EDITORIAL

Metro railway: Welcome move

In a city where dwellers have been enduring intolerable perennial gridlock of vehicular traffic, the Government's plan to build an underground railway network is commendable because for a mega city like Dhaka of over one million inhabitants it is a long-overdue task earlier initiated by the BNP administration. The decision is worthwhile as the metro railway project, when completed, will prove to be a boon to at least four million commuters now literally gasping to reach from one part of the metropolis to another. We in the Holiday are particularly pleased as we suggested in November 2006 the adoption of a plan for underground railway service has to be high on the agenda.
   Our next-door neighbour Kolkata has an efficient metro system since the eighties; so does other South Asian countries. In this respect Dhaka will be a late starter. The successive governments should have planned a metro railway for Dhaka long ago; however, better late than never.
   Over the years Dhaka city's unending gridlock of vehicular traffic has assumed nightmarish proportions. The inhabitants of the capital have been tolerating the worst form of congestion every day from 8 in the morning to at least 10 in the evening, resulting in sheer wastage of huge amount of money in terms fuel cost, time and lost hours.
   Be you in a car, bus or any other automobile transport, at times it takes over two hours to reach Motijheel from Uttara. The distance of Kawran Bazar from Dhanmondi Road number 27 will not be over two kilometres; but it takes about 45 minutes or more in a car if one travels through Manik Mia Avenue --- the Panthapath route these days make little or no difference. How severe is the suffering of the denizens out there in old Dhaka? You guess the extreme, and it is real. Anyone intending to go to the District Judge's Court area or Sadarghat from Gulistan will be ill-advised to travel in a car which will be stuck for about an hour in the incredible gridlock at North-South Road --- the distance being barely one kilometre. One presumes it may take hours to reach Lalbagh from Sadarghat, again a distance of about two kilometres.
   At one time it was routinely prescribed that since rickshaw is slow moving, so efforts were made to push it away from main roads; but now even VIP roads, where rickshaws do not ply, are facing terrible traffic mess. So forbidding its plying has hardly contributed to the reduction of traffic congestion. Moreover, there are serious management errors by traffic personnel in the city where 65 new vehicles are coming on the roads every day adding to the already unendurable situation the continuance of which could lead to a nightmare, paralysing movement of transports as well as mobility of the people.
   As regards safety code in civil engineering work of the proposed underground railway, we wish to say a few words of caution, since it is not infrequently that we come across newspaper reports about bridge or building collapse in Dhaka and elsewhere. Falling over of a footbridge at Elephant Road killing and injuring pedestrians is still fresh in memory. In a country known for its all-pervasive corruption and general propensity to deceive, leaving no room for chance, every care at all stages must be taken so that all engineering specifications are scrupulously followed. In respect of construction materials only 100 per cent pure and guaranteed components has to be used considering the train's speed and the tunnels' strength. It is not a hard job to accomplish as good functioning examples are already there. Besides, time schedule should be maintained accurately. We wish the project all success.

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE

George Bush's last year looks pathetic

Jim Lobe in Washington

If the last days of 2007 are any indication, U.S. President George W. Bush's last year in office is shaping up as grim and lonely.
   Grim, because Bush's signature "war on terror" is nowhere near the kind of "victory" on which he had placed so much hope. Hundreds of billions of dollars from the US Treasury have been spent, but the democratic transformation of the Middle East and the wider Islamic world has not materialised.
   Indeed, while Bush's Surge strategy has helped reduce violence in Iraq over the past year, his top military commanders stress that the relative peace that has been achieved to date is fragile and that prospects for national reconciliation-the Surge's political goal-remain dim.
   Meanwhile, victory in the larger terror effort is nowhere in sight, as last week's assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, helped illustrate.
   Grim, because the economic news-which has generally remained upbeat over Bush's tenure-has turned decidedly negative in recent months. The chances that his successor may inherit a recession, as well as the many foreign-policy fiascos created by the disastrous combination of the administration's ideological rigidity and incompetence, are growing steadily.
   Lonely, not only because of the departure during the past year of virtually all of his closest and most long-standing loyalists-Dan Barlett, Karen Hughes, Harriet Miers, Alberto Gonzales, and Karl Rove-but also because he is seen increasingly as both a lame duck and an albatross around the necks of his party's candidates.
   Indeed, the focus of national and international attention-so far as the US is concerned-appears to have shifted to the race to succeed him in next November's elections. Remarkably, the mainstream US media last week devoted as much space to the reactions of the main presidential candidates to Bhutto's assassination as to the administration's.
   The fact that all of the major Republican candidates not only rarely evoke his name, but often suggest that his performance in office has been less than stellar, serves only to underline his marginalisation.
   As for the Democrats, Bush, whose public-approval ratings have hovered around 32 per cent for more than a year (the worst sustained ratings of any president in more than 50 years), is the rhetorical target against whom they find it easiest to rally the party faithful. According to recent surveys, the Democratic Party has grown substantially over the past four years, largely as a result of what Bush's defenders have called "Bush hatred".
   Bush, of course, is still hoping that 2008 may yet deliver his presidency from the fate of being judged as one of the very worst-if not the worst-in history.
   A number of eminent historians have in fact already reached that judgement, based, among other things, on the strategic disaster of the Iraq war; the squandering of Washington's overseas image as a champion of international law and human rights; the defiance of constitutional safeguards at home; the politicisation of the system of justice; and the distortion of scientific research regarding global warming and other critical issues.
   His hopes of escaping that assessment rest primarily in the area of foreign policy, on which, as a "war-time president", he has staked his reputation.
   Possible achievements that could help to redeem Bush's overall record before the end of his term would be the continued reduction of violence-if not reconciliation among the three main communal groups-in Iraq; a major breakthrough in the Israel-Palestinian negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state; or the de-nuclearisation of North Korea.
   But even the most likely of these three-North Korean de-nuclearisation-remains highly uncertain. Most analysts here believe that Pyongyang has not yet made a strategic decision to give up its nuclear programme as demanded by Washington.
   Similarly, the initial indications after last month's Israeli-Palestinian Summit in Annapolis do not look particularly favourable. Israel has spurned a ceasefire offer by Hamas-which, in any event, retains the ability to spoil any accord reached by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas-and, despite US pressure, is playing coy about settlement activity in the contested Jerusalem area. Just how hard Bush is prepared to press Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remains unknown.
   As for Iraq, a big question mark is whether the planned withdrawal of 30,000 US troops by July and 60,000 by the end of next year will spark a new round in the Sunni-Shi'a civil war, which the Surge has helped to tamp down but not resolve. Another big question as 2007 draws to a close is whether Kurdistan - - until now the most peaceful and pro-US part of Iraq-will find its stability at risk due to US-backed Turkish attacks on Kurdish guerrillas or by the approach of the newly-scheduled referendum on the status of Kirkuk.
   While these three areas may offer the brightest prospects for redemption, new crises-particularly those arising from the "war on terror"-could divert the administration's attention and further damage Bush's record.
   Bhutto's assassination, for example, offered yet another example that Bush's war has been at best incompetently pursued, if not misconceived from the very beginning.
   Not only did Bush's diversion of both money and troops from Afghanistan to Iraq immediately after the defeat of the Taliban permit both Taliban and al Qaeda to regroup and eventually extend their influence in the rugged tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border, but his virtually unconditional backing-including more than US$10 billion in mostly military aid-for the regime of General Pervez Musharraf served mainly to strengthen the Islamist parties at the expense of the secular, "moderate" forces to which his administration has given mainly rhetorical support.
   When it became clear last summer that Pakistan's Taliban was making major advances and that Musharraf's popular base had dried up, the administration sought to forge an agreement between the military commander and the exiled Bhutto, whom it had long ignored.
   The agreement, which included free elections that would likely result in Bhutto's election as prime minister, was designed, in the words of Bruce Reidel-a former senior CIA analyst now with the Brookings Institution-to give the Musharraf government "a democratic façade", bolster the moderates, and encourage the army to co-operate with US counter-terror efforts.
   The cynicism of the manoeuvre, combined with Washington's enduring support for Musharraf-even when he declared a state of emergency earlier this fall-forced Bhutto to back away, leaving the accord unconsummated. Now that she has been eliminated, a number of experts here have noted, Bush, predictably, lacks a "Plan B".
   The prospect of a failed, nuclear-armed Pakistan makes even Iraq-not to mention a uranium-enrichment programme in Iran-look benign. It could be a rough final year.
   -Inter Press Service

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE

Food rationing system can relieve poor people's hardship

Muhammad Afsar Ali Farajee

During the Second World War, the then British Government introduced rationing system of food grains and ration cards were issued for all members of a family. This rationing system was meant for the fixed income earners and underprivileged people.
   At the time of the Second World War, the British Government also introduced rationing for the police personnel. Subsequently rationing was introduced for govt. employees and even for the teachers and other employees of non-govt. high schools and colleges. Moreover, there was statutory rationing for many urban areas and modified rationing for the rural areas.
   But, as per World Bank's prescription both statutory and modified rationing was stopped in 1986. But rationing for the police, BDR, deference service and Ansar is still is in vogue. The Police, the BDR, Ansar, service personnel and Ansar Battalion personnel are entitled to get the benefit of rationing system. The govt. is to pay subsidy for the ration items.
   
   West Bengal
   India is our nearest neighbour. According to the print media report, in West Bengal of India still there is a system of rationing -- about 0.80 crore to 1.00 crore poor people are getting the benefit of food rationing system in West Bengal.
   Bangladesah Government may introduce three categories of ration card, namely, "A" "B" and "C". The Government may distribute a fixed quantity of food grains like rice, wheat, kerosene oil, soybean oil, pulses etc. at a reasonable rate. But introducing fixed price for open market may not bring any benefit.
   
   Emperor Khilzi
   Emperor Alauddin Khilzi, a great ruler of Delhi, punished many dishonest traders and introduced fixed price for different food grains.
   The BDR has started a good venture by running fair price shops in Dhaka city. But there is no such system in the rural areas, so the poorer section of the rural areas is deprived of it. Hence, the Government should open fair price shops at least at all the Upzila headquarters and also at all municipal areas.
   We should remember that in 1350 B.S (1942-43) a great famine occurred in the then undivided Bengal and the colonial British Indian Government failed to tackle the situation. In 1974, there was another great famine in our country and the then Awami League govt. miserably failed to tackle the situation. Bangladesh is certainly not prepared to witness any serious Monga or famine-like situation.
   On this issue the remark of our food adviser is very much deplorable. Both the Ministry of food and the Adviser for Food failed to realise the skyrocketing of food prices. The Education Adviser resigned taking the moral responsibility. Similarly the food adviser should resign voluntarily and all high-level officials of the ministry of food should be replaced.
   A big business syndicate may be behind abnormal and unreasonable food price. The Government should immediately find them out and punish them.
   The Government may introduce rationing for all classes of Government employees including non-govt. primary schools, non-govt. high schools, and madrashas and also for non-govt. colleges. The govt. may also seriously think of introducing rationing system at least on a temporary basis for the next 5/6 months.
   The fixed wage earners and limited income earners have very limited purchasing power. Providing dearness allowance to all Government employees may help them to some extent. Measures should be adopted to increase the purchasing power of the people by introducing income-generating activities.
   We are answerable to Allah for our acts. Everybody will have to answer to Allah whether he is a president, an adviser or an ordinary man. It is our duty to serve the people. Let good sense prevail.

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE

Jatrabari Road: Pedestrians in danger

Dear Editor:
   Over the last several years the authorities concerned have made one-way road traffic, about quarter of a mile long, on a small portion of Gulistan-Jatrabari road, from Jaikali Mandir road corner to south-eastern road corner of Rajdhani Market.
   On both sides of this one quarter of a mile road millions of people live. Thousands of buses, trucks, cars, taxis, CNG scooters, rickshaws and push carts ply on this road round the clock. But there is not a single Zebra crossing, no overhead footbridge or underpass for the pedestrians to cross the road.
   Hundreds of men, women and children, school boys and girls cross this one way road at 1) Wari School/Sher-e-Bangla Girls School point and 2) Salahuddin Hospital/Rajdhani Market point amidst fast moving and continuously running vehicles at a great risk of their lives.
   Occasionally there are road accidents, many pedestrians are injured and killed. Sometimes one or two traffic police sergeants are found patrolling the road on motor cycle or a few police constables standing idle. They do not control and supervise the road traffic.
   It would not be irrelevant to mention here that the authorities concerned have taken a development plan for construction of a flyover from Gulistan to Jatrabari. But the construction work is stopped and we do not know when the flyover would be completed.
   We would also like to state that we do not find any sign of Zebra crossing anywhere on the road in Dhaka city. The pedestrians cross the road at random and they are subjected to road accidents while crossing the road.
   Would the authorities concerned look into the matter and do the needful without further delay in the interest of the public?
   O. H. Kabir,
   Dhaka.

Dear Editor:
   The senior officers of BPC (the govt tourist organisation) should have tourist experience in today's global village. About five million Bangladeshis are working abroad.
   I live in Dhaka after retirement from service abroad. An expat Bangladeshi friend is coming his home country after 15 years. I would like to have a tour of Bangladesh in my self-driven car. No tourist info available readily, in a single package.
   A self-conducted car trip! No car route/road maps. Where to stay; security problems; do's I don'ts; what to take; rates; phone numbers; no one-stop service. I make a phone call, and someone comes on motor bike and briefs the foreign tourist/local escort. Where to seek info? No list of authorised travel agents.
   Breakdown services; accident services; unserviceable services; how to activate foreign mobile phones for use in Bangladesh (local SIM card at one stop centre).
   There should be one-stop centres (at least four/five in Dhaka; one each in Chittagong, Rajshahi and Divisional headquarters. Where to have escort service"?
   Security at sea beach resorts. One-stop shopping (handicrafts, RMG and local products we export). Info on monetary hassles, few maps and charts, video CD on touring Bangladesh is need.
   A Local Tourist,
   Dhaka.

---

Where are 1971 war documents

Dear Editor:
   One shouldn't play games with deep-rooted emotions and agonies of millions Yes I am talking about 1971 and its consequences. The govt is now reluctant to prepare infrastructure of tribunals for war criminals. General Moyeen was vocal from the beginning about war criminals
   Implementation of minus two formula and fair election needed six to nine months at best. Mojahid-Nizami and others are dishonest because Jamaat operatives killed the people and intellectuals in 1971. They are disciples of Moulana Moududi on whose wrong interpretation of Islam Ahmedias and K'adiyanis were killed in 1960s.
   We want to establish Bangla language side by side of English as our state language. Can this govt. lay the foundation of that statutory declaration we dreamt for last 36 years.
   The then Indira Gandhi-led Indian govt in 1971 helped millions of Bangladeshis. But at the same time they signed Simla Pact on our bloodshed, on the basis of their Kautillya politics, helped return war criminals to Pakistan by blackmailing Pakistan for Kashmir, with cunning Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. .All the cunnings are now part of history .But we want to know from Indian Govt about that conspiracy. Why General Osmani wasn't present in the Racecourse Maidan on 16 December 1971. India restrained Tajuddin and our real freedom fighters via RAW in November 1971 and giving upperhand to Rakkhi Bahini to make Bangladesh subservient economically, politically and finish our unfinished revolution, the consequence of which we are still bearing on our shoulders.
   I request journalst Anthony Maskarenhas, Tully, Indian Journalist Kuldip Nayar, Rahul Gandhi, Pakistani generals, US state department and other stakeholders to tell us the truth from their unclassified documents about hidden chapters of 1971. Hasan Hafizur Rahman couldn't include all documents in his twelve volumes.
   Dr Azizul Karim,
   General Practitioner ,victoria ,Australia
   mounaj @optusnet.com.au

---

Corruption in Bangladesh

Dear Editor:
   I am a Bangladeshi living in the USA for many years. I have not been involved in corruption in my life. I have lived an honest life and I do not like to even be in the shadows of corrupt people anywhere in the world.
   The Caretaker Government of Bangladesh has chosen to take the task of cleaning the country of corrupt people and get rid of corrupt practices.It is a commendable task indeed. Hopefully,it will be the start of building the moral fibre in the country and purifying society.
   Politicians, businessmen and civil servants are all targets in general. I see very few names of people from the defense services of Bangladesh. Does it mean that they are like angels? In a country like Bangladesh, if we find a corruption free segment like that we should really put them at the helm of affairs. There are a good number of retired young generals available in the country who can give corruption-free leadership.
   On the other hand, I have also known a good number of honest civil servants. Some of them are going through the scrutiny of this government. I hope the government does not go for witch hunting by declaring honest officers corrupt. That will be a great injustice to them and humanity. Any such allegation should be investigated by honest unbiased people. Evidence should be checked very carefully. Then the retired honest civil servants should be tapped for service and leadership for the country. The retirement age is too early any way.
   Finally, punishments for corruption as a crime should be such that they become examples for all, to discourage people. After all, it takes at least two to do corruption.
   Kamal U. Hyder
   4570 Duffer Place,
   Lakeland, FL 33801.
   Email: kuhyder@juno.com

---

Justice is not blind

Dear Editor:
   While travelling to Dhaka on 17th Oct, 2007, I came across a copy of the Gulf Daily News of the same date. The letter under the heading "Justice is blind" written by Ms Lee Ann Fleetwood drew my attention. It was also considered to be the letter of the week for which she was awarded.
   She is a non-Muslim and does not subscribe to Islamic faith. She was very critical of the learned judge as of the Shariah court which, though rightly, ignored her since she failed to comply with the basic discipline of the Shariah court of an Islamic State. She was required to be modestly dressed putting her hijab on, in line with the Islamic dress code. There was nothing wrong about it. She should have been aware of the adage "while in Rome do as the Romans do". She deliberately breached the code of practice and then tried to undermine the local customs, while paying no respect to the learned Judge.
   The way she mentioned his name and portrayed his attitude speaks of her arrogance as a modern woman of the day. Strange enough, she made no complaint about the judgement, what alone should have been her real concern. She also did not question about the competence and wisdom of the learned Judge.
   She as an educated woman should have appreciated that at least in some part of today's world women are being encouraged to be modestly dressed and maintain their dignity, while in most other countries women do not mind exposing parts of the body. They tend to dress up as men and behave in a manly way to prove gender equality without realising that those are at the cost of their feminine quality, what is so vital and ornamental! The charming quality of shyness in women is hardly noticed today. They are no longer keen to possess motherhood rather they love to portray them as young and sexy, thus destroying the family setup and the beauty of life.
   A wholesale paternity test may prove disastrous in many ultra-modern societies as the consequences of free sex and free society. So for a happier relationship and peaceful family life Islam has drawn a line between man and woman. Even in the West during Victorian time women used to put on long dress covering their body.
   So the learned Judge is not blind.
   A.B.M. Zakaria,
   1228 East shewrapara
   Mirpur, Dhaka-1216
   Bangladesh Ph- 8802 8035296, mob-01911343811/22

^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^ MAIN PAGE