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THE prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, can be said to have hit the nail on the head when she identified corruption as the biggest barrier to poverty eradication during her speech at a high-profile anti-poverty rally in the capital Dhaka on Saturday. According to a report front-paged in New Age on Sunday, she said, ‘If we cannot rid the country of corruption we will not be able to free it from hunger.’ Regrettably, not everyone in the government or the ruling Awami League practises what the prime minister is preaching, so suggest two other reports front-paged in New Age on the same day. One of the reports quotes a senior Cabinet Division official as saying that deputy commissioners from different districts have reported that ‘a section of ruling party leaders and relatives of some party lawmakers were still engaged in crimes, including grabbing of lands, patronising tender manipulation and extortion, destruction of forests.’ The other report, on a meeting of the secretaries of the ruling Awami League, held at the party chief’s Dhanmondi residence on Saturday with the AL general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, in the chair, is even more damning. According to the report, Syed Ashraf, also the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, told the meeting that the ruling party ‘needs leaders and activists’ and should, therefore, ‘offer them something in return for their sacrifices. They should be provided with opportunity for doing business.’ So, on the one hand, the prime minister is calling for a fight against corruption, while, on the other, her party second-in-command is indirectly encouraging favouritism and some of her party men are actually indulging in crime and corruption. The obvious contradiction indeed undermines the prime minister’s call and, worse even, raises questions about her control over the party exponents.
   Be that as it may, the AL-led government needs to realise that the national economic policy must undergo a drastic overhaul, if the country were to eventually free itself from the clutches of poverty. Pursuit of a policy, which is based on the supremacy of the market and preoccupied with maximisation of profit, instead of people’s welfare, is highly unlikely to drag so many millions of people out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Also absent in the existing economic development model is any focus on equitable distribution of national wealth among the people. In terms of economic policy, the current administration has thus far taken the path trodden by the previous elected government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government. In other words, in terms of economic outlook, there is hardly any difference between the two major political camps. Sadly still, it has failed to live up to the demands of the flawed economic policy that it pursues. While employment generation is an essential means to help the poor improve their lot, the government has so far had very little to show for in this regard. In the absence of reasonable private investment, effective and expeditious implementation of its annual development programme remains the best possible option for the government to generate employment, especially in the rural areas. Regrettably, in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the rate of ADP implementation has been as sluggish as it was during the previous governments, elected or unelected. Also, land reform, a major criterion, according to economists, to fight poverty, remains way out of the picture.
   The government needs to realise that if it means to fight poverty, it must reconfigure its economic policy and gear it towards people’s welfare and equitable distribution of wealth. Or else, all the talk about poverty eradication will be just that – talk.

Maldives’s undersea meeting
has a grave message

THE innovative move of the Maldives government to draw attention to the climatic catastrophe awaiting them may look dramatic but no one should miss the grave message it contains. Maldives and Tuvalu are listed as the most vulnerable countries apt to be swallowed by the rising sea level in the coming decades. The Maldives government in an unprecedented gesture held an underwater cabinet meeting on Saturday in a bid to focus global attention on rising sea levels that threaten to submerge the low-lying atoll nation. The prime minister, Mohamed Nasheed, his deputy and a dozen ministers conferred at a depth of six metres under the sea and approved a resolution urging global action to cut carbon emission.
   Next to Maldives and Tuvalu which may disappear completely within a century, a host of other countries are disturbingly at risk, Bangladesh included. The southern half of this country may eventually be submerged under the Bay if the present pace of climate change, global warming, icecap melting and sea level rising continues. Maldives is a country of 300,000 but the total population of Bangladesh living in the areas thought vulnerable is 70 million. Maldives’s off-beat conference will jolt many low-altitude countries out of their inertia. What adds a bitter pungency to the coming tragedy is that the climatic cataclysm is not of our making. The poor countries’ contribution to carbon emission is minimal. The richer countries thoughtlessly abused the environment and we are paying the price. The greedy protagonists of single-track globalisation have whetted the world’s appetite for consumption and more consumption means more pollution, more carbon emission. That the earth is warming is no longer in dispute. The debate is over how much will be the warming and when is the perdition.
   Maldives organised this eye-catching but intrinsically heart-rending event with next December’s Copenhagen climate summit in view. It is expected that the Copenhagen summit will address the concerns of the low lying poor states and come out with concrete proposals – or roadmap – towards reducing carbon emission – the agenda that was not faithfully handled in the Bali summit two years ago. At Bali the LDCs’ interests were sidelined. Much is, therefore, expected from the Copenhagen conference considering that the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming is due to expire in 2012.

THE strategic and security outlook of Bangladesh is governed by the principles of friendship with all nations and enmity with none, and of preventive diplomacy to engage in constructive dialogues with other nations to reduce risks of conflicts and to resolve disputes in an amicable manner. So, one should not be surprised that Bangladesh is very reluctant to view her neighbours as a source of security threat despite the fact that she is having some bilateral issues with her neighbours, particularly India, and Myanmar due to their aggressive policy, in the shape of land and maritime border demarcation, refugee influx, illegal drugs and small arms trade, and human trafficking. Despite our policy of harmonious and amicable coexistence with our neighbours, we should not be oblivious of the risks to peace and stability in the border and, therefore, should take cognisance of factors that could create threats to our national security while pursuing a friendly policy toward Myanmar.
   
   Bilateral irritants
   Maritime border demarcation
   Being surrounded by India and Myanmar, Bangladesh can hardly overemphasise the need to demarcate its maritime boundary on just and equitable basis to assert her sovereignty over its resource rich exclusive economic zone and beyond through which almost 90 per cent of its external trade is conducted. Failure in delineating maritime border may cause Bangladesh to be reduced to a mere land-locked country and to lose its strategic significance and relevance in South Asian context. The recent intrusion of the Myanmarese navy inside Bangladesh’s sea territories is uncalled for and contrary to the spirit of amicable coexistence (‘Bangladesh asks China for help in Myanmar sea row’, Reuters, November 5, 2008). It is very unfortunate that the Myanmarese government sent naval ships inside Bangladesh’s maritime boundary ignoring the fact that they are yet to demarcate the maritime borders with Bangladesh and that they should not venture into exploring oil and gas in disputed water territories until a just and equitable solution is found in light of international maritime laws. But further attempts by Myanmar to intrude into Bangladesh’s maritime border may cause both the nations to get involved into expensive conflicts to have deleterious impact on their economies, people, and bilateral relations.
   
   Rohingya refugee issue
   Myanmar has poor human rights record for suppressing and depriving its minority communities of basic rights and privileges and, as a result of this, thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees cross into Bangladesh territory to escape the military junta’s atrocities against them. The New York Times reported this year that ‘More than a quarter-million Rohingya – an ethnic Muslim minority from western Myanmar – have come here to southern Bangladesh to escape the hunger, humiliation and official brutalities in their homeland. Many have landed in a place called the Kutupalong Makeshift Camp... Every day more Rohingya arrive at the Bangladeshi camps, stateless, sun-blasted refugees carrying their meagre bundles. The newcomers, largely from Rakhine State in Myanmar, are often so traumatised that they’re unable to tell aid workers what they have fled’ (‘Traumatized Rohingya flee squalid life in Bangladesh’, the New York Times, February 15). Bangladesh with the help of the international community is making relentless efforts to resolve this issue through diplomatic channels but due to the Myanmarese military junta’s stubbornness, the lingering refugee problem is creating strain on local economy and is having debilitating effect on security and social harmony. The military junta’s refusal to recognise Rohyngias as citizens and its continuous attempt to push them inside Bangladesh territory may lead to a conflict if the situation is not properly handled.
   
   Illegal small arms trade
   Illegal small arms trade is a flourishing business along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border despite all the efforts by the Bangladesh Rifles to curb such activities in the border areas. If Myanmar fails to cooperate in stopping illegal arms trade in the border areas, criminals and terrorist groups may create threats to internal law and order situation of Bangladesh.
   
   Illegal drug trade
   Because of long military rule, self-imposed isolation, and economic embargo by the international community, the military junta relies heavily on poppy cultivation and illegal drug trading for revenues. Myanmar has been the second largest opium producer in the world (‘Opium Cultivation Blossoms in Burma’, www.voanews.com, October 12, 2007) and being situated near the notorious ‘golden triangle (ibid) – a heaven for illegal drug trading – Bangladesh faces an imminent danger and this cannot be tackled without full cooperation, which is unlikely to be forthcoming, from Myanmar.
   
   Unfriendly NASAKA
   The Myanmarese border security force known as NASAKA is a matter of concern for Bangladesh. This particular organisation is involved in all sorts of human rights violation, illegal trading, killing, and whatnot. Abducting Bangladeshi woodcutters and fishermen and demanding money as ransom for their release has become a habit of NASAKA. According to union parishad chairman Firoz Ahmed, ‘They have been attacking us frequently, firing at fishermen and beating them, and also looting their valuables. In many cases, they kidnap our fishermen and release them after taking ransoms’ (‘11 fishermen hurt in Nasaka firing in Bay’, The Daily Star, June 6). Unless NASAKA is turned into a professional force guided by a set of code of conduct, a border conflict may break out between Myanmar and Bangladesh because of irrational behaviour of NASAKA to destroy cross-border peace, stability, and tranquillity.
   
   Bangla-US defence relations
   Bangladesh is the seventh most populous country in the world with an economy larger than the combined economies of Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri-Lanka, and Maldives, and she is also a land bridge between SAARC and ASEAN. Her solid commitments to work with the international community to fight against terrorism, to improve socioeconomic condition through trade liberalisation, to empower women to end gender discrimination, and to play leading role to foster regional cooperation through SAARC have profusely been appreciated by the US administration and its allies. Consequently, there has been increased cooperation between the armed forces of Bangladesh and the US. But this has been construed as a threat to Myanmar’s national security by top Myanmarese generals who have identified Bangladesh, along with Thailand, as their primary security threat (‘Watch out for Bangladesh and Thailand: Military commander’, www.mizzima.com, January 30).
   
   Nuclear factor
   Isolated, sanctioned, and pressured by the western powers to improve human rights record and to restore democracy, Myanmar has established links with North Korea and Russia for nuclear cooperation. It is alleged that the military junta is receiving help from North Korea to develop nuclear weapons to strengthen its own position vis-à-vis the western powers and to negotiate on the issues of human rights and democracy from position of strength. A nuclear Myanmar, however, could have a harmful effect on regional security and stability. US secretary of state Hilary Clinton warned the world about Myanmar’s suspected nuclear programme. ‘It would be destabilising for the region,’ she said. ‘It would pose a direct threat to Burma’s neighbours’ (‘Burma suspected of forming nuclear link with North Korea’, The Guardian, UK, July 21). If Myanmar succeeds to surreptitiously acquire nuclear technology, it will change the regional balance of power situation and Bangladesh being the closest and a non-nuclear neighbour will be the worst victim of this change.
   To be continued on Op-Ed page tomorrow
   Shah Mohammed Saifuddin is founder of the Bangladesh Strategic and Development Forum