Editorial
Govt needs to shore up
post-Aila relief efforts
Almost a week after cyclone Aila made landfall, large swathes of the coastal areas are still under water with millions of people suffering the miseries of hunger, homelessness and outbreak of different waterborne diseases. According to a report published in New Age on Saturday, the tidal surge whipped up by the cyclone has breached embankments in a number of coastal districts which are now inundated permanently before new embankments can be built. In these circumstances, the government is faced with a humanitarian catastrophe in the making – especially as sources of freshwater have merged with brackish water and diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera are spreading rapidly. While the total death toll from cyclone Aila in the Bangladesh side of the border has been lower than comparable weather events in the past, the extent of the damage to rural infrastructure and the economy may be comparable to super cyclones such as cyclone Sidr of 2007. As the brackish water brought inland by the tidal surge stagnates, the fallout of cyclone Aila may persist for much of the coming year.
Amidst this misery, it is disturbing to note that the government’s relief efforts have been slack in speed and poor in coverage, with hundreds of thousands still without food aid and shelter materials, marooned in pockets of flooded low land, almost a week after the cyclone passed. Not only is the government neglecting to prioritise post-disaster relief efforts, another report published in New Age on Saturday says that ruling Awami League activists prevented a lawmaker from their rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party from distributing relief in his constituency, in what must be one of the most depraved acts of partisan politics that would even exacerbate people’s misery to serve crude political score settling.
We must warn the government that the death toll from its inaction will be significantly higher than that wrought by the cyclone if the dire situation in the coastal areas is allowed to persist, without interventions in terms of food, drinking water and access to emergency medical care. To this end the government could perhaps pool its own resources with the emergency relief efforts of the various NGOs operating in the country, to come up with a cohesive and comprehensive coverage plan for the coming weeks.
In the long run too, the communities whose livelihoods and assets have been razed by the cyclone will need employment and livelihoods support for them to gradually return to the economic status quo they had attained prior to this cyclone. Unless the government spreads a social safety net across the region, the total cost of the cyclone in terms of nutrition, education and health will be massive.
Another textbook trouble
could be in the making
THE government has recently invited bids for procurement of 11,500 tonnes of paper to print secondary textbooks, so says a report published in New Age on Saturday. The decision to buy paper from open market is pregnant with perils, as is indicated in the report. The government has hitherto bought paper from the Karnaphuli Paper Mills and distributed them to private-sector printers awarded contracts by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board to print textbooks. The security mark for identification that the KPM paper carries works as a safeguard against such fraudulent practices by the private-sector printers as printing the textbooks on low-quality paper and selling the KPM paper on the open market. As the paper procured from the open market is thrown into the mix, the government will find it difficult to detect such fraudulences.
It is not that the authorities are not aware of the risk involved. In fact, the NCTB chairman acknowledged that there ‘is a risk of fraudulence by private printers’ when talking to New Age on Friday. Still, according to him, the board has taken the risk because if the board waits for papers with security signs from Karnaphuli it ‘will fail to supply the textbooks in time next year’. He also said: ‘As the government for the first time is going to supply secondary textbooks free, we take up the issue of timely supply of textbooks as a big challenge.’ While the spirit is laudable, given the textbook board’s past record, there are reasons to doubt whether the textbook board would be able to live up to the ‘big challenge’.
As it is obvious, the textbook board has taken upon itself the twin tasks of having the textbooks printed on time and making sure that the printers use the paper they are supplied with. On both counts, however, the board’s past records have been dismal, to say the least. Over the years, inordinate delays and irregularities have become the hallmark of printing and distribution of textbooks by the textbook board. This year, too, the textbooks, be it free or with a price tag, have reached the students later than scheduled. As far as printing of textbooks is concerned, a section of the private printers has consistently tried, and succeeded, to hoodwink the textbook board. In fact, last year, the textbook board proposed an increase in the price of secondary textbooks to pre-empt private printers selling KPM paper, which they get at a subsidised rate, to the open market. With paper from the open market coming into the scene, without any security mark for identification as the KPM paper has, surely some printers would try to make most of the situation.
The NCTB chairman has said the board will form monitoring teams to check fraudulent practices by the private printers. However, his words would have been reassuring had there not been the allegations that private printers pull off the fraudulent practices in collusion with some people within the textbook board. Overall, if the NCTB chairman truly wants to live up to the ‘big challenge’, he has to fight the battle, so to speak, on different fronts, all at the same time.
Indian elections: lessons
for Bangladesh
Both governments in India and Bangladesh have enjoyed backing of a new breed of voters who are more aware than ever; for now, it can only be hoped that these voters’ hope for a better future do not disappear amidst the political games being played both within and between the parties,
writes Hasanuzzaman
THE Indian National Congress has witnessed an unexpected victory in which it, along with its alliances, has won 262 seats. This is the first time since Jawarharlal Nehru in 1961 that a prime minister has been re-elected after serving a full first term. The government of India in 1991, led by the then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, appointed Manmohan Singh as the finance minister. This was his first step into the limelight of Indian politics.
Before discussing Singh’s achievements as the finance minister and more importantly, as the prime minister, it is imperative to set the background on which this highly enigmatic leader emerged in the political scene. The early 1990s remains exclusive for many scholars attribute the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent integration of East and West Germany as igniting the globalisation process. Furthermore the European Union, which today is an economic union of 27 member states, was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993. The early 1990s was a period when economics trumped politics, i.e. the notions of free market and capitalism overriding the beliefs that were held under a communist system.
The collapse in 1989 of the Soviet Union, which was India’s most important trading partner, and the first Gulf War, which started within a couple of years, the by-product of which was a spike in worldwide oil prices, further exacerbated India’s balance-of-payments situation. In response, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao along with his finance minister Manmohan Singh initiated the economic liberalisation reforms programme of 1991. The reforms eliminated the Licence Raj (investment, industrial and import licensing) and ended many public monopolies. The economic reform package included dismantling License Raj that made it difficult for private businesses to even exist. The economy of India today is the twelfth largest in the world by market exchange rates and the fourth largest by GDP measured on purchasing power parity basis.
One of the most critical areas of concern for India at the turn of the century was foreign policy. The most controversial period of Singh’s tenure was the time when the Indian government decided to work with the United States in a nuclear deal which was signed by the respective leaders in October 2008. The basic framework of this agreement was that India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and place all its civil nuclear facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards whilst the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India. The Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement was not as easy to ratify domestically as had been contemplated by Singh. The most decisive issue persists with regard to allowing India to maintain a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel. Many Indian critics had also raised doubts over the fact that such a deal would undermine India’s sovereignty.
India had witnessed much political alliance building with the world in general. The last ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation took place during Singh’s tenure. Relations had improved with Japan and the EU (mainly France and Germany) and the United Kingdom. New Delhi also hosted an India-Africa Summit in April 2006 which was attended by the leaders of 15 African states. As a result of the ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations, which began in 2001 under auspices of the WTO, countries such as India and Brazil were natural allies since they had realised that they had much to gain by taking a collective approach, rather than on an individual country basis. The formation and subsequent proliferation of country groups such as the NAMA-11 demonstrate the willingness of these countries to cooperate with each other.
Singh’s government had also been especially keen on expanding ties with Israel and the latter now rivals Russia to become India’s defence partner. Though there have been a few diplomatic caveats between India and Russia in recent times, especially over the delay and price hike of several Russian weapons that were meant to be delivered to India, relations between the two remain strong through agreements to increase defence, nuclear energy and space cooperation.
Singh, along with former finance minister P Chidambaram had presided over a period where the Indian economy grew with an 8-9 per cent economic growth rate. The Indian economy is worth more than a trillion dollar today. As prime minister, Singh continued to follow the economic reforms of Rao’s era. He did not neglect the programmes that were started by the preceding government and continued the Golden Quadrilateral and the highway modernisation programme. In the context of balance of payments which had remained disturbing during the 1990s decade, it increased by more than double between the fiscal years 2006-07, and 2007-08 (from $36 billion to $90 billion). His government was also successful in taming the silent tsunami which had severely undermined the global agriculture market and had caused riots in many countries around the globe in 2008.
In spite of Singh’s well-intended policies, India’s rapid growth and development has not been as dynamic as intended. In this context, the most significant contribution by Singh’s government has been the enactment of the Right to Information act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 2005. The RTI covers the whole of India excluding the never-ending disputed areas of Jammu and Kashmir. More fundamentally, the act specifies that citizens have a right to (a) request any information (as mandated); (b) avail copies of documents; (c) assess and inspect documents, works and records; (d) access certified samples of materials of work; and, (e) avail information in form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printout. Taking into the cognisance the proliferation of self-help groups and the intensification of NGOs’ activities in India, such an act is certain to bear the desired fruits by minimising the scope of corruption and building a check-balance system.
The other significant step by Singh’s government has been the launching of the national employment programmes under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Even though the outreach and effectiveness of the NREGA is being contested, such a programme has contributed in consolidating the support of rural poor and more importantly, empowering them to a certain extent which has had somewhat helped them to overcome the vicious cycles of poverty.
Indeed, Singh has proven himself to be the king of Indian politics by fully demonstrating how things run under democracy. One of the crucial messages emanating from this year’s Indian elections is that of Singh’s strong preference for the rising star of the Nehru dynasty – Rahul Gandhi – to join the cabinet. This ought to be perceived as more than a royal gesture; after all, Nepal’s history shows how hunger for power can lead to the demise of an entire royal family! It is worth highlighting here that Rahul Gandhi has been playing a proactive role in Indian politics for quite sometime now and he has had addressed more rallies than the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi together since 2004. This ought to be the point of departure for our leaders who may be contemplating on introducing new and honest faces to the public.
Will the current Bangladesh government be re-elected in 2013 and, more importantly, will we be able to think beyond the faces of Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia? Will there be another face which will capitalise on the notions of ‘change’? Time will certainly be the decisive factor and more decisive will be the voters. Both governments in India and Bangladesh have enjoyed backing of a new breed of voters who are more aware than ever; for now, it can only be hoped that these voters’ hope for a better future do not disappear amidst the political games being played both within and between the parties.
Hasanuzzaman is a researcher at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a research organisation.
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