Editorial
Withdrawal of emergency imperative
for effective dialogue
POLITICIANS, business leaders and journalists at a discussion called on the political parties to engage in dialogue with each other before they join dialogues with the military-controlled interim government it was reported in New Age on Sunday. We recognise the wisdom in this suggestion and add our voice to it by urging the political parties not only to engage with each other but also to initiate intra-party dialogues, discussing current trends and future plans with their activist rank and file to widen the spectrum of views that would determine their future course of action in keeping with the democratic spirit.
In this regard it is imperative to call on the political parties to have certain goals in mind in their efforts to engage with each other. The principal goal should be to assure the ordinary citizens of this country that the parties have reached a consensus to pursue politics of engagement rather than the politics of confrontation we have witnessed in the past, and a resolve to use political means such as parliament boycotts as the absolute last resort.
We note that the process of dialogue that the government and the Election Commission initiated now lies stalled hindering the possibility of substantive institutional reforms. If such reforms are indeed to become reality, the most important factor will be the government’s ability to hear the views of the people, not only because this is the principal component of a functioning democracy, but also because it is the people who are intended to be the beneficiaries of such reforms. When the incumbents assumed power in January last year, the promise they made was that a strengthening of our democracy would be their prime objective in office. One year on, far from strengthening the democratic process, they have imposed a climate of fear in society where public debates are stifled at a juncture for the country when they were needed the most. Let alone hear or heed the views of the common people, the current regime has shown a trend of intolerance towards contradictory views even from privileged sections of society who have attempted to air their views in print and/or in the electronic media.
In this stifling and intolerant environment any dialogue that the government initiates will be nothing short of an effort to hoodwinking the people. The government’s sincerity in the dialogues process will, therefore, have to be evidenced by its willingness to lift the state of emergency and a restoration of fundamental rights such as that of free speech. The declared objective of the Fakhruddin-led government has so far not matched the ground realities of their actions, and unless the twain meet, growing suspicions and distrust of the incumbents and their agenda will only be exacerbated.
NCTB should be put to task
for textbook trouble
Crisis related to textbooks – delayed and short supply of it, poor quality, unmodified old ones – seems to have become a regular phenomenon. In the past couple of weeks, at least four news reports on textbook trouble, if you like, in New Age. The latest, published on Sunday, relates to used textbooks and how these books have hampered schooling of about 80 lakh primary school children. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board every year publishes about six crore copies of textbooks for free distribution among primary school students. A similar number of used books are also distributed to save costs. On every academic year the students are provided with three used and three new textbooks in order to save resources. However, there are complaints from the teachers as well as the students that the condition of some of these textbooks are very poor as many have torn or missing pages while some have all the exercises filled in by the students of the previous year. There is also complaint that the students who have failed in the final exams and are to repeat the year don’t get their books on time as they have already submitted their textbooks and the books have been distributed among new students.
Recycling textbooks is not a new concept. Besides a number of other countries, the US and Chinese governments follow this practice. In a developing country like Bangladesh, the decision of distributing recycled textbooks is all the more understandable as this enables the government to save a significant amount of funding which can be utilised for further improvement of the education sector. But while doing so, the government, the relevant ministries and most importantly the textbook board must ensure that students don’t get affected or their education hampered in any way.
Right to basic education is the right of every citizen of the country. And it is not only a moral responsibility of the state but also a constitutional obligation, and as such, a legally binding one. Educating the populace in general also makes economic sense since it paves the path towards faster and better skill development of available human resources. There is a lack of accountability and coordination within the textbook board which needs to be addressed. The state and society are duty-bound to make all the arrangements and provide facilities for all to acquire basic education. Education must be considered as a means to public welfare. The state must not consider printing, publication and distribution of textbooks from a profit-loss-making point of view and concentrate on improving other sectors to arrange funding so that access to basic education gets easier for all.
The rice riddle
The incumbents must realise that ambitious projections and mere pledge of renewed emphasis on agriculture are not sufficient to raise food grain production. Desiring a bumper boro harvest and making forceful public announcement accordingly are perhaps easier than actually mobilising the government machinery and ensuring smooth supply of the inputs, writes Tanim Ahmed
TWO news items in Sunday’s newspapers, including New Age, should ring a few alarm bells as far as long-term food security of the country is concerned. One of the reports says the Indian government has suspended exports of all kinds of non-Basmati rice. It bears long-term significance relating to agriculture and food security. The other report quotes the agriculture adviser, CS Karim, as saying the farmers will be given direct cash subsidies in the middle of the boro season. This has more short-term significance.
The second report also features comments made by a former agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, who succeeded in attaining a near five per cent growth in her sector when the Awami League was in power. It was perhaps the only reason when disparity between the poorest and richest sections of the population actually decreased. Matia Chowdhury also successfully managed to overcome the blows of a severe flood during her tenure as the agriculture minister in 1998. Thus, her comments on revival of the agriculture sector in the wake of three natural disasters are especially significant.
At a discussion meeting, organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a research organisation, where CS Karim was present, she said farmers require assistance at the beginning of a crop season, not in the middle or near the end. As agriculturalists and experts would readily agree farmers face cash crunch at the beginning of the season when there is much need for inputs in the form of seeds, labour, fertiliser and irrigation. Experts point out the need for irrigation is during the first 70 days of plantation of rice following which irrigation should ideally be reduced gradually. In fact, as indicated by CS Karim, some farmers would have already harvested their boro crops by March-April or would not really require much assistance for irrigation in the promised form of cash subsidies of diesel at Tk 700 per acre.
Presumably, this provision is part of the military-controlled interim government’s attempt to ensure a bumper boro harvest of some 17.5 million tonnes on 45 lakh hectares compared to last year’s target of 15 million tonnes. But pending elaboration of the mechanism to provide these subsidies, it remains to be seen whether distribution of cash would also end with mismanagement and increase the hassle of the farmers, as was the case with distribution of fertilisers.
Since documentation of farmers’ information is being carried out in the same fashion as that for fertiliser, it is naturally feared that cash distribution for diesel would also be riddled with problems that the farmers faced. It should also be pointed out that while the government’s attempt to provide direct subsidy is commendable, fertiliser are not being brought under the same direct support scheme to benefit the interest of the private quarters and businessmen involved in fertiliser trade that reap most of the benefits of these fertiliser subsidies.
Another point of concern raised by agriculturalists is the widespread introduction of hybrid rice during the current season following such a decision of the incumbent regime to increase grain yield. Hybrid varieties of rice generally require a high degree of maintenance and care with more intensive application of inputs such as fertiliser and irrigation. The hybrid varieties are also more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations such as that being experienced recently. Put together, these factors will apparently lead to a serious crisis for those who planted hybrids.
As Matia Chowdhury pointed out, fertiliser distribution is riddled with mismanagement and many farmers are still waiting for fertiliser. She indicated that the incumbents had little idea about the farmers’ needs and was inexperienced in handling the situation. Despite its pledged support for agriculture for the boro season, the government has failed to ensure timely fertiliser distribution, even according to the government officials. Already there is widespread apprehension that a large portion of the boro crop, about 40 per cent, will not bear fruit as the required fertilisers were not provided to the farmers at the right time. The incumbents must realise that ambitious projections and mere pledge of renewed emphasis on agriculture are not sufficient to raise food grain production. Desiring a bumper boro harvest and making forceful public announcement accordingly are perhaps easier than actually mobilising the government machinery and ensuring smooth supply of the inputs.
Given these apprehensions about a shortfall of boro production the incumbents, instead of providing the public with false assurances, should realistically estimate a possible production and initiate immediate measures to make alternative arrangements – quite predictably through imports. This brings up the first news item regarding India’s decision to suspend exports of rice even if letters of credit were opened before the implementation of announcement of the decision. However, it is a matter of relief that this decision does not affect import of the five lakh tonnes that India would allow to be exported to Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds.
The point, however, is that although the Indian external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, pledged this support from India at a time when Bangladesh was reeling under the damage wreaked by cyclone Sidr in mid-November last year it took the incumbents a full month to even send a team to India to survey the market. The incumbents are yet to bring in the pledged amount. Therefore, considering the bureaucratic lethargy in initiating prudent and meaningful action, the need for the incumbents to make arrangements for meeting boro shortfall is all the more urgent and pressing.
But the decision of the Indian government, similar to that of a number of countries suspending exports or imposing controls on food grain export to ensure their individual food security, is a matter of grave concern as far as Bangladesh’s long-term food security is concerned. Given that Bangladesh is a net food importing country, the current global context of rising food prices and limited availability of food grain questions the prevailing bid towards an increasingly ‘free trade’ regime without any effective provisions for the net food importing developing countries.
In this context, the current negotiations under the World Trade Organisation relating to agriculture bear special significance for net food importers like Bangladesh. It has been the proposition of a group of developing countries – the G20 – led by advanced developing countries such as India that the developed countries should reduce their subsidies in agriculture, which deflate prices of agriculture produce so that the large agricultural producers may compete in the international market.
While India’s decision to ban exports of non-Basmati rice similar to the decisions of other large agricultural producers is prudent considering their own food security and ensuring government buffer as global food stocks gradually decline, it contradicts the position of those very countries at the global trade forum demanding reduction of subsidies to ensure a genuine free trade in food grains.
On the one hand the price of food grain increases internationally due to the gradual reduction of subsidies in the developed world that typically provided food aid to the poor countries, while on the other the large producers suspending exports and, therefore, limiting the global availability of food grain puts the poor net food importers in a precarious position.
It has been the contention of quarters championing free market economy that food sufficiency is not necessary for individual countries as they may always buy food with the money earned from other sources. Successive governments, including the current one, have followed that prescription becoming an increasingly outward oriented economy relying on export earnings for food imports. But the current situation of the international market seriously questions that proposition as countries refuse to participate in the free market.
The case in India should act as a lesson. It has always demanded, along with the other members of the G20, such an international regime that would see prices of agricultural commodities rise and allow its exporters to compete with those in the developed world. Now that the global food prices have indeed increased, the Indian government cannot lure its producers to sell their grain to the government and thereby ensure a buffer stock. Instead the farmers are selling their product to the exporters’ agents offering higher prices.
That the farmers are getting a higher price due to an appreciation of international food prices should have been received well by the Indian government but instead its reaction was to reduce the prevailing prices within the country by banning exports! That is entirely contradictory to the country’s position at international trade negotiations that have remained stalled for years specifically for the staunch position of India and Brazil demanding drastic reduction of agricultural subsidies and export incentives by the United States and the European Union.
The decision of the Indian government is only right since it must ensure food stocks to feed its people and must initiate the necessary measures instead of claiming that the government has nothing to do in a free market economy, as the finance and food advisers of the current government have stated previously.
In this situation, special provisions for countries that are poor and net food importers must be developed under the international trade regime. In this regard Bangladesh should immediately take up this matter seriously and push for immediate incorporation of a concrete safeguard system that protects net food importers during times of crisis at the ministerial meeting of all the least developed countries scheduled to be held in Lesotho at the end of this month. This meeting typically concludes with a set of common demands from all the least developed countries for the consideration of the entire WTO membership.
There should be a strong proposal from Bangladesh, convincing the other least developed countries at the meeting, demanding that the trade forum first ensures mechanisms to ensure food security of the net importers before concluding the current round of agricultural negotiations that have only recently been revived and show signs of progressing at a rather fast pace.
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