The New Nation - Internet Edition

Tension at Myanmar border

MYANMAR yesterday moved troops along Bangladesh border heightening tension. On November 1 it sent four warships and started exploration of oil and gas within 50 nautical miles south-west of St. Martin's Island. The Bangladesh government strongly protested the violation of its territorial waters, asked Myanmar to stop the drilling and sent a high level delegation to Myanmar. But the two countries failed to come to an understanding. Bangladesh and Myanmar's war ships are still positioned in the area.

These incidents took place at a time when efforts have been made to strengthen bilateral co-operation between the two neighbours. Only a couple of months ago, Myanmar did assure Bangladesh not to embark on any drilling in the disputed zone and resolution of differences through talks. In April both the countries agreed to continue with dialogue. The next meeting is due to be held this month.

In 2006 Myanmar had encroached eighteen thousand square kilometres into Bangladesh territorial waters. India has also encroached upon nineteen thousand square kilometres. The dispute on maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar, and Bangladesh and India is complex as it involves many legal issues and international instruments. But Bangladesh's effort fell short of resolving the long-standing crises. Myanmar and India are going to file their claims to the UN in May and June 2009 respectively. But Bangladesh is yet to decide on a time frame to file its claim. The Exclusive Economic Zones extends over 200 nautical miles under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Alongside bilateral efforts with the neighbours, Bangladesh should engage its diplomatic channels to take the issue not jointly to the UN but also to regional forums.

Developing the tea sector

ACCORDING to a long-drawn plan the government would take measures to bring about a thorough change to the tea sector. An official meeting in this regard with the commerce adviser of the interim government in the chair decided to develop varieties of tea, as per demands of the growing clients, for supplying saplings so that the sector got better yields and more diversity in flavour. The meeting, attended by the tea garden owners and the Tea Association leaders besides officials of different ministries concerned, also discussed various problems plaguing the sector as well as the difficulties in marketing products both at home and abroad.

The meeting also decided that the government would ensure the supply of fertilisers to tea garden owners through the Bangladesh Tea Board every year. The Bangladesh Tea Research Institute at Srimangal has been asked to develop varieties of tea with more diversity in flavour. Meanwhile, the government would go by the old agreements of leasing out land for tea gardens in greater Sylhet and Chittagong until new contracts are struck with entrepreneurs following the demand of the tea garden owners for renewal of the leases, many of which are set to expire shortly.

The old leases would continue as 'interim arrangements' before the renewal is made. In this regard, the issue of ensuring welfare of the tea garden workers in the five tea growing districts also came up for discussion when the tea association requested the government to increase food allotment to 1,500 tonnes from existing quota of 1,000 tonnes a day. According to official statistics, there are 104,000 workers in the sector but the tea association claims the number now is 150,000. The tea association is also for improved power supply and better roads connecting the tea gardens for speedier transportation.

Obama should now mind the future

Maswood Alam Khan

Italian footballer Roberto Baggio during his whole career was always designated the penalty shooter for his team, the most difficult job a footballer has to perform under glaring eyes of spectators. The very utterance of 'penalty kick' can make the most intrepid footballer tremble at knees if, at the moment of his penalty kick, he flashes through his mind any image of great expectations of his avid fans.

Baggio faced such a tense moment in 1994 FIFA World Cup final when he took Italy's last penalty in the resulting shootout. Millions of football fans around the world screamed out---many in distress and others in ecstasy---and hearts of all the Italians were torn out when his kick went over the cross-bar and the Brazilians won the title.

Obama has won the American people's mandate to be the first African-American President of the United States, undoubtedly a great feat for the 47 year old senator from Illinois. But even a greater feat is at his threshold if only he performs his presidency as a true leader to bring the truest CHANGE inside and outside of the United States. His success as the 44th president of the United States will place him not only in the golden pages of the White House history, but also in the golden chair in the history of the world leaders paving the way for people to become colour-blind in choosing their future leaders.

All the previous US presidents have been of only British, Irish, or Germanic descent. Despite tens of millions of immigrants from different corners of the world are now settled as American ethnic groups there has never been before an American president having his ancestry in Africa, Asia, Latin America, or Arab World. None even from dominant ethnic groups with ancestral links to southern and eastern European countries like France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Scandinavia, or Russia could ever be an American president!

Obama has achieved something that no American even of European heritage could attain. Obama has opened the widest door for any American young man or woman irrespective of his/her race, colour, creed, religion, ethnicity, or ancestry to start dreaming to become one day the president of his/her country. From now on there won't be any perceived disadvantage to someone of Asian, African, Italian, French, or any other genealogical background, not previously seen in the White House, for aspiring to be a presidential candidate.

Obama cannot afford to remain content with disposing what is routinely placed on his desk in the White House. His angle of view and his range of vision in regards to interests of his nation and the world have to be unique and different from traditional viewpoints of his predecessors. He must focus his attention to distant future as a world statesman. His leadership style must influence the Americans, the young and the old alike, to choose their future leaders like him. His every decision must bear a hallmark of neutrality to appease the fears of those who had some doubts about his ability to enter the White House.

If Obama trembles, if he dithers, if he fails to score what the world is expecting from him as the leader of the most powerful country, doors for future Obamas to ascend to the chairs of leadership will be closed for at least another one hundred years.

The other day I was simply flabbergasted on hearing an expectation of a rickshaw-puller in Dhaka city as he said: "Sir, what benefits will we get from Obama?" I was speechless for a while before I could assure him that there will be lesser bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan and there may be more donations to Bangladesh from America in case we are hit by another natural calamity.

Not only Bangladeshis! The whole humanity of the world in trepidation had kept their fingers crossed in the hope that Obama would be elected as American president to give a respite from the pains both Americans and people from the rest of the world have been suffering from misuse of American power under Bush presidency during the last eight years.

But nobody could ever imagine that Obama would be able to blow such a strong bash on McCain. The whole world watched in sheer amazement the mesmerising performance of Obama in winning a landslide victory in the US presidential election.

Pathological America-bashing people around the world have also watched in stunned silence the victory of a non-white American and the courage of American people in going for a radical change in the United States where racism had ruled for decades.

Even Iranians, to many of whom America is "the great Satan", were surprised by the democratic values shown by American people and the sagacity of the American government and their intelligence organs in allowing a black candidate like Obama to come this far and even become a president.

Such attitudinal changes in American society, many optimists earnestly hope, may bring about a great change in the attitudes of the terrorists who have all along wrongly been taught that 'liberty of the oppressed lies in the annihilation of the United States'.

There is going to be a thousand kilometre long wish list American people---and people from around the world---would be placing on the desk of Obama on January 20, 2009. Among those people there may be one rickshaw-puller from Bangladesh too. Obama cannot afford to be rude to people's Himalayan expectations. He has to be cool and composed in ticking the long wish list, item by item, and make his own priority list to act upon that, if implemented, should satiate everybody's wishes directly or indirectly---today or tomorrow.

Obama has to create jobs for the teeming unemployed in America. He has to boost American as well as world economies, solve energy crises, restore America's image abroad, and must save the planet by safeguarding its climate. He has to listen to friends and rivals alike. He cannot antagonise republicans and their supporters by leaning too much for his party interests.

He must try to unite his country while avoiding the pitfalls in the Congress. Though his party gained around 20 seats in the House of Representatives and 5 in the Senate his party still falls a few short of 60 needed in the lower chamber to break filibuster and pass legislations without Republican support.

In the international arena he has to brave many nasty storms. It would be tough for Obama to live up to the general expectation that 'Obama's ascent to the White House will herald the end of American intervention in other country's internal affairs'.

Withdrawing American troops from Iraq anytime soon or stopping bloodshed in Afghanistan before arresting Osama bin Laden may not be as smooth and as easy as Obama fans are now fancying.

But a few things are for sure to happen during Obama presidency, I hope. The majority of Americans---95 percent as was estimated in the election campaign by Obama---will get some relief as to their tax, health and other welfare benefits. There will be more negotiations across the tables than roars of guns and canons to quell quarrels among states. Present and future immigrants will be better treated in USA. Fraternity among races will foster at unprecedented paces. Antagonism and suspicions of Muslims against and about the Americans will be at the minimum. Cooperation among the developed and developing countries will go up.

Obama will be watched most attentively by people of the world who are holding extremely high expectations from his presidency. Some people may expect Obama to promise and deliver them the moon and the stars. But, most people would be happy and content if they see an end only to their economic plight now being felt under white heat of the present recession.

We don't like to see in Obama a shaky Roberto Baggio who floundered and failed in his penalty kick against Brazil. We want to see him calm, composed, and focused as he looked during his election campaigns. We want to see in him a Tiger Woods, the most famous and the most cautious American professional golfer, whose veins run bloods of five ancestries: African American, Thai, Chinese, Native American, and Dutch.

The new game plan of USA in the offing

Asif Haroon Raja

Afghanistan can be rated as one of the most resilient and robust country in the world when judged in the back drop of its past record. It had been invaded thrice by the erstwhile super power of its time Great Britain and each time it failed to subjugate it. Former Soviet Union tried its luck and after keeping it under its occupation for ten years it had to disgorge it after suffering a humiliating defeat. The sole super power is currently feverishly engaged in subduing Afghanistan and despite having employed its full combat power for the last seven years it has failed to convert it into a permanent satellite state to serve its long-term objectives. Each time the country was invaded and occupied; the people rose up in arms and kept fighting the invaders relentlessly oblivious of the human and material losses suffered and the physical hardships they bore. While fighting the 160000 strong Soviet forces and over 100000 Afghan Militia, over one millions Mujahideen lost their lives and that number wounded or maimed for life. The Afghanis are fighting the US, NATO and Afghan National Army with the same zeal and fervour and after seven years of uneven match, the invaders having all the tactical and operational advantages to their advantage have finally come to the conclusion that insurgency in Afghanistan cannot be put down through use of force.

Taking a leaf out of the tried out divide and rule policy of the British during it's hey days, the US had applied this formula in October 2001 by breaking the nexus between the Taliban led regime in Kabul and Pakistan. This was achieved at a time when the two neighbours were enjoying excellent relations and shared the concept of mutually advantageous strategic depth. Having made Pakistan its ally and frontline state, it became easier for USA to occupy Afghanistan.

After occupying Afghanistan in November 2001, the US then went about creating ethnic divisions within Afghanistan by marginalising predominant Pashtuns and imposing non-Pashtun regime on Afghanistan. It tried to woo moderate Taliban but failed. After seven years of sustained operations security situation has gone from bad to worse.

The year 2008 proved to be most costly for foreign troops in terms of human losses suffered at the hands of the Taliban. In order to hide its failures, USA and NATO held Pakistan responsible for its woes and declared FATA as the hub-centre of terrorism. Pak army and the ISI were accused of colluding with the Taliban and the army not doing enough to control militancy in restive FATA.

When Pak army redoubled its efforts by mounting full-fledged operations in several restive areas and produced fruitful results, it made the position of US troops in Afghanistan more embarrassing. Pakistan also made its position clear that not only its army had rendered much more sacrifices than any other country involved in war on terror, it had taken a lot more elaborate defensive arrangements on ground by way of high force level and establishment of 1100 posts all along the troubled border as against only 200 posts on other side of the border.

Feeling cornered, the US military was left with no other option but to make liberal use of its pilot-less planes to hit so-called suspected targets within FATA.

The purpose is to disrupt peace deals between Pak army and the militants, create chaotic conditions in FATA, make the task of the army more difficult, and also to show to the world that it is doing a lot to fight the menace of terrorism. RAW and RAM agents with full connivance of CIA have already created a mess in FATA by creating far too many militant groups that are engaged in carrying out acts of sabotage and subversion to create a civil war like situation.

While the menace of foreign agents has to some extent been contained because of strong military action in Bajaur and Swat, no remedy has so far been found against the nuisance of drones.

The US and NATO military commanders who till recent were riding on a high horse have suddenly become pessimistic and some have given demoralising statements. It seems that they have begun to see the obtaining ground realities more objectively and have realised that victory through use of force is not possible.

They have appreciated that the Afghan Taliban have become too formidable a force and cannot be defeated militarily. This realisation has impelled both Karzai and US leaders to think of means other than instrument of military to turn the tide of war in their favour.

Some of the factors they assume have contributed towards their failures and rising strength of the Taliban are as follows:

Denial of share in power to the Pashtuns based on their numerical strength has impelled them to close ranks and support the Taliban.

Build up of nexus between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Availability of safe sanctuaries to the militants along the Pak-Afghan border.

Provision of shelter, logistics and human shields by the locals of eastern and southern Afghanistan.

Safe sanctuaries in FATA to the militants for recruitment and recoupment.

Insufficient troop level to effectively combat insurgency.

Lack of coordination among the US and other allied troops in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has turned into a narcotics state, which is now producing about 90% of the world opium; besides others the Taliban are making good use of opium money to fund their insurgency.

In the wake of continuously deteriorating security situation, the planners in Kabul have brought certain changes in the manner in which the war on terror will be conducted in the future. USA wants Pakistan to follow the dictates of modified strategy. The salient features of the revised concept are as under:

Float an impression that USA is not entirely in favour of using force against the militants but is desirous of finding an amicable political settlement to the lingering Afghan imbroglio.

War on terror fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan is not American war.

Divide the militants between two categories of reconcilable and irreconcilable.

Make efforts to win over reconcilable by offering handsome rewards.

Form peace Jirgas comprising pro-US elements to impress upon the militants to surrender arms.

Expedite efforts to weaken and isolate the irreconcilable.

Hunt and assassinate anti-US and pro-Pakistan clerics, notables and Maliks on both sides of the border.

Disrupt peace Jirgas made up of anti-US and pro-government elements.

Continue launching Predator missile attacks in FATA to kill anti-US militants and leaders to disrupt peace deals, create chaos and make the task of our military that much difficult.

Rope in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in its efforts to woo the moderate elements among the Afghan Taliban.

Isolate the Taliban faction that insist on departure of foreign troops as a pre-condition for dialogue and pamper the faction that favour dialogue without any pre-condition to arrive at a political settlement.

Form lashkars from within reconcilable, train, arm and fund them and use them in frontline to combat irreconcilable.

Launch a well orchestrated propaganda campaign against the Al-Qaeda asserting that it was for them that the Taliban lost their rule and got the country devastated.

Impress upon the Taliban that while they fought for the freedom of their own country, the Al-Qaeda had an international agenda which was impractical and fanciful.

Convince the Taliban that it will be in the interest of Afghanis to sever ties with Al-Qaeda which is now at the receiving end in Iraq.

Break the nexus between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Having achieved this, destroy them piecemeal.

Enhance the force level of US troops by shifting two to three brigades from Iraq.

Scare Pakistan regime to death that the Taliban are on the verge of capturing power.

Exert maximum economic, military and diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to make it look the other way to all sorts of offensive acts by US troops in Fata and tow its agenda.

Induct 150000 Indian military in Afghanistan starting mid 2009 to be able to take on frontline duties in conjunction with Afghan Militia. The US and NATO troops to provide backup support only.

(The writer is Rawalpindi based defence and political analyst. Email: ah.raja @yahoo.com)

Opinion: Weekly Holiday

Mohd. Mofiz

Of late it is mentioned in the Newspapers that the Present Government is considering to cancel weekly holidays on Fridays & Saturdays and reintroducing one day weekly holiday on Sundays. If we focus on other countries we see that the Christian enjoy their Holidays on Sundays which is related to their Religious Customs and the Jews enjoy Weekly Holidays on Saturdays which is also related to their religious customs. But it is surprising that we the Bangladeshis being Muslim country cannot enjoy our weekly holidays on Fridays. We had seen many changes in weekly holidays but how much development did we make? Of course if this is the only obstacle in the progress of the country's development let us do it. But I am sure that we have a lot to do for the infrastructural amendments to make things and ways more transparent and progressive. We can focus on many important things for our development such as:

1. To coup with the competitions we need to focus on our educational systems so that students can get proper knowledge and linguistic power to express (especially in English) their potentiality and can accommodate them in the proper place to represent the country and its image.

2. The national Security systems should be in line with other developed countries so that the national and expatriate businessmen may have the encouragement for their investment.

3. We should take initiative to uproot the bribes at any level both Government and Private Sector

4. The student politics in the Campus to be minimized or to be stopped if possible. We can bring absolute stability in the country's educational systems and academic calendar to be made and followed so that every student knows what he needs to do during the academic year and thus obviously he may not spare his time to involve himself in the politics.

5. We can improve ourselves to have strong sense of morality to the national and to its interest. We should know our commitments to the country and to our Creator.

6. The leadership needs to be strong and committed; of course educated and properly educated with a wide horizon; so that they can play their roles for understanding the problems and capable of finding solutions. Otherwise leadership itself will be a burden and blind without any proper indication and result.

7. We may empower our military to hunt down the criminals in collaboration with the other security forces. So that they can expand their output in our country also not only in the UN. They are well trained and well equipped comparing with other security forces. I am sure that the leadership of the criminals cannot dominate our beloved soil if we become active and alert.

8. Our justice systems need to be quick and transparent so that nobody will dare to do corruption in the country. No nation can stand on corruptions; it is a curse at any circumstances.

9. The killings and hijacking are the common phenomenon of the day and it proves that how much lawlessness we have in the country. Government or Care Taker Government can never avoid it.

We are sure that if our intentions are clear and holy and we empower the respective department or authority with a courageous and strong leadership, our country's dreams will be fulfilled and it will walk and run with its development and prosperity. The days will come that we are a developed country and enjoy our freedom. May Allah bless us all.