, pluralistic, accountable, result-oriented and sustainable manner and to the 'satisfaction' of all living beings as far as humanly possible? Is the space charter (I would like to call it in that way) ready for dealing with say, distribution of spaces in relevant parts of the universe in the future - in a purposeful, equitable and satisfactory fashion, for example?

Era of Maoists in Nepal

Dr.Abdul Ruff

At last Nepal has a president and a premier, both elected. Twelve years after they waged an armed war to capture power, Nepal's former Maoist guerrillas finally on 15 August fulfilled their desire lawfully with their chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda, winning the prime minister's election with a sweeping majority to become the Nepal republic's first premier.

Prachanda vanquished his sole rival former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba by garnering 464 votes, a more than two-thirds majority, while he needed only a simple majority to win. Deuba, who was sacked twice by King Gyanendra in the past for failing to hold elections and was the arch enemy of the underground Maoists during their decade-old "People's War", received only 113 votes. While his wife Arjoo Deuba, also a lawmaker from his Nepali Congress (NC) party, voted for him, his mother-in-law Pratibha Rana, a lawmaker from the once royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party, voted against him in an election fraught with tension and rivalry. For Prachanda it is a major political victory.

New Goals

After a long period of struggle, now the Maoists are keen to rebuild Nepal. Newly elected Prime Minister Prachanda said the industries and business enterprises in Nepal which were closed due to the Maoist threats in the past will be reopened. Prachanda, who waged a decade-long armed struggle against monarchy, was on 15 August elected as Democratic Nepal's first Prime Minister in a one-sided race in the Constituent Assembly.

Prachanda, during a meeting at his Baluwatar residence with a business delegation led by chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries Kush Kumar Joshi, said the government will make efforts to reopen all those industries which were closed due to the threats issued by Maoist trade union workers or by other armed groups. The former guerrilla leader also promised to protect market economy and promote nationalist capitalists besides allowing the foreign investment and national labor market keeping in view the national interest.

The Prime Minister said the new government is committed to implement all past agreements reached with the business communities and will go hand in hand with the national industrialists and entrepreneurs. Thousands of passengers have been stranded and supplies of essential commodities have been halted in eastern Nepal due to the indefinite transport strike. He assured that he will also make efforts to reopen the highways in eastern Nepal which have remained closed for the past one week following killing of a truck driver by unidentified gunmen, said noted industrialist Rajendra Khetan, who is also adviser of the FNCCI and a member of the Constituent Assembly.

President and Premier

The monarchy has ended but the old mainstream parties are not ready for new economic and social reforms in the country. It was the first major decision by the assembly since lawmakers decided to abolish the 239-year-old monarchy and declare a republic, part of a peace process that ended a decade-long civil war with Maoist insurgents. Political wrangling has left Nepal without a government since it became a republic in late May following the abolition of the monarchy. Maoists had won 220 seats in the Constituent Assembly elections held on April 10 while the NC and the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist followed with 110 and 103 seats, respectively. Since the abolition of the monarchy, the main political parties in Nepal had been, for a along time, unable to form a new government because of serious differences on issues like who should be the President and Prime Minister. The rebels were upset over the rejection by parliament of their choice for president - and announced they would refuse to lead the government.

The Maoists, who were eyeing both the posts of premier and president, had announced that they would not join the government if their candidate failed to get elected to the post of President. The Maoists said they did not want to lead a "shaky coalition". They point out that Nepal has seen 16 governments in the past 18 years. Talks with other parties on the basis of Maoists program and policy proposals were under way and the party hoped to "reach a consensus soon". The former rebels needed a minimum of two years in power to write a new constitution. Analysts say that the involvement of the former rebels within the government was crucial to the survival of the peace process which ended the country's civil war.

President Yadav

After assuming power, Nepal's first President Ram Baran Yadav, a doctor-turned-politician who had most of his education in India, has invited former rebel Maoists who won most seats but no majority in elections this spring to form the country's new government. Yadav called on the party to forge a political consensus for the appointment of the prime minister and ministers. The Maoists did not immediately respond. They were angered after their presidential choice was rejected by other parties.

Ram Baran Yadav was fielded by the Maoists for the present's post. A run-off was necessitated as Yadav fell 15 short of the magic figure of 298 in the first round held. In the run-off polls, the veteran leader trounced Singh by 26 votes, securing the support of 308 lawmakers compared to 282 for the Maoist nominee who was the favorite earlier. President Yadav, a relatively unknown figure outside Nepal, was a last-minute choice of the major parties to oppose the Maoist candidate and Madhesi leader Ramraja Prasad Singh, faces the tough task of overseeing the drafting of a new Constitution amid bitter political acrimony and fears of the country slipping back to insurgency with the Maoists being effectively sidelined. The new President replaced the deposed King Gyanendra as the Head of State, performing the ceremonial duties which were earlier the sole domain of the monarch.

Yadav hailing from the Indian-origin Madhesi community received his MBBS degree from Kolkata and MD from PGIMER, Chandigarh, spending about 11 years studying in India. After practicing medicine for eight years, Yadav joined Nepali Congress after the 1980 referendum held to choose between party-less Panchayat system and multiparty system. The 60-year-old has learnt the fine art of politics from Nepali Congress patriarch B P Koirala and Ganesh Man Singh as also Madhesi leader Ramnarayan Mishra. Yadav, a three-time MP from Dhanusha, entered Parliament as an NC candidate for the first time in 1991. He was re-elected in 1999 and elected to the Constituent Assembly in the landmark polls on April 10 this year which saw the Maoists emerging as the single largest party.

A farmer's son, who made a remarkable journey to occupy the highest post in the new-born republic that abolished the 240-year-old monarchy, Yadav said he wants to take the peace process to its logical end and maintain friendly ties with both China and India. Nepal has been at odds with neighboring Bhutan over the repatriation of thousands of refugees living in camps in Nepal. The refugees - Bhutanese of Nepalese descent - fled violence in their homeland in the early 1990s.

End of Monarchy

Until Nepal became a republic in May 2008, the country had been under the sway of a hereditary monarchy or ruling family for most of its known history, largely isolated from the rest of the world. A brief experiment with multi-party politics in 1959 ended with King Mahendra suspending parliament and taking sole charge. Democratic politics was introduced in 1991 after popular protests, but it was extremely factionalized with frequent changes of government. The last king of Nepal, Gyanendra, twice assumed executive powers - in 2002 and 2005. Meanwhile, Maoist rebels intent on setting up a communist republic waged a decade-long campaign against the constitutional monarchy. The rebellion left more than 12,000 people dead. The UN said 100,000 people were displaced. Its envoy said the use of torture by government forces and rebels was routine.

When King Gyanendra's direct rule ended in April 2006 the rebels entered talks on how to end the civil war. A landmark peace deal was agreed in November and in early 2007 the Maoists joined an interim government. The Maoists withdrew from the government in September, demanding abolition of the monarchy. Parliament agreed to this condition in December, and the rebels rejoined the government. The Maoists emerged as the largest party in parliament following elections in April 2008, and the monarchy was abolished a month later.

The former monarch Gyanendra in his last appearance in palace spoke for 20 minutes. Gyanendra did not look like someone battered and bruised or a man many say was single-handedly responsible for the end of a centuries-old monarchy. A calm smile on his face, he gave the palms-together "namaste" (Hello) greeting he has always given as he fought his way to the front - bearing out the remarks of those who know him well, that he has not shown any worry in response to the political convulsions that have ousted the Crown. He felt able for the first time to confront the belief prevalent among Nepalis that he and his son plotted the palace killings of 2001 which saw 10 of the royals, including his brother King Birendra, killed in a shooting. He said he would not go abroad and had not wasted Nepal's resources. He even said he accepted the advent of a republic - a process which was rushed through in a cursory fashion two weeks ago. But, as before, he insisted that his unpopular pursuit of absolute power, backed by the military, had not trampled on the people's rights. Then he was gone - leaving the reporters free to pose for photos sitting in his chair. Less than three hours later he and former queen Komal were clearly seen leaving in a limousine, smiling, this time, broadly, heading for their more modest home in the forest nearby. One wonders whether if Gyanendra entered politics as a commoner he might be a charismatic crowd-puller able to match the Maoists' magnetic leader Prachanda, in a country short of colorful politicians.

That problem, and the lack of reverence which the monarchy - or ex-monarchy - now commands, meant that there was anything but a hushed silence. Once he started speaking, the sound system failed - a comical reminder of Maoist leader Prachanda's first press conference two years ago, when the lights went out. Gyanendra's words were barely audible to most. People may also miss the gossipy newspaper stories of palace intrigue which continued to leak out until the very last. In a remarkably short space of time, because of an unpopular king, Nepal has dismissed its monarchy, an institution which only eight years ago was still revered. No-one feels able to say it right now, if some of the color and pageantry of the royals will be missed in the years to come, now they are being consigned to a museum.

A Word

A clear-cut regime change has taken place in this Himalayan nation. The political forces thus far branded as the "underground terrorists" have assumed power in Nepal and these democratically elected "law-breakers" will make laws in Kathmandu for the welfare of Nepalese people.

Most of the Nepalese population depends on agriculture, and around 40% of Nepalis are estimated to live in poverty. Foreign aid is vital to the economy and Nepal is also dependent on trade with neighboring India, the fact India always exploited by selling weapons to them. With the world's highest mountain, Everest, and spectacular scenery and wildlife, the country has great potential as a tourist destination. It also boasts a distinctive Hindu and Buddhist culture. But its environmental challenges include deforestation, encroachment on animal habitats and vehicle pollution in the capital, Kathmandu. Emerging political situation would help Nepal become strong economically, politically and security-wise and advance its legitimate national interest. With a better vision of itself as a republic, Nepal is now expected to strengthen it economy and security also by strengthening the regional bodies like SAARC.