The New Nation - Internet Edition

No moratorium on investment

BANGLADESH Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is reported to have proposed to the government not to allow setting up of new factories in the sector during next three years. One of the thoughts that prompted them to put such a proposal is that due to lack of skilled workers and mid-management personnel 25 percent of the factory capacity remains unutilised. At least three years will be required to fully utilise the capacity. They hoped that this would help increase export price and bring stability and enable the sector to earn as much as US$18 billion. However, some former leaders of BGMEA and experts termed this proposal illegal and strongly opposed it as an attempt at forming a cartel. This would have negative impact on investment which brings new ideas and efficiency.

The proposal does not seem to be set on solid grounds. The critics of the proposal have the right to say that neither the government nor any business organisation has the right to restrict investment. Such a moratorium would simply be disastrous for the country. This proposal, if implemented, would further aggravate the unemployment situation. This is also likely to go against the achievement of the millennium development goals of eradicating poverty and hunger. Contractionary measures would reduce foreign exchange earnings. Moreover, this proposal goes against the spirit of free trade being practiced by garment owners themselves. They cannot close the doors of the sector to new investors. The entrepreneurs of the readymade garment sector have rendered good services to the national economy. Closure of the door of the sector would affect themselves adversely.

Big fishes not in TAC net

THE newly constituted Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC) appears to have little to deal with corruptions as only small ones have responded to its invitation to voluntarily disclose their graft and obtain clemency by giving the state exchequer ill-gotten money. The commission found hardly any big fish among the 230 petitioners who have sought clemency for giving back their illegal assets to the treasury in the last one and a half months since it officially started functioning early last month. Most of the applicants are low-grade officials and employees of government. Among the clemency seekers are 205 officials and employees, six businessmen and a union parishad chairman.

The main purpose of formation of the TAC was to restore confidence among the businessmen and politicians by enabling them to get clemency for their corruptions, but the commission received no application from politicians, as the people concerned do not seem encouraged to take the opportunity. It is presumed that the possibility of debarring them from contesting elections might have discouraged politicians from seeking clemency. Corrupt big businessmen, on the other hand, might have feared that once they confessed before any commission they would be in more trouble. The TAC has completed hearing of 70 cases, and 35 seekers of clemency have promised to give Tk 15.53 crore to the public exchequer.

Among the clemency seekers so far, there are very few senior bureaucrats though the size of corrupt section of public servants, obviously, is presumed to be large for their lavish life-style and accumulation of property - that is not possible with honest known sources of income. It was expected that the politicians, businessmen and senior officials who have amassed illegal money and wealth, would take the opportunity of obtaining clemency offered by the truth commission.

To immerse into the Library of Congress

Maswood Alam Khan

The only passport to your satisfaction as a roving and probing traveller inside America is money in cash. You have to dispense money to buy a ticket to journey, to enter a place of interest, to get a drink from a dispensing machine, to quench your hunger at lunchtime, or to pick a souvenir. The only place in America which will offer you entirely free entries to great places of interest---if not a free lunch---is the capital city of Washington. And those places in Washington of breathtaking interests are, to my opinion, the best in the whole of the United States.

It is unsafe though to sweepingly qualify anything in the USA as the best. Because, you never know next time you come across the same thing elsewhere that same thing wrapped up a little differently may taste, sound and look much better than the one you had earlier adjudged as the best. All those which are good here are getting transformed into better and those better into the best, thanks to American mantra for continuous research and development.

Still, the best of the best in Washington, as I found out, is the Library of Congress---a citadel wide open to anybody from any corner of the world, an institution that will spontaneously issue you, without a question asked, a permanent library card for your whole life if you present an identity clue that you are from this earth---an international passport or a residency card. There you are absolutely free to swim over or immerse into anywhere inside any of the library's three buildings named after three former US presidents: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison.

There are some overwhelming situations when you can't express your feelings in words and phrases. Likewise, I was also dumbfounded looking at the dazzles as I strolled down the corridors of the Jefferson Building. Of all the places I have seen in the United States of America Jefferson Building is the one which has most left me speechless.

There are thousands of sculptural wonders in the forms of figurines and artefacts garlanding the stairwells, ceilings, floors and nooks and corners of the Jefferson Building depicting understanding, knowledge, history, philosophy, melodies, tragedies, comedies, romance, erotica, fancy, tradition, and many human achievements and failures since the dawn civilization. These wonders or, in other words, these silent sentinels should only be seen and felt---one by one in a relaxed mood. Any attempt to describe those ebullient and breathtaking marvels in mundane language, I imagine, would be a sacrilegious attack on the creators who designed and constructed the building and then ornamented it with sparkling jewelleries.

Nevertheless, after staring for about a quarter of an hour at a magnificent marble mosaic portraying Minerva, depicted as a guardian of civilization and promoter of arts and sciences, as I climbed over the staircase holding the rails---lest I slip over the mirror-like marble steps---to Visitors' Gallery above the Main Reading Room my breath was almost taken out as I could not believe my eyes. I seated myself on a bench by the wall to take a respite and to reconcile my imagination with what I was viewing, oblivious of what Miss Flowers, our public tour guide, was saying about the ornate interior of the Reading Room. Suddenly I heard her saying 'Islam' as contributor to Physics. As if, in delirium, I heard her say: "Maswood, here is something you may find yourself mirrored in".

Jumping to my feet I leaped forward towards the thick viewing pane and looked at the paintings on the dome above the Reading Room. In awed silence I was watching the inscription 'Islam' in the murals that were adorning the dome---the central and the highest point of the whole building and the culmination of the interior decorative scheme of the entire architectural feat.

To represent twelve countries, or epochs which, Blashfield the muralist felt, contributed most to civilization twelve seated figures with artefacts bearing testimony to the respective fields of advancement are portrayed on the round collar of the dome. To the immediate right of each figure is a tablet on which is inscribed the name of the country or epoch typified and, below this, the name of the outstanding contribution to human progress.

Egypt was shown as the contributor to 'written records', Judea to religion, Greece to philosophy, Rome to administration, Islam to physics, the Middle Ages to modern languages, Italy to fine arts, Germany to the art of painting, Spain to discovery, England to literature, France to emancipation and America to science. No other country, religion or epoch got a space in that colourful collar.

Being a Muslim I was naturally interested to study what the figure, the artefact and the inscription on the adjoining tablet were speaking about contribution made by Islam. It was an Arabian, his head turbaned, seated with his left foot set on a kettle-like glass urn that we see in the chemistry laboratories in the colleges. I guess the muralist perhaps wanted the symbol to suggest chemistry or medicine, not physics.

Anyhow, I felt elated thinking that millions of spectators for more than one hundred years since the building's opening on November 01, 1897 have seen not only the rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible carefully encased inside a glass chamber on the ground floor, those spectators also saw on the dome 75 feet above the marble floor of the Reading Room---among twelve other countries or epochs---an imagery of Islam with some metaphors expressing the great religion's contribution in the field of science---call it physics, chemistry, algebra, medicine, or whatever.

Established in 1800 basically as a legislative library, initially housed in the Capitol Hall building and later shifted to the Italian Renaissance styled Jefferson Building, the Library of Congress, America's oldest cultural institution, has grown into a national institution, an international repository of information and knowledge of unparalleled dimensions. As the world's largest the Library of Congress boasts of 128 million items---collected from all over the world---covering books, maps, photographs, music, manuscript, and graphics in more than 460 languages placed on more than 500 miles of shelves in all the three buildings of the library and at remote storage facilities.

Two million tourists visit this library annually. Library of Congress' present philosophy and rationale behind its comprehensive collection is based on Jefferson's concept of universality that 'information and knowledge about all subjects are essential in a democracy---for legislators and citizens alike'.

The Library of Congress would have been a typical library packed with weighty tomes of law where a few legislators with their narrow focus on legal matters would visit and where no one could quench his/her thirst for a variety of knowledge had Thomas Jefferson in 1814, after the British destroyed the library, not sold to the Library of Congress his 50 years' accumulation of books for a small price in spite of protests from some legislators that Jefferson's collection of books on assorted topics---many written in foreign languages---was not of relevance to a congressman.

Jefferson's personal collections of 6,487 volumes covering a wide range of subjects from law to architecture to beehives to 'what not', now being preserved in a separate section of the Jefferson Building, is considered the seed from which today's Library of Congress as a compendium of knowledge on every discipline under the sun has grown to spark our curiosity and imagination.

Totally exhausted, after walking for more than five hours inside the premises of the Library of Congress, I could no more stand on my feet. Now seated on a lawn outside the Jefferson Building and facing the fountain of King Neptune, the Roman God of the sea, I was wondering if America can shout so loudly with its history of only a few hundred years why we, Bangladeshis---as a legacy of India---with our history of thousands of years could not erect a monument like this Library to herald our long and rich heritage!

Politics of weakening neighbours

Janaka Perera

In all probability those who caused the horrifying bomb explosion at the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad and those behind the bomb blast in several Indian cities this month share the same extremist politico-religious objectives even if they are not members of the same group. The nature of the explosions - especially the one at the Marriot clearly reflect the technical expertise that only a mafia gang like the LTTE can provide - may be on payment because the Tigers seem to be running short of funds nowadays.

At the same time there is no question that Prabhakaran is plotting and dreaming of doing a 'Marriot' in Colombo, even as the Security Forces are moving towards the gates of the last remaining town of his mythical Tamil Eelam.

During this year's SAARC summit Indian delegates agreed on the urgency on combating terrorism. If they are sincere then they cannot afford to pick and chose but go all out to convey a clear message not only to terrorists of all hues who are deliberately and willfully targeting unarmed civilians and non-combatants but also to their ardent supporters within and outside India. And these terrorist-sympathizers include the Norwegians whose dubious peace-making India too endorsed, although it lost all credibility among the Sinhalas.

The majority of Sri Lankans therefore do not want to hear Delhi's or any other government's pontifications about the need to win over the Tamils and ensure their safety in the Wanni before dealing with the Prabhakaran's terrorist outfit. Perhaps by the same token Pakistan has every right to tell India to ensure the security of India's Muslims against periodic Hindu extremist violence - before going after Muslim zealots for blasting bombs there.

We however need to recall here that the Sinhala majority by and large had a great regard for India in the years before Indira Gandhi got the bright idea of 'disciplining' Sri Lanka with the LTTE 'rod' which eventually turned out to be a viper. Even today Hindi movies, music, songs and dances are popular among the Sinhalas far more than Tamils. North Indian languages like Bengali have close ties with Sinhala.

As a school boy I witnessed the very warm welcome that large crowds gave Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru when he arrived at the then civilian airport of Ratmalana in 1962 during Sirimavo Bandaranaike's first term as Prime Minister. Contrast it with the visit of his grandson Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 when he was nearly hit on the head with a rifle butt by an enraged Sri Lankan sailor. Eventually the PM was destined to die at the hands of a group which his mother nurtured.

It appears that since 1983 Delhi has caught a Tiger's tail which it cannot now let go lest the animal turns around and attacks - especially because the Tamil National Alliance and Tamil Nadu jingoists are riding the brute. Even when GOSL is trying to convince India to let go off the tail she is hesitant to do so. In this context in if ever President Mahinda Rajapaksa succeeds in handing over a captured Prabhakaran to India it would be no surprise if he is not put on trial, after all the Gandhis (Sonia and Priyanka) seem to have slowly developed - perhaps for political expediency - a soft corner for Nalini and other convicts who plotted Rajvi's assassination.

Delhi's mistake has been to imagine that Kautilyan methods would always work in India's favour in the region. Kautilya alias Chanakya was Indian Emperor Chandragupta's Chief Minister who developed a strategy of destabilizing and weakening neighbouring states around 320 B.C. His methods proved advantageous to both Chandragupta and his successors including Emperor Asoka (who later gave up wars of expansion after embracing Buddhism and adopted the Dharma Chakra as the State symbol).

India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW ) subsequently researched, developed and used these Kautilyan methods for expanding Delhi's power in the region including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In fact this is the Indian Government's real reason to adopt the Saranath Lion Capital and the Asoka Chakra or Dharma Chakra as India's National symbol - which appears on her national flag - more than out of respect for a great Buddhist Emperor and his religion as many Buddhists believe, according to Bangladeshi writer and Barrister M.B.I. Munshi (The India Doctrine published by Bangladesh Research Forum)

- Asian Tribune

Zardari pleads power to people

S.Rahman

While the whole nation mourns the Marriott Hotel tragedy, it is equally appreciative of President Asif Ali Zardari's address to the joint session of the parliament and also of President's brief but reassuring address to the nation after the explosion.

Starting from address to the nation, the disturbed people seem to have heaved a sigh of relief with their head of state giving them assurances that the government would not yield to terrorism at all.

As regards President Zardari's address in the parliament, it carried many good messages from the democratic point of view. A President himself voluntarily offering to surrender his powers at such an august platform. Of course, it is a rarity in national politics as much as in the recent political history of the world. Zardari appeared above many petty considerations typical of people clinging to power, by suggesting the formation of an all parties committee in the parliament to remove the distortions in the 1973 Constitution like the 17th Amendment and Article 58 2(b).

And if there was mention of Mohatarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Shaheed during the President's speech that too was in the people's perspective. Throughout the President's speech, the stress was on people's empowerment.

Things seemed to be more encouraging when the President laid emphasis on the empowerment of women that constitute more than half of the national population and are still leading the life of suppression. A revolutionary step would be allotting government land to women as well side by side with men. Previously, only men would be entitled to such allotments which would lend more strength to their (men's) supremacy over the women.

Even in dealing with India, the most important subject of our foreign policy, bipartisan caucuses should be constituted to take stock of Kashmir and water issues. All throughout his speech, the President touched upon the need for having national consensus that is crucial for meeting the challenges and threats to the country. That is why whichever issue he talked about, he pressed upon its resolution through parliamentarians from different parties including the Opposition.

The President rather took pride, quite rightly, in the appointment of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman from the Opposition. This proves only one thing that PPP government that has roots among the masses, is committed to transparent governance and strengthening of democratic traditions.

What inspired the people the most was President Zardari's focus on the country's sovereignty that has nowadays become a talk of the town particularly in the backdrop of American incursions in our tribal region. No power would be allowed to make use of Pakistani soil in the name of war on terror. There were no 'ifs' and 'buts' involved in this statement. This had boosted the morale of Pakistani nation that stood demoralized a few days earlier. But in order to attain this self-confidence before instilling confidence in the people, President Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani held a meeting with Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani a day earlier. The consensus that was achieved in that meeting owes much to the efforts and vision of our top leadership including the President, the PM and the COAS.

Certainly, it is a good omen for the nation to be blessed with a situation like this when all the key office-holders and the prime institutions are adhering to the same unified stand on sensitive issues like that of country's sovereignty.

President Zardari is right in his approach, as reiterated in his address to the parliament that such golden opportunities are rarely available to the nation. 'We should not let these opportunities go waste."

It is good to hear Zardari advising the nation and the governments to avail the opportunities provided to them by the people's mandate. And as for mandate, the President considers it an honour and more so, as a responsibility.

For sure, it is a responsibility. Unfortunately, this sense prevailed seldom in the past since the ruling elite on most of the occasions had been conducting itself in a way as if they were masters and the people, slaves.

When the ruling elite makes it a point to adopt austerity, simplicity, humility and tolerance for all, the end result has to be country's salvation from poverty, hunger and terrorism. President Asif Ali Zardari says that getting rid of these scourges is our dream.

The good news is that, according to Zardari, our top leadership has a plan and an agenda to fulfill all our dreams in future.

So, where there is talk of dreams, vision and agenda, there is equal emphasis on planning and practical work. Simultaneously, our top leadership also appears fully alive to exigencies and priorities on the external front and on the inter-provincial harmony front. President Zardari did declare that relations with our strategic partner China would be taken to yet higher heights. That will indeed be very wise on the part of Islamabad authorities to take more vigorous, forward steps on this track.

In the area of inter-provincial harmony, President Zardari and Gillani administration seem to be very sincere about resolving the differences among the provinces especially on the question of financial resources' distribution. Already, practical steps have been taken. Some envisage holding of NFC meeting with new formulae for enhanced allocations to smaller or less resourceful provinces. Even the way President Zardari has shown flexibility and conciliatory approach towards other parties in different provinces, it has paid dividends. And when, on the floor of the House, the President recommended the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtoonkhwa, there was wide applause for this goodwill gesture which definitely means respect for others especially for the neglected provinces.

It has sent signals of goodwill to provinces other than NWFP as well.

In all, the speech that also carried significant contribution from the well-read Information Minister Sherry Rehman, covered all the points relevant to our present scenario including provincial autonomy, terrorism (for which in-camera briefing of parliamentarians has been advised by Zardari), rebuilding of investors' confidence, food security and putting agriculture on top of the agenda.

In the end, I quote President Zardari, "Ideas can't be killed by oppression".