Sadeq Khan

Through many trials and tribulations, Bangladesh polity is now set on a steady course towards the terminus of a perilous roadmap of emergency rule. The election schedule for the ninth parliament is being adhered to by all competing candidates, parties and alliances. A fully participatory and fairly observed hustings is under process on all sides. The guessing game over the date of complete withdrawal of emergency "ahead of polls" is also bound to be ended by derision of dysfunction, if not by announcement, under the heat of election fever and court rulings. The armed forces called on emergency duties have gone back to the barracks on Nov 3. They are expected to be called back for election duties only a week before the date of polling.
   But meanwhile the external geopolitical climate around us, which indeed had a lot to do with our internal problems, has suffered a strike of horrendous political hurricane. Only ten gunmen with terrorist training, so far accounted for, held the commercial capital of India, Mumbai hostage at ten landmark spots by well-coordinated series of attacks with bullets and bombs. They ended up in three hostage-taking situations, one in Taj Mahal hotel, a Mumbai heritage, another in Oberoy Trident hotel, a Mumbai luxury, and yet another in Nariman House which lodges the Mumbai Jewish Centre. They were able to hold on for sixty hours against police, commando and army hunt, expertly moving through connecting doors and corridors, changing positions, setting fire and throwing grenade, killing and taking fresh hostages, to avoid being spotted. The havoc they wrecked resulted in nearly 200 deaths including 26 foreign nationals and 14 police and army personnel, some of them ace officers. Over three hundred persons were injured and damages to property were immense. In the end, all the attackers were killed except one wounded young man, Chasid, shot and wounded by the police at Chhatrapati Sibaji Terminus (CST) of Mumbai railway network, from where the serial attacks began.
   The captured man was photographed by a photographer of Pune Mirror which published his picture and described him as follows: "This is the first image of terrorist that India witnesses on television after bunch of highly-charged teenagers wearing T-shirts and cargo trousers attacked Mumbai's iconic locations, armed with assault rifles and hand grenades.
   "This new age terrorist does not look like a Jihadi, was caught at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) by security agencies on Wednesday (November 26) night. According to preliminary investigations by intelligence agencies, this 18-year-old English-speaking youth hails from Basthi (or Kasthi) village in Bangladesh and received arms training by Pakistan. His exact name is yet to be ascertained. He spilled the beans and has provided vital clues to investigators."
   The story was picked up by other newspapers. Later, however, (to our relief in Bangladesh as in the past also Bangladesh was wrongly implicated in terror attacks within India) the same photograph appeared in Indian TV screens and printed media with the explanation: "Now we can also tell you who this man is and how he has become the vital link for investigating agencies to crack the terror plot. His name is Azam Amir Kasav, he is 21 years old, speaks fluent English, hails from tehsil Gipalpura in Faridkot in Pakistan, and is the only terrorist from this audacious operation to have been captured alive.
   According to sources, the young terrorist has given the investigators vital leads including how the chief planner of the Mumbai terror plot had come to the city a month ago, took pictures and filmed strategic locations and trained their group and instructed them to kill till the last breath. Every man was given six to seven magazines with fifty bullets each, eight hand grenades per terrorist with one AK-57, an automatic loading revolver and a supply of dry fruits.
   Azam reportedly disclosed that the group left Karachi in one boat and upon reaching Gujarat they hoisted a white flag on their boat and were intercepted by two officers of the coast guard near Porbandar and while they were being questioned, one of the terrorists grappled with one of the officers, slit his throat and threw the body in the boat. The other officer was told to help the group reach Mumbai. When they were four nautical miles away from Mumbai, there were three speedboats waiting for them where the other coastguard officer was killed. All the ammo was then shifted into these three speedboats. They reached Colaba jetty on Wednesday (26 Nov) night and the ten men broke up into groups of two each. Four of these men went to the Taj Mahal hotel, two of them to the Trident hotel, two towards Nariman Point at Colaba and two, of which Azam was one, moved to CST."
   In an e-mail message, though, the group claiming responsibility for the attack called itself Deccan Mujahideen and called for the independence of 'Hydrabad Deccan' which during British Raj was a princely state of the Nizam who refused to join the Indian Union and was invaded by India soon after independence. They did not raise the issue of Kashmir's independence nor voice any jihadi slogans. They were however, looking for American and British nationals amongst hostages.
   But South Asia watchers, while questioning the colossal failure of intelligence and surveillance of the Indian security establishment (how could a group of terrorists cross 500 kilometres distance from Karachi to Mumbai evading Indian Navy and satellite survillence?), linked the attack nevertheless to the Kashmir issue. William Dalrymple, author of the Last Mughal writing in the Guardian on November 30 noted:
   "Three weeks ago, in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar, I met a young surgeon named Dr Iqbal Saleem. Iqbal described to me how on 11 August this year, Indian security forces entered the hospital where he was fighting to save the lives of unarmed civilian protesters who had been shot earlier that day by the Indian army. The operating theatre had been teargassed and the wards riddled with bullets, creating panic and injuring several of the nurses.
   The unrepentant actions of the security forces, combined with the indifference of the Indian media, had convinced him that Kashmir needed its independence.
   I thought back to this conversation last week, when news came in that the murderous attackers of Mumbai had brutally assaulted the city's hospitals in addition to the more obvious Islamist targets of five-star hotels, Jewish centres and cafes frequented by Americans and Brits.
   Visiting Pakistan last week, it was clear that much of the north of the country was slipping out of government control. While it is unlikely that Zardari's government had any direct link to the Mumbai attacks, there is every reason to believe that its failure effectively to crack down on the country's jihadi network, and its equivocation with figures such as Hafiz Muhammad Syed, means that atrocities of the kind we saw last week are likely to continue.
   India, meanwhile, continues to make matters worse by its ill-treatment of the people of Kashmir, which has handed to the jihadis an entire generation of educated, angry middle-class Muslims. One of the clean-shaven boys who attacked CST railway station - now named by the Indian media as Mohammad Ajmal Mohammad Amin Kasab, from Faridkot in the Pakistani Punjab - was wearing a Versace T-shirt. The other boys in the operation wore jeans and Nikes and were described by eyewitnesses as chikna or well-off. These were not poor, madrasah-educated Pakistanis from the villages, brainwashed by mullahs, but angry and well-educated, middle-class kids furious at the gross injustice they perceive being done to Muslims by Israel, the US, the UK and India in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir respectively.
   If Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is the most emotive issue for Muslims in the Middle East, then India's treatment of the people of Kashmir plays a similar role among South-Asian Muslims. At the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the state should logically have gone to Pakistan. However, the pro-Indian sympathies of the state's Hindu Maharajah, as well as the Kashmiri origins of the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, led to the state passing instead to India - on the condition that the Kashmiris retained a degree of autonomy.
   Successive Indian governments, however, refused to honour their constitutional commitments to the state. The referendum, promised by Nehru at the UN, on whether the state would remain part of India, was never held. Following the shameless rigging of the 1987 local elections, Kashmiri leaders went underground. Soon after, bombings and assassination began, assisted by Pakistan's ISI which ramped up the conflict by sending over the border thousands of heavily armed jihadis.
   India, meanwhile, responded with great brutality to the insurgency. Half-a-million Indian soldiers and paramilitaries were dispatched to garrison the valley. There were mass arrests and much violence against ordinary civilians, little of which was ever investigated, either by the government or the Indian media. Two torture centres were set up - Papa 1 and Papa 2 - into which large numbers of local people would 'disappear'. In all, some 70,000 people have now lost their lives in the conflict. India and Pakistan have fought three inconclusive wars over Kashmir, while a fourth mini-war came alarmingly close to igniting a nuclear exchange between the two countries in 1999. Now, after the Mumbai attacks, Kashmir looks likely to derail yet again the burgeoning peace process between India and Pakistan."
   On the strength of preliminary information obtained reportedly from the only surviving attacker, India pointed fingers at Pakistan, voiced legitimate indignation and strong protests, reserving its right to act militarily to protect its citizens. In diplomatic parlance, India called in the Pakistani ambassador and demanded Pakistan arrest and extradite 20 terror suspects, including the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed.
   Others named were Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed rebel group, and Dawood Ibrahim, the Mumbai underground don who is wanted in India on charges of masterminding serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed around 300 people.
   Pakistan has suggested setting up a 'joint investigation mechanism' but says it wants concrete proof that the attackers were Pakistanis.
   In the meantime, the Pakistanis certainly will withdraw forces from western Pakistan and deploy them in eastern Pakistan. That will mean that one leg of the Petraeus and Obama plans would collapse. Washington's expectation of greater Pakistani cooperation along the Afghan border will disappear along with the troops. This will free the Taliban from whatever limits the Pakistani army had placed on it. The Taliban's ability to fight would increase, while the motivation for any of the Taliban to enter talks - as Afghan President Hamid Karzai has suggested - would decline. U.S. forces, already stretched to the limit, would face an increasingly difficult situation, while pressure on al Qaeda in the tribal areas would decrease."
   Not everybody was so sceptical. Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International wrote: (Repeated) terror attacks have highlighted one of the key weaknesses of modern India. Its private sector is dynamic, efficient, responsive. Its public sector is not. Government in India is dysfunctional.
   With the exception of a few elements of the national government - the armed forces and anti-terror commandos, for instance - the Indian state is simply not up to the challenge that it now faces. India has a decentralized political system that is plagued by weak coalition governments, patronage and corruption, with little emphasis on professionalism and competence. If this is India's 9/11, then it should be a spur to the country to finally get its house in order ...
   India also has a political problem with its Muslims. It remains unclear whether any Indian Muslims were involved with these attacks, but it is quite possible that the terrorists had some small pockets of support in the country....
   They have not shared in the progress of the last two decades and face a Hindu nationalist movement, parts of which are ugly and violent. None of this is to excuse in any sense the cruel choice anyone might make to join a jihad. But moral clarity does not always yield intellectual clarity.

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Hillary's India link raises question about her impartiality

Sadeq Khan

In the context of current tension between India and Pakistan over terrorist attack in Mumbai, the nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State by President-elect Barack Obama has come up for further scrutiny. Though the Indian-Americans have very good relations with the Republicans, it is widely believed that they have special relations with the Clinton family.
   Because of their warm relations with India, Hillary's acceptability as an impartial negotiator between the two nuclear neighbours, India and Pakistan, may be questioned.
   Many democrats however think that maintaining better relations with India will give an opportunity to the United States to contain China. But thinkers like Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was the national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter said that a strong tie between America and India may push Pakistan to build up strong ties with China, which may create another disastrous situation for USA in South Asia.
   But under Obama administration, of course Hillary Clinton will pursue a policy of Barack Obama who wants good relations between India and Pakistan to chase the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
   Early test
   It is obvious that Hillary Clinton will face an early test in her foreign policy with India and Pakistan because of the recent incident in Mumbai, following which the blame game between the two major players in
   South Asia has escalated. However, for Bangladesh, Clinton's nomination may bring hope that she has known Bangladesh very well and during her tenure relations with the small countries in South Asia may be cemented further.
   As New York's senator for eight years and as a 2008 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton toured India and visited with Indian officials and entrepreneurs, and her campaigns profited from the largesse of Indian-American fundraisers. Bill Clinton's charitable foundation has been funded by some of the same well-heeled Indian businessmen who backed his wife's campaigns.
   The AP news analysts say, in her new role as the nation's top diplomat, Hillary Clinton would project Obama's policies, not her own. But even foreign affairs experts who wave off suggestions that Hillary Clinton would lean towards either Asian power, acknowledge that the perception of such a tilt could cause suspicions in Pakistan. South Asia experts reject the assertion of bias, but they acknowledge that it exists.
   "There are some who believe it, but I think most people think she is an objective observer with a good understanding of South Asia," said Walter Andersen, Associate Director of the South Asia Studies Programme at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies.
   Friendlier to India
   Karin Von Hippel, a South Asia expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, agreed, saying Hillary Clinton is "very balanced" and "understands almost better than anybody how delicate the situation is between these two countries."
   Still, perceptions matter, especially in the region. "There are concerns that she is seen as pro-India, she and her husband both," said one Washington-based foreign diplomat with extensive experience in South Asia. "The Pakistanis definitely see them as closer and friendlier to India."
   The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue of India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir since winning independence from Britain.
   Influential members of the Indian-American community have rejoiced in Hillary Clinton's selection as secretary of state.
   "Sen. Clinton will continue the close relationship between the United States and India that started with the Clinton administration and has progressed in the Bush years," said Varun Nikore, founder of the Indian-American Leadership Initiative, an independent political organization supporting Democratic candidates.
   A current State Department official allowed that Bill Clinton had substantially boosted engagement with India, but noted that any administration would likely have done so. The official stressed that President George W. Bush has continued that course, most recently signing a civilian nuclear pact with New Delhi.
   "None of this has been meant to exclude Pakistan, but it is a zero-sum game when you are dealing with these two countries," the official said. "You can't do something with one without it affecting the other." The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.
   Disparate treatment
   Ties between the United States and India improved dramatically, as did Pakistani suspicions of pro-India bias in Washington, during Bill Clinton's administration, which embraced India as a major power and market as it opened its economy in the 1990s.
   But before that when Benazir was the Prime Minister of Pakistan, she had a very remarkable visit to Washington D.C in 1995, when President Bill Clinton was in power. At that time the relationship was improved and Benazir held a closed door session with international relations committee of the House. During her time President Bill Clinton wanted to improve relations with Pakistan too. During that visit President Clinton gave commitment to settle the dispute over selling of arms to Pakistan, which was stalled earlier. Pakistan has got enormous strategic importance for the USA not only in war against terrorism, but as the time-tested ally to open relationship with China and other Muslim countries in the Middle East.
   The administration's disparate treatment of India and Pakistan was most apparent during a 2000 Asian trip, with the president spending five days in India and seven hours in Pakistan.
   The Clinton White House barred media coverage of the Pakistan stop and released only an official photo of Bill Clinton and Gen. Pervez Musharraf seated among aides, 12 feet across from each other. Bill Clinton admonished Pakistan's military government to retreat from its nuclear weapons course and to lower dangerous tensions with India.
   In a speech at India's Parliament on that trip, Bill Clinton said he shared many of New Delhi's concerns about "the course Pakistan is taking; your disappointment that past overtures have not always met with success; your outrage over recent violence. I know it is difficult to be a democracy bordered by nations whose governments reject democracy."
   Early during her presidential campaign in 2008, the former first lady pointed to the "strong partnership" that Bill Clinton forged between India and the U.S. As New York's senator, Hillary Clinton also touted her role as co-chair of the Senate India Caucus.
   "As president I will work with India to make our strong friendship even stronger," Hillary Clinton promised earlier this year.
   During the presidential campaign, Indian-Americans reciprocated Hillary Clinton's long-standing embrace of India by giving generously million at a single fundraiser in New York in 2007.
   At one point, the Obama camp prepared, but then disavowed, a campaign memo that carried the headline "Hillary Clinton (Punjab)," a mocking play on the standard reference to candidates' party and constituency.
   The memo, which created a furore in India and the Indian-American community, also referred to the Clintons' investments in India. Sen. Clinton's fundraising among Indian-Americans and the former president's $300,000 in speech fees from Cisco, a company that has moved U.S. jobs to India.
   Obama called the memo "a dumb mistake" and "not reflective of the long-standing relationship I have had with the Indian-American community."
   Now as president-elect, Obama has chosen Hillary Clinton to be his chief diplomat and highlighted India and Pakistan as priorities for his administration.
   "The situation in South Asia as a whole and the safe havens for terrorists that have been established there represent the single most important threat against the American people," he told reporters at a news conference last Monday as he unveiled his foreign policy and national security team, including Hillary Clinton.

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Solar power: Our viable energy option

Abdur Rahman Khan

"I am satisfied that I produce my own electricity and consume it without any interference", said Abdur Rob, a teacher living in a village house illuminated with solar power.
   Abdur Rob of village Kanchabalia in the southern district of Jhalakathi had tried in vain over the years to get power connection from Palli Bidyut Samity of REB. Finally in September 2006, he bought a solar home system (SHS) through an NGO.
   "The technology is not very expensive but affordable. I have installed the panel on the rooftop of my tin-shed house that gives me electricity sufficient to lit four bulbs, operate a black and white television and charge my mobile phone," said Abdur Rob, headmaster in charge of Gabha High School.
   For Abdur Rob, the initial cost of the solar panel was Taka 27,000. He paid an amount of Taka 15,000 at the time of installation in 2006 and continued to pay Taka 650 as monthly instalment. He will have to pay two more instalments to BRAC, the non-government organisation promoting the technology in rural Bangladesh.
   He said this photovoltaic (PV) technology was helpful in reducing his monthly expenditure of Taka 350 earlier required for buying kerosene. "Earlier, my white clothes and other household items used to get dirty quickly due to black spot and carbon emission from kerosene lamps", he said adding that the new system has also reduced the family expenditure for washing soap and detergent.
   In rural Bangladesh, kerosene is the most common fuel used in households for illumination purpose. Price of kerosene is Taka 52 per litre which is high. The quality of light from kerosene lamps is poor and not suitable for all purposes. Besides, it has potential risk of causing hazards.
   On an average day, Bangladesh can produce about 6 kwh electricity per squarek ilometers of open space, said Professor Dr. Neem Chandra Bhowmik, Director, Renewable Energy Research Centre of Dhaka University. Highlighting the prospect of solar energy in Bangladesh, he said the present need of the country as estimated to be 4,000 MW, can be met by utilising one-thousandth part of the open space or simply the rooftops of rural and urban houses by redesigning it for solar panel installation.
   The availability of solar radiation in our country is sufficient to produce almost 40,000 MW of electricity, ten times higher than the present requirement, by using only 10 per cent of our open space.
   Solar energy can be considered as one of the important alternatives for energy demand in Bangladesh. It has the potential of reducing the dependency on imported fuel and saving huge amount of foreign currency. It is renewable and environment-friendly and can preserve our rapidly depleting forests.
   The prospect of renewable solar energy looks brighter with the quick progress in installation of solar devices at homes, markets, small farms, rural hospitals, rest houses, community water supply and street lighting. The solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are being welcomed as the useful technology for electricity supply in the remote areas having no electricity supply network.
   Although the initial cost involved in setting up the PV panels is high at the user level, the long-term benefit is much higher. Solar radiation in different regions of Bangladesh is sufficient for cost-effective application of solar photovoltaic electrification.
   The initial cost may be higher but it can be recovered in a period of ten years, he added saying solar energy interventions can save huge foreign currency by replacing fossil fuel and directly reducing considerable amount of green house gasses.
   
   Long-term benefits
   Generally, a kerosene lantern (equivalent to a 5-watt electric lamp) requires 0.04 litre kerosene per hour. The emission of carbon dioxide from kerosene is 2.58 kg per litre.
   A typical solar home system (SHS) consisting of four fluorescent bulbs of 7 watts each, one black and white TV set and a 5-watt radio can save 290 litres of kerosene per year. It may contribute to a better environment by preventing emission of 0.76 tons of carbon dioxide gas every year.
   Solar Hot Water System (SHWS) to heat water from ambient temperature to 60 degree or above can be used for heating or pre-heating. It is suitable for rural health centres, rest houses or small hotels and multi-storeyed buildings.
   The strong argument in favour of solar energy is that it produces no greenhouse gas (GHG) to pollute the environment or contribute to the global warming. Since the world is much concerned about the climate change impacts, the solar energy should be taken as a viable energy option for Bangladesh. According to power cell of the government, it is estimated that 300 MW energy would be utilised from solar energy source by the year 2020 that would reduce the GHG emission by 0.5 million tons.
   It is encouraging that private organisations and NGOs have come forward by taking different projects to utilise solar devices and to provide photovoltaic (PV) electricity to villages in Bangladesh where national grid line has not yet reached.
   Today, solar home systems (SHS) are gradually becoming popular in the rural areas in Bangladesh. SHS is a convenient mode of power supply for small electrical loads as lights, radio, and black and white TV. This supply has proved to be reliable and the system can be managed in rural areas with a little training. The main components of an SHS are a solar panel, a battery and a charge controller.
   
   Grid-connected PV system
   In the urban areas, where the power supply is inadequate with frequent load-shedding, grid-connected PV system can be a good power source if installed on rooftops of buildings. In the remote areas, if the supply of power in the existing grid is needed to be increased to keep pace with the increasing demand, this system can be a good solution as the system is modular and easy to install, say the experts.
   The power produced by the rooftop grid-connected PV system can be used to supply local loads, with the excess energy fed into the local grid for use by other customers. Instead of receiving a bill every month from the utility supply office, the owner of such a system would be able to earn money by generating surplus electricity.
   Realising the significant potential of this technology, a model of 1.1kW rooftop grid connected photovoltaic system has been developed and successfully installed on the rooftop of Renewable Energy Research Centre (RERC) at Dhaka University under the financial assistance of the Ministry of Science, Information and Communications Technology.
   The installed system at Dhaka University Energy Park was run for several days in different weather conditions and the performance was found to be quite satisfactory.
   To understand the financial viability of the system, an estimate was made by considering an average demand of 3000kWh for a four-member family. It was found that a system of 2kW power for a single household can produce surplus energy that can be added to the national grid after meeting the demand in the house.
   Although there are good prospects for solar PV system in this country, potential market development has rather been limited. The government, private sector and NGOs are taking increasing initiative towards utilisation of the solar energy.
   Meanwhile, Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB), the Rural Electrification Board (REB), the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and many private and non-governmental organisations NGOs) have come forward with various initiatives to cater solar radiation, the inexhaustible natural resource.
   They have been implementing projects for installation of SHS, centralised AC market in rural growth centres, solar PV street lighting, centralised battery charging and solar water heating systems in remote villages, hilly areas and offshore islands.

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Special Correspondent

The parliamentary polls of December 29 may bring frustrating results for the political parties with no major alliance is foreseen to be in a position to win 151 seats required to form a government.
   It is presumed that the selection of controversial candidates, cancellation of party nominations on various grounds and the growing dissatisfaction among the party workers may compel the major parties to embark on an uncomfortable ground this time.
   However, big foreign powers, especially the US and the UK, are optimistic about a good outcome from the election.
   US Republican Senaor McCain, who came to Dhaka on a short visit, had his breakfast meeting with the Caretaker Government chief, the Army Chief and the Foreign Adviser on Wednesday. Sounding an optimism about the outcome of Bangladesh elections, the defeated US presidential candidate said, "This has the possibility of being the fairest election, perhaps in the entire world".
   British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Stephen Evans has also said, "There's no reason why one should reject the results when the election process has been transparent and fair all through."
   Meanwhile, a total of 2,460 nomination papers were filed by contestants nominated by 39 political parties and independent candidates. Awami League has filed 333 nominations, BNP 310, Jatiya Party 258, and Jamaat-e-Islami 56. The largest numbers of 391 nominations have been filed by independent candidates.
   Islami Andolon has filed 183, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh for 82, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal 75, Gano Forum 61, Communist Party of Bangladesh 41, Liberal Democratic Party 39, Workers Party of Bangladesh 27, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish 16 and Islami Oikya Jote 8.
   Political parties together have nominated at least 49 former military officials to contest the December 29 general elections for 54 constituencies.  The BNP has nominated 17 former military bureaucrats while Awami League nominated another 17 former armed forces officials.
   The Jatiya Party has fielded 11 former military officials to contest the polls for 13 constituencies. The Liberal Democratic Party nominated two retired military officials, including the party chief Col (Retd) Oli Ahmed for three constituencies.
   According to the Election Commission, BNP has more than one candidates in 39 electoral constituencies. However, the party may have to loose candidature in some constituencies due to cancellation of nomination papers of party nominees.
   Political parties' picks for the parliamentary polls stirred up discontentment and conflict between among the party grassroots in many constituencies across the country with party supporters barricading roads, closing party offices and threatening to quit en masse. Many listed criminals, corruption suspects and convicted former lawmakers also submitted nomination papers. On the other hand, many of those who worked hard for the organisation during its rough patch in the last two years were denied nominations, causing resentment among the ranks
   To pacify the anger within the party, BNP and Awami League had had to change nominations in many constituencies. It rather created another spell of dissatisfaction at grassroots level.
   The accumulated anger among the Awami League leaders and activists burst out in different constituencies for being discriminated for nomination in the forthcoming parliamentary polls. A huge number of nomination deprived AL leaders submitted nomination forms as independent candidates and continued to stage demonstrations demanding justice as party's dedicated leaders.
   The allegations are there against the JP president HM Ershad that having assured of 50 seats from the AL chief Sheikh Hasina, JP chief jumped into nomination business selling out nominations in exchange of huge amount of money.
   After submitting nomination, most of the political alliances, parties and individuals have started informal electoral campaigns in their respective constituencies for registering success in the forthcoming parliamentary elections on December 29.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia will start election campaign after performing Ziarat at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (R) at Sylhet on December 12 or 13.
   On the other hand the Awami League-led 14 party alliance also plans to start formal election campaign within a couple of days.
   Meanwhile, the scrutiny of nomination papers was completed by Thursday evening. On the first day of scrutiny, nomination papers of at least 100 aspirants, including people nominated by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, were cancelled by returning officers in different districts.
   Most of the nominations, largely independent candidates, were cancelled because they either failed to submit the signatures of one per cent of the voters of the constituency or submitted fake signatures. After completion of the scrutiny on December 3 and 4, candidates were assigned with the election symbols. But before that, parties were asked to finalise their nominations.
   The registered political parties were allowed to confirm their final candidates to returning officers by Dec. 4, but for alliances the deadline was being relaxed until Dec. 11. "There is no scope for independent candidates to get party nominations after filing," Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said. EC's decision was announced after Awami League requested the Commission to allow political parties until Dec. 11, the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers, to finalise candidates.

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Islam succumbs to burn injury,
probe demanded

Holiday Report

Ganotontree Party president Nurul Islam, 68, who sustained critical burn injuries in a mysterious fire at his Lalmatia home, died at the Dhaka Combined Miltary Hospital on Thursday.
   His son Tamohar Islam, 36, also died in the fire. Islam's condition had remained critical since he was transferred to the CMH Wednesday noon.
   BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina visited the veteran trade union leader at the hospital.
   Meanwhile, relatives of Ganotontree Party president Nurul Islam have demanded a proper investigation into the fire that broke out early Wednesday at his Lalmatia residence in the city.
   "We believe the incident occurred in a planned way as part of a conspiracy to foil the national election," said Islam's niece Nazma Kawsar in a statement at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity.
   Islam, in 1991, ran the general election from Noakhali-1 as a candidate of an Awami League-led eight-party alliance and marginally lost to the BNP-led four-party alliance contestant.
   This time, Golam Quddus, general secretary of Sammilito Sanskritik Jote, had initially been nominated by the AL-led alliance for the seat in the run-up to the Dec 29 election. Following negotiations over seat-sharing, Islam was finally nominated to run from Noakhali-1 with alliance ticket.

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US wants Dhaka to restore democracy
and prosperity

Holiday Report

US Republican senator John McCain has said Washington will continue to follow Bangladesh closely through the 'election process and transition' as it wants to see a return to the democratically elected government in Bangladesh through a free, fair and credible poll.
   McCain, who lost to Barak Obama in the November 4 presidential election, urged Bangladesh's political parties to accept the election results and work together for the interest of the country, and said that the general elections of December 29 will possibly be 'the fairest one'.
   He came up with the views in a briefing at Zia International Airport before wrapping up
   his short stay in Dhaka
   on Wednesday morning. McCain accompanied by senators Joseph Lieberman and senator Lindsey Graham arrived in the capital Tuesday night and left this morning after attending a breakfast meeting with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed at his official residence.
   McCain said, 'It would be important for all to accept the results and work together in the interest of this country. A democratic and prosperous Bangladesh is important for the region and the world. We'll continue to follow Bangladesh closely through the election process and transition.'
   Explaining the purpose of the short visit, the US senator from Arizona said the visit had provided them an opportunity to observe the situation first hand before the elections on December 29 as Washington had followed the political developments of Bangladesh over the past two years very closely.
   Lauding the role of army and the caretaker government, McCain said, 'The caretaker government and the army deserve credit to strengthen the foundations of Bangladesh's democracy. Their work is not yet done, and it is now the time for an elected successor to continue the reform process already begun and build democracy and enhance prosperity for Bangladesh's people.'
   Touching on the issue of his optimism about the outcome of the election, he said, 'It seems to me that with the incredible registering of 80 million people, this has the possibility of being the fairest election, perhaps in the entire world.'

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GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT

Sigmund Freud

K. Z. Islam

Sigmund Freud's (1856-1939) fundamental idea - that all humans are endowed with an unconscious in which potent sexual and aggressive drives, and defences against them, struggle for supremacy, as it were, behind a person's back. His contention that the catalogue of neurotic ailments to which humans are susceptible is nearly always the work of sexual maladjustments, and that erotic desire starts not in puberty but in infancy, seemed to the respectable nothing less than obscene. His dramatic evocation of a universal Oedipus complex, in which (to put a complicated issue too simply) the little boy loves his mother and hates his father, seems more like a literary conceit than a thesis worthy of a scientifically minded psychologist.
   Freud first used the term psychoanalysis in 1896, when he was already 40. He had been driven by ambition from his earliest days and encouraged by his doting parents to think highly of himself.
   The book that made his reputation in the profession - although it sold poorly - was The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), an indefinable master piece - part dream analysis, part autobiography, part theory of the mind, part history of contemporary Vienna. The principle that underlay this work was that mental experiences and entities, like physical ones, are part of nature. This meant that Freud could admit no mere accidents in mental procedures. The most nonsensical notion, the most casual slip of the tongue, the most fantastic dream, must have a meaning and can be used to un-riddle the often in comprehensible manoeuvres we call thinking.
   Although the second pillar of Freud's psychoanalytic structure, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), further alienated him from the mainstream of contemporary psychiatry, he soon found loyal recruits.
   As for politics, he left little doubt and said so plainly in his late - essay, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), noting that the human animal, with its insatiable needs, must always remain an enemy to organized society, which exists largely to tamp down sexual and aggressive desires. At best, civilized living is a compromise between wishes and repression - not a comfortable doctrine. It ensures that Freud, taken straight, will never become truly popular, even if today we all speak Freud.
   His ideas - or ideas that can be traced, sometimes circuitously, back to Freud - have permeated the language.
   Freudian Slip a seemingly meaningless slip of the tongue that is really email direct from the unconscious. Unconscious repressed feelings, desires, ideas and memories that are hidden from the conscious mind. Repression involuntary blocking of an unsettling feeling or memory from conscious thought. Oedipus Complex in classic Freudian theory, children in their phallic phase (ages three to six) form an erotic attachment to the parent of the opposite sex, and a concomitant hatred (occasionally murderous) of the parent of the same sex. Castration Anxiety a boy's unconscious fear of losing his penis, and his fantasy that girls have already theirs. Sublimation unconscious shifting of an unacceptable drive (lust for your sister, say) into culturally acceptable behaviour (lust for your friend's sister). Transference unconscious shifting of feeling about one person (e.g. a parent) to another (e.g. your analyst) ID the part of the mind from which primal needs and drives (e.g. lust, rage) emerge. Superego the part of the mind where your parents' and society's rules reside; the original guilt trip. Ego the mind's mechanism for keeping in touch with reality, it referees the wrestling match between id and superego.

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DISTURBING SIGNALS FROM DELHI

Stratagem to redraw South Asia's map?

Shamsuddin Ahmed

Is India preparing to attack Pakistan? New Delhi is almost totally convinced that the November 26 terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba with assistance from its intelligence agency ISI. India's deputy Home Minister said attackers were all from Pakistan. Newly appointed Home Minister Chidambaram spoke of response to Pakistan with determination and resolve. The ruling Congress party spokesman, anxious to shore up confidence in domestic demands, called for stern and immediate action. "Certainly we are not going to sit back with Pakistan unleashing this terror on India," the International Herald Tribune (IHT) quoted an unnamed senior security official as saying.
   The assertion of Pakistani involvement is based on confession by an alleged terror held from one of the spots of attacks, Ajmal Amir Qasab, who is in an Indian military hospital with injury in the leg.
   International media reported that Qasab gave inconsistent answers to the interrogators about identity of the attackers saying they were of many nationals.
   
   Indian militants, media
   It is said 10 militants caused the massacre. But is it possible for only just ten young men in their early twenties to hold under seize two international hotels and a Jewish centre for long 70 hours without local assistance?
   There are homegrown Indian militant groups. It was recently revealed that involvement of RSS-Bajrang Dal and even a Colonel of Indian Army in Malegaon bombing. Maoists attack is frequent causing the main security concern of the Indian government. Explosion in train in Assam on Tuesday, before the dusts settled in Mumbai, left at least three people dead and 30 others badly wounded.
   Indian media, known to have perfected the art of projecting Pakistan as the enemy, has launched a virulent campaign to mount pressure on the government. It is widely believed that the media mood is designed to provoke a crisis or even a war - a preemptive strike on Pakistan.
   
   Disturbing signals
   And in Islamabad, daily Dawn reported on December 1: "Disturbing signals are emanating from New Delhi." Sensing the gravity of the situation President Asif Ali Zardari has contacted a number of world leaders asking them to use their good offices to make India realise it could be suicidal to indulge in blame game or military action. ISI in a statement has assured the nation that the armed forces are ready for defending the country. Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani has called for an all-party meeting on Tuesday and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told BBC on Monday that Indians are comparing the Mumbai incidents with 9/11 terrorist attack in USA that led to the invasion of Afghanistan. "Indians are taking the escalation level up at a very brisk pace," Qureshi said expressing concern at the prospect of a renewed confrontation.
   South Asia's redrawn map
   What more disquieting is a redrawn map of South Asia showing Pakistan truncated, reduced to an elongated silver of land with the big hulk of India to the east and an enlarged Afghanistan in the west.
   The map, wrote Jane Parlez in the IHT on November 23, was first circulated as a theoretical exercise in some US neoconservative circles. It has, no doubt, fueled a belief among Pakistanis, including the armed forces, that what the United States really wants is the breakup of Pakistan, the only Muslim country with nuclear arms.
   
   US collusion
   "One of the biggest fears of the Pakistani military planners is the collaboration between India and Afghanistan to destroy Pakistan ... and United States is colluding in this," Jane quoted an unnamed Pakistani strategic planner as saying.
   The apprehension is substantiated by facts. Encouraged by US administration, India has recently made huge investments in Afghanistan. These include construction of a road to the Iranian border that will eventually give India access to the Iranian port of Chabahar, circumventing Pakistan. Not only that. India has offered Afghanistan to send troops, including for training of Afghan military.
   General David McKeirnan, commander of US forces in Afghanistan faced some challenging questions in Pakistan last month. He met a group of 70 MPs in Islamabad at a dinner hosted by US ambassador. "Why did you Americans come to Afghanistan when it was peaceful before you got there? We understand that you have invited a thousand Indian soldiers to serve in Afghanistan by Christmas," were some of the anxious queries shoot out by the MPs. The answer of the US General was not known.
   The people of Pakistan are not convinced that the newly elected President of US Barak Obama could do anything in resolving the Kashmir problem that many across the world rightly believe as the main cause of giving rise of the militants in India and in the region as well. It is indeed discouraging that the US totally ignored the importance of continuous and popular protests in Kashmir against the Indian rule. It is irony that killing of innocent Muslims and Christians in frequent communal violence in India failed to draw attention of the US administration.
   In this backdrop US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is coming to India next week, maybe in a bid to defuse tension heightened by the terrorist attack on Mumbai. Her statements leaning towards New Delhi have given to doubt about the real purpose of her visit.

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TOP UNAIDS OFFICIALS SAY

Less funding could lead to millions
of AIDS deaths

Thalif Deen at United Nations

The global economic crisis is threatening to undermine yet another key development goal set by the United Nations: reversing by 2015 the AIDS epidemic still devastating millions of people worldwide.
   The continued refrain that "there is too much money for AIDS" is misleading, says Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the Geneva-based UNAIDS. The "sobering reality" is that the AIDS response remains under funded.
   Last year, there were substantial increases in resources to battle HIV/AIDS worldwide, which totalled $10 billion-a 12 percent increase over 2006 and a 10-fold increase in less than a decade. But still there was a shortfall of over $8.1 billion last year. The gap in 2008 could be wider.
   Speaking on the eve of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, Piot says "the global financial crisis could lead to funding cutbacks, which in turn, will have harmful impacts throughout the developing world generally, and in the AIDS response in particular."
   As updated last week, some of the global facts and figures on AIDS read: an estimated 33.0 million people living with HIV worldwide; 2.7 million people newly infected in 2007; and 2.0 million who died of AIDS in 2007.
   "The epidemic is still running ahead of the response," Bertil Lindblad, director of the UNAIDS Office in New York, told IPS U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen. "It is a long enduring epidemic and we need sustainability in the response," he added.
   "But this new phase poses major challenges too; to sustain this momentum into the future and to build upon it to ensure that we are in a position to provide the best possible results for people not just today, but in 20 to 30 years' time from now."
   Lindblad, however, said that progress has been recorded in a substantial increase in HIV prevention and treatment efforts, especially in a number of heavily affected countries. Today, well over 3.0 million people in low and middle-income countries have access to life-lengthening HIV drugs. While the global epidemic has levelled off in terms of the percentage of people infected (prevalence), the total number of people living with HIV has increased to 33 million people globally, with nearly 7,500 new infections each day.
   Lindblad pointed out that AIDS epidemic is not over in any part of the world: there are still five new infections for every two people newly on treatment. In addition, we are seeing a rise in new HIV infections in some older epidemics, as noted in countries, such a Germany, England and Australia.
   Meanwhile, widespread discrimination against people infected with HIV is being practiced all over. For example, as many as eight countries have declared that all people living with HIV are inadmissible for any reason or length of time; with an additional five countries denying visas for even short-term stays. Twenty-eight countries deport individuals once their HIV-positive status is discovered.
   -Inter Press Service

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Usual blame game follows
Mumbai mayhem

Fazle Rashid in New York

The United States with a lame duck president in office toughens its stand against Pakistan, its strongest ally in war against terror. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state who visited India and Pakistan in the wake of the carnage in Mumbai employed harsh language against Pakistan and ordering it to cooperate with India to find out the terrorist. India and the US have both arrived at the conclusion that the Mumbai massacre was engineered in Pakistan, an allegation stoutly denied by Islamabad.
   The macabre incident took place barely 74 hours after Asif Ali Zardari made a peace overtures to India publicly stating that Islamabad would not make first use of its nuclear deterrent against India. More stunning was Zardari's announcement that his government was doing away with the much maligned political wing of the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI). These overtures were made to soothe the strained ties between the two.
   India backed by its newly found friend the US forwarded a list of 20 suspected terrorists, who New Delhi feels masterminded the attack, to Pakistan for their early extradition. Pakistan has refused to do so. Pakistan faced a "critical moment" in its recent history one in which its leading institutions must be united to root out extremism that generated the ghastly Mumbai mayhem, Condi Rice said.
   Meanwhile, the Financial Times of London in its report has quoted former Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef as saying that there has to be 'a determined push from our side not to succumb to India's blackmail but also keep the conciliation going'. The other opposition parties in Pakistan want a tougher approach. They say that just because one gunmen in Mumbai says he came from Pakistan and he possibly made that statement under duress does not prove that Pakistan was involved. We can't accept wild Indian allegations lying down.
   Pakistan is passing through the worst economic crisis since its independence. The fragile economy has been bailed out by the International Monetary Fund on the urgings of its western friends notably Germany and Britain.
   India will soon go to polls. The Congress is in trouble as it is not sure whether its Communist allies will lend their support after the elections. The radical Hinduvta party is gearing up its campaign stating country's security is not safe in Congress's hands.
   In another report, the Financial Times wrote that 'Manmohon Singh is too good a man to be a politician. His main problem is not with Sonia Gandhi or with his coalition partners, it is that he needs to provide the political willpower to get things done'.
   President-elect Obama ducked a question whether India has the right to take military action against Pakistan. Sovereign nations have the right to defend themselves, he said. President-elect has identified the Pakistan-Afghanistan region as the central front in the battle against terrorism and would convince Pakistan to focus on combating the insurgency in its north-west borders rather than escalating tension with India.
   India is still insisting that the planners of attacks are still at large in Pakistan and they are expected to take strong action. India is the biggest nation in the region. It has the largest intelligence agency. So it is not readily understandable why should India instead of charginh its own intelligence agency for failing to stop the insurgents from intruding into its territory always points its accusing fingers at Bangladesh and Pakistan. It would be difficult to protect the luxury hotels from the terrorist attacks. Barely two months after Marriott hotel in Islamabad, the two luxury hotels in Mumbai came under similar attack.
   The noted India-born American journalist Fareed Zakaria in an article in Newsweek magazine said the problems of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are now bleeding into one another and any purely national approach is not going to work. The best outcome of these attacks would be if they spurred cooperation and reform. If instead they feel rivalry bitterness and finger pointing, the victims will have died in vain and there will be more victims and an insecure neighbourhood.
   The Economist of London said: 'Introducing Manmohon Singh to Laura Bush the (US) president reportedly noted that India is a country of 150 million Muslims but there is not a single al-Qaeda member. The paper said India has routinely blamed Pakistan and Bangladesh and they have training camps for the terrorists.

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