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More than nineteen years have passed since 7th December 1985. SAARC has stepped into its twentieth year. The thrill and joy ingrained in my heart have not faded from my memory in the span of last nineteen years. The spirit of SAARC is no doubt a bold step of new hopes and aspirations. It was my good fortune to be the maiden torch-bearer of the auspicious event.
   The floating of SAARC with seven countries of South Asia having a diversity of religion, language and culture engulfed with chill penury and poverty burdened with the weight of over population was a bold historic step forward. I was a witness, an organiser and a character in this memorable drama. What untiring labour, pains and diplomatic efforts I had to go through are all fresh in my memory and as long as SAARC will continue to play its role this historic institution should at least remember me as its founder chairman.
   I am reminded of the first summit where other leaders came to Dhaka. It was attended by the Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi, President of Pakistan Ziaul Huq, Sri Lankan President Julius Jayawardene, the King of Nepal Birendra Bir Bikram Shahdev, King Jigme Singe Wangchuk of Bhutan and the President of the Maldives Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. It pains me to think that four of the above six leaders are no more in this world and three of them had to encounter a tragic death. The assassinations of Rajiv Gandhi and King Birendra and death by accident of President Ziaul Huq deepen my heart all the time I remember them. Of the seven only three of us are still alive. President Gayoom is the most fortunate one in the sense that he is the only person who has attended all the summits. Although remaining the King, Jigme Singe Wangchuk wifi not be attending the next summit for constitutional reasons. As the first chairman of SAARC what respect and honour I receive, I do not know- because such respect to a person has of late become a thing of the past and that culture is vanishing from our life. How befitting that attitude is will be judged by the people and history, maybe not in the too distant future.
   In founding the SAARC and holding the first summit, Dhaka had set a distinct leadership pattern. It was a day of glory for Bangladesh. We the seven leaders resolved to reach a common goal of unity, faith and fraternity. As the President of Bangladesh, I was elected as the first chairman of SAARC- leader of the South Asian nations. But it is a great pity that after I handed over power in 1990 how shabbily I was treated. I was sent to jail in a vein of victimisation. In imprisoning a head of state and first chairman of SAARC what and how much the country has gained or lost, I leave it to the people of Bangladesh to judge and the period that followed after my departure from power bears an eloquent testimony for the people of Bangladesh to compare and contrast. I am, however, waiting to see what appreciation is given to me as the first chairman of SAARC at the next summit (which sadly was postponed last week). As the founder chairman I wish the SAARC summit the best of success. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia, will be elected chairperson of SAARC. I also wish her all good luck and success. I sincerely hope that she will be able to make SAARC more effective and uphold the prestige and dignity of Bangladesh by her active role as the new chairperson.
   I am one of those who will always recognise and appreciate the contributions of people in our history. SAARC was first conceived by President Ziaur Rahman in May 1980. It is true that SAARC was his brainchild but it is equally true that I was the true architect of SAARC. But it is a misfortune in our country that such truths are never recognised or remembered. After initiation of the SAARC proposal, I was the person who had to do the entire groundwork of implementing SAARC. In August 1983 the SAARC proposal was first accepted in New Delhi and the framework of SAARC cooperation was decided to be undertaken in nine areas of activity. Later in Thimpu it was decided that the first SAARC summit would be held on December 7-8, 1985 in Dhaka. After the emergence of Bangladesh the SAARC summit was the most important international event held in Dhaka. It brought new inspiration and joy for the whole nation and the image of Bangladesh was enhanced in the international arena. But it is a pity that those who want to take pride today in the creation of SAARC and loudly proclaim President Ziaur Rahman as the founder of SAARC showed no interest or enthusiasm when the first SAARC summit was held in 1985. What President Zia proposed, I materialized it- that is the truth and the whole truth, no matter what the sycophants say today. SAARC was not created in a day. It was a long process. Its formal journey was started with me and I hope I can genuinely claim that credit, if any. The ground for the independence of Bangladesh was not created out of nothing. Independence came through a long process of sacrifice and long-drawn movement by the people of Bangladesh. Similarly, at an appropriate time the declaration of independence came through the voice of Ziaur Rahman. His valour and credit cannot be denied. In the same manner, I had my contribution in the creation of SAARC. For that matter I shall be the happiest person if the aim and purpose of the creation of SAARC are achieved. Materialization of SAARC was surely a great diplomatic victory earned during my tenure of office as President of Bangladesh.
   The perspective of SAARC has undergone some changes since it was launched. There have been some developments and in some spheres it has not achieved the desired goal. In 1985 the highest problem in the SAARC countries was the growth of population. The total population at that time was 93.62 crore as against 135.75 crore today. But the growth rate of population in 1985 marked a decline in subsequent years. If the population growth rate forecast of the World Bank continued, the population of SAARC countries would now have exceeded 150 crore. In 1985 Bangladesh's population was 10 crore and the growth rate was 2.5%. If that growth rate continued, Bangladesh's population in 2000 would have reached 15.70 crore. But as a result of the pragmatic steps taken by me, a brake was put on the issue. It may be remembered that I received the UN Award for population control in Bangladesh. In 2004 our population has come to 14 crore. During my rule birth control materials were not only distributed free but the family planning officials used to reach them to the doorsteps of the people. Unfortunately family planning programmes taken by me were scrapped after 1990 and high prices for family planning materials were imposed. Consequently, population growth rate increased. If my programmes were allowed to continue, the country's population would not have been more than 12 crore today.
   When SAARC came into being Bangladesh was second in terms of population in South Asia. Pakistan was third with a population of 8.81 crore. Our population growth rate was 2.8%. As per growth rate forecast Pakistan was supposed to have a population of 14 crore in 2000 but failed to continue it, with the present population of 15 crore. Pakistan has now taken second position in population. But economically it has gone far ahead with a per capita income of US$ 445 and GDP at US$ 282 billion, whereas Bangladesh per capita income is now around US$ 400 and the GDP is US$ 187 billion. But it should not have been so. If we could control our growth of population, if law and order situation did not go beyond control, if investment climate were favourable, if so many mills and factories were not closed down, if the country was not allowed to be a free market for other countries and so on and so forth, per capita income and GDP of Bangladesh would have gone much higher.
   A summit conference was nothing new but the SAARC summit was the first of its kind in terms of international-level meetings in Bangladesh in 1985. From that point of view it was a very significant event in many ways. There were many differences among the seven SAARC countries in religion, culture, tradition, etc., and they still exist. But we were able to overcome many important issues and reach unanimity. There are differences in political and international matters among the SAARC countries. For instance, when Iraq invaded Kuwait I sent troops to Saudi Arabia duly taking the decision in Parliament. India did not accept it but for that matter no controversy was created on issues related to SAARC. Even before the creation of SAARC our seven countries in the South Asian region did not take the same stand in the United Nations. The political consensus that exists among the ASEAN or EEC countries was not there among the South Asian countries. In spite of all that we could sit together in the SAARC summit and jointly take many decisions. Our SAARC cooperation agenda included development of education, science and technology, health and population, agriculture and forest, industry, telecommunication, sports and culture, environment, tourism, rural development, controlling abuse of drug smuggling, women's development, et cetera.
   In the last nineteen years many new issues have cropped up. Therefore, in today's perspective, I feel that many more issues of cooperation should be included in the SAARC cooperation agenda. When SAARC was founded, terrorism was not an issue in our region. Some political disturbances were there in some countries, but that was not terrorism as it is called today. At present there are some social/political disturbances in almost all countries like Bangladesh. Anti-social elements after committing crime are fleeing to another country. Time has come that such criminals should be nabbed and extradited to their countries for proper trial. Environmental cooperation must be treated as an important issue. If rivers are blocked from flowing across international boundaries, it will obviously create environmental imbalance.
   SAARC must look into such matters. SAARC countries must evolve a liberal visa system for development of tourism. This necessarily does not mean encouraging the criminals because an overwhelming majority of the tourists are not criminals. Due facilities need to be provided for bridging the gap of trade and commerce among all the SAARC countries to enjoy the benefit of the creation of SAARC. Unless the above issues are seriously taken care of, the very purpose of the creation of SAARC will be simply defeated.
   I remember within the purview of SAARC we had aimed at the overall development of about a hundred crore population of our region at that time. Now the population of SAARC countries has reached 135 crore. That no country will interfere in the internal matter or sovereignty of another is a basic principle of SAARC. Within this framework mutual fraternity will grow and each participating country will come in aid of the other. Therefore, the principles that guided SAARC were: firstly, greater cooperation among the seven countries for overall welfare of all; secondly, to maintain peace and stability in the region within the charter of the UN and Non-aligned country members and thirdly, to respect each other's sovereignty and independence, non-interference in the internal matter of any country and try to help solve any dispute by peaceful means. In our Dhaka Declaration we emphasised: refraining from use of atomic power, economic and social development of less developed countries, holding of an international conference on the use of suitable currency favourable to us all, complementary and supplementary economic policies, economic independence and self-dependence for all. That declaration received a big ovation from our region which contained one-fifth of the world population. I feel proud of the declaration which contained fourteen chapters. All the seven leaders expressed their hope that the newly formed SAARC would consolidate the countries of the region, would pave the way for socio-economic development and strengthen peaceful co-existence. I remember, at my first press conference as chairman of SAARC, a journalist asked me whether I would look to the interest of Bangladesh more or of SAARC as its chairman. I replied, "I shall see to the interest of Bangladesh more as the President of the country and look after the interest of all the seven countries as the chairman of SAARC".
   It is relevant to mention that the path of regional cooperation that we embarked on was not entirely rosy. South Asia has always been under pressure to overcome her poverty together with many divergences and disparity existing in the different countries. It is needless to say that there were differences of bilateral issues and international commitments both old and new. But then the formation of SAARC kindled new hopes and aspirations of a renewed bond of friendship and amity. The region which so proudly holds in its lap the highest peak of the planet earth, the commencing march of SAARC was like conquering Mount Everest- at least our joy and jubilation were such!
   The writer is former President of Bangladesh and chairman of the Jatiyo Party

‘Big Brother’ is watching!
   A new 348-pager non-fiction book entitled No Place to Hide by Robert O’Harrow Jr., a Washington Post reporter and published by Free Press has made an attempt to portray what is really happening in the United States in the post- September 11 ‘surveillance society.’ The scenario is quite scary to say the least. O’Harrow has very carefully tried to give “a balanced view” of what is happening right now in the world’s most powerful and rich country: a struggle between privacy and security. To put it negatively and as mentioned by a reviewer of the book, one “could be on the verge of surrendering every detail about one’s private life to an all-knowing Big Brother alliance of cops and mysterious private security corporations (in the United States).”
   Unlike George Orwell, who in his profound book Nineteen Eighty-Four portrayed the kind of society he believed could evolve if man allowed the state to assume more power and permitted politicians to establish and perpetuate totalitarian rule by a systematic distortion of the truth and continuous re-writing of history, No Place to Hide narrates how the US is employing its full range of technical ingenuity and the resources of the Digital Age to hound out the so-called terrorist suspects. It also explains how the US authorities are employing the new biometric identifiers such as iris scans, voiceprints, DNA registries and facial recognition software is leaving no scope for anyone to escape. It is a far cry from Orwell’s times - who was born in 1903 at a place called Motihari in United Bengal and died in a London hospital in 1950 - in the 1920s, the 30s and the 40s, though he lived in an age of pulsating vibration and indomitable hope of breaking new ground all the time. But the technological breakthroughs of recent times together with the huge funds at the disposal of the US authorities has literally made it impossible for terrorists to have any place to hide. That is not particularly bad provided the decisions are made judiciously and the maintenance of human rights, about the application of which it is so vociferous, is ensured and not abused.
   The book says while the US government and its private sector contractors from the hi-tech firms have promised to protect the people from terrorists, they will also have to face arbitrary and unappealable decisions on who can fly in a commercial airliner, rent a truck, borrow money or even stay out of jail. There is, however, a lingering threat from the private companies working for the government, which will have all access to all the databases and could sell the information to all levels of government and banks, airlines, credit-card companies, mortgage holders and all other multiple agencies that people living in the US will have to come in contact with. Most people may not even know the big hi-tech companies such as Choicepoint, Equifax, HNC Software, LexisNexus, and Seisint but they have all the information about all the people. For example, the book mentions that ChoicePoint has more than 250 terabytes of data on 220 million people. Those records, if printed out, could extend to the moon and back 77 times. Mind boggling as well as scary. Very.
   “Private companies are keeping an electronic diary on our lives,” O’Harrow says, “only we have no control over the diaries and we can’t even know what they say about us.” He concludes, “And there’s no place to hide.”
   ADB on MFA phase-out
   The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its latest Quarterly Economic Update (QEU), recording all relevant development in Bangladesh till the end of December 2004, has made certain interesting comments on multi-fibre arrangement (MFA) phase out effective from 1 January 2005. It says the garment industry in Bangladesh is unlikely to be affected in the first year of the quota-free world. There will be some transition time, as China will operate voluntary restrictions. Nevertheless, it suggested that several policy initiatives are needed to face the challenges of the termination of MFA quotas. The competitive strength of the garments industry will depend on its ability to reduce the “purchase order delivery” cycle time (the lead time), stimulating productivity, cutting down unit cost and strengthening supply chain management.
   Making a pointed reference to the mounting problems being faced by the private sector investors in general and, in this case, the garment industry in particular, the QEU says, in addition to weak governance, the country’s poor infrastructure is a serious problem for sustaining growth in garment industry. Besides, inefficient Chittagong port and railway management with inadequate infrastructure, unreliable electric supply and chaotic traffic congestion are adding huge costs to the industry. High shipping and cargo clearing costs at the Chittagong Port are also harming the competitiveness of Bangladeshi garments in the global markets. Earlier in its June QEU, ADB had suggested that although 80 percent of the sea-borne cargo is containerised, the most of the problems identified with the port arise because the port is operating as if it were still in the conventional cargo age.
   As per ADB estimates published in the December QEU, if inefficiencies of the Chittagong Port can be eliminated, the garment export earnings can be increased by 30 percent. Because of the prevalence of problems mentioned earlier and also high import dependence of the industry’s raw materials, the lead-time of the garment industry has always been one month longer than that of major competing countries. And this problem has now become even more critical in the post-MFA era, as it would now have to compete by smaller margins in the final delivery prices.
   Where do the snags in port clearance lie? The existing customs clearance process requires documents to be manually moved through several stages needing 48 endorsements, which needless to say opens up corruption for inducements such as speed money to hasten the processes. However, regardless of the practice of ‘speed money’ the average container dwell time has remained unchanged over the years at about 18 days against 10-12 days at comparable container terminals in the region.
   In this context, the personal experience of this scribe in getting his personal effects released from the Dhaka Kamalapur container yard when he returned home after a short one-year stay in Washington last year is quite illuminating. One has to bribe the customs officials regardless of who you are and this also goes for the top government officials and has been confirmed by several officials working at the top policy making level. The clearing agent quoted a price as the ‘speed money’ without which he had warned that the clearance would not only be delayed but would also be subjected to time-consuming harassment. This scribe was lucky to have met the Customs Appraiser who in his university days in the early 1970s used to be an avid reader of weekly Holiday. Recognition of the name worked like magic and he cleared the container in no time. But he was only one of several dozen others through whom the papers had to go through, but it was done in less than 24 hours. The recognition of name helped, but the ‘speed money’ actually did the trick.
   Matters of scale
   The WorldWatch Institute, the Washington-based non-profit organization, publishes a quarterly journal on burning issues that concern the whole world and its latest issue contains certain briefs on important issues that should also concern every human being living on this planet. We are reproducing a part of those briefs for the benefit of our thinking readers.
   The price of hunger: Hunger kills more than 5 million children each year, or about one child every six seconds. Although hunger primarily afflicts the poor, it’s actually very expensive problem for everyone else as well. According to the latest edition of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) annual State of Food Insecurity, “A very rough estimate suggests that these direct costs add up to around US$30 billion per year, over five times the amount committed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.”
   The aid syndrome: Official US aid pledged for tsunami relief as of January 2005 amounted to US$350 million while those of Japan and Sweden amounted to US$500 million and US$75 million respectively. In terms of per capita, the pledges amounted to US$1.19, US$3.93 and US$8.33 respectively. The three countries’ total foreign aid during 2003 totaled US$15.8 billion, US$8.9 billion and US$2.1 billion and in terms of their GDP the same stood at 0.14 percent, 0.2 percent and 0.7 percent respectively.
   Trendy triviality: Estimated sales of Botox (to eliminate facial wrinkles) in the US in 2003: US$540 million; spending on all cosmetic procedures, 2002: US$7.7 billion; sales of pet food and supplies, 2003: US$18.9 billion; sales of Prozac-type antidepressants, antipsychotics, and sexual dysfunction drugs (i.e., Viagra), 2003: US$20.3 billion; and spending on potato chips and other salty snacks, 2002: US$22 billion.

In President Bush’s inauguration speech, he pledged to support “the expansion of freedom in all the world”, deploying the words free or freedom no less than 25 times in 20 short minutes. The neoconservative strategy is quite explicit: to bend the world to America’s will; to reshape it according to the interests of a born-again superpower. There is something more than a little chilling about this. Even though the Iraqi occupation has gone seriously awry, the United States still does not recognise the constraints on its own power and ambition.
   This was something that Europe learned the hard way: two world wars, the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union, and the anti-colonial struggle have taught our continent the limitations of its own power. That is why Europe today, with the partial exception of Britain and France, and exemplified by Germany, is so reluctant to use military force. The United States, of course, is the opposite. It measures its power not by its relative economic and technological prowess, which would suggest restraint, but its military unassailability, which implies the opposite.
   Nor is this attitude simply a product of the neoconservatives. It also draws on something deeper within the American psyche. The birth of the United States and its expansion across the American continent - the frontier mentality - was an imperial enterprise, involving, most importantly, the subjugation and destruction of the Amerindians. This is lodged in the national genes, it is part of the American story, and it helps to inform and shape its global strategy and aspirations.
   It is not difficult, of course, for the United States to throw its weight around in the Middle East, a poor and defeated region, one of the big-time losers from globalisation. The world’s superpower versus a failed region is a hopelessly unequal contest, especially when the former can rely on the support of its regional policeman Israel, to do its bidding. But this is not the dominant story of our time, even though the Bush regime, in its desire to exploit the country’s status as sole superpower, has chosen to define this conflict as the central narrative. History will judge differently. The rise of China and India will have a far more profound effect on the world than a small band of Islamist terrorists.
   Indeed, there is something faintly bizarre about the psychotic worship of American values, the incantation of its applicability to each and every country, at a historical moment when, for the first time since its emergence half a millennium ago, the modern world will, in the not too distant future, no longer be monopolised by the west. It is not difficult to imagine that, by the middle of this century, both China and India will rank among the top five largest economies in the world, with China perhaps the biggest. Nor is this just an economic story, which is how it is generally told. With economic strength comes, in due course, political, cultural and military influence: such has been the case with the emergence of all great powers.
   The fact and significance of this, of course, has been hugely underestimated. The dominant view of globalisation is that it is overwhelmingly a process of westernisation: indeed, the neoliberal form of globalisation espoused by the Washington consensus has deliberately sought to define it as such. The prevalent western view is well-articulated by Chris Patten in his book East and West, where the differences between western and east Asian countries, like China, are explained simply in terms of historical timing. The closer they get to western levels of development, the more they will come to resemble the west. Or, to put it another way, there is a singular modernity, and that is western.
   Given that modernity is not simply a snapshot of the present, but a product of history, not only a function of markets and technology, but the creation of a culture, then this is utterly mistaken. One cannot make sense of American modernity - and how it diverges from European modernity - without understanding its history, in particular that it was a settler society, without any prior experience of feudalism.
   If Europe and the United States differ because of their diverse pasts, even though they palpably share a great deal in terms of history, culture and race, then how much more true it will be of countries like China and India, whose civilisational roots - from religion and ethnicity to history and geo-location - are completely different to those of the west. The main historical form of intimacy with the west, in the case of India, was colonialism, which for China was only a marginal experience.
   China and India, of course, will take on board a great deal from the west in their modernisation. But that can only be part of the picture. (Excerpts)
   This article first appeared in The Guardian