Probe Magazine Vol 13 Issue 6 (1-15 Jan 2015) (Fortnightly)

Regional relations revisited
Bangladesh's equations
with China and India
Probe
Pr
obe Special
Eye donation
lacks awar
awareness
eness
January
Ja
anuary 01-15,, 2015
Special
Specia
al Report
Where are
Where
arre the
Chhatra Union
leaders?
Media
Media under
firee in T
fir
Turkey
urkey
Editorial
Editor in Chief
Irtiza Nasim Ali
Editor
Ayesha Kabir
Executive Editor
Ahmed Hasan
Special Correspondent
Anwar Parvez Halim
Senior Correspondent
Shafiq Rahman
Staff Correspondents
Md. Belayet Hossain
Aritra Ankan Mitra
Contributors
Badiul Alam, Kamrul Hasan
Altaf Parvez, Taib Ahmed
Harunur Rashid
Overseas Correspondents
Prof Moonish Ahmar (Pakistan)
Paritosh Paul (India)
Frances Bulathasinghala (Sri Lanka)
R Shresta (Nepal)
Sandra Kabir (UK)
Shehabuddin Kisslu (USA)
Chief Photographer
Bablu Chowdhury
Cover and Graphic Design
Adventure Communications
A tragedy, a travesty
Forgive us if you can Jihad, we let you die.
The little three-and-a-half-year-old boy had fallen into an old abandoned
water pipeline was trapped there in the cold, dark abyss, while fire
service "experts" poked, prodded and could well have been the reason of
his death. It is said he had been lodged between the wall and a pipe inside
the hole, but when the pipe was pulled up, he fell the full 600 ft or so.
Police officers came and went and so did ministers and other bigwigs of
the government, but finally it was declared that there was no boy in the
hole. It was all a rumour. The rescue operation was called off. The boy's
father was even interrogated by the law enforcement agencies, accused of
hiding his boy and lying about the accident. People, who had heard the
boy cry out, were totally disregarded. Within minutes of the rescue efforts
being called off, a group of local people lowered a contraption into the
hole and in no time at all, brought up the body of Jihad. He was taken to
hospital where he was declared dead. Another meaningless death, a
death that shook has shaken the entire nation, our collective conscience.
There was a natural surge of fury and rage and how a hapless poor boy
was allowed to die. Millions of taka are spent on advanced technology,
but we live in the Stone Age. Somewhere along the way we have lost our
souls.
The general feeling is this tragic incident is a reflection of the present
predicament of the country. We are confused bunch, inept, inadequate
and inefficient. If anyone takes objection to the verbal lashing, let them
stand in front of Jihad's parents and look them in their eyes. We cannot.
We can only bow our heads in shame. We can only murmur in futile
liturgy, forgive us Jihad.
For Jihad, it was a tunnel of darkness that robbed him of his life. Is there
no light at the end of ours?
As we enter 2015, we wish our readers and well wishers a new year that
holds hope and promise for better times ahead. May the New Year usher
in peace, prosperity, health and happiness for one and all.
Manager
Debashish Sarkar
Address
House 10/B, Road 9
Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka 1205
Bangladesh. Tel: 8119897
Email: probenewsmagazine@yahoo.com
www.probeweekly.com
Published by the Editor from
S.A Printers Limited
1/1 Sheikh Shaheb Bazar, Dhaka
Price: TK 50
Issue: 06 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13
I Page: 1
20
10
08
Bangladesh's equations
with China and India
Special Report
Where are Chhatra

Union leaders?
28
Probe Special
Eye donation
lacks awareness
REGULARS
04
06
23
26
30
31
32
34
Newsbeat
South Asia Desk
Out of the Box
Guest Column
Region/ Nepal
Region/ Pakistan
Region/ Sri Lanka
International
Media
Media under
fire in Turkey
38
Book Review
Barely Not
losing His Shirt
Food
39
Salt can restore

your skin
and body
Revelations and
Recollections
Sikdar
caught and killed
37 Siraj
40
I Page: 02
Flim
Lingaa
An open letter to the Government of Bangladesh
Survival of Sundarbans rainforest,

a UNESCO World Heritage Site
e, the scientists, engineers,

academics, medical doctors
and professionals of many
other disciplines of Bangladeshi
heritage living abroad and in
Bangladesh, as well as conscientious
foreign nationals and dignitaries, are
gravely concerned over the survival of
Sundarbans, the UNESCO World
Heritage Site. It is the largest single
block of tidal halophytic mangrove in
the world. It covers around 10,000 sq
km, of which 60% is in Bangladesh and
the remainder is in India. Our concerns
arise from following considerations:
1. The recent spillage of some 350,000
litres of furnace oil in a river in Mongla,
about 40 km north-northwest of
Sundarbans, is likely to cause immense
damage to the environment threatening
not only the marine lives in the
mangrove forest, but also the
endangered species such as the Royal
Bengal Tiger. The spilled oil cuts off
oxygen supply to water, thereby
choking off marine life like barnacles,
mussels, crabs, fishes and so forth. All
marine lives that depend on
downstream food chain are also
affected. Already dead otters, varieties
of dead fishes and other dead mammals
are floating on water and swept up to
the banks.
2. Birds that depend on fish, insects
and other marine lives are badly
affected, not only due to lack of
adequate food supply, but also due to
soaking in thick oil tar on the wings,
rendering them incapable of flying and
thereby dying on land.
3. The damage to the flora and fauna

over the longer term is immense. The
non-volatile component of the spilled
oil generally sticks to the trunks and
roots of the mangroves of the swamps,
which eventually chokesoff their lives.
As mangroves are slow growing plants,
once they die, it will take a very long
time to replace, if at all.
4. Human lives in the locality are also
affected as fishing, their main and
probably only livelihood, becomes nonexistent. Even riverine transport, the
only mode of transport, becomes
impossible.
5. Damage to the mangrove forests
would have devastating effect on the
upper reaches of human habitation.
Tidal surge, tropical storm and
tornados would not have the shielding
effect of the mangroves, if they are
allowed to decay.
6. The proposed 1320 MW coal-fired
station at Rampal is also going to affect
the long term viability of this unique
site. Not only the airborne toxic
emission from the plant will affect the
rainforest, but also human intrusion
will have immense detrimental effect
on the natural habitat of the forest.
7. The present trend of allowing
Sundarbans to be used by the rich and
powerful men in Bangladesh as their
playground is also damaging the site.
Significant numbers of people on large
boats are given permission regularly to
have picnics, wedding receptions and
birthday
parties,
corporate
entertainment, etc. Although ecological
damage from a single event may be
imperceptibly
small,
but
the
cumulative effect of large number of
intrusions is going to be quite
significant.
In view of all these man-made abuses
to this sensitive mangrove site, which is
presently given the status of UNESCO
World Heritage Site, the site may suffer
irreparable damage. We are gravely
concerned and we appeal to the
Government of Peoples Republic of
Bangladesh to take immediate action to
preserve this national park for the
posterity of our future generations. If
strict restrictions on commercial and
pleasurable activities are imposed
henceforth, the site over a period of
time may recover from the inflicted
damage. Otherwise, the Bangladesh
Government will be held responsible
for presiding over the damage and
destruction of the worlds largest
mangrove forest and that will have
grave implications on Bangladeshs
ecological credentials.
Signed by the concerned people of Bangladeshi heritage
and foreign nationals: Dr.Anisur Rahman CradP
MSRP FNucI, Former Principal Nuclear Safety
Consultant at RWE and WS Atkins, UK, Dr. Peter
Custers Political Economist, Leiden, The Netherlands,
Dr. Quamrul Haider, Professor of Physics, Fordham
University, NY, USA, Dr. Ahrar Ahmad, Professor of
Political Science, Black Hills State University, South
Dakota, USA, Dr. Lutful Bari Bhuiyan, Professor of
Physics, University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Sanwar Ali,
Professor of Computer Science, Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, USA, Dr. Mustafa Kamal, Professor of
Computer Information Systems, University of Central
Missouri, USA, Dr. Imtiaz Habib, Professor of English,
Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA, Dr. Sanjoy
Sarkar, Professor of Physics, University of Alabama,
USA, Mr. AlbabAkanda, Former employee of the Asian
Development Bank, Virginia, USA, Dr. Parveen Ali,
Assoc. Professor of Education, Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, USA, Dr. Md.Harunuzzaman, Energy
Industry Consultant, Ohio, USA, Mr. Fazle S.Quazi,
CEO, Energy Conservation Technologies, Colorado,
USA, Dr. QM Rahman, Ophthalmologist, Pittsburgh,
USA, Mr Md.Shamsuzzaman, Ph.D. Student,
University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Ms. Shaheen
Ali - MA MHSc, Retd Senior Health Planner, District
Health Council, Toronto, Canada., Mr. Jamal Hasan Author and political analyst in USA, Mr Abdul Quddus,
Retired Economist, Leeds, UK, Mr. Ansar Karim Khan
Retired Environmental Scientist, Toronto, Canada, Mr.
Satish Kapur Political Activist, Leicester, UK,
Dr.ReazTalukder MA LLB, Retired Economist and exBIDS Researcher, Bangladesh, UK, Ms. Milia Ali,
Retired World Bank Official and Tagore Singer, Virginia,
USA, Mr. M. Shahjahan, Data Scientist and Consultant,
NY, USA, Dr. Sheikh Rafi Ahmad, Former Head of
LASER Tech., Cranfield University, UK, Dr Sheheed
Hussain, Former IAEA Scientist, Vienna, Austria, Mr.
AFM.Shafiqul Hafiz, Ex-Chairman, Johar Land Berhad,
Malaysia, Dr Farhad Hossain, Sn. Lecturer, Management
Studies, University of Manchester, UK, Dr
MazharulHuq, Retired Theoretical Physicist, USA, Dr
Tajul Islam Hashmi, Professor of Security Studies,
Austin Peay State University, Tennessee, USA, Mr
Jeremy Green, Nuclear Safety Consultant, Derby, UK,
Mr. AF Rahman, Environmental Scientist, Brisbane,
Australia, Mr. Abu Farukh, Financial VP, San Francisco,
USA, Ms. Anjumanara Begum, Software Specialist, New
Jersey, USA. n
I Page: 03
Newsbeat
BCIM EC meet at Cox's Bazar
he second meeting of the Joint Study Group of the

emerging regional cooperation framework
Bangladesh China India - Myanmar Economic
Cooperation (BCIM EC) - has convened in the southern
coastal city of Coxs Bazar in Bangladesh on 17 and 18
December 2014. The two-day meeting is organised by the
Government of Bangladesh and chaired by Bangladesh
Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque.
The meeting has considered the studies presented by
each of the four countries outlining perspectives and
expectations of each country on the objectives, scope and
modalities of cooperation as also cooperation in a number
of agreed sectors: trade in goods and services, investment
and financing, trade facilitations, energy, multimodal
connectivity, sustainable development, human resource
development, poverty alleviation, people to people
connectivity.The BCIM process took off in 1998 at track II
level. In 2013, the high political leadership of the four
countries agreed to elevate the BCIM process to intergovernmental level. Subsequently, the senior officials of the
four countries met in Kunming last December at the 1st
Meeting of the Joint Study Group of BCIM EC, where
among others, they agreed to undertake a detailed study to
decide on structure and modalities of cooperation of the
Economic Corridor.
While the Economic Corridor is generally known to
connect the points of Kolkata to Kunming, its cooperation
framework envisions to connect some of the ports and key
"Signing of the agreed MinuteS of the Second Meeting of the

BangladeSh-china-india-MyanMar econoMic corridor (BciM-ec), held in
cox'S Bazaar on 17-18 deceMBer 2014, By headS of delegationS of the
four countrieS, froM left, foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul haque,
deputy Secretary general of china'S national developMent and
reforM coMMiSSion yiMing Wang, Joint Secretary of india'S MiniStry of
external affairS pradeep KuMar raWat and MyanMar'S aMBaSSador to
BangladeSh hiS excellency Myo Myint than."
nodes, cities and growth centres of the four countries

through improving and developing key economic
infrastructure and facilitate greater movement of people,
culture, goods, service, investment, finance. In the process,
the Economic Corridor is expected to unlock parts of the
four countries towards reaping greater economic synergies,
and upscale manifold economic opportunities as various
investment projects and initiatives roll out.
Nestl bottled water dropped from

EXPO 2015 in Milan
he International Baby Food

Action
Network
(IBFAN)
welcomes the decision of the
Swiss government to modify its plans
to promote Nestls brand image at
the Swiss pavilion at the next
Universal Exhibition - EXPO 2015 in
Milan, Italy. IBFAN was one of
several NGOs which raised
concerns about the promotion of
bottled water.
The original plan was to
distribute free bottles of Nestl
water from one of the four giant
towers at the Swiss pavilion. The
15-metre high towers or silos
would each have been filled with
a Swiss product, supposed to
symbolise the values of
responsibility,
sustainability,
innovation
and
tradition
conveyed
by
Switzerland.
However, Nestl bottled water
represents none of these. It is neither

sustainable, nor responsible, nor
innovative - nor even a Swiss tradition.
Following questions from Swiss
parliamentarians and a series of
letters sent to the director of
Presence Switzerland, the
government body responsible
for the image of Switzerland
abroad, substantial changes
have been made. Now,
instead of bottles of Nestl
water, the tower will contain
empty plastic cups which
visitors will fill from taps
with water from local aquifers. The

cups will carry messages about the
importance of sustainable water
management: once the cups in the
tower are emptied they will only be
replaced very slowly, to raise awareness
that water is a valuable but limited
natural resource, to be shared and used
responsibly. Instead of product
promotion, the installation will
encourage the public to take part in a
comprehensive debate on the
importance of access to and responsible
management of water. Indeed, water is
a precious public resource and access to
safe, sufficient and affordable water
constitutes a human right and is a
prerequisite for the realization of all
other human rights.
The change of plan is the result of
The original plan was to distribute free bottles of

Nestl water from one of the four giant towers at
the Swiss pavilion. Now, instead of bottles of
Nestl water, the tower will contain empty plastic
cups which visitors will fill from taps with water
from local aquifers.
I Page: 04
Newsbeat
he United Nations
Special Rapporteur
on extreme poverty
and human rights, Philip
Alston, urged the World
Bank to recognize the
central importance of
human rights to its draft
environmental and social
policies, also known as
Safeguard policies, which
apply to its investment
project financing. The draft
Safeguards policies were
released by the Bank in July
for public consultation, as
part of the multi-stage
review.
The draft Safeguards
seem to go out of their way
to avoid any meaningful
references to human
rights, Mr. Alston stressed,
in a joint letter to World
Bank president Jim Yong
Kim, together with a group
of twenty-seven other
independent experts of the
largest fact-finding and
monitoring mechanism of
the UN human rights
system.
The Banks position is
effectively a sleight of
hand, he noted. They
insist that their operations
will be supportive of
human rights but then add
World Bank should recognize

importance of human rights in its
new environmental
and social policies
that this must be in a

manner consistent with the
Banks Articles of
Agreement, and they have
interpreted the latter as
preventing human rights
being taken into account
because they are inherently
political.
According to the UN
Special Rapporteur, Bank
officials have defended its
increased reluctance to
engage with human rights
on the basis that alternative
sources of development
financing are emerging,
which do not require
meaningful safeguards.
international pressure on the Swiss

government and Parliament through
letters from a group of NGOs in
Switzerland, Canada, France, Italy and
the United Kingdom. This effort has
been acknowledged by Fred Buluku,
representant of the Kenya County
Government Workers Union and
human rights activist, who pointed out
the need to raise awareness at global
level on the advantages of tap water,
which is safe and healthier than bottled
water.
The NGOs letters highlighted the
potential damage to Switzerlands
worldwide reputation as a champion of
sustainable
development
and
responsible management of natural
resources. Switzerlands international
image is one of pure mountain air and a
The failure of other

lenders to require that
projects they fund should
protect human rights
standards is not a valid
reason for the Bank to
follow suit, the expert
said.
The risk of a race to the
bottom is real and would
be disastrous for
sustainable development.
The World Banks
president has repeatedly
promised that the revision
process will not result in a
dilution of the Safeguards.
I believe that honouring
this promise requires a
clean environment with water coming

straight from the snowy Alps. Aligned
with this idyllic picture, many Swiss
cantons and cities have launched
campaigns to inform citizens that tap
water is pure, good for health and
sustainable, as it needs no packaging or
transport, unlike bottled water which
places a heavy burden on the
environment. As an example, the City
of Geneva promotes its very own water
significantly different
approach from that which
is now being pursued by
the Bank. The draft is a
backward step that
tramples upon the progress
achieved over the last thirty
years or so, Mr. Alston
warned.
In their joint letter, the
UN experts also
highlighted a range of
specific concerns with the
proposed new Safeguards
policies. They signaled that
the move away from a
requirements-based
Safeguards system to an
aspirational one represents
a clear dilution of existing
protections, as does the
significant delegation of
responsibilities from the
Bank to other actors.
The draft Safeguards also
fail to meet the standards
that international human
rights law sets, for instance
in the area of labor and
working conditions,
involuntary resettlement
and indigenous peoples,
the experts noted. In
addition, many vulnerable
groups, such as LGBTI and
people with a physical or
mental disability, remain
virtually unprotected in
Bank projects. n
under the name Eau de Genve ,

reminiscent of French perfume, or
Chteau la Pompe , recalling
expensive French wine.
But it will take more than catchy
slogans to beat the bottled water
barons. It is an uphill struggle to
counter the intensive promotion of
bottled water by Nestl and other
companies. We must maintain public
pressure on our authorities in every
country to provide safe and clean water
for all. The decision of the Swiss
government is certainly a step in the
right direction, but EXPO 2015 in Milan
may still become just one more huge
trade fair to promote commercial
opportunities with sustainability and
responsibility relegated to the
background. n
I Page: 05
South Asia Desk
In hospital, a VIP for

Bangla but not Bengal
critically ill Calcuttan about

whom Bengal knows little had
the President of Bangladesh, no
less, by his hospital bed on recent
evening.
Gobinda Halder, 84, needed someone
to tell him that Abdul Hamid had come
to meet him because he can no longer
see.
But once President Hamid, who
stayed for around 10 minutes, asked
Halder if he remembered some of his
compositions, the lyrics flowed. "Baba
recited the first lines of six to seven
songs. He, of course, remembered more
lines from his three most famous
songs," recounted daughter Gopa.
JN Roy Shishu Sewa Bhawan and
General Hospital in Maniktala, where
Halder has been undergoing treatment
since December 13, was one of the few
stops for the Bangladesh President
during his one-day trip to Calcutta.
goBinda halder'S daughter gopa and Wife

parul; (BeloW) BangladeSh preSident
aBdul haMid arriveS at the ManiKtala
hoSpital. pictureS By BiShWarup dutt
Muslim party quits in major

blow to Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa
resident Mahinda Rajapaksa

suffered a setback to his reelection
hopesMonday
(December 22nd) when Industry and
Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen
said he was switching allegiance to
Maithripala Sirisena, AFP reported.
Bathiudeen said some 69 elected
representatives from his All Ceylon
Makkal Congress (ACMC) were joining the opposition in a mass defection of
Muslim politicians.
Bathiudeen accused Rajapaksa of failing to restrainBodu Bala Sena (BBS), a
hard-line Buddhist group accused of attacking mosques, churches and
businesses run by religious minorities.
"I asked the president to stop these religious hate attacks, but he failed to take
action against offenders," Bathiudeen told reporters in Colombo.
He accused the government of being behind an attack on Muslims in
Alutgama in June that left at least four people dead.n
After all, songwriter Halder's lyrics
had inspired a generation of mukti
yoddhas (liberation warriors) in
Bangladesh back in 1971.
Halder's Mora ekti phulke banchabo
bole juddho kori (We are waging war to
save a flower), Purbo digonte surjyo
uthechhe (The sun has risen on the
eastern horizon), Ek sagor rokter
binimoye Bangla -r swadhinata aanle
jara (Those who got freedom for Bangla
in exchange for a sea of blood) are still
played during state ceremonies in
Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had
spoken to Halder over phone on. "My
mother and I used to draw inspiration
from your songs when we were
imprisoned during the liberation
struggle. The Bangladesh government
takes full responsibility for your
treatment," Sheikh Hasina told Halder,
according to his daughter.
In 2012, the government had
conferred on Halder the Friends of
Bangladesh Liberation Award. The
previous year, it had honoured him
with 15 lakh taka.
While news of Halder's illness has
crossed the international border,
apparently nobody in culture-loving
Bengal seems to be aware of his plight.
Gopa wasn't sure her father
understood every word of what Sheikh
Hasina said because he was very ill that
day. During Abdul Hamids visit, he
appeared to be much better and
happily recited the first lines of some of

his songs for him.
Halder, born in Bongaon, did his
postgraduation in Bengali at Calcutta
University in the mid-1950s. He wrote
poetry and songs from an early age but
it wasn't until he started penning songs
about the Bangladesh Liberation War
that his popularity soared.
Halder, who retired as a tax assistant
in the income tax department in 1988,
lost his eyesight around a decade ago.
He lives with wife Parul in a flat at
Kankurgachhi.
India acid attack

caught on tape
CTV footage shows masked men

on a motorcycle throwing acid in
the face of woman in a busy New
Delhi market.
Two men on a motorcycle have
thrown acid on a woman in a busy
market in India's capital, the latest in a
series of acid attacks targeting women
in India.
The incident was caught on CCTV
camera showing two masked men
hurling acid at a woman riding a
scooter in New Delhi's Rajouri Garden
market.
NDTV, a privately run Indian TV
channel, said half of the woman's face
was burnt in the attack.
The woman screamed for help, but
I Page: 06
South Asia Desk
team of Japanese
social metrics
experts is being sent
to Bhutan at the request of
its government to improve
the accuracy of how it
famously measures the
happiness of its citizens.
Japan is sending a team
of experts to Bhutan to
assist the remote
Himalayan kingdom in
measuring its Gross
National Happiness.
Bhutan has long been
famed for its unusual
policies of focusing on the
nation's well-being via its
happiness levels as
opposed to more
conventional gross
domestic product.
The kingdom's
government, based in
Thimphu, is clearly keen
for its Gross National
Happiness survey to be
taken as seriously as
possible and has enlisted
the help of Japan to
improve its accuracy.
A team of three experts
from the Japan
Japan to send experts to Bhutan to

bolster Gross National Happiness
International Cooperation
Agency (JICA), the nation's
foreign aid body, are
preparing to travel to
Bhutan soon to conduct a
sample happiness survey.
The goal of the experts,
who specialise in social
metrics, will be to boost the
accuracy of the way Bhutan
measures the prosperity of
the nation via the
happiness of its 742,000strong population.
"The researchers will
analyse the poll and give

the Bhutan side-advice so
that it can improve its
survey technique," said a
spokesman for JICA.
It was in 1972 that a
former king first coined the
phrase "Gross National
Happiness" (GNH) in a bid
to modernise the nation,
before being developed
further by subsequent
leaders.
Bhutan, a remote
mountain kingdom similar
none of the passers-by in the busy

market place came to her rescue.
Attacks on women have been on the
rise with the National Crime Records
Bureau (NCRB) reporting 309,546
crimes against women last year against
244,270 in 2012.
Honda plans setting up

car manufacturing plant
in Gujarat
apanese auto giant Honda Cars

India Ltd has approached the
Gujarat government in India with a
proposal to set up a car manufacturing
plant near Vithalapur village in
Ahmedabad
district
with
an
investment of over Rs 1,000 crore.
According to the official, who has
requested anonymity, the proposal
moved by the company is in final stage
of consideration and may get approval
of the state cabinet soon.
Interestingly, Honda Motorcycle and

Scooter India Private Ltd (HSMI) had
three months back announced
establishing the world's largest scooter
plant at the same village, 110 kms away.
The setting up of the car
manufacturing facility is under the
"mega project" category of the new
Industrial Policy of the state
in size to Switzerland, has

since become synonymous
with the unusual
government policy of GNH
in its mission to balance the
material and spiritual wellbeing of its citizens.
The nation has long
relished its independence
and isolation from the
outside world, with its
barter economy, limitations
on foreign visitors and a
firmly regulated tourism
industry.
However, the GNH
system is not without its
critics, who highlight that
for all the emphasis on
happiness, the nation faces
issues such as chronic
unemployment, poverty,
corruption.
Tshering Tobgay, the
current prime minister,
expressed his scepticism
over the current
effectiveness of the policy
when he came to power
last year and queried
whether the phrase "gross
national happiness" had
been over-used.n
government.
According to the official, the
representatives of Honda recently met
state chief secretary with the formal
proposal for the purpose.
"The proposal is in the final stage and
would get approval of the state cabinet
under our Mega Industrial Policy
within next few weeks time," he said.
"Honda will invest at least Rs 1,000
crore to set up car manufacturing plant
near Vithalapur," he added.
This will be Honda's second major
investment in Gujarat, particularly in
vicinity of Vithalapur village.
HMSI had signed a State Support
Agreement with Gujarat government in
September for setting up their twowheeler manufacturing plant at
Vithalapur village with an investment
of Rs 1,100 crore. The capacity of the car
plant is yet to decided, the official
added.
Car makers like Tata, Ford, Maruti
have already invested in the state. n
I Page: 07
Special Report
Three decades of
student politics
Where
are
Chhatra
Union
leaders?
In the past it had been the norm for student leaders to join the parent
political party once their student lives were over. They would build up
their political careers as leaders on a national level. And in times of
crisis, they were the ones to take over the helm of affairs. Most of those
in political leadership at a national level today were student leaders of
the sixties. They are the true blue, tried and tested politicians.
In the eighties too, students played a pivotal role on politics. They were
key to the anti-autocracy movement against Ershad. But the eighties
and nineties were also a turning point in the character and nature of
student politics. The main reason behind this was that elections to the
student councils didnt take place. More importantly, the student
leaders who entered national level politics over the past three decades
have failed to have a positive impact. Many of them find themselves
pushed to the sidelines and many have simply left politics completely. In
this series, PROBE investigates where the student leaders of the last
three decades are now and how they are faring. This issue presents an
update of former Bangladesh Chhatra Union and their whereabouts.
by MD. BElAyET HOSSAin
hhatra Union is the only

student organisation in
Bangladesh's student politics
that has formed each and
every one of its committees by means of
councils. From 1980 till date, Chhatra
Union has had 21 presidents. All of
them, except one, had been organising
secretaries and then general secretaries
before going on to become president.
Of these 21 former Chhatra Union
presidents, two have passed away,
three live abroad, two have left politics,
one has joined BNP and the others are
involved with Chhatra Union's parent
organisation, Communist Party of
Bangladesh (CPB).
TwO HAvE PASSED AwAy
Kazi Akram Hossain was Chhatra
Union's central President from 1978 to
1980. He passed away a few years ago.
From 1982 till 1984 Khandakar
Mohammed Faruk was Chhatra
Union's President. He completed his
education at the Bangladesh University
of Engineering and technology (BUET).
He was elected VP of the Engineering
University Central Students Union
(EUCSU) three times consecutively. He
was the only president of this
organisation among the engineers. He
died mid-2014.
THrEE ArE ABrOAD
Kamrul Ahsan Khan was President of
Chhatra Union from 1980 to 1982. He

completed his education at Dhaka
University. He now lives in Australia.
Nasir Uddoja was Chhatra Union
President from 1991 to 1993. He also
studied at Dhaka University. He has
settled in Canada.
Manzur Khoda Tariq was Chhatra
Union President from 1999 to 2000. He
was a student of Dhaka University and
presently resides in Japan.
TwO inACTivE in POliTiCS
Anwarul Huq was President of Chhatra
Union from 1984 to 1988. He completed
his studies at Dhaka University and is a
businessman. He is no longer involved
in politics.
Taherullah was President, Chhatra
League, from 1988 till 1989. He studied
at Dhaka University and is a
businessman. He too is no longer
involved in politics.
OnE in Al, OnE in BnP

Abdul Mannan Khan was made
Chhatra Union President at the end of
1980. Mid-1982 he left this post and
later joined Awami League. He is
presently Awami League's office
secretary, but remains inactive in
politics. Abdul Mannan Khan is a
lawyer. He was elected MP from the
Dhaka-1 seat in the 2008 elections. In
Sheikh Hasina's last government he
had been State Minister for Housing
and Public Works. He contested against
from this seat in the 5 January election,
but lost.
From 1989 till 1991 Mustafizur
Rahman Babul was Chhatra Union's
President. He was a student of Dhaka
University. He was one of the most
active student leaders in the 1990 antiautocracy movement and later joined
BNP. He was the BNP candidate from
Jamalpur-3 in the 2008 election. He lost
to Awami League candidate Mirza
Azam. He does not hold any important
post in BNP at present.
ACTivE in CPB POliTiCS
Ruhin Hossain Prince was Chhatra
Union's President from 1993 to 1994. He
completed his education at Khulna BL
College. He is a businessman. He
presently is a member of CPB's central
committee.
Sajjad Zahir Chandan was the central
President of Chhatra Union from 1994
I Page: 08
Special Report
to 1996. He studied at Jahangirnagar
University. He is presently a presidium
member of CPB. He is also Secretary,
Bangladesh Krishak Samity.
From 1996 to 1997, Chhatra Union
President was Aslam Khan. He was a
student of Dhaka University. He is a
central leader of CPB affiliated trade
union. He is also involved with an
NGO.
Hasan Hafizur Rahman Sohel was
President of Chhatra Union in 1997 to
1999. He was a Dhaka University
student. Presently he is General
Secretary of CPB's front organisation
Bangladesh Jubo Union.
Hasan Tariq Chowdhury Sohel was
President of Chhatra Union in 20002001. He completed his Masters from
Jahangirnagar University. He is CPB's
International Affairs Secretary. He is
also a lawyer at the High Court.
Sharifuzzaman Sharif was Chhatra
Union President from 2002 to 2003 and
completed his studies from Dhaka
University. He is involved in CPB
politics at present, though not in any
important post of the party. He works
with an NGO.
Luna Nur was President of Chhatra
Union in 2003-2004. She was a student
of Jahangirnagar University. She has
been the only female president of
ShAhBAGh
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Shahbagh, Dhaka.
Mobile: 01911785195
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Shahbagh, Dhaka.
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uTTARA
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Rajlaxmi, Uttara,
Dhaka.Mobile: 0191537544
Chhatra Union in the past three

decades. While the others became
president from organising secretary
and general secretary, Luna is the only
one to become president directly from
being a central committee member. She
is now a housewife, but also looks after
CPB's women cell.
Baqi Billah was Chhatra Union's
central President from 2004 to 2006. He
completed his studies at Dhaka
University. He is the initiator of the
'blogger online activists for national
interests', the precursor of the
Shahbagh movement. He is also
considered to be one of the main
organisers of Shahbagh's Gonojagaron
Mancha. He is a businessman. Even
though he is involved in CPB politics,
he does not hold any important post in
the party.
Shamsul Alam Sajjan was Chhatra
Union President from 2006 to 2008. he
studied at Dhaka University and is
presently a senior officer of Brac. He is
with CPB politics, but not in any
significant post.
Asaduzzaman Masum was elected
Chhatra Union president in 2008
through an emergency council of the
student organisation. He was a student
of Titumir College. He is the
Organising Secretary of CPB's youth
front Jubo Union. He is known as an

organiser of Gonojagaron Mancha.
Manabendra Dev was Chhatra Union
President from 2009 till 2011. He
completed his studies from Dhaka
University. During 1/11 he was
imprisoned for a student revolt. He is
now a central leader of CPB's affiliated
body Bangladesh Krishak Samity.
In 2011-2012, Chhatra Union's
President was Ferdous Ahmed Ujjal.
He was a student of Rajshahi
University. He is an organiser of CPB's
affiliated Bangladesh Khet Majur
Samity.
The 2012-2013 President of Chhatra
Union was SM Shubho. He completed
his studies in Physics from
Jahangirnagar University. He is
involved in CPB politics but still has no
important position in the party. He is
also known to be an organiser of
Gonojagoran Mancha.
Hasan Tareq is Chhatra Union's
present President. He recently
completed
his
Masters
from
Mymensingh Ananda Mohan College.
Lucky Akhter is Chhatra Union's
present General Secretary, studying
English Literature at Jagannath
University and one of the Gonojagoran
Mancha organisers. n
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I Page: 09
Cover Story
BaNGLadESH'S
EqUatIONS WItH CHINa
aNd INdIa
Political progressions on the global scene keep nations compelled to remain on their toes
when in comes to bilateral, multilateral, regional and international relations. In the local
political scenario, there is a popular saying that there is no last word in politics. That
same adage applies to ties between countries. Economic compulsions, security
considerations and a variety of other factors are the guiding force behind a country's
foreign policy. A foreign policy can either make or break a country's standing in its
neighbourhood and on world stage.
Pragmatism, experience, caution, and even a little adventurism, often goes into the
forging of fresh friendships or reviving old ones. Whether it is regional relations or
international equations, it is all a matter of give and take. That is where policymakers
must ensure that their national interests, that is the interests of the people, come first
and foremost. A little bargaining here, a dash of diplomacy there, with a good stir of
skilled negotiations, is a good recipe for tangible relations.
This week we have brought to the forefront the regional equations Bangladesh has
developed, and is developing, with China and India. Both these countries are important
neighbours and Bangladesh can ignore neither. PROBE does not comment on the issue
per se, we have rather presented the viewpoints and analysis of South Asian political
scientists. It is for the reader to peruse and come to his or her own conclusions.
It is a changing world and foreign relations can be in a flux. But it is time for durable
decisions so Bangladesh can move on with the rest of the world. It has been called an
emerging tiger. With right policies in place, surely it can be so.
Bangladesh has enjoyed a love-hate relationship with India over the years and it is
high time to take measure of the pros and cons, to mend fences if possible or to drive a
harder bargain if necessary. 'Look East' has been a slogan for quite some time now,
referring for the need to strengthen ties with China. China certain looms large on the
global scene now and Bangladesh needs to change its Look East rhetoric into action. The
future face of Bangladesh depends much on the sensitive handling of these vital issues.
I Page: 10
Cover Story
I
aS aN INdO-PaCIfIC
BaNGLadESH
ENERGy POWER
international analysts on Asia look into prospects for

Bangladesh in the emerging regional scenario, where
leveraging energy assets can lead to domestic prosperity and
geo-strategic balance
by MiCHAEl TAnCHuM AnD GrEGOry EvErETT
n July 2014, the United Nation's

Permanent Court of Arbitration
in
The
Hague
awarded
20,000
square
Bangladesh
kilometers
of
energy-rich
territorial waters in its dispute with
India. The UN court decision was
Bangladesh's second victory in its
efforts to secure exploration rights in
the Bay of Bengal. In 2012, Dhaka was
awarded 111,000 sq. km. of territorial
waters by the International Tribunal for
the Law of the Sea in its dispute with
Myanmar. As a result of these two
decisions, Bangladeshs off-shore
natural gas reserves are now estimated
at six trillion cubic meters, the largest
deposits in the Asia-Pacific. By the end
of 2014, Bangladesh had sought to
auction off eighteen new hydrocarbon
energy blocks to international energy
companies for development. If Dhaka
can attract these companies to develop
its offshore fields, Bangladesh will
become one of the largest natural gas
producers in the world.
With its key geostrategic location at
the heart of the Bay of Bengal,
Bangladesh was already at the centre of
a miniature 'Great Game' between India
and China. Now in possession of vast
off-shore natural gas resources,
Bangladesh has the potential to become
a major Indo-Pacific power in its own
right and play constructive role in
developing a strategic architecture that
brings peace and prosperity to the
countries of the region. However, to
realize this potential for its own people
and the region, Bangladesh will need to
transform its economic and strategic
policy.
CHAllEnGES in DEvElOPinG
BAnGlADESHS OffSHOrE
EnErGy inDuSTry
The basic truth that most countries
discover about developing a profitable
hydrocarbon energy sector is that
international corporations develop
energy fields, not governments. To
develop its natural gas resources,
satisfy its domestic energy demand,
and generate revenues from exports,
Bangladesh needs to arrive at a
mutually satisfactory accommodation
with international energy firms who
have the experience, technology, and
capital assets to develop Bangladeshs
energy sector. Dhakas ability to attract
foreign investment and intelligently
I Page: 11
Cover Story
use the profits gained from a developed
energy sector will determine whether
newly energy-rich Bangladesh will
become a South Asian Norway or a
South Asian Nigeria.
Bangladeshs
original
policy
orientation stunted the development of
its offshore energy industry by creating
disincentives for international energy
companies, most particularly by
restricting the ability of companies to
sell gas outside of Bangladesh while
requiring sales within Bangladesh to
occur at below-market rates. Wanting
to ensure low-cost energy to
Bangladeshi consumers, politicians in
Dhaka did not alter the price of gas
since 2009. Because of such policies,
Bangladesh has had difficulty
attracting bids for the development of
its offshore energy blocks. The few
international energy companies that
did purchased interests in offshore
blocks allowed their contracts to expire
rather than assume the financial risk of
undertaking costly exploration under
such adverse terms. In October 2014,
the
American
energy
giant
ConocoPhillips allowed two contracts,
awarded under a 2011 licensing round,
to expire after negotiations with the
Bangladeshi government to alter the
terms of its conditions proved
unsuccessful.
By preventing the
development
of
its
offshore
hydrocarbon resources through such
shortsighted policies, Bangladeshs
domestic market is deprived of a larger
supply of natural gas and the
government loses lucrative revenues
that it could use to ameliorate the
severe structural problems in
Bangladeshs economy.
The Bangladeshi government has
started to reorient its policies but will
need to adopt pricing and taxation
standards that will enable Bangladesh
to compete in a globalized market with
an increasing number of natural gas
producers. For example, neighboring
Myanmar has consistently offered
better terms for foreign investment
than Bangladesh, with Myanmars
natural gas production increasing more
than six-fold over the course of a
decade as a result. Myanmars gas
exports exceeded US$2 billion in the
first half of the current fiscal year,
outperforming its sales for the same
period in the previous year by US$400
million. In response to Dhakas prior
failures to attract international energy

firms, the state-owned PetroBangla, in
its October 2013 licensing round,
revised its contract conditions by
raising the price of gas, eliminating the
corporate tax, and permitting half of all
production to be sold to domestic third
parties. PetroBangla raised the price at
which gas could be sold from US$5.50
per Mcf (or 1,000 cubic feet) to US$6.50
per Mcf. This was still short of the US$7
per Mcf offered by Myanmar.
Nonetheless, with more favorable
terms
from
PetroBangla,
ConocoPhillips and Norways Statoil
placed a joint bid on the three deepwater blocks that had previously been
unsuccessfully placed on offer by
PetroBangla in December 2012.
PetroBangla awarded the Conoco
Phillips-Statoil joint venture only two
of the three blocks. In response to
PetroBanglas disappointing decision,
Bangladeshs only deep-water investors
requested Dhaka to revise Bangladeshs
terms to match those in the production
sharing agreements that Myanmar had
signed with international energy
companies.
Bangladesh cannot afford to wait.

The entrance of new offshore natural
gas suppliers with their own
significantly large deposits, such as
Tanzania and Mozambique, as well as
the further cost efficient development
of neighboring competitors in the Bay
of Bengal and the South China Sea,
means that international
energy
companies will find it more cost
effective to work with other countries
and not Bangladesh.
Corruption
among
Bangladeshs
regulating
authorities and its tax and customs
collection bureaucracy has further
exacerbated an already problematic
business climate for offshore energy
development. Bangladesh recently
became a signatory to the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative
(EITI), which requires Bangladesh to
meet an international standard of
transparency in payments and receipts
between
international
energy
companies and governments. The
decision to join the EITI is certainly a
step in the right direction. Bangladesh
can build on this step with subsequent
measures that repair its reputation and
I Page: 12
Cover Story
attract international companies to

develop its energy sector.
CHAllEnGES in GEO-STrATEGiC
BAlAnCE
The failure of Bangladesh to develop
its energy sector has led to Bangladesh
to become increasingly dependent on
China, limiting Bangladeshs ability to
develop an independent foreign policy
in an increasingly volatile security
environment in the Indo-Pacific region.
Even with a strategic orientation
favoring Beijing, Bangladeshs interests
will not be served by alienating New
Delhi. Nor will its interests be served if
the Bay of Bengal becomes a zone of
contention like the South China Sea.
While India traditionally had been
Bangladesh's chief regional trading
partner since independence, China
surpassed India as Bangladeshs main
trading partner in 2002. According to
the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, the total volume of ChinaBangladesh bilateral trade in 2012-2013
was US$6.76 billion.
However,
Bangladesh suffers a massive trade
imbalance with China as approximately
ninety-three percent of BD-PRC
bilateral trade is exports from China to
Bangladesh. These lopsided trade
figures alone warn of the danger of
Bangladeshs deepening dependence
on China.
Lacking revenue from a developed
energy sector, Bangladesh continues to
rely on loans from foreign countries for
financing domestic development
projects. The main source of funding
comes from China, moving Bangladesh
closer to Beijings political orbit. In
February 2014, the Bangladeshi
government sought soft loans from
China for 14 major infrastructure

projects, including the Ganges barrage,
a rail bridge over the Jamuna river, and
a US$1.5 billion high-speed rail line
between Dhaka and Comilla. China is
also engaged in the construction of a
rail line from Chittagong to Coxs
Bazaar. The highway and rail projects
ultimately will serve to integrate
Bangladesh
into
the
Chinese
transportation system via Myanmar
rendering Chittagong and the proposed
deep sea port in Sonadia into Chinas
Indian Ocean trade outlets for its
landlocked Yunnan province.
China has proposed to assist
Bangladesh
in
developing
its
Chittagong port into a state-of-the-art
deep water facility at an estimated cost
that could reach up to US$9 billion.
Beijings economic incentive for such a
large undertaking would be the
significant reduction in the distance of
its trade route from southwestern
Even with a strategic

orientation favoring
Beijing, Bangladeshs
interests will not be
served by alienating
New Delhi. Nor will its
interests be served if
the Bay of Bengal
becomes a zone of
contention like the
South China Sea.
China to the oil-rich Persian Gulf and to

the Suez Canal. The closest Chinese
port to Yunnan provinces capital
Kunming is located at distance of 1,700
km in Guangzhu, Guandong province.
By connecting Kunming to Chittagong,
China would reduce the trade route by
700 km as well as avoiding the need to
traverse the increasingly contentious
South China Sea.
However, China has already
developed a deep water port in
Myanmar to accomplish the same
purpose. The port at Kyaukphyu,
south of Myanmars offshore natural
gas fields, was designed to provide
Beijing with a long-sought-after, landaccessible port on the Indian Ocean.
China is also engaged in the
construction of oil and gas pipelines
that would carry energy from
Kyaukphyu directly to Chinas Yunnan
province. The SinoBurmese oil
pipeline will provide China with an
alternative route for Persian Gulf
energy, which would alleviate Chinas
need to transport oil through the
increasingly disputed territorial waters
of the South China Sea, giving Beijing
greater freedom of action in the conflict.
Given that a Chittagong-Kunming
economic corridor would similarly
have to pass through Myanmar or even
India and Myanmar, it is not clear what
commercial advantage Beijing will
enjoy from developing the port at
Chittagong.
For this reason, the Indian defense
establishment in New Delhi commonly
regards Chinas proposed development
of the Chittagong port as part of Beijing
efforts to enhance its naval presence in
the Bay of Bengal and undermine
Indias own strategic position in its
near abroad. Given the precedents of
Chinas construction of deep-water
ports at Gwadar, Pakistan and
Hambantota, Sri Lanka that include
naval usage rights, New Delhi regards
Beijings Chittagong project as
tantamount to Chinas strategic
encirclement of India. New Delhi
claims that Chinas String of Pearls
policy Beijings construction of deepwater ports and securing of usage
agreements for naval and maritime
installations along the sea lanes from
China to the Persian Gulf is more than
an innocent effort by China to extend
its commercial reach. The Chinese
effort to secure the development of a
I Page: 13
Cover Story
deep-water port at Sonadia island, off
the coast of Coxs Bazaar would seem to
bear out the Indian claim.
A Chinese maritime and naval
presence at Sonadia would establish
critical Sea Lines of Communication
(SLOCs) that would project Chinese
power from point to point across the
Bay of Bengal through to the Andaman
Sea serving to diminish significantly
Indias current naval advantage there.
Through New Delhis large naval base
in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
home Indias tri-service Andaman and
Nicobar Command (ANC) as well as
the ANCs Baaz naval air station located
at Indias Great Nicobar Island, only 90
kilometres from the Indonesian island
of Sumatra, the Indian Navy has the
ability to act as a counterbalancing
naval power to the PLA Navy in the
South China Sea. Indias ability to
project naval power in the South China
Sea constitutes the basis for its growing

naval and commercial alliance with
Japan. By allowing Chinese naval
activity at Sonadia, Bangladesh would
not only become integrated into Chinas
Indian Ocean trade network but would
become inextricably linked to any
Chinese effort to alter the status quo in
the South China Sea by the use of force.
The situation is made more grave by
Bangladeshs deepening dependence
on China as its largest supplier of
weapons and military equipment. In
March 2014 Bangladesh commissioned
two frigates from the PLA Navy with
an advanced missile capability. The
Hamilton-class cutter that Bangladesh
acquired from the United States Coast
Guard also is being refitted to serve as a
guided missile frigate with a Chinesebuilt surface-to-air missile system. The
Bangladesh Navy is also awaiting the
delivery of three Harbin Z-9 helicopters
from China. Moreover, Bangladesh has

agreed to purchase two Ming-class
diesel-electric submarines from China
for US$203 million to be housed at soon
to be constructed submarine base at
Kutubdia Island near Coxs Bazaar.
These
Chinese
systems
help
Bangladesh to develop an antiaccess/area denial capability (A2/AD)
capability to protect its territorial
waters, especially its offshore
hydrocarbon resources. However,
Dhakas overreliance on Beijing as a
naval weapons supplier means that the
Bangladesh
Navy
will
enjoy
interoperability only with the PLA
Navy
thereby
constraining
Bangladeshs ability to cooperate with
India or Japan and even more
importantly the United States as
Washington continues to ensure the
freedom of commercial sea lanes in
Asia.
If Bangladesh had its own surplus
revenue from natural gas exports,
Dhaka could finance more of its own
infrastructure
development
and
thereby be less subject to the
geostrategic objectives of Beijing and
New Delhi, while possibly serving as a
bridge between the two. It would also
be able to diversify its naval suppliers.
Dhakas delay in signing a
memorandum of understanding with
the state-owned Chinese Harbour
Engineering Company for the
construction of Sonadia Port may signal
that Bangladeshs policy makers have
come to realize the geopolitical
consequences of its overdependence on
Beijing. According to media reports,
Dhaka has objected to Beijings
insistence on retaining the right to
design the facility, which would give
China the ability to implement design
features allowing for future upgrades
to the facilities to accommodate PLA
Navy combat vessels. Holding the
US$5 billion Chinese proposal in
abeyance, Bangladesh also accepted
proposals from Germany, Denmark, the
UAE, and, quite significantly, India.
Relations between Dhaka and New
Delhi have been strained in recent years
after Bangladeshi cooperation in
denying
Assamese
separatist
insurgents safe haven in Bangladesh
was not reciprocated through the
resolution of long standing border and
water disputes. The new political
leadership in New Delhi has given
I Page: 14
Cover Story
positive signs that it is ready to resolve
its four decade long territorial dispute
along Bangladeshs northern border;
however, the water dispute over the
Teesta River has shown no signs of
abating.
According to a study commissioned
by the West Bengal government, much
of the water shortage was caused by the
construction of hydropower projects
upstream by previous Indian
governments. As the river provides a
livelihood for 7.3 percent of
Bangladeshs population, Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi will have to
work toward resolving this crucial
issue for Bangladesh if he wishes to
encourage Dhaka to undertake a
rebalancing its position between New
Delhi and Beijing.
Nonetheless,
Bangladeshs
deliberations over the Sonadia Port are
positive sign and perhaps reflect a real
politik assessment in Dhaka that it is
not in Bangladeshs interest to provoke
a naval arms race in the Bay of Bengal.
Already as a result of the Indian Navys
heightened threat perception over the
Sonadia Port, the Indian Navy has
requested the upgrading of the
berthing facilities on Sagar Island to
enable the basing of warships there.
Indian plans to construct a deep-water
port at Sagar Island had been originally
motivated by the need to service
transshipment cargoes from Nepal and
Bhutan. However, the island will host a
battery of land-to-ship and surface-toair missiles to destroy enemy naval
vessels and aircraft in Indian littoral
waters. In addition to the missiles, the
Indian
government
is
now
contemplating basing a significant
number of unmanned aerial vehicles on
the island. By awarding the contract to
construct the Sonadia Port to a country
other than China, Dhaka could defuse
the situation and prevent an
unnecessary escalation of tension in the
region.
A BETTEr BAlAnCED SOluTiOn
fOr BAnGlADESH
Aside from its success in developing
its offshore energy resources, Myanmar
offers Dhaka an example of ways to
balance the competing interests of India
and China in the Bay of Bengal. As a
component of New Delhis Look East
policy, India has developed a strategic
presence in Myanmar that assists it in
Aside from its success in

developing its offshore
energy resources,
myanmar offers Dhaka an
example of ways to
balance the competing
interests of india and China
in the Bay of Bengal. As a
component of New Delhis
look East policy, india
has developed a strategic
presence in myanmar that
assists it in projecting
power deeper into
Southeast Asia and
offsetting Chinese
domination of the region.
projecting power deeper into Southeast
Asia and offsetting Chinese domination
of the region. India financed and built
Myanmars deep water port in Sittwe,
which is north of the Chinese-built
Kyaukphyu port and Myanmars
offshore natural gas fields. The Sittwe
port is the cornerstone of Indias
massive Kaladan Multimodal Transit
Transport Project, which aims to
connect eastern India with Myanmar
through a sea route between Kolkata
and Sittwe and a road and river route
from Sittwe to Indias eastern Mizoram
state. In addition to the Kaladan
project, which is scheduled for
completion by April 2015, New Delhi
also has made a new push to complete
the
Indian-Myanmar-Thailand
highway by 2018. The 3,200 km
highway connecting the city of Moreh
in the northeastern Indian state of
Manipur via Mandalay to the city of
Mae Sot in Thailand will give India
unprecedented land access to the
Southeast Asian nations of the Mekong
basin.
Similarly, Kazakhstan shows the
importance of having a balanced
strategic policy vis--vis China and its
strategic rivals. Since 2000 Kazakhstan
has witnessed an impressive rate of
economic growth, transforming the
country into the dominant economic
power in Central Asia. Driven initially
by the development of its hydrocarbon
exports by international energy
companies, Kazakhstans boom has

resulted in a tenfold increase in per
capita income over the first decade of
its economic boom. The World Bank
now designates Kazakhstan as an
upper-middle-income
country.
Kazakhstans per capita GDP of
US$13,000 in 2013 places its economy
on a par with EU members Poland and
Hungary.
Kazakhstans sustained
economic growth is largely reliant on
its relationship with China. China
Kazakhstan bilateral trade accounts for
approximately 28 per cent of
Kazakhstans total trade volume. At the
same time, Kazakhstans deepening
economic ties with Beijing are
counterbalanced by its extensive trade
relationship with the EU and its
membership in the Russian-led
Eurasian Customs Union, now the
Eurasian Economic Union. Along with
its membership in the Russian-led
Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) and the SCO, Kazakhstan has
developed a deepening partnership
with
NATO.
Kazakhstans
development success and economic
growth are the result of a carefully
constructed multi-vectored foreign
trade and strategic policy that
Bangladesh could emulate in the Bay of
Bengal.
Bangladesh can emerge as IndoPacific energy power if the
policymakers in Dhaka create the
necessary business climate to attract
foreign development. The effect would
be transformative for both Bangladeshs
economy and its geostrategic position.
Dhaka could lift a large segment of its
citizens out of poverty while
Bangladesh would be less dependent
on foreign assistance. No longer at risk
of becoming a client state of Beijing or
New Delhi, Dhaka would be more
independent to adopt a carefully
balanced strategic policy that would
serve to ease tensions and promote
greater regional cooperation in the Bay
of Bengal.n
Dr. Michael Tanchum is a fellow in the Asia
Unit at the Hebrew Universitys Truman
Research Institute for the Advancement of
Peace. He also teaches in the Department of
East Asian Studies and the Faculty of Law at
Tel Aviv University
Mr. Gregory Everett is a law student at
Louisiana State University and is completing
his third-year of law school at the Faculty of
Law at Tel Aviv University
I Page: 15
Cover Story
BaNGLadESH - CHINa RELatIONS:
Current State and future direction

by PrOf. ATAur rAHMAn
angladeshs foreign policy

under the current regime of
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
seems to focus more on Asiacentric Policy envisioning future
course more towards China vis--vis
the West. A number of Bangladeshs
mega projects, including the Padma
Bridge, the Ganges barrage were given
to Chinese companies notwithstanding
withholding of the agreement on the
deep sea port supposed to be signed
during Sheikh Hasinas landmark visit
to China in June 2014. Indeed, Chinas
peaceful rise as a global power and
increasing engagements in its South
Asian neighborhood provide the
principal dynamics to BangladeshChina relations. But will Bangladesh be
able to engage China in creative and
competitive cooperation and sustain a
long-term relationship with this second
most powerful country of the world?
How will India angle affect the
relationship? What will be the U.S role
which many observers feel is already
diminishing in the region? Indeed,
Bangladesh foreign policy today faces a
formidable challenge in maintaining its
general principle friends to all, malice
to none or more exactly balanced
relationships especially with powers.
It is in this context, this paper brings
out the changing dynamics of
Bangladeshs relations with China, their
goals, motivations and future direction.
STrATEGiC COnTExT
Geopolitics in South Asia has
undergone
some
significant
transformation today as China
emerged as an important actor. Many
observers feel that despite a number of
strategic partnerships with India and
the partnership dialogue with
Bangladesh, US influence in the region
is waning. In fact, the broad patterns of
US, Chinese and Indian strategic
behavior in South Asia are almost
similar. They now operate by projecting
their capabilities in order to advance
their security interests, and ensure
access to energy and other resources in
regional states through cooperation as

well as conflict. It is from this
perspective, Chinas peaceful rise as a
global power and increasing influence
in its South Asian neighborhood
provide an opportunity - not a threat,
and needs be tapped by states like
Bangladesh.
There are important limits on what
China can and cannot do. Having
influence on development and security
is one thing, but to model the political
pattern and social dynamics is another.
It is also noticeable that US' South Asia
policy after Afghanistan is also giving
way to broader range of issues, and
recognition of an inevitable increase in
Chinas influence as well as sensitivity
to its interests. In fact, Chinas rise,
often neglected as a factor in South Asia
is encouraging a more nuanced US
approach to Asia policy as a whole not
fully comprehended in its Asia Pivot
strategy.
HiSTOriCAl rOOTS AnD
GEOPOliTiCAl linKS
China and Bangladesh share timehonored history, splendid culture and
unique trade links. These two lands
have
witnessed
contacts
and
communications for many years.
Having said that, I find it fascinating to
mention three dimensions of historical
convergence: First: many Chinese and

foreign scholars believe that Southern
Silk Road was the earliest link between
China and Indian Subcontinent and
also the shortest distance covered by
ancient Chinese inhabitants of border
areas when they entered Indian
Subcontinent through Myanmar;
Second, Southern Silk Road served as
an indispensable bridge for cultural,
scientific and business exchanges
between
China,
especially
its
Southwestern region, and Indian
Subcontinent. Bangla monks and
scholars had significant influences on
Tibetan Buddism when Atisha
Dipankar was the highest priest of the
famous Vikramsila Monastery, who
earned good reputation in Buddhist
community of Tibet; and Third; from
13th to 17th century,
Chinese had mastered the most
advanced ship building technologies
that pushed its oceangoing trade into
the Bangla region that enjoyed a
prosperous economy with seafaring
industries. Sonargaon, Bagerhat and
Chittagong were three important shipbuilding centers and ports. In fact, the
development
of
maritime
transportation enabled closer contacts
between China and Bangla Kingdom
that continued in a less frequent way
after the 17th century and almost
stopped as colonists entered.
POliTiCAl / ECOnOMiC
rElATiOnS
My assessment in political and
economic
relations
between
Bangladesh and China aims to
understand how these relations
unfolded over the years, their
continuities
and
consolidation,
principal dynamics and motivations. I
place political and economic relations
together in single context as they are
intertwined and mostly reflected in
high level political visits where
economic promises and commitments
form the substance or rhetoric of
cooperation. A remarkable aspect in
political relations between the two
I Page: 16
Cover Story
countries is that changes in regimes in
both countries did not affect the
relations rather they continued to grow
from strength to strength. In fact, there
is a noticeable continuity in Chinas
relations with Bangladesh. A look at
political relations between China and
Bangladesh show that they date back to
Pakistan era in the 1950s and 1960s
when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai paid
visit to East Pakistan. Many political
leaders including Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, and Moulnana Bhasani
visited China and established
friendship with Mao Zedong, Zhou
Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi.
The emergence of China as a
revolutionary ideological state inspired
many political leaders and students
and intellectuals of the then East
Pakistan. The Bengali independence
movement conflicted with the Chinas
strategic interests in 1971 as its close
ally Pakistan mediated its diplomatic
rapprochement with the United States.
But Bangladeshs diplomatic relations
with China were established in January
1976. The then President General Ziaur
Rahman made an official visit to China
in 1977. Successive governments in
Bangladesh followed the policy of
building close relations with China. By
mid-1980s, China could succeed not
only in building close commercial and
cultural ties with Bangladesh, but also
began to supply much needed military
aid and equipment culminating in the
landmark visit of then Bangladesh
President H. M. Ershad in July 1987.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made his
maiden visit to Bangladesh during
Begum Khaleda Zias tenure in 2005
the year that was declared
Bangladesh-China Friendship Year
culminating nine different bilateral
agreements to increase mutual
cooperation.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
undertook a high-profile five-day
official visit to China in March 2009. It
was her first visit to China since taking
the charge of Bangladeshs new
government. The much anticipated
high level talks between Bangladesh
PM Sheikh Hasina with her Chinese
counterpart Wen Jiabao, yielded in the
resolution to create a "Closer
Comprehensive
Partnership
of
Cooperation" from the strategic
perception. This was a crucial stepping
stone in Sheikh Hasinas ambition to get
BangladeShS priMe MiniSter SheiKh haSina ShaKeS handS With chinaS preSident xi Jinping
a "comprehensive partnership" with

Beijing. The landmark second visit was
made in June 2014 that dealt with a
spectrum of issues significant for both
the countries. During her stay in China
from 6th June to 11th June, the
Bangladesh Premier met with several
key personnel of Chinese political and
economic orders, including Premier Li
Keqiang, President Xi Jinping and
Chairman of the National Committee of
the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Yu
Zhengsheng. During the visit, various
bilateral issues were discussed with the
Chinese leadership. Economic issues
dominated
the
agenda,
more
specifically the Chinese financial
support for mega infrastructure
projects. Summarizing the outcome of
the tour, the Chinese Ministry of
Foreign Affairs released a 20-point
document titled Joint Statement on
Deepening the Closer Comprehensive
Partnership of Cooperation between
Bangladesh and China
The most powerful dynamic of
BangladeshChina relations over the
past decades has come from economic
ties and interdependence. China very
appropriately looks at Bangladesh as a
trading nation and a bridge between
South and Southeast Asia. Chinas
phenomenal rise as the worlds second
largest economic power is indicated by
its huge economy and holding 3 trillion
dollars in reserves. Bilateral trade
relations between the two countries
were growing steadily. The volume of
trade increased almost six-fold in 10
years reaching to a new height of
almost $10billion in 2013-2014,
although trade imbalance is very high
in favor of China. The trade imbalance
is a big worry despite Chinas zero tariff

treatment to 4762 products. China is
keen in relocating its business in
Bangladesh has sought land from the
government for a special economic
zone for Chinese companies. In fact, a
high wave of Chinese investment in
Bangladesh in the next five years in
critical areas, like infrastructure, energy
development, and manufacturing will
definitely take China-Bangladesh
relations to a new trajectory never
imagined before. It is in this context,
Bangladesh needs to avail the
opportunity opened by Chinas new
national strategy of building New Silk
Road comprising a land-based belt and
a maritime route, which has been
announced by Chinese President Xi
Jinping. The land-based Silk Road
starts from the ancient capital city of
Xi'an, stretching west through Lanzhou
and Urumqi before running southwest
across Central Asia, the Middle East
and Europe. The sea-based Maritime
Silk Road goes through Guangdong
and the southernmost Chinese
province of Hainan, an island, en route
to the Malacca Strait. Once complete,
the Silk Roads will bring new
opportunities and a new future for
China and every country along the road
that it is seeking to develop.
SECuriTy rElATiOnS
The importance of China in
Bangladeshs
security
calculus
underscores the uniqueness of bilateral
cooperation. Bangladesh turned to
China for military equipments out of
necessity at a time when neither the
United States/Western powers nor
India were willing to provide defense
needs.
Since the establishment of
I Page: 17
Cover Story
diplomatic relations in 1976, the two

countries have been maintaining
regular contacts and exchange to
negotiate weapons transfers, inspect
military facilities, and explore areas of
defense cooperation. Chinese advisers
and technicians have periodically
served in Chittagong and Dhaka to
assist with making Chinese equipment
operational in the Bangladeshi armed
forces. As early as 1987, Yang Dezhi,
Chief of the general staff of China's
People's Liberation Army (PLA),
conducted a five-day goodwill visit to
Bangladesh.
Today,
most
of
Bangladeshs
defense inventory (
almost 70 percent) comprising fighter
aircrafts, frigates, coastal patrol boats,
and tanks were supplied by China.
Bangladesh Air Force looked to China
for the bulk of its aircraft, including
training. Most of Bangladeshs Air
Force inventory included Chinese
versions of the Old Soviet MiG 19 and
21, and Chinese A-5s and F-6/7 type
fighters.
The Bangladesh Army has been
equipped with Chinese tanks including
the recently procured ones. In 2002,
China and Bangladesh signed a
Defense Cooperation Agreement
which covers military training and
defense production. Since 2005,
Bangladesh emerged as a major buyer
of weapons made in China. China sold

65 large caliber artillery systems, 16
combat aircraft and 114 missile and
related equipment to Bangladesh in
2005. In 2008, Bangladesh set up an
anti-ship missile launch pad near the
Chittagong Port with assistance from
China, and missile test was performed
on May 12, 2008 with active
participation of Chinese experts. It
successfully test-fired anti-ship missile
with a strike range of 120 km from the
frigate BNS Osman near Kutubdia
Island in the Bay of Bengal. Although
the current government in Dhaka led
by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was
favorably inclined toward India, the
regime continued its policy of defense
cooperation with China.
The
Bangladesh Navy has an ambitious
plan to acquire a number of frigates,
large patrol aircraft, patrol craft, two
landing
craft
utility
(LCU),
hydrographic unit , salvage vessel,
missile boats equip some ships with
missiles,
and
two
high-value
submarines in the next five years.
SECuriTy in THE BAy
China looks at the Bay of Bengal as an
important maritime space for its future
connectivity, trade and energy link to
the Indian Ocean security landscape.
China's ambition is also propelled by a
China's use of naval

power to preserve its
vital interests in the
indian ocean is already
being perceived by other
powers as causing a
security imbalance in
the region. it is thus
being factored in a
major way in the
strategic calculi of india,
uS and others.
constellation of strategic, commercial
and security considerations. The
paramount concern animating Chinese
interests in the Bay and Indian Ocean is
energy security, an imperative that has
been widely discussed and debated in
media and academic studies. China's
use of naval power to preserve its vital
interests in the Indian Ocean is already
being perceived by other powers as
causing a security imbalance in the
region. It is thus being factored in a
major way in the strategic calculi of
India, US and others. China's current
strategy in the Indian Ocean is to make
its presence felt through building a
credible naval strength. Being the
world's second largest economy and
having very high dependence on
imported oil -- all of which passes
through the strategic channels located
in the Indian Ocean -- China needs to
have close ties with littoral states in the
I Page: 18
Cover Story
Bay. It is no wonder China is gradually
but purposefully expanding its
economic and political influence
among states in the region.
Bangladesh also needs to build a
common vision of maritime security,
control, unhindered passage of trade,
counter terrorism and piracy, disaster
prevention and humanitarian relief in a
balanced and inclusive manner
towards
safeguarding
regional
commons. China and India are eager to
woo the littoral states and exercise
influence for their strategic and energy
interests. For China, the Irrawaddy
Corridor that links Kunming in Yunan
to the Bay of Bengal through Myanmar
and Bangladesh offers land-based
maritime access that is critical for the
development of its western and
southern regions. The corridor also
gains salience in terms of transporting
gas from Myanmar's offshore platforms
to Yunan as well as in overcoming the
vulnerability of its shipping in the
strategic Southeast Asian choke points.
India, on the contrary, considers the
Bay of Bengal as its own lake and a
strategic maritime space for its politicodiplomatic initiatives toward the
Southeast Asian region.
New Delhi is conscious of China's
growing strategic initiatives in the Bay
of Bengal and has taken politicomilitary and economic measures to
reduce Chinese influence there. These
initiatives have so far delivered the
desired dividends of maintaining
stability. Yet, the big challenge for both
India and China will be to address the
insecurity that Bangladesh faces in
terms of its strategic autonomy.
Increasingly important, especially in
the context of Bangladesh in the Bay of
Bengal, are the non-conventional
threats of various types. These threats
refer to various types of low-intensity
conflicts related to the sea. Good order
at sea encourages the free flow of seaborne traffic. It ensures that nations can
pursue their maritime interests and
develop their maritime resources in an
ecologically sustainable and peaceful
manner
in
accordance
with
international law and practice. But
states , like Bangladesh, individually
are not always capable of ensuring that
environment. Hence, some mutually
acceptable framework of regional
maritime cooperation would greatly
facilitate the attainment of that
objective. For want of a better term,

these threats of low-intensity conflict
can be termed as maritime crimes of
international nature. They form a wide
spectrum ranging from common theft,
illegal fishing, intentional pollution,
armed robbery on sea amounting to
piracy, illegal traffic in arms, drugs and
humans, hijacking, sabotage, terrorism,
mercenary activities and maritime
insurgency operations. Very often,
these criminal offences, though
connected to the sea or the ship (or
fixed structure on the sea-bed, have
links with the shore. Thus, besides
cooperation, interaction between
enforcement agencies on sea as well as
on land becomes essential to curb these
crimes.
The US policy challenge in the
coming years in the Bay of Bengal will
be to manage an increasingly assertive
China and a rising India in order to
ensure, security, stability and
prosperity in the region. There is no
doubt that a significant opportunity
now exists to rethink U.S. South Asia
strategy in the context of its new AsiaPacific model of cooperation that
hinges on striking a stable and
mutually acceptable balance between
cooperation and competition among
the contending powers in the sea. This
new
model,
indeed,
requires
adjustments in our thinking and in our
actions in South Asian context.
fuTurE DirECTiOn
Despite the power gap between China
and Bangladesh, the two countries have
shown clear commitment over the years
to building a positive, cooperative and
comprehensive relationships that will
surely pick up the momentum in the
coming years. Indeed, Bangladeshs
relations with China over the next
decade clearly present a host of
opportunities. Never in history has the
Middle Kingdom emerged as an
indispensable economic partner to
Bangladesh as it stands today. Many
people think that Bangladeshs
comprehensive economic partnership
with China could help Bangladesh
become a manufacturing - trading
nation pushing the latters growth
trajectory at a new height.
Bangladeshs diplomacy at this stage
needs to be highly creative and
anchored on national consensus. At the
same time, Bangladesh needs to be
careful that its ties with China should in

no way pose any threat to Indian
security in the region nor jeopardize
relations with the United States that
intends to re-engage and play a more
constructive role in Asia. A number
strategic initiatives with China, like
investing in Bangladeshs proposed
deep seaport at Sonadia, constructing
an oil-pipeline from Chittagong to
Kunming; and exploiting the potential
of Kunming-Myanmar road links are
most-talked about in recent years but
yet to be realized in the evolving
strategic dynamics of triangular
relations among India, China and the
Untied States.
No doubt, China will become more
important for Bangladesh as an export
market, source of FDI and major
partner in infrastructure and energy
development in the coming years. But
managing a rising global power
requires a clear strategy, new and
creative thinking. Old thinking pushes
in the past while new thinking leads to
the future. Traditional diplomatic
strategies and instruments are not
helpful for managing relations with
China in this part of the 21st century.
China delivers while others talk and
default. It is therefore critical for
Bangladesh to always bear in mind the
big picture and to adopt a strategic long
term rather than a tactical short term
approach with China. Indeed, Chinese
like to assess the intentions of its
counterpart and view any given
reaction or response as integral part of
a process to build a long term
connection. It is therefore imperative
that Bangladesh consistently maintain
credibility in bilateral engagements
with China by continuous dialogue and
exchange
of
visions.
Indeed,
Bangladeshs strategic culture must
adapt to the new realities of power and
balance- between the pragmatism of
Kautilya and idealism of Sunzi, in order
to evolve a more engaged foreign
policy and ensure its stability, security
and prosperity in a fast-changing
regional and global order.
Prof. Ataur Rahman, President,
Bangladesh Political Science
Association & Chairman, Initiative for
Strategic and Maritime Studies can be
reached at prof.ataur@gmail.com
I Page: 19
Probe Special
Eye donation
lacks awareness
The eye donation programme has come to a standstill due to
lack of awareness
by SHAfiQ rAHMAn
onating one's eyes after

death is not a very
widespread practice in
Bangladesh. Though the
Sandhani National Eye Donation
Society has been carrying out a
movement in this regard for the last
three decades, there has not been much
response to the eye donation
programme. As a result, over 500
thousand people become blind due to
lack of cornea.
The reasons why this programme
hasn't gained momentum are religious
dogma, erroneous interpretations of
religious scripture and lack of social
awareness.
The Sandhani National Eye Donation
Society was established in 1984, aimed
at eliminating cornea-related blindness.
That very year the programme began
with the restoration of the eyesight of a
young blind girl Tuntuni of Rangpur.
Since then, in the 30 years of Sandhani,
comprising senior doctors and persons

established in various sectors of society,
a total of 36,211 persons have pledged
to donate their eyes after death. Many
of them have died, but the society only
received the cornea of 102 persons. The
number of corneas received is much
less than the number of pledges made
because in most cases the families of the
deceased persons do not cooperate,
Sandhani
Coordinator
says
Mohammed Saiful Islam Chowdhury.
He says that the cornea must be
collected within six hours of a person's
natural biological death. That is why it
is the family's responsibility to
immediately inform the closest
Sandhani society as soon as the donor
dies. However, in most cases the
families do not carry out this
responsibility. Saiful Islam Chowdhury
says they do not even accept this
normally.
Referring to non-cooperation from
the families, Saiful Islam Chowdhury
says that renowned actor Humayun
Faridi had pledged to donate his eyes
after death. After he died, his family
did not inform Sandhani in time. As a
result, it wasn't possible to collect his
cornea.
Other well-known persons who
pledged to donate their eyes were
Professor Dr. Humayun Azad and
popular writer Humayun Ahmed. But
both of them died abroad and so
Sandhani couldn't get their cornea.
according to
government records, in
the other hand, the crude
death rate of the country
is 7.8%. that means,
according to this data,
every year 1.1 million
people die. even if only
1.5% of these dead
people's cornea could be
obtained, it would be
possible to eliminate
cornea-related blindness
in the country
I Page: 20
Probe Special
Seeing
thru
the eyes of
Matin
and
fayez
ollege teacher Iqbal Kabir and

health worker Reshma Nasreen
are seeing the world anew
through the eyes of language
movement hero Abdul Matin. Matin's
cornea has been transplanted into
their eyes. While undergoing
treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujib Medical University (BSMMU),
on 5 September Abdul Matin
announced his decision to donate his
body to the students of Dhaka Medical
College and his eyes to Sandhani.
When he died on 8 September,
The eminent persons whose cornea
was successfully donated after death
include Professor Ahmed Sharif, poet
and journalist Fayez Ahmed, and
language movement hero Abdul Matin.
Saiful Islam said that their families'
cooperation made it possible to collect
their cornea in time.
Quoting a report regarding a study
on eye diseases in India's Andhra
Pradesh, Sandhani says that there are
over 1.4 million blind persons in
Bangladesh. And every year another 40
thousand blind people are added to the
list. And .33% of these blinds persons
have lost their eye sight due to cornea
defects. That means there are over 500
thousand cornea-related blind persons
in the country.
According to government records, in
the other hand, the crude death rate of
the country is 7.8%. That means,
according to this data, every year 1.1
million people die. Even if only 1.5% of
these dead people's cornea could be
obtained, it would be possible to
FAyEz AhmED
ABDul mATiN
Sandhani collected his eyes. The next

day at the Sandhani eye hospital in the
city, his two corneas were transplanted
in Iqbal and Reshma's eyes.
Reshma (27) is from the village
Shialpur of Dhamrai upazila, Dhaka.
She is a health care provider at the
Suapur community clinic in the
upazila. Two years ago the cornea of
her left eye began to give trouble. She
turned completely blind in that eye.
Now she can see with both eyes.
Mohammed Iqbal Kabir (40) teaches
at the Banglabazar Chandgazi School
and College of Chhagalnaiyya upazila,

Feni district. He lost the sight of his
left eye two years ago due to
glaucoma.
In 2012, the eyesight of 29-year-old
software engineer Tajharul Islam and
25-year-old Mohammed Saiful Islam,
was eyesight was restored when
journalist and poet Fayez Ahmed's
corneas were transplanted. In 2002
Fayez Ahmed had pledged his eyes
and his body to Bangladesh Medical
College Hospital.n
eliminate cornea-related blindness in

the country, says Dr AKM Salek,
Professor of Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujib Medical College and Secretary
General of Sandhani National Eye
Donation Society.
Dr Salek says, with the progress of
medical science, many human organs
can be manufactured synthetically now.
But eyes and cornea have no
alternative. After-death donation is still
the only source of cornea. Dr AK Salek

has that there is no alternative to afterdeath eye donation to treat cornearelated blindness.
He says that the cornea is no longer
usable eight hours after a person's
death. Yet the cornea of the dead person
can restore the eyesight of the blind.
This requires empathy towards the
blind and social awareness.
With poor response to the after-death
eye donation appeal, cornea of
unclaimed bodies became main source
of cornea for Sandhani. Mobile phones
and other means of communication
have even reduced the number of
unclaimed bodies. So in an entire year,
Sandhani gets about only 50 to 60
corneas. Yet over 1000 applications for
cornea transplant are pending with
Sandhani. Saiful Islam Chowdhury
says that at the present rate of cornea
collection, it will take over two decades
to meet the pending demands.
He says, till date Sandhani has
collected 3382 corneas and has
I Page: 21
Probe Special
translated 3291.
The voluntary organisation Sandhani
was started up on 5 February 1977, by
students of the medical and dental
college. It initially set out to promote
blood donation. Later, when it wasn't
possible for the medical and dental
college students to carry out the
technical aspects of collecting,
preserving and providing corneas,
senior doctors and established persons
founded the Sandhani National Eye
Donation Society. Presently Sandhani
has 10 eye banks all over the country,
including in nine medical colleges
hospitals and the central office at
Nilkhet.
PrEvAilinG lAwS Of THE lAnD
AnD rEliGiOuS viEwS On EyE
DOnATiOn
After independence, when the need for
after-death eye donation was felt, the
government promulgated the Donation
of Eye Donation Ordinance in 1975. The
ordinance recognised the free donation
of eyes after death. Dr AKM Salek says,
similarly religious rules also approved
of after death donation of eyes. He said,
at the fourth conference of the Makkahbased Fiqh Academy in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, after-death eye donation was
supported and encouraged. Even so,
certain alems in Bangladesh were
spreading false dogma about the matter
and confusing the people, contends Dr
AKM Salek.
Dr AKM Salek gives examples of
other religions, saying that the Hindu,
Christian, Buddhist, Jain and all
religions approved and encourage after
death eye donation. Everyone should
take part in this noble and religious
cause.
Saiful Islam Chowdhury says that
Sandhani spends about Tk 40,000 on
the collection, preservation and
examination of each cornea. Yet
Sandhani takes a mere Tk 1200 as
service charge from the patient.
EliGiBlE DOnOrS
Experts say, regardless of race, religion
or gender, all people can donate
corneas. Even persons with eye defects
can donate corneas. Only the eyes of
those who die of AIDS, viral hepatitis,
rabies, syphilis, tetanus and other
infectious diseases, cannot be used.
Sandhani's eye bank technicians only
remove the cornea from the dead body,
not the entire eye. This cornea is

replaced by an artificial one so as not to
disfigure the dead body.
PErSOnS wHO HAvE PlEDGED
On 14 December, in honour of the
martyred intellectuals and to provide
sight to the blinds, 22 persons,
including poets, journalists, architects
and doctors, pledged to donate their
eyes after death. They include
journalists Kamal Lohani, Sagar
Lohani, architects Shamsul Waris,
Mobassher Hossain, Rabiul Hussain,

poet Rabindra Gope, development
activist Aroma Dutta, actor Pijush
Bandapadhaya and others.
Others who have previously pledged
to donate their eyes after death are,
President Advocate Abdul Hamid,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former
President Badruddoza, former Foreign
Minister Dipu Moni, former Health
Minister AFM Ruhul Huq, Cultural
Minister Asaduzzaman Nur, actresses
Sara Zaker, Suborna Mustafa, singers
I Page: 22
Out of the Box
wAjiD Ali
KHAn PAnni
a new approach to
governance
Good governance is the most important factor in eradicating poverty and
promoting development -- kofi Annan, former uN Secretary General
overnance is a concept comprising

complex mechanisms, processes,
institutions and relationships through
which citizens and groups articulate
their interests, exercise their rights and mediate
their differences. In most of the developing
world, the debate about governance is taking
place within the context of rapid urbanization
combined with political and economic changes.
The challenges of development is not only to
improve the quality of life but also to achieve
higher standards of health, nutrition, a cleaner
environment, more equality of opportunity,
greater individual freedom and a richer cultural
life.
Many of the multilateral organizations
including the United Nations and the World
Bank have stressed the elements of good
governance and their relation to development. In
the Millennium Declaration, world leaders stated
that the development goals could only be
achieved through good or democratic
governance. They pledged to spare no effort to
promote democracy and strengthen the rule of
law.
Democracy cannot function effectively in the
absence of good governance. And both are
complimentary to each other. However,
representative democracy alone
cannot
guarantee
good
governance. It requires an
efficient and non partisan
administrative machinery to carry
out the massive challenges of
governance to achieve the
objectives
of
transparency,
accountability and participation.
Surveying the experience of
developing countries in the years
since the end of colonialism, it is
evident that administration has a
pivotal role to play in socioeconomic development. When we
analyze
the
successful
democracies and economic
powers in the world we can see
that all those countries have an
efficient system of public
administration run by career
bureaucrats.
Singapore is an example. Although Singapore
inherited the same British model of governance
as other Commonwealth states, its governing
system has become widely known for efficiency
and competence, especially in terms of its role in
generating an economic miracle. Between 1988
and 1997, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
increased more than 2.5 times; between 1993 and
1997, it continued to rank very high in terms of its
business-friendly environment; and by 1994, its
per capita GDP ($20,000) surpassed that of
Australia, Canada and the UK.
Since independence, the government
depended on the civil service to build a state and
create the conditions which would maintain it in
power. The notable feature of the government
bureaucracy in Singapore has been the lack of
corruption. Even though critics often repudiate
the repressive and anti-human policies of
Singapore government and administration, one
cannot deny the fact that Singapore has one of the
most efficient and meritocratic administrative
system based on service delivery and
transparency.
In the case of the political systems which have
experience the collapse of democracy and
emergence of authoritarianism, one of the
common denominator, always,
was
politicized
and
dysfunctional administration. We
have several examples including
our own country.
Unfortunately Bangladesh also
had to witness a history of chaos,
instability
and
economic
backwardness like many other
newly emerged nation states in
Asia and Africa. Lack of a
professional
cadre
of
administrators without any
commitment to democratic
values and ethics, has seriously
eroded the prospects of our
countrys
development-both
economic and political. Hence,
reform in civil service and good
governance are urgent need for a
more stable and prosperous
I Page: 23
Out of the Box

Bangladesh. Unfortunately, there is hardly any meaningful
effort towards this goal.
When we became independent in 1971, we inherited an
exploited and war torn economy, under-developed
infrastructure and several other social constraints. Naturally,
the hopes and aspirations of the people looked forward for a
stable and egalitarian welfare state based on the principles of
equality, justice and efficiency. However, after independence
our leaders were too busy in solving the urgent political
expediencies related to power sharing, completely neglecting
the need for laying the strong foundation of an apolitical and
professional civil service based on merit.
In contrast, Indian leaders gave priority to the
administrative system and decided to follow the British Civil
Service system which the country inherited as a colonial
legacy. In spite of Indias massive size and diversities,
administrative structure is uniform with a certain degree of
efficiency and accountability. Though there is change in
governments, no attempt was made to change the pattern of
recruitment or making bureaucracy subservient to political
patronage. This efficient administrative system has helped
the country to secure economic growth and development. On
the contrary, lack of stable and effective administrative
structure coupled with political unrest has seriously affected
our countrys prospects. Even though large amount of public
expenditure was incurred on development, the efforts were
often ended up in mismanagement, corruption and
authoritarianism.
When Bangabandhu was not given the power to form the
government after the 1970 election victory in Pakistan, he
announced a non cooperation movement and asked the
government officers, civil and military administration to lay
down their work till the power was handed over in a
democratic manner. The majority of the East Pakistani officers
supported this movement. When freedom movement began,
this support from administration and military became
widespread and bureaucrats and army officers joined hands
with civilians to attain freedom. This was justifiable as the
circumstances needed the support of entire people
irrespective of civilians and bureaucrats. But after
independence the new country should have checked
politicization of army and bureaucracy as these would have
lead to authoritarianism and corruption.
In India, leaders were able to curb the undue influence of
the army and bureaucracy in politics. The army, navy and air
force come under the Defence Ministry and there are cabinet
committees to oversee the functioning of Army. In short, there
exist several checks and balances to avoid any of the defence
forces to become powerful enough to overthrow civilian
structure. But our leaders failed to check the influence of
army in politics and we had to face the drastic consequences.
Ever since independence, there was a deliberate attempt to
politicize bureaucracy in Bangladesh by all political parties.
Soon after independence, it was freedom fighters who
received undue promotion and patronage through the side
tracking of the others who did not get an opportunity as they
were stuck in Pakistan and were later repatriated.
Competence and efficiency was never taken into
consideration and political affiliation and loyalty were the
parameters for selection and promotion. Our political parties
deliberately ignored the fact that a new born democracy need
efficient and accountable administration rather than a group

of servants.
With every change of government, all the good and
lucrative postings were given to those who have been
victimized for alleged inefficiency or incompetence by the
previous government. Their plea was that the government
considered them supporter of the party in opposition. As a
result of this ongoing drama, we have now pro-Awami
League, pro-BNP and pro-other party bureaucrats. We can
hardly find out a pro-Bangladeshi bureaucrats sincerely
committed to the aspirations of the people over and above his
own party preferences and commitments to leaders in power.
In this process, development goals were often neglected and
most of the time this career civil servants were busy in doing
favors to political masters and their party members. This has
led to widespread corruption and patronage politics.
We have seen civil servants agitating on the streets for their
demands, in some cases demanding change of government,
disrupting the functioning of formal democracy in our
country. We have seen the army taking over power through
coups and counter coups. There were several mutinies in air
force, navy, ansars and civil service too and the latest was the
We have seen civil servants

agitating on the streets for their
demands, in some cases
demanding change of government,
disrupting the functioning of formal
democracy in our country.
mutiny in the BDR which has led to death of many officers
and innocent people. On all these occasion we can see that
our administration miserably failed to control the forces or
civil servants. Moreover, we couldnt take necessary steps to
avoid recurrence. Political parties always used the army and
civil servants for their own selfish motives and vice versa.
This unholy nexus or deal between politics/the army/
bureaucracy is the worst curse of our country.
In spite of such bad governance, Bangladesh has survived
as the people and the local union parishads have been the
backbone of whatever progress we have made. For example
during the 60s, our population was about 70 million and we
were deficit in food by about 30%, now we have 160 million
population with ten percent less cultivable land, due to
urbanization and industrialization. Yet we are producing
sufficient, in fact a surplus. If bureaucracy was not utilized for
political purposes and corruption, Bangladesh could have
gone far ahead in development and poverty alleviation.
Hence, the efforts towards good governance should start
from reform in our civil service.
We need a competent and efficient cadre of civil servants to
address the challenges and opportunities of globalization and
free market economy. Recruitment of civil servants should be
independent impartial and based on pure merit rather than
political background. In India, the All India Service cadres are
selected through a rigorous process of examinations and
I Page: 24
Out of the Box

interview. There is no political interference in selection and
training. Though we have a Public Service Commission
(BPSC) established under the Constitution of the People's
Republic of Bangladesh and works under the provisions of
the Articles 137 to 141 of the Constitution of Bangladesh and
certain other rules and regulations made by the Government;
it remains highly politicized, divided and corrupted. There is
no credibility for the test and interview and the examination
process often lead to mal practices.
When we analyze our history, it is clear that bureaucrats
played a vital role in supporting and sustaining autocratic
regimes in our country as they enjoy enormous power under
authoritarian system. Even our democratic leaders and
parties tend to promote only desirable officers who can
refine the policies and programs as per the dictates of the
party. Sadly, the hopes and aspirations of our civil society and
our much needed developmental concerns have been
sidelined and forgotten. The argumentative and agitating
Bangladeshi society should realize the consequences of this
politicization and should demand for an impartial, nonpolitical and people centric administration which can
perceive each Bangladeshi as a legitimate citizen and not as
pro-Awami League or pro-BNP citizen. For this we need a
movement towards good
governance and efficient
administration.
When bureaucracy is
independent
and
committed towards the
goals of development
administration with less or
no interference from
political masters, the
machinery can function
effectively. There will be
consistency of policies as
well. The reform must start
from recruitment process
itself. Motivated and highly
educated young civil servants recruited on the basis of merit
and promoted only on performance appraisal will indeed
make substantial changes in our governance. This will
certainly facilitate socio economic development and create
free market in our country. Development cannot thrive where
people cannot participate in governance, human rights are
not respected, information does not flow, and civil society
and the judiciary are weak.
Another important area of concern is to provide the best
possible training and benefit packages to civil servants to
make them perform better and reduce the scope for bad
decision making and corruption. There must be effective
rules and restraints to check public authority and corruption.
Independence of judiciary and establishment of an
independent commission to check corruption are also
important. All government programs will work better, if
there is democracy and all stakeholders are consulted.
Low administrative ethics and corruption are no doubt a
worldwide phenomenon. But its effects are most disastrous
in developing countries like Bangladesh. The countrys policy
makers must realize that its social and economic costs are
virtually devastating.
We should focus on another cornerstone of real democracy
- strengthening local government institutions as these can

ensure better public service delivery and transparency.
Though Bangladesh has a long history of local governments,
the structure and content of local governments and its service
delivery are far from satisfactory. Moreover, successive
governments were not keen to strengthen local bodies to
make administration more accountable and representative.
Bureaucratic control over local government is visible in each
decision making process which makes the rural
representatives mere puppets of government or bureaucracy.
The lowest operating elected level (the union parishad or
UP) has limited resources, little revenue raising authority,
and is dominated by the district and upazilla administration.
They have, therefore, almost no influence on how the
government uses its resources in their areas.
Local bodies in Bangladesh often act like organizations of
ruling party in power. There should be independent local
government commission to control and monitor the local
government
To overcome these defects, political will from the
policymakers and role of civil society is required. Moreover
the agenda of decentralization should go along with the
efforts towards good governance. Decentralization is
meaningful only when it is
implemented along with
other economic and political
reform. In the absence of a
responsive government and
undivided community spirit,
decentralization may lead to
corruption, emergence of
local elites and disparity.
Lord Acton once said that
power
corrupts
and
absolutes power corrupts
absolutely. So what we need
urgently is to check any form
of authoritarianism and
misuse of power whether it is from political parties or civil
servants or the army. When a new government was elected
last year with thumbing majority we expected that our
country will herald a new era. But it is not happening as the
problem lies in our structure and unless we sincerely address
the deficiencies in our political system and initiate an
institution building efforts, we cant meet the demands of our
next generation. They will inherit the same legacy full of
frustrations, mutiny and bad governance.
Democratically elected government is not a magic lamp to
solve the problems of instability and violence. The
government must tolerate the opposition and make a
consensus with them on all important issues. There should be
freedom of press and expression and political control over
national security forces. There should be a disciplined law
and order machinery to control and check any anarchic
politics which often threatens the very survival of the political
system. Thus the new strategies should deviate from the
conventional methods and should focus on reshaping the
entire socio-political structure of the country.n
I Page: 25
Guest Column
COUNtERING tHE SHaItaNS
iKraM Sehgal
t last count the Peshawar carnage of

numbered 9 teachers and 132 children
killed, 141 and still counting. The
incongruous thing is that Talibaan
translated means students, can those who kill
our schoolchildren be themselves called
Talibaan? They should be called the devils
(Shaitans) that they are. The perverted ideology
of such animals has nothing to do with Islam,
those who massacred our innocents cannot claim
to be muslims by any stretch of imagination.
Were the Shaitans successful because of a
security lapse? Off course they were. And on
whose shoulders should responsibility rest? On
all of us is the right answer, this includes the
Federal and Provincial Govts, their civil and
police administration, the Armed Forces,
intelligence agencies, politicians, common
citizens etc. But can you stop someone
determined to die from accomplishing his (or
her) evil mission?
No amount of passive
protection can prevent this, active protection
means taking the fight to them, taking them out
at their roots. Such terrorism as being practiced
in Pakistan is impossible to perpetrate without
foreign funding and logistics support, their
foreign sponsors must be exposed.
Logistics for terrorist hideouts, money,
ammunition, supplies, uniforms, vehicles, safe
mobility through the streets etc may be the
responsibility of the Provincial LEAs to interdict,
this does not absolve the Federal Govt and their
myriad number of intelligence agencies.
faMily MeMBerS Mourn MohaMMed ali Khan, 15, Who WaS Killed at the arMy
puBlic School in peShaWar
Unfortunately their tactical commitment 24/7 in

routine functions in any case degenerates the
ability of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to
pick early warning signals of impending hostile
action and slows down their response time. The
police are unable to take the initiative in actively
locating and ferreting out terrorists from various
localities. The democratically elected political
elite can afford private security, flush with illgotten money, the egos of our so-called VIPs
require blocking entire roads and moving
around with whole convoys of police (and
Rangers) mobiles with flashing lights and
blaring sirens. Unless local police comply with
their fashion statement, they are harassed,
transferred and/or terminated, Karachi and
Sindh are the sorriest examples. Diverting
significant police personnel from their given task
of policing relegates the police to a passive
role and affects the security and sanctity of the
common citizen and his property.
From the Karachi Airport incident we learnt
the following lessons, viz (1) non-existent unity
of command (2) lack of coordinated intelligence
gathering and sharing (3) lack of adequate
weapons, equipment, vehicles, light helicopters,
etc (4) lack of trained manpower dedicated to
tackling terrorism and protecting sensitive sites
(5) duplication of effort and (6) bureaucratic
interference and insensitivity to LEAs financial
requirements. Without actionable intelligence
being shared immediately, terrorism cannot be
countered.
The Federal Minister for Interior Ch Nisar Ali
Khan announced a well-crafted National
Security Policy, and then stopped right there.
And why? Nobody knows why the de-activated
National Counter-Terrorism Authority called
NACTA remains de-activated despite the
political rhetoric about its imminent activation
we keep hearing about as an endless refrain.
What about security at schools and colleges?
Both public and private educational institutions
(like the Army Public School) (APS) are soft
targets for the Shaitans. While the State must be
responsible for the overall security of all its
citizens, it is the responsibility of individuals and
organisation to further augment their own
security. APS should have anticipated such an
attack and reinforced their security in the wake
of the success of Operation Zarb-e-Azb. Both
public and private schools are all targets
considered soft enough for the Shaitans to act,
they must themselves also take immediate steps
to secure themselves and not simply pass on the
responsibility to the State.
Critical assets such as ports, airports, etc must
I Page: 26
Guest Column
people place pictureS of victiMS of the paKiStan taliBan attacK on the arMy puBlic School, during a candle light vigil in iSlaMaBad
come under a unified command dedicated to organizing,

planning, training, equipping and implementing both
protection and counter-terrorism response. The mission
statement for protecting public assets (airports) and nonpublic assets (airbases) remains the same, the criteria for
actual deployment of protection may differ. At present our
protection, response and rescue efforts remain fragmented,
even the Armys Defence Security Guards (DSG) are
supplemented in their task by denuding the fighting
formations of infantry units on makeshift arrangements.
The Border and Internal Security Forces i.e. Rangers in
Sindh and Punjab, Frontier Corps (FC) in KPK and
Balochistan, and FIAs Immigration, report to the Ministry of
Interior, ASF to Aviation Division and Anti-Narcotics Force
(ANF) to the Ministry of Narcotics Control. Officered by the
Army, all have multiple parents except for Immigration, the
crisscrossing channels of command causing confusion and
duplication. A Homeland Security Command comprising
all the aforementioned (including the DSG) must a be
dedicated and effective single command and control
mechanism for protection of strategic assets and countering
terrorism. Headed by a senior three star general, preferably
someone having actual combat and internal security
relativeS of a Student, Who WaS inJured during an attacK By

taliBan gunMen on the arMy puBlic School
experience, it should immediately take over security of ports,

airports, air, army and naval bases etc. Rangers and FC must
separate their internal security and border security
contingents. Even without NACTA becoming an integral
part, a Counterterrorism Force (CTF) can be developed
from within this Command. In the absence of any movement
from the Federal Govt the Army was politely encouraged to
do the needful by re-organisation within GHQ, a sustained
silence was the answer.
The PM has taken a very courageous decision in removing
the despicable moratorium imposed by former President Asif
Zardari on death sentences on terrorists, going one step
further he has ordered that it would start being implemented
in 48 hours. Last time around Mian Nawaz Sharif had only
extended the moratorium because the Sharifs received a fax
threatening his family. It takes courage to exercise such
political will in the face of such threats and I commend that.
Someone convicted for taking a human life (or lives) must
pay the price according to law.
Gen Raheel Sharifs immediate visit to Kabul was very
important, one has no doubt about the sincerity of the Afghan
President. With the evidence of those unsolved, if his people
are in control of the perpetuator he will hand him over. If
nothing else he will not stop the likes of Mullah Fazlullah
from using Afghan soil against us. The time for rhetoric is
over, it is time to take action against the Shaitans. The media
also has a responsibility, it must not give space to the
representatives of the Shaitans in our midst. In fact they can
start by remaining the Tehrik-e-Talibaan Pakistan (TTP) as
Tekrik-e-Shaitan Pakistan (TSP), a simple matter of changing
the alphabet T with the alphabet S.
Combining unity of command with amalgamated
intelligence potential and commonality of personnel,
weapons and equipment, etc under one single entity saves
money by avoiding duplication. Instead of lip-service
rhetoric and vacillation, there must be a credible and effective
counter to the existential terrorism threat faced by this
country.
Peshawar has shown in graphic bloody detail what tragedy
our built-in complacency can bring! Let us all unite to
counter the Shaitans.n
I Page: 27
Media
MEdIa UNdER fIRE IN

tURkEy
Bangladeshi journalists and members of civil society protest
by PArvEz HAliM
ustafa Kemal Ataturk is

said to be the father of
modern Turkey. He led the
war of independence
against the invading powers and
established free and democratic nation.
The prerequisite of democracy is
freedom of expression, press freedom
and protection of citizens rights.
Kemal Ataturk fulfilled his vision by
establishing independent Turkey in
1923. But today in Turkey, democracy is
at risk.
There are allegations of corruption
and mismanagement against the
Erdoan led government of the time.
The government has turned Turkey
into a police state in order to remain in
power. Critics have accused the
administration of systematically
intimidating, arresting and oppressing
anyone with a difference of opinion
than the current ruling class.
wHAT HAPPEnED in TurKEy?
December 17 and 25 of 2013 revealed
the biggest corruption and bribery
scandal in the history of the republic, in
which some members of the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party)
government as well as family members
of President Recep Tayyip Erdoan
were allegedly implicated.
Since December 17, Erdoan has
claimed the corruption investigations
were a coup attempt by influential
international groups and their proxies
in Turkey to topple the AK Party
government. As this argument failed to
convince public, he targeted the
parallel structure, a clear reference to
sympathizers of the faith-based Hizmet
movement inspired by Turkish Islamic
scholar Fethullah Glen.
Since the investigations were made
public in December 2013, Erdoan has
sought to discredit the prosecutors and
policemen behind the investigations by
accusing them of working to oust the
AK Party from power. The prosecutors

and policemen -- along with tens of
thousands of others -- have already
been displaced.
Erdoan had no alternative but to
sack four ministers of his cabinet on the
grounds of corruption. Turkish
president Erdoan openly declared war
against the media and banned the You
Tube and the Twitter. For the last one
year since then, the media in Turkey
has been repressed.
On the eve of the first year
anniversary of corruption case, on
December 14, 2014, police arrested
twenty three people, including
journalists,
for
criticizing
the
government and raided media offices
all over the country. The government
said that the arrested persons were
followers of Fethullah Gulen and were
conspiring
to
overthrow
the
government. The arrested persons
include Turkey's most widely
circulated daily Zaman's Chief Editor
Ekrem Dumanli, head of Samanyolu
TV Hidayet Karaca and three top police
officers. Within days of his detainment,
the court dropped the case against
Dumanli due to lack of evidence.
Before his arrest, Dumanli spoke to
journalists from his own newspaper
office in Istanbul, saying, "History will
remember those in Turkey who are
forging ahead for democracy, without
looking back." He said, "This is not a
fight between revolution and the
government. We just need to save
democracy."
Analysts say, the government began
collective repression on individuals
and institutions they did not share their
views and deflect attention from the
corruption probes of 2013. One such
target is Fethullah Gulen. He was
deeply
influential
in
the
democratization of Turkey and the
establishment of press freedom. He
encouraged the formation of free press
institutions including the daily Zaman

and Samanyolu TV. A Turkey analyst of
Human Rights Watch Emma SinclairWebb has said, it seems that the dispute
between the sympathizers of Fethullah
Gulen and Erdoan this time is political
and that is why the media is being
targeted again. She said that there were
political motives behind the recent
mass arrests. Hardly any of the criminal
charges brought against them can be
proven. Emma Sinclair-Webb said that
if such incidents were repeated then
Turkey's image would be tarnished
internationally.
Fethullah Gulen is presently selfexiled in the US state Pennsylvania. He
had supported Erdoan's initiatives for
improving democracy and economic
development and the accession to
European Union in the past.
BAnGlADESHi jOurnAliSTS
AnD Civil SOCiETy PrOTEST
Journalists and members of the civil
society in the European Union, the US
and other countries have strongly
condemned the mass arrests. In
Bangladesh too, Dhaka's journalists
and members of the civil society said,
Turkey is known as a democratic
country and so the government of the
country should deal with journalists
that is the citizens, in a democratic
manner.
Manzurul Ahsan Bulbul, President
of one faction of Bangladesh Federal
Union of Journalists (BFUJ), told
PROBE, in comparison to the other
Muslim countries, Turkey is known as a
modern democratic state. "We want to
see Turkey as a modern state," he said,
"The manner, in which the present
government there is oppressing and
repressing persons with different
views,
is
unacceptable.
He
said, "Erdoan's government is
intervening in freedom of the media
and freedom of expression by arresting
the journalists. We protest against this
and condemn this. There is no
similarity between the Turkey of Kemal
Ataturks ideals and the present Turkey.
If things continued in this manner,
democracy, freedom of expression and
human rights in the country would be
at risk. This was unacceptable."
Senior journalist Mahfuz ullah said,
in many countries nowadays, there is a
growing intolerance for difference of
opinion. The governments are using the
state machinery against the opposing
quarters. Turkey is suffering from the
I Page: 28
Media
zaMan editor-in-chief eKreM duManli, Surrounded By hiS colleagueS and plainclotheS police officerS (c), reactS aS he leaveS the
headquarterS of zaMan daily neWSpaper.
same propensity. We are not just

distressed, but we are angry at the
manner in which the government is
treating the media and journalists
there.
Mahfuz Ullah said, "Turkey has seen
several military coups. The army
always plays an important role in
politics there. I feel that the army is
supporting whatever Erdoan is doing.
Now it is to be seen how long the army
backs him. In no way can such
autocratic behavior be acceptable in a
democratic country. A country's
democracy can be measured by how
free its media is. Democracy cannot be
ushered in with police and the
government's
forces.
The
sooner Erdoan's government realizes
this, the better. Many try to portray
Fethullah Gulen as a fundamentalist
leader, but I differ from this completely.
Gulen is fighting for democracy. His
ideology is not that of fundamentalism
at all."
"During my visit to the various print
and electronic media houses in Turkey,
including the daily Zaman, I was really
impressed by the sheer professionalism
of the media there," said irtiza nasim
Ali, Chief Editor of PROBE News

Magazine. "Turkey must be credited for
such a dedicated and committed media.
It is regrettable that the present
government there has not encouraged
and promoted such vibrant journalism.
On the contrary, it has cracked down on
the free voice of media. It could have
collaborated
with
the
media
in furthering Turkey's democratic
development, rather than taking the
typical dictatorial route of repression. I
can only hope the authorities see, sense
and change their present policies. They
will have to pay the price if they do not.
I join in the collective voice of the global
media, condemning the oppressive
action against press freedom in Turkey
and demand the release of the arrested
journalists. This is a matter of
fundamental human rights."
Abdul Hye Sikdar, President of one
faction of Dhaka Journalists Union,
said, wherever in the world a blow is
dealt to the media and journalists that is
certainly blatant interference in
freedom of speech. We condemn the
arrest of journalists and citizens who
are fighting for democracy in Turkey
and demand the release of the arrested
persons. The Erdoan government

must not interfere in the independence
of the media and must stop oppressing
the people so the democracy is not at
risk there.
Professor nazrul islam, former
Chairman of the University Grants
Commission, has said, "I have visited
Turkey and know it to be a democratic
country. In any democratic country
there should be space for dissenting
voices. The manner in which the rights
of the liberals there, with differences of
opinion, are being trampled upon, and
journalists
being
arrested,
is
condemnable. The Turkish government
must stop all oppression, assaults and
cases in order to keep the path of
democracy open."
Mohammed zamir, former diplomat
and former Chief Information
Commissioner, said to PROBE, "I
believe in the right to express one's
views. Just as it is the media's
responsibility to bring all allegations to
the attention of the public, it is also vital
to highlight the facts in the light of
moral and legal laws. n
I Page: 29
Region I Nepal
bsurdity has always been the

hallmark of Nepali politics
so it is not surprising that
even the best in the business
have given up trying to make sense of
it.
When I met political science
professor Krishna Khanal earlier this
week to seek answers, this is how he
began: Let me be very frank, if we go
by the logic that the parties are
concentrating all their efforts on
constitution drafting, we will miss the
whole picture.
To be sure, overall environment for
drafting the statute has improved. The
sentiments have calmed down, the
streets are quieter and parties are now
trying to reason on issues where they
earlier were impulsive. However, the
political environment remains murky.
As early as 2011, I had argued that
the sticking point was not so much on
the number of provinces, name or the
forms of governance. They only appear
as immediate factors of contention
among the parties who are looking to
score long-term brownie points for
their role in drafting the new
constitution.
There will always be many sides to
the story, but one of the main reasons
why the first CA was dissolved is
because NC and UML were scared that
the Maoists and the Madhesis were
running away with their share of the
credit. Three years later, the tables are
turned and this time it is the Maoists
and the Madhesis who harbour similar
fears about the NC-UML taking all the
credit for the new constitution Then
there are also the personal political
ambitions at stake here. UMLs KP Oli
wants to wait till January and push for
the unity government under himself,
while Prime Minister Sushil Koirala is
determined to see the statute written
while he is in office. Sher Bahadur
Deuba, Madhav Nepal, Pushpa Kamal
Dahal and Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar
are all looking to secure their positions
within their parties and in the
government beforehand. They all know
that once the statute is finalised the
political alignments can change
dramatically.
Fingers can be pointed in any
direction, but the reason Maoists and
the Madhesis will not agree to the NCUML joint proposal today is the same
reason why NC-UML decided to reject
Contentious consensus
There is much more to the constitution
debate than the constitution
by AnAnDA rAM DAnGOl
State Restructuring Commissions

report and go back on agreement of 15
May 2012, which they are now calling
obsolete.
The good news is that the parties
arent as insecure of their legacy and
contribution in the drafting process as
they were back then. So, despite being
in the opposition and disagreeing on
several issues, the Maoists and the
Madhesis will still have sufficient
incentive to cooperate in finalising the
SuShil Koirala
draft.
The decision to take the contentious
issue for an open debate in the CA is an
encouraging development in this
regard. However, the ruling parties
must not stifle the debate and use
numerical strength to dictate their
terms inside the house.
Particularly on the issue of state
restructuring, the parties must arrive at
an agreeable model even if it has some
economic implications, rather than the
one that will breed conflict in the long
run, Prof Khanal told me. Because the
issue of inclusion and identity has been
at the heart of all recent political
movements.
Indeed, constitution drafting is not
just a technical exercise where the focus
is exclusively on content. It is as much a
political exercise which requires
broader ownership and acceptance. The
personal credibility and negotiation
skills of the leaders matter more than
the numerical strengths to back their
decisions. The Maoists realised this
once they were in the government,
Sushil Koirala and KP Oli know that by
now, too.
In the end, like all things political, it
I Page: 30
Region I Pakistan
taking a stand
by KAMAl SiDDiQi
t is brave of people like Gibran

Nasir, who once stood for elections
from the infamous NA250
constituency against Dr Arif Alvi
of the PTI, and other members of civil
society to protest against Moulvi Abdul
Aziz of the Lal Masjid fame.
That Moulvi Abdul Aziz finally
apologized for his earlier statement in
which he had not condemned the
Peshawar killings is a small victory for
those who oppose extremism in the
country. But this is just the tip of the
iceberg. How many more do we have to
name and shame and how many will
actually see the error of their ways.
The army has reacted swiftly to the
tragic killings in Peshawar and rightly
so. But can we sustain the momentum
that has been built up? It is not just a
war of might. It is also a war of the
mind. We may win momentarily on the
battlefield but how are we doing in
terms of the propaganda war. There are
still people in the country who are
convinced that the Taliban are not
responsible for the actions that have
taken place and that a third force is at
play. What more is needed to wake
these people from their slumber.
We are told that the National Action
Plan to fight terrorism will go to the
roots of the problem. This means
unearthing the different sources of
income of terror organizations across

the country and identifying those who
support such entities. This is easier said
than done and requires a very clear
political will.
We have to set aside past allegiances
and work for the betterment of the
country. A number of people who
worked for our countrys interests are
now working against them. We have to
identify them and take action against
them.
Lord Palmerston (1784-1865), Foreign
Secretary and two-time Prime Minister
under Queen Victoria once said We
have no permanent allies, we have no
permanent enemies, we only have
permanent interests. We should work
under the same principle.
No militant organization can survive
without money no matter how strong it
is in terms of its ideology. What have
we done to cut that lifeline? Money is

collected in a number of ways from
voluntary donations to money raised
through bhatta, kidnapping, bank
robberies and other avenues. We have
not done much to catch those behind
these crimes. And the more the
criminals are successful, the bolder they
get.
While many lament the killings of
children in Peshawar, there is no
sincere effort to understand how this
happened and why it happened. On the
one hand, as a country we have
continued to slide into intolerance and
militancy but we are not ready to
address this and look for short cuts and
scapegoats instead.
Take for example how we treat
people who take the law into their
hands at the behest of one ideology or
another. In most instances, we let them
go. Our justice system blames the law
enforcement agencies and vice versa.
More unforgivable is how we have
not reacted to the killings of people
who took a stand. There are several
cases of law enforcement officials and
civilians who were targeted because
they took a stand against extremists.
In most instances, we have not traced
their killers or in any way set an
example so that such acts may not be
repeated. In fact, we have done the
opposite and not done much, which in
turn emboldened the killers into
spreading their terror even further.
Politicians have also played politics.
There are those who have directly
applauded the extremists while there
are others who have done it indirectly.
In the words of Ms Sherry Rehman
who in 2011 accused her own party of
appeasing extremists, if anyone
engaged in the apologist narrative
when it comes to terrorism and terrorist
attacks, they would be considered as
terrorists and allies of the terrorists.
These are brave words from a brave
woman.
The question now is whether we
have learnt our lessons. Only time will
tell how serious the government is in
tackling this problem. So far the prime
minister and the army chief have made
all the right moves. Let us hope that this
resolve to fight terrorism and
extremism is not only sustained but
also looks at areas we have ignored in
the past. Only then will things change
for the better.n
I Page: 31
Region I Sri Lanka
Naked Self Interest,
Public Good and

Popular Politics
by Siri HETT, University of Colombo
ri Lanka once again is at the

crossroads. In this regard, the
message that is coming from the
political platforms is loud and
clear; the country is broadly divided
into two
opposing camps, one
advocating the perpetuation of the
status quo, the other arguing for a
radical departure from the present
political practice. While those who
argue for a radical shift point out that
there is a need to restore good
governance and rule of law and
everything that follows, those who
advocate the continuation of the
present political culture do not see any
need for such a change.
Sri Lanka was once hailed as a model
democracy in Asia. Post-colonial
political elites who took over power
from the British rulers adopted the
principles, values and practices of
modern democratic government.
Politics came to be guided mostly by
political ideologies. A broad consensus
regarding the purpose of politics
emerged and this was widely shared by

the political community irrespective of
ideological divisions. The main
objective of a popularly elected
government was to bring about social
and economic change through public
policies. In a country characterised by
wide social and economic disparities,
public policies were regarded as the
primary means of achieving economic
development and distributive justice.
Political leaders mostly coming from
privileged social backgrounds at the
time did not perceive politics as a way
of enriching themselves and their
retinue. Instead, most of them wished
to create opportunities for the
disadvantaged groups to have a better
standard of living. As a consequence,
most of the public policies adopted
after independence were of an
egalitarian nature. Free education, free
healthcare, re-distribution of land
among the landless, social security
benefits for wage earners, food
subsidies and subsidised public
transport were clear cases in point.
" Many gullible people in the country

do not seem to understand the
cynicism of political leaders and
therefore, actively support their antisocial behaviour that involves gross
violations of the law and a total
disregard for democratic norms"
Universal free education emerged in
post-independence Sri Lanka as the
most pervasive means of upward social
mobility benefiting an increasing
proportion of the under-privileged
population, particularly in rural areas.
Hundreds of thousands of youngsters
from ordinary families moved into
positions of influence and privilege in
many state institutions in such areas as
education, health, industry, public
administration, judiciary and even
foreign service. Yet, the situation today
in the sphere of education as well as in
other areas is quite different. There are
not only serious problems but also
unprecedented inequities in education,
health, transport, land ownership,
justice, etc. and these adversely affect
the life chances of disadvantaged
groups. But, there are no serious state
interventions to address the issues
involved. This is partly due to the
changes that have taken place in the
sphere of politics.
As is well known, democratisation of
politics that followed political
independence enabled many people
from humble backgrounds to become
active politicians. Though political
positions did not carry many privileges
and perquisites in the first few decades
after independence, the situation
changed dramatically in the late 1970s
when enhanced privileges were offered
to politicians elected to public office,
making political office highly attractive
to aspiring political activists. With the
introduction of the open economic
I Page: 32
Region I Sri Lanka
policy in 1977 and consequent

development of a vibrant consumer
culture in the country, the urge to earn
more and more money and even amass
wealth became quite strong.
The spread of exclusive consumerist
lifestyles lured many people into
conspicuous consumption involving
luxury housing, expensive motor cars,
overseas travel, private and overseas
education for children, private
healthcare, etc. Many politicians, and
their close associates, could not resist
the temptation. While their regular
incomes were grossly inadequate to
adopt and maintain such a consumerist
lifestyle, abuse of their positions to
amass wealth became the obvious way
out for many of them. This possibility
also made political office so attractive
to some people that their main reason
for getting into politics today is the
possibility of using political office to
attain their personal goals. In this
context, how one gains political power
is immaterial as it has largely become
an instrumental activity devoid of any
intrinsic value or a larger public
purpose.
So, politics today is an arena where
many people pursue their naked selfinterests. For them, public interest is
largely irrelevant, though they would
naturally talk about people and their

interests in public. Since many of them
perceive political office as the only
means available to them to secure and
retain undue privileges at public
expense, they cannot care less about
how they get there. This is the reason
why many politicians have virtually no
regard for rule of law or any long
established rules of the game.
In countries where the rule of law
and democratic principles are
undermined by various forces such as
self-seeking
politicians,
vested
interests, terrorist groups, etc. , social
justice, equity and peace become the
first casualties. The pursuit of power at
any cost leaves little room for any
norms, standards and long established
traditions. This naturally makes the
democratic process rather hollow and
meaningless. While some hapless
citizens would accept such a situation
in a fatalistic manner, others might
actively search for alternative paths. It
is in this context that the undermining
of democracy can prepare the ground
for violent resistance movements.
In multi-party democracies, political
parties
representing
different
ideologies, diverse interest groups and
classes provide relatively stable
building blocks of the political system.
Such a situation prevailed in this

country too at least until the late 1990s.
The situation has changed dramatically
since then. Many politicians do no
longer seem to worry about the wider
public interest or even the future
prospects of the country. All that seems
to matter to them is their present and
future prospects. The self- seeking
individuals who have rallied round
them for their own benefit would also
do everything to justify the actions of
their political patrons. Yet, what is
tragic is that the actions of selfish
politicians adversely affect not only the
life chances of many citizens today but
also the future prospects of the country
itself. Meanwhile, many politicians
have become so cynical about their role
in politics. Yet, many gullible people in
the country do not seem to understand
the cynicism of political leaders and
therefore, actively support their antisocial behaviour that involves gross
violations of the law and a total
disregard for democratic norms. The
question that the right thinking citizens
in this country need to ponder over is
whether they could liberate themselves
from the grip of cynical and scheming
politicians who pursue their naked selfinterest at any cost under the guise of
protecting the interests of the nation.n
I Page: 33
International
american torture
PaSt, PRESENt, aNd... fUtURE?

Could the Senate torture report be the opening to really make u.S. torture a thing of the past?
by rEBECCA GOrDOn
ts the political story of the week in

Washington. At long last, after the
endless stalling and foot-shuffling,
the arguments about redaction and
CIA computer hacking, the claims that
its release might stoke others out there
in the Muslim world to violence and
throw the C.I.A. to the wolves, the
reportyou know which oneis out.
Or at least, the redacted executive
summary of it is available to be read
and, as Senator Mark Udall said before
its release, When this report is
declassified, people will abhor what
they read. Theyre gonna be disgusted.
Theyre gonna be appalled. Theyre
gonna be shocked at what we did.
So now we can finally consider the
partial release of the long-awaited
report from the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence about the
gruesome CIA interrogation methods
used during the Bush administrations
Global War on Terror. But heres one
important thing to keep in mind: this
report addresses only the past practices
of a single agency. Its narrow focus
encourages us to believe that, whatever
the CIA may have once done, that
whole sorry torture chapter is now
behind us.
In other words, the moment we get to
read it, its already time to turn the
page. So be shocked, be disgusted, be
appalled, but dont be fooled. The
Senate torture report, so many years
and obstacles in the making, should
only be the starting point for a
discussion, not the final word on U.S.
torture. Heres why.
Mainstream coverage of U.S. torture
in general, and of this new report in
particular, rests on three false
assumptions:
1. The most important question is
whether torture worked.
2. U.S. torture ended when George
W. Bush left office.
3. The only kind of torture that really
counts happens in foreign war zones.

Lets look at each of these in order.
False Assumption #1: The only
question is Did it work?
Maybe torture worked on
occasion. Probably it didnt. But it
doesnt matter because torture is illegal
under U.S. and international law, and
its a moral abomination.
The Senate reports first finding and
the one that much of a highly
predictable debate will focus on is that
the CIAs enhanced interrogation
techniques were ineffective in
identifying the perpetrators of 9/11,
producing actionable intelligence, or
preventing terrorist attacks. In
response, the rhetoric is already flying.
The Republicans (except for Senator
John McCain) are jumping up and
down shouting It did work! It did!
The presidents own CIA director, John
Brennan, has issued his denunciation of
the report. While acknowledging that
the Agency made mistakes, he, too,
insisted that torture worked. (A
couple of days later, he backtracked,
suggesting instead that the answer to
this
question
was
actually
"unknowable.") Other former officials
of the Agency are chiming in big time.
In the end, it doesnt matter whether
the
CIAs
methodsincluding
waterboarding (which McCain calls
mock execution and an exquisite

form of torture); inflicting week-long
sleep deprivation; repeated beatings;
hanging people by their wrists for days,
bombarding them with unbearable
sound and light or keeping them in
total darkness; threatening to sexually
abuse their mothers or harm their
children; or, in possibly five cases,
shoving a tube up someones rectum
and filling it with water (supposedly
for
rectal
rehydration)were
effective. It doesnt matter whether
these methods led the Navy Seals to
Osama bin Laden. It doesnt matter
whether these methods prevented an
al-Qaeda attack on the Library Tower in
Los Angeles. It doesnt matter whether
they saved American (and only
American!) lives. In fact, for those who
read the report, the Senate committee is
remarkably convincing on a subject
about which we already have much
information: torture notoriously does
not produce useful information. It
produces a tangled mess of truths, halftruths, lies, wild invention and
confabulation, psychotic ravings, and
desperate attempts to say whatever the
victim thinks the torturers want to hear.
But none of this matters. Nor does it
matter how frightened we are. The
situation isnt complicated. We are not
allowed to torture people, because we
have passed laws against it and signed
treaties saying we wont do it. The U.N.
Convention Against Torture, which the
U.S. signed in 1994, makes it very clear
that being afraid of an attack is no
excuse for torture. In Article 2, the
Convention states, No exceptional
circumstances whatsoever, whether a
state of war or a threat of war, internal
political instability, or any other public
emergency, may be invoked as a
justification of torture. People will
always make excuses, but there is no
legitimate excuse for torture.
Whats at stake here is the kind of
I Page: 34
International
country we want to be: Are we a
courageous nation ruled by laws or a
nation of cowards?
False Assumption #2: Torture ended
when George W. Bush left office.
In his statement on the day the report
was released, President Obama tried
once again to shove U.S. torture into a
box labeled Bad Things We Used to Do.
Rather than another reason to refight
old arguments, he said, I hope that
todays report can help us leave these
techniques where they belong: in the
past.
In fact, institutionalized state torture
is not a thing of the past. It has
continued under President Obama.
Here are some examples:
Twice a day in the U.S. prison at
Guantnamo, guards forcibly remove
hunger strikers from their cells, strap
them to a chair, and feed them
through a tube jammed up the nose and
down into the stomach. Heres how one
victim remembered that experience:
"I will never forget the first time they
passed the feeding tube up my nose. I
cant describe how painful it is to be
force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it
made me feel like throwing up. I
wanted to vomit, but I couldnt. There
was agony in my chest, throat, and
stomach. I had never experienced such
pain before. I would not wish this cruel
punishment upon anyone."
Force-feeding is no humanitarian act;
it is a punishment for nonviolent
resistance. It often begins with what
officials call cell extractionas if
prisoners were teeth to be pulled out of
a jaw. Heres what happens, according
to Yemini prisoner Moath al-Alwi, who
has been at Guantnamo since 2002:
"When I choose to remain in my cell
in an act of peaceful protest against the
force-feeding, the prison authorities
send in a Forced Cell Extraction team:
six guards in full riot gear. Those
guards are deliberately brutal to punish
me for my protest. They pile up on top
of me to the point that I feel like my
back is about to break. They then carry
me out and strap me into the restraint
chair, which we hunger strikers call the
torture chair."
Guards use the torture chair to
restrain the prisoner, says al-Alwi, but
also to make the procedure even more
painful:
"A new twist to this routine involves
the guards restraining me to the chair
with my arms cuffed behind my back.

The chest strap is then tightened,
trapping my arms between my torso
and the chairs backrest. This is done
despite the fact that the torture chair
features built-in arm restraints. It is
extremely painful to remain in this
position."
At present, a Navy nurse faces
possible dishonorable discharge for
refusing to participate in these force
feedings, because he believes they are a
form of torture.
Why are detainees on hunger strike
in the first place? They are using the
only nonviolent means available to
them to protest their indefinite and
illegal detention, which the U.N.
indefinite detention and solitary

confinement.
In what appears to be a direct
contravention of a 2009 presidential
executive order to the CIA to shut
down all its black sites, or secret
interrogation centers around the world,
the Agency seems still to be operating
at least one of them. Or at least it was
two years later when journalist Jeremy
Scahill reported on a secret
underground prison in Mogadishu,
Somalia, run by the CIA, ostensibly in
cooperation
with
the
Somali
governments
National
Security
Agency. There, according to Scahill,
U.S. intelligence personnel pay the
salaries of intelligence agents and also
detaineeS Stand during an early Morning iSlaMic prayer at the priSon for 'eneMy
coMBatantS', in guantanaMo Bay
Committee Against Torture says is in

itself a violation of U.S. duties under
the U.N. Convention Against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and
Degrading Treatment.
It wasnt until this December 10th
that the U.S. military finally released its
last detainees from the notorious
Detention Facility in Parwan on
Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. In
September 2014, the United States
quietly released 14 Pakistanis it had
held there for some yearsnone of
whom was ever accused of any crime.
We know nothing about the treatment
of those who remained at Bagram, but
we do know that, like the detainees at
Guantnamo, the men being held there
used hunger strikes as their only
nonviolent means of resisting their
directly interrogate prisoners.

Have these intelligence agents used
enhanced interrogation techniques?
We dont know. What we do know,
however, was that the place was dark,
filthy, and infested with bedbugs and
mosquitoes. We know that prisoners
held there had been kidnapped,
hooded, and transported by plane in a
style familiar to anyone who has
followed the CIAs methods over the
last dozen years.
If that site is still open, either the CIA
is operating it with the Obama
administrations knowledge and
consent or it is defying the president of
the United States. In either case, there
was and possibly still is a serious
breach of executive power going on.
During his confirmation hearings,
I Page: 35
International
Obamas first CIA director, Leon

Panetta, told members of Congress that
if the approved techniques were not
sufficient to get a detainee to divulge
details he was suspected of knowing
about an imminent attack, he would
ask for additional authority to use
other methods.
President Obamas 2009 executive
order ending CIA torture still left open
a little-discussed torture window. It
continued to allow for extraordinary
rendition, the capture of terror
suspects abroad and their shipping to
other countries for detention and
interrogation. The U.S.record on this
practice since 9/11 has been a grim
history of torture at one remove. True,
the order says that no one should be
sent to a country in which he or she is
likely to be tortured, but the U.S.
definition
of
likely
differs
significantly from that of the U.N.
Convention Against Torture. Article 3
of the Convention says no one may be
sent to another country if there are
substantial grounds for believing that
he would be in danger of being
subjected to torture. The United States
insists on a more lenient standard:
prohibiting rendition if it is more
likely than not that torture will take
place. In practice, this means relying on
the word of the receiving country that
no harm will be done (wink, wink).
The U.S. Army Field Manual on
Human
Intelligence
Collector
Operations prohibits many forms of
torture. However, a classified annex
still permits sleep deprivation and
sensory deprivation. The U.N.
Committee Against Torture flagged
thisamong many other concernsin
its recent report on U.S. compliance
with the Convention Against Torture.
No high civilian officials or military

commanders and other personnel were
ever prosecutedfor the torture they
ordered or oversaw, nor of course were
the actual CIA torturers. Instead theyre
writing their memoirs and painting
pictures of themselves bathing. If their
political power makes it impossible to
try them here, perhaps the outrage of
the international community can at
least make Dick Cheney and George W.
Bush outcasts like other discredited
former rulers along the lines of Serbias
Slobodan Milosovic or Tunisia's Zein
el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Or maybe the United States could
actually follow the U.N. Committee
Against Torturesrecommendation and
finally sign up for the International
Criminal Court.
False Assumption #3: Torture only
counts when it happens in foreign
wars.
This is not true either. Sometimes,
torture happens right here in the
United States in police stations,
immigrant detention centers, and the
American jails and prisons that hold 2.3
million people.
When the United Nations Committee
Against Torture released its report in
November on U.S. compliance with the
U.N. Convention against Torture,
among the failures the Committee
noted were torture and abuse practices
in U.S. prisons and immigrant
detention facilities. The frequent
brutality of U.S. police forces and their
rapid militarization also alarmed the
Committee.
Specifically, the Committee pointed
to the extensive use of solitary
confinement for periods of time longer
than two weeksthe point at which
many people start exhibiting signs of
psychosis,
including
having
hallucinations, hearing voices, and
experiencing paranoia. In my state,
California, there are people who have
been kept from all human contact for
more than 15 years. We are beginning
to recognize that the 50,000 to 80,000
people being held in solitary
confinement in this country are actually
being tortured every day. Furthermore,
as the U.N. report emphasizes, some of
these people havent even been
convicted of a crime; theyre either
being held in pre-trial detention or in
immigrant detention centers.
U.S. prisoners also experience high
levels of institutionally sanctioned rape
and sexual violence. In fact, prison rape
is so common, its a regular plot device
on television police procedurals. Want
to keep a perp from asking for a
lawyer? Threaten to send him to Rikers
Island, where who knows what can
happen to a pretty guy like him.
The Report Is Out. Now What?
Make no mistake. Getting even this
partial and redacted report into public
view is a real victory for everyone who
hopes to end state torture. But its just
the beginning, not the end of the fight.
Theres still much work to do.
As a start, someone needs to rein in a
CIA whose leadership, past and
present, seems remarkably committed
to the effectiveness of torture practices.
We need reports like the one the Senate
produced about the whole alphabet
soup of agencies involved in the war
on terror. We need a full accounting,
and full accountability, including
prosecutions of those responsible, or
perhaps even official pardons that
would at least establish that crimes
were committed. We need to end
torture in our own jails and prisons.
The Senate torture report could be
the opening we need to really make
U.S. torture a thing of the past. Lets not
waste it!n
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Rebecca Gordon is the author of
Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in
the Post-9/11 United States. She teaches in the
philosophy department at the University of
San Francisco. She is a member of the War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras collective. You can
contact her through the Mainstreaming Torture
website.
Copyright 2014 Rebecca Gordon.
Courtesy: TomDispatch
I Page: 36
Revelations & Recollections
SIRaJ SIkdaR
caught and killed
pRoBE News magazine carries a series of
extracts from the writings of various prominent
persons.These writings have not lost their
appeal or their relevance. in fact, these
revelations of the past explain the present day
predicament of the country and the people. on
the occasion of Siraj Sikdars 40th death
anniversary on 2 January, this week's excerpt is
from Munir Morsheds Siraj Sikdar o purbo
Banglar Sharbahara party (1967-1992) [Siraj
Sikdar and East Bengals Sharbahara party
(1967-1992)]. The book was first published at
the 1997 Ekushey Boi mela by Ghas phul Nadi,
Aziz Super market, Shahbagh.
January 1975, Chittagong: Siraj

Sikdar, along with Akbar,
emerged from Ikrams shelter
and took a baby taxi on a
circuitous route to his own shelter. The
fixed route was to go via New Market
and Dewan Hat intersection, to the
specified shelter. Siraj Sikdar was
wearing a cream coloured pair of
trousers and a white full-sleeved shirt.
He was wearing glasses and carried a
briefcase. As they climbed into the baby
taxi, an unknown person came up and
asked for a lift. Siraj Sikdar asked
where he was headed for. The man said
he would be going just some distance
down the road. Siraj Sikdar told him to
get a different taxi, but the man pleaded
that his wife was ill and he needed to
get there fast. Siraj Sikdar took him
along in the taxi.
It was later learnt that, based on a
special information, hundreds of
intelligence agents had been stationed
all over Chittagong city that day. As the
taxi came near New Market, that
unknown passenger ordered the driver
to stop. He got into an argument with
Siraj Sikdar, jumped out, stood in front
of the taxi, took out a pistol and
ordered the driver to stop. Alarmed, the
driver
stopped
immediately.
Plainclothes policemen, waiting near
New Market, surrounded the baby taxi,
brandishing sten guns. Curious
passers-by crowded around. When
someone asked what was going on, the

police replied that they were arresting a
fugitive smuggler.
Once they stopped the baby taxi, six
persons with the sten guns came
forward and handcuffed Siraj Sikdar
and Akbar. They blindfolded them too.
They took Siraj Sikdar to Double
Mooring. Sheikh Maruful Huq was the
DSP of Chittagong at the time. They
sent news to Dhaka about the arrest.
Seats were reserved on an urgent basis
on the Chittagong-Dhaka flight the
same day. When the flight from Cox's
Bazar arrived at Chittagong at 6:45 in
the evening, the passengers who were
to fly on to Dhaka were asked to alight
from the aircraft. Once the passengers
got down, they blindfolded Siraj Sikdar
and Akbar were taken in a special car to
the aircraft and made to sit in the front
seats of the plane. However, before
taking off the pilot, in keeping with
international route regulations, refused
to carry the persons in a state of
captivity. But the police forced him to
take these passengers on the flight.
While all this was happening, the
Sarbahara Party leaders in Chittagong
had no idea of what had transpired.
As Siraj Sikdar was being taken off
the plane at the Tejgaon airport in
Dhaka, suddenly a police officer
(presently retired) rushed up and
kicked Siraj Sikdar in the chest. The
other police officers managed to protect
Siraj Sikdar from further attack. From

the airport, Siraj Sikdar was taken
straight to the Special Branch office in
Malibagh. A warning bell was sounded
to caution everyone there. A
'communist taskforce' and a few
hundred members of Rakkhi Bahini
were responsible for the security of the
Special Branch office. Gradually
officers of the various security forces as
well as civil bureaucrats arrived there
to get a glimpse of Siraj Sikdar. But due
to security reasons, only the deputy
home secretary and persons of his rank
were fortunate enough to see him.
It was in the Special Branch office
that he was first tortured physically. But
he refused to utter a single word. At 10
in the night he was taken to Gono
Bhaban and brought in front of Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Mujib asked
him where his arms and ammunition
were kept. At one point there was a hot
exchange of words between them.
During their argument, Sheikh Mujib
ordered for Siraj Sikdar to be taken
away. This time he was taken to the
Rakkhi Bahini headquarters in Sher-eBangla Nagar. All the searchlights of
the headquarters were switched on.
Other prisoners held captive there were
shifted elsewhere. At around 12:30 at
night, Akbar was separated from Siraj
Sikdar. Till the morning of 2 January
Siraj Sikdar remained without food. He
was guarded by the 11 Battalion SP
Company of the Rakkhi Bahini.
Under heavy guard on 2 January
morning, Siraj Sikdar was taken to
Savar. His vehicle was followed by for
Dodge vehicles and a Toyota of the
Rakkhi Bahini. He was subjected to
electric shock the entire day at the
Rakkhi Bahini camp in Savar. Siraj
Sikdar's father Razzak Sikdar says that
these electric shocks had actually
robbed him of his life. His body was
found covered in blue marks. There
were also five bullet wounds in his
body. Four of the bullets had passed
straight through him.
That evening a number of senior
police officers arrived at Savar. At nine
in the night he was taken from the
Savar Rakkhi Bahini camp to Talbagh,
near Jahangirnagar University. Siraj
Sikdar was then half dead. He was
placed on the road at Talbagh, hand
and feet tied, and shot at close range.
Most of the bullets hit his chest. Siraj
Sikdar fell flat on his face, dead.n
I Page: 37
Book Review
Barely Not losing
HIS SHIRt
A stark picture of garment manufacturing in Bangladesh

by SurABHi SHArMA
eremy Seabrook puts together

stitch by stitch, thread by thread, a
stark
picture
of
garment
manufacturing in Bangladesh. The
Rana Plaza disaster in Dhaka, in which
1,200 people died, made world
headlines in 2013. Seabrook does not
list the number of the dead. A number
makes for an easy headline. It becomes
a fleeting drama that makes it easy to
archive away and not confront the
disturbing reality of garment
manufacturing in Bangladesh and the
world over. The real issuesunnamed
and unaccounted forbehind the
numbers are etched out in detail by
Seabrooks compelling writing.
The sites of this hectic, unending
production reveal an utter disregard for
workers safetytheir wages and
homes reveal how abstract the term
labour is to local manufacturers, the
international brands who are the
buyers and the countries who are the
consumers. The urban sprawls that are
home to these factories and the rural

desperation that sends an unending
stream of workers to fill them are as
important to the picture as any
headline-grabbing
tragedy.
As
Seabrook tracks individual lives of
labourers, men and women like
Mohammed Shahalom, Asgar, Nur
Islam, Mukul, Lima come alive as flesh
and blood people, not abstractions
constituting cheap labour. As a
seasoned journalist, Seabrook places his
riveting narrative in historical
contextmaking the link with the fires
that abound in present-day Dhakas
treacherous
factories
and
the
pauperisation of 18th century Dhaka
weavers because of brutal colonial
policies.
The
sallow-skinned
operatives working in cotton mills in
19th century Manchester are, through
shared history and economy over 200
years, connected with the white poor
entering Primark to pick up cheap
garments produced in Dhaka today.
the Song of the Shirt

By
JereMy SeaBrooK
navayana, pageS- 287
Colonial violence is barely separated

from the callous practices engendered
by
contemporary
economic
globalisation.
A searing anger pervades Seabrooks
text. Every industrial accident in 19th
century England and 21st century
Bangladesh is brought out of the
archives. Stitched into this narrative,
one gets the larger picture of disdain
and disregard for the lives of the
working poor. You see the cold-blooded
contours of a well-worked-out strategy
to keep costs at a minimum. These are
not random moments of cruelty by a
colonial governor or a factory owner,
not even the callousness of an
international brand. This is an intricate
system put into place where, as
Seabrook writes, the psyche of the
people is made, unmade and remade in
pursuit of an epic extractive project.
During the making of my films on
garment factories, the refrain of
manufacturers was that our labour is
the problem, neither as cheap as
Bangladesh nor as productive as China.
Seabrooks The Song Of The Shirt is a
chilling reminder of what that
throwaway line meansthat Indian
labour laws are too stringent and do not
allow makers to compete with China
and Bangladesh. We are seeing a
concerted effort to dismantle our labour
laws. The tacky stitch between colonial
practices and contemporary global
economic policies is well and truly on
the road to becoming seamless.n
I Page: 38
Food
Salt can restore

your skin and body
by uMniA SHAHiD
alt is loaded with minerals,

including iodine and sodium, all
of which play a key role in our
skins health, function, and
cellular communication. When the
skins mineral balance is not normal,
symptoms such as dryness, dullness,
irritation, and blotchiness ensue,
especially as the colder, dryer weather.
Bringing salt from the kitchen into your
beauty routine can help balance and
improve hydration, strengthen the
protective barrier of our skin, reduce
bloating and kick-start the cell-to-cell
communication signals that slow down
with age. As compiled by Today News,
Huffington Post and realsimple.com,
use this kitchen staple to its full
capacity.
BAlAnCinG MASK
Both salt and honey have antiinflammatory properties to soothe skin
and calm breakouts and irritation. They
also help to balance oil production and
retain hydration in the layers of skin
where its needed most.
Try it: Mix two teaspoons of salt
(preferably iodised) with four
teaspoons raw honey to create a
spreadable paste. Apply evenly to
clean, dry skin, avoiding eye area. Let
stand for 10 to 15 minutes. Before
rinsing, soak a washcloth in very warm
water, and gently wring out. Lay the
warm washcloth on your face for 30

seconds. Use your fingers to gently
exfoliate in a circular motion while
rinsing your skin thoroughly with
lukewarm water. Follow with your
usual skin-care routine.
SOfTEninG BODy SCruB
Salt is a gentle natural exfoliate that
sloughs off dead skin cells. It also has
minerals to soften skin and restore
hydration and moisture.
Try it: Mix a quarter-cup of salt and a
half-cup of olive oil into a thick paste. If
desired, add 10 drops of your favourite
essential oil. Apply in the shower with
a washcloth, loofah, or the palms of
your hands, gently scrubbing your skin
in a circular motion. Your skin will
instantly feel baby soft and smooth.
AnTi-DAnDruff SCAlP
TrEATMEnT
Salt helps loosen and remove existing
flakes while stimulating blood
circulation for a healthy scalp. The
ingredient also absorbs excess oil or
sebum and moisture to prevent fungal
growth and inhibit the root of dandruff.
Try it: Part your hair a few times, and
sprinkle one to two teaspoons of salt on
your scalp. Using wet fingers, massage
your scalp gently and thoroughly for 10
to 15 minutes. Wash and condition your
hair with your regular products. The
results will be immediate and very

satisfying.
TEETH wHiTEnEr
Salt and baking soda are both gentle
abrasives that will help remove hard
stains and brighten teeth almost
instantly. Salt also contains a natural
source of fluoride, which is a bonus for
your teeth and gums.
Try it: Mix one teaspoon of salt and two
teaspoons of baking powder. Dip a
damp toothbrush in the mixture, and
brush teeth normally. If the taste is too
intense for you, try putting a dab of
toothpaste on the brush before dipping
it in the mixture.
nATurAl MOuTH wASH
Salt acts as a natural disinfectant to kill
the bacteria and plaque that builds up
between teeth and also is the main
cause of bad breath and gingivitis.
Try it: Mix together a half-teaspoon of
salt, a half-teaspoon of baking soda,
and a quarter-cup warm water until the
salt dissolves in it completely. Swish the
solution around in your mouth for two
minutes and between teeth. Spit, then
rinse.
nAil BriGHTEninG TrEATMEnT
Salt softens cuticles and skin plus
strengthens nails. Baking soda and
lemon work to reduce yellowing and
stains for brighter, healthier-looking
nails.
Try it: Mix one teaspoon of salt, one
teaspoon of baking soda, one teaspoon
of lemon juice, and a half-cup warm
water in a small bowl. Soak nails in the
solution for 10 minutes, and then scrub
with an unused soft tooth brush. Rinse
hands, and moisturize.
rElAxinG BATH
Salt absorbs dirt, grime, and toxins and
cleanses your skins pores deeply. Salts
mineral content helps restore the
protective barrier in skin and helps it
hold hydration. You may notice that
your skin wont wrinkle or prune after
a good, long soak in salted water, which
is evidence that a salt bath helps the
skin retain its moisture. The naturally
occurring minerals in salt may also help
reduce water retention or bloating in
the body.
Try it: Add one-third cup of salt to a tub
filled with warm water, and make sure
to dissolve the salt. Soak for 15 to 30
minutes.n
I Page: 39
Film
Lingaa
We can only see this movie like fond parents who see their
children acting in a school play. ours is not to reason why, but
only to indulgently smile.
by SunDAr SAruKKAi
Kochadaiyan, he was a superhero and

that was where his unbelievable
powers derived from. In Enthiran, he
was a robot and hence able to do more
than any other man could. But in
Lingaa, he truly transcends his human
limitations, his age and his sickness. He
fights villains on a moving train with a
panache that might make younger
heroes jealous, and by the time the
Starring: Rajnikanth, Anushka
Shetty, Sonakshi Sinha, Santhanam
Directed by K.S. Ravikumar
anuShKa Shetty, raJniKanth and SonaKShi Sinha
his movie could have been

titled Two Rajnis and a Dam.
Oh, there is also a temple in
between. Much before Nehru
envisioned dams as the temples of
modern India, Rajni as the king
Lingeswaran had already done it. The
grandfather Rajni, a noble king, has to
build a dam to save the villagers and
the grandson Rajni, a petty thief, has to
save the dam from a corrupt modernday politician. In between, there are
two villains, one a pre-independence
British administrator and the other the
quintessential Indian politician. And
even as the two Rajnis despatch the two
villains they have enough time to
indulge in petty thievery, be a king
worthy of a sage, sing a few songs, save
a million souls and give one-line
solutions to all of Indias problems.
Wow, this is what a movie should be.
Lingaa is nostalgia in all its forms.
We yearn for the good ol Rajni who
looks just like he was earlier, who has
lost a strut but not the swirl in his voice,
and a story that brings back memories
of Tamil films of rural landscapes and
blouseless village girls who still
manage to be fair and wellproportioned in spite of working hard

in the sun. This image of women, some
might say, is the ultimate nostalgia trip
for many Tamil men.
There is also nostalgia for a leader
who can deliver us from all evils.
When Rajni is around, whether
as king or thief, everything is
bound to be all right. He has
one-line
solutions
for
development, the importance of
dams, of the need for children to
go to school, and all castes eating
together. When the villagers fight
on petty grounds, he admonishes
them and asks them to be Indians.
Move over Tamilians, even Rajni
wants us to be Indians first.
But this is not just any
other
Rajni
movie.
In
movie reaches the end, he has also

learnt the art of flying. Its a bird, its a
machine, no, it is Rajni Sir. Superman, it
is time to retire your underwear, cape
and costume, for Rajni is back and
flying high.
Immersed in this nostalgia for a kind
king who gives away his wealth for the
welfare of his people, for a true patriot
who mocks the British, and for an actor
who can smile even as he cries a la
Sivaji, we can only see this movie like
fond parents who see their children
acting in a school play. Ours is not to
reason why, but only to indulgently
smile.n
I Page: 40
AnushkA shett y

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Regional relations revisited

Issue: 06 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

Where are Chhatra

Salt can restore

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

An open letter to the Government of Bangladesh

Survival of Sundarbans rainforest,

e, the scientists, engineers,

3. The damage to the flora and fauna

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

BCIM EC meet at Cox's Bazar

he second meeting of the Joint Study Group of the

"Signing of the agreed MinuteS of the Second Meeting of the

nodes, cities and growth centres of the four countries

Nestl bottled water dropped from

he International Baby Food

represents none of these. It is neither

with water from local aquifers. The

The original plan was to distribute free bottles of

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

World Bank should recognize

that this must be in a

international pressure on the Swiss

The failure of other

clean environment with water coming

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

under the name Eau de Genve ,

South Asia Desk

In hospital, a VIP for

critically ill Calcuttan about

goBinda halder'S daughter gopa and Wife

Muslim party quits in major

resident Mahinda Rajapaksa

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

happily recited the first lines of some of

India acid attack

CTV footage shows masked men

South Asia Desk

Japan to send experts to Bhutan to

analyse the poll and give

none of the passers-by in the busy

Honda plans setting up

apanese auto giant Honda Cars

Interestingly, Honda Motorcycle and

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

in size to Switzerland, has

hhatra Union is the only

Chhatra Union from 1980 to 1982. He

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

OnE in Al, OnE in BnP

(In front of Shahbagh Market)

(In front of Shahbagh Market)

Chhatra Union in the past three

front Jubo Union. He is known as an

PROBE is available at the following newsstands

For details: Debasish 01673096718

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

Regional relations revisited

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

international analysts on Asia look into prospects for

n July 2014, the United Nation's

Issue: 6 I January 01 - 15, 2015 I Vol: 13

failures to attract international energy