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STRATEGIC BLUNDERS WILL BE COSTLY
Accusing India, Myanmar may
antagonise both
M. Shahidul Islam
Diplomacy is a helpless orphan unless backed by force. Despite that, brewing diplomatic rows with close neighbours like India and Myanmar may turn much of the nation's focus away from compelling domestic priorities toward international crisis management as the foreign office prepares to lodge a formal complaint against India and Myanmar for their recent claims over huge oceanic spaces in the Bay of Bengal that lawfully belongs to Bangladesh.
Sources say the Permanent Mission of the country at the UN has already prepared necessary documents to initiate a 'protest note' with the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) against those two neighbours.
Pursuant UNCLOS guidelines, Bangladesh must demarcate its sea boundaries by July 27, 2011 while India has filed its claim before the UN body by June 29, 2009 and Myanmar by May 21, 2009...[ FULL STORY ]
PMO, retired Maj. Gen. coordinating NSI, DGFI, SSF, RAB, SB et al
Shahriar Noori
So the Home Ministry has not much of a job now to perform as the Government has relieved it of its traditional responsibility of coordinating the activities of the intelligence agencies after about three decades.
Now the policy makers' goal is not to detect the causes of the Home Ministry's failure in coordinating or strengthening the intelligence agencies. The responsibility now has been entrusted upon the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the man in charge is defence affairs adviser Maj. Gen. (Retd) Tariq Ahmed Siddiqui, brother-in-law of Sheikh Rehana, younger sister of the Prime Minister, informed sources said. A gazette notification to this effect was also issued in the first week of August...[ FULL STORY ]
POWER CONCENTRATION
Bid to restore retired civil, army officers won't serve democracy
Faisal Rahim
With the unfolding developments in politics and state institutions, one tends to get the impression that the country is steadily moving to consolidate all power to a family based political dynasty of Prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Many a move is being taken pointing finger to such a development.
This assumption refers not only to the new law providing protection to members of Prime Ministers family but also proposals for returning jobs to thousands of retired or retrenched workers and employees of Biman or Chittagong Port - a scheme to strengthen the government's political control on these institutions. Those workers were given forced retirement or 'golden handshakes' by the caretaker government to make the two institutions viable...[ FULL STORY ]
PROTEST AGAINST TIPAIMUKH DAM
An ill-conceived parliamentary
team's visit
Sadeq Khan
On July 29 last, a 10-member parliamentary delegation including four officials and one water expert from Bangladesh left for India on a five-day visit to discuss the Tipaimukh Dam project and inspect the project site. It was led by the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources, Abdur Razzak MP, former water resources minister in the 7th parliament. The delegation was also said to have been scheduled to visit Lakshmipur (Phulertal) in Assam, where the barrage component of the project was planned to be built and is now said to have been dropped from the project...[ FULL STORY ]
GOVERNMENTS WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT
Will abracadabra work?
Hafiz Shamseer
Who calls the shots in Bangladesh? The obvious answer is: Sheikh Hasina, the country's prime minister, who wields so much of untrammelled power that, should she wish, can virtually turn a day into a night and vice versa.
But does she really? That's a sixty-four dollar question not easy to answer. The toadies would furiously challenge. Her enemies would only doubt. Why can't they see the wood from the tree? It in fact is all chalk and cheese. She is firmly in the driver's seat. The independent and the uncommitted would counteract in a cucumber-like equanimity. The truth is that there are governments within her government, and that's really dangerous. She may be in the driver's seat, but her cv doesn't testify she knows driving...[ FULL STORY ]
Rising India sees China as the
biggest challenge
Shamsuddin Ahmed
A Chinese strategist has advised to break up India into nation-states based on its diverse nationalities like the Tamils and Nagas. The suggestion has come as India considers China as the biggest challenge while rising to global prominence. The Chinese strategist has advocated breaking up of India as many of its political leaders think of extending its border from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east.
The Indian leaders' view was reflected by its Navy Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta. He told a seminar in New Delhi last Monday (Aug 10), 'China will certainly be one of our primary challenges in the years ahead. It is consolidating its comprehensive national power and creating formidable military capabilities. Once that is done, China is likely to be more assertive on its claims especially in its immediate neighbourhood.'..[ FULL STORY ]
New US envoy to China
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, 49, was sworn in as ambassador to China in Salt Lake City, capital of Utah, shortly after his resignation as governor.
Xinhua reports from Washington, Huntsman, a moderate Republican, was confirmed as top U.S. diplomat to China by the Senate last Friday. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to the position in May...[ FULL STORY ]
Govt. brazenly pursuing cases against Khaleda, her two sons
Special Correspondent
The opposition BNP continues to show tolerance and keep political activities at low profile by engaging the party units to reorganise the lower tiers under fresh leadership.
Taking this as a chance, the Awami League (AL) Government has been pursuing the cases filed by the military-backed Caretaker Government against BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and her two sons, both of whom are now staying abroad for medical treatment...[ FULL STORY ]
TCB given hard task to stabilise
Ramzan market
Abdur Rahman Khan
The state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) which has been forced to live an dormant crippled life for one decade, has been assigned with a tight-rope walking task to intervene in the market for stabilising commodity prices during the forthcoming Ramzan, the month of fasting.
"We are not going to control the prices of commodities but to intervene so that the market does not fluctuate in face of any artificial crisis or short supply during the Ramzan" , said Md Zainal Abedin, Chairman of TCB. Talking to The Holiday, Mr. Abedin informed that the corporation has already taken steps for procurement of 12,500 MT of sugar, 12,500 Mt of refined Soybean oil, 100 MT of onion and another 100 Mt of chhola (gram) which get higher demand during the Ramzan...[ FULL STORY ]
China key player on world stage
Fazle Rashid in New York
The phenomenal success of China in economy, defence, diplomacy, space science and in more other areas are no more just a matter of conjecture. These are established facts. China's position in the second place after the United States of America is well secured. China has a foreign exchange reserve of well over $2 trillion, the largest in the world. This makes China a key global player. The entire world believes that it is China alone, which can retrieve a struggling global economy and put it back on right track.
India recognises China's irreversible might despite prodding from behind to challenge Beijing's superpower status. China is not doing for itself alone, it is helping others to rebuild and reform, a job that was exclusively done by the World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral funding agencies. China with its vast troves of cash are reaching out to poor sub-Saharan African nations, affluent South American nations like Brazil and Argentina. China has not only rebuilt militarily strategic areas devastated in Sri Lanka and Pakistan by natural catastrophes, but also helped them regain extra strength...[ FULL STORY ]
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