That Bangladesh’s body politic in general, and the major parties in particular, are wholly incapable of anything but lip service to ‘democracy’ is amply proven again by the BNP. Not hours had passed after the on-bail release of Khaleda Zia, that her sycophants who had been against her while she was behind bars trooped up to show their ‘more Catholic than the Pope’-type loyalty. It was little surprise that in clear violation of the charter of their own party and in typical dynastic fashion, this cabal offered Khaleda Zia to become the BNP ‘Chairperson for Life’ (fortunately Khaleda Zia later declined the offer). That amongst these sycophantic clowns was a former army chief made me wonder what kind of spineless people we make generals in Bangladesh.
   Here, therefore, is one more pressing reason to implement institutional reforms of the amended RPO post-haste so that Bangladesh can some day become a real democracy rather than the facade of dynastic and partisan feudalism that is masked by occasional elections marred by violence.
   BT
   USA

I am writing with reference to Op-Ed: ‘Obama or McCain,’ by Maswood Alam Khan (September 14).
   It is incorrect for Maswood Alam Khan to suggest that ‘With no other superpower existent, an enemy was necessary to motivate American people on one hand to pay the premium for maintaining their gargantuan war machinery and to stimulate American youth on the other hand to shed blood in the name of defending American interests at home and abroad. Imaginary foes have thus successfully been constructed. The first foe was Iraq - a ‘soft target’ that the most sophisticated American war machinery were successfully deployed to hit and experiment with.’ In fact, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of the neo-conservatives believed that the American system of capitalism had triumphed and from now on it would be only managing the global system dominated by the United States. Francis Fukuyama, a doyen of neo-conservatism, promoted this idea in his book The End of History and was acclaimed as a visionary.
   Terrorist attacks on 9/11 changed all this. Like the attack on Pearl Harbour, the United States came to realise that the world is a dangerous place and one cannot be complacent about the reality. In fact, there is no need for constructing imaginary enemy. In a world full of conflicts, enemies are always around. The Middle East remains a cauldron of hatred and conflict. Since the Shia revolution, Iranian mullahs have been dreaming of destroying the Sunni domination in the region. Iranian mullahs continue to brutalise their own people. As Prof Azar Nafisi, who was expelled from her teaching position at Tehran University for refusing to wear veil, tells us about the brutality of the ruling mullahs in her book Reading Lolita in Tehran. Her account of Iran is a country where the ruling mullahs ‘regularly hang people in the streets,’ a country where educated women are considered as enemies of the state.
   In the Korean peninsula, North Korea has always been a threat to South Korea. Although an impoverished nation, North Korea maintains an army of 1 million — one of the largest in the world. Moreover, it has been secretly engaged in developing nuclear weapons and conducting missile tests. Although the Soviet Union has collapsed, its successor state Russia continues to be autocratic and unstable. In the Balkans, the collapse of Yugoslav federation hardly brought stability in the region as Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Kosovars were engaged in bloody conflicts which needed the American intervention for stopping the bloodletting.
   Today, the United States faces an aggressive Russia which is trying to regain its imperial status. Russia has proved to be as much imperialistic as the former Soviet Union. It has recently invaded tiny Georgia over Georgia’s dispute with its breakaway territory of South Ossetia. Russia has recognised South Ossetia as an independent state. But with barely 70,000 people, Ossetia will not be viable as an independent state. Most observers believe it is a prelude to annexation by Russia of this microscopic entity. The same applies to Abkhazia which has barely 20,000 people.
   In Pakistan, the Talibans are running a parallel government in the tribal areas and are regularly slaughtering Pakistanis in the name of their version of Islam. As Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy, at Qauid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, recently wrote in Karachi’s daily DAWN: ‘These fanatics dream of transforming the country into a religious state where their will be the law. They stone women to death, cut off limbs, threaten beard-shaving barbers with death, blow up girl schools at a current rate of two per week, forbid music, punish musicians. ... Pakistanis tolerate these narrow-minded, unforgiving men because they claim to fight for Islam.’ The Talibans are also bombing girls schools, hospitals and development projects in Afghanistan in their bid to re-capture power. Senator Barack Obama has rightly made it clear that he will focus all his attention to fighting the Talibans. If he is elected as the president of the United States, Obama will have to face many threats around the world. If, however, Senator McCain is elected he must balance military action with diplomacy. As a former military man, it will be a difficult job for him.
   Mahmood Elahi
   Ottawa, Canada

In the year 1998-99, the government recruited 4000 senior staff nurses. There was a government decision then to transfer them automatically from the development sector to the revenue sector after three years. But more than 10 years have passed, these nurses are still in the development sector. They are also not getting any salary for the last three months. During these days of inflation, they and their families are finding it impossible to make both ends meet. Besides, the Eid and Durga Puja are near.
   Will the chief adviser please consider the issue and sanction their salary immediately?
   A reader
   Via e-mail

The chief adviser has gone to China. May be he has taken lessons from the life of our Holy Prophet who had said for knowledge, go to China if need be. Otherwise, there can be no reason for him to take this trip. He is head of a caretaker administration and just a few months away from handing over power to an elected government. The last thing that a mature country will do is to hold substantive talk with a lame duck leader for China has better things to do. As usual, the foreign affairs adviser has told us how eager China was for this visit and how it would be a watershed in Bangladesh-China relations. He also told us that the road link with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh will be signed on this trip.
   Going by the foreign affairs adviser’s press briefings before and after he takes his brother-in-law on these trips, our chief adviser must be the most successful head of government we have had so far, though in strict constitutional term, he is not a head of government. Moreover, his constitutional responsibilities do not allow him to make these trips as his responsibilities are restricted only to making the ground even for holding a free and fair election.
   Rashed Ahmed
   Gulshan, Dhaka