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Energy Security: Bangladesh
Perspective-I
A.S.M. Bashirul Huq
Energy is essential to the way we live. Whether it is in the form of oil, natural gas or electricity, the world's prosperity and welfare depends on having access to reliable and secured supplies of energy at affordable prices. Improving on how we acquire, produce and consume energy is central to becoming economically and environmentally responsible and sustainable. Currently the world is in search of food security and energy security. We would need to understand what they really mean, and how these could be met, or whether it is at all possible to ensure them.
However, we state "energy" to mean mainly oil, or coal, or natural gas or electricity. But they are not the same. They are not easily interchangeable either. Oil itself is useless and natural gas is dangerous. Electricity is a product of a process through some technology. We do not really have energy demand, but we do have demand for different services. We have to provide different energy services with different user-technology, which may or may not be available at affordable price. The competition that really matters is between fuel and technology. Better technology may require less fuel to deliver the same or better services.
What is energy security?
For many it is an aspect to be internalized into modern energy markets via effective price signals and market mechanisms in order to hedge risks. Is energy security a matter of national and international markets, or is it a matter of geopolitical power struggles? Daniel Yergin, in his study 'Ensuring Energy Security', wrote '
energy security has repeatedly emerged as an issue of great importance, and it is so once again today. But the subject now needs to be rethought, for what has been the paradigm of energy security for the past three decades is too limited and must be expanded to include many new factors. Moreover, it must be recognized that energy security does not stand by itself, but is lodged in the larger relations among nations and how they interact with one another.'
In the 1970s energy security referred to the provision of imports of oil at stable prices and the availability of domestic fossil fuels free from disturbance and from labour unrest. The goal of energy security was to prevent long lines of cars waiting for limited gasoline, or avoid electricity load shedding, or for the rural people of countries like ours, having kerosene oil available at affordable price for cooking and lighting. However, population growth and increasing levels of per capita resource consumption will drive growing energy demand in the 21st century.
UN Economic Commission for Europe in the new millennium defines energy security as "the availability of usable energy supplies, at the point of final consumption, in sufficient quantity and timeliness so that, given due regard for encouraging energy efficiency, the economic and social development of the country is not materially constrained." Energy Security can be further described as "the uninterrupted physical availability at a price which is affordable, while respecting environment concerns". Other definitions of energy security imply more or less the same dimension of energy availability.
Let us consider, again, the relationship between energy and development. For any country, affordable energy, especially access to electricity, enables better healthcare, improved education, and greater food production. Infant mortality decreases, life expectancy increases, living standards rise. Citizens live longer, and earn a better living. In developing countries like Bangladesh, massive population growth, huge influx of people to cities, excessive water use, and increased numbers of automobiles are combining to make energy security the critical challenge of our time. In short, more development would require more energy.
Energy security has many aspects: long-term energy security is mainly linked to timely investments to supply energy in line with projected economic developments and environmental needs. On the other hand, short-term energy security is the ability of the energy system to react promptly to sudden changes in supply and demand.
Another way to look at energy security is to study the different energy sources (coal, oil, gas, and renewable), intermediate means (electricity, refineries) and transportation modes (grids, pipelines, ports, ships). All of these have risks of supply interruptions or failures, challenging the security of undisturbed energy supply. Oil and natural gas fields are not renewable, even though they may not yet be fully exploited. Once used, the well is dry. Whether it is oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, or ethanol, energy security rests in certainty of supply and diversity of source.
However, today more than in the past, environmental considerations also impact energy security issue. These concerns encourage development of alternatives such as bio-fuels, solar energy, wind power or non-carbon generation technologies. In many cases, other security concerns emerge; for example, bio-fuels raise questions about utilization of land away from food production, depletion of water resources and deforestation.
The defining feature of global energy markets remains high and volatile prices, creating a tight balance of supply and demand. This has put issues of energy security, energy trade and alternative energies at the forefront of the political agenda worldwide, not merely in our country. At a time as this, reliable data is an invaluable tool for decision makers and analysts both inside and outside the industry.
Energy facts in Bangladesh
In 1971, 3 percent of the total population in Bangladesh had access to electricity, while today, about 45 percent of the population have access to it. In the many areas too remote to be connected to the electric system, solar power and photovoltaic cells have started to be used. In islands like Kutubdia, where national grid is not likely to be available in near future, wind power is being tried for harnessing. With the assistance of donor organizations, other renewable and bio-fuels are also coming into play to make good for the unmet demand.
Bangladesh has one of the lowest levels of per capita consumption of commercial energy in South Asia, equal to 160 kg of oil. Per capita electricity consumption is around 150 kWh. Demand for energy is growing at a rate of 10% annually. Rural electrification program has established 70 rural electric cooperatives (Palli Biddyut Samities, PBSs). They provide electricity to more than 40 million people with more than 2,000 new connections each day. Customers are also the members of the cooperatives.
Legislation for establishing Bangladesh's national independent Energy Regulatory Commission was passed in the parliament on March 10, 2003. Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission has been in place since 2004, and is 'up and doing' now. The Commission has the mandate to regulate the power sector and downstream gas and petroleum sectors.
The author is an energy specialist. His contact: bhuq@bol-online.com
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The "prehistory" of Language Movement
Dr Aziz Islam
Four months into the life of Pakistan, the provincial education ministers met in Karachi in December 1947 and resolved Urdu to be the national language and medium of higher education. Representatives from East Bengal vehemently opposed and put up the case for Bengali but were ruled out. The Bengalis in Dhaka in particular reacted reflexively by forming the National Language Action Committee. Three months later, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Governor General, arrived in Dhaka in March 1948 and declared that Urdu only shall be the national language of Pakistan. This declaration only strengthened the resolve of the Bengalis to resist it and the Language Movement was up and running. The news and progression of this movement was faithfully brought to the masses by vernacular newspapers with exotic names, such as the Ittefaq, the Ittehad, the Azad, etc and the socio-cultural organisation that proffered a platform for this movement was the Tamaddun Majlis.
Bengalis are more prone to protesting and demanding than being pragmatic. Unless historical events are put in proper perspective, history may become Napoleonesque "fables agreed upon." A climate of love for Urdu existed in educated Bengal as it still does, and that was not necessarily restricted to Muslim Leaguers. The purveyors of Urdu as well as many prominent Bengalis of the day simply could not think that Bengalis in their right mind could oppose Urdu. There was a belief that most Bengalis, if not all, can speak Urdu, or can at least understand it, and those who did not, could and would pick it up pretty quickly. Bengalis have proved this all through the short life of united Pakistan.
First protest: 1906
The All India Muslim League, the political party that sowed the seed and nurtured the growth of "Muslim nationalism" in India, leading to the proposition of "Two Nations theory", and ultimately succeeding in carving out a "Muslim homeland" from "Hindu India", was formed in December 1906 at a meeting in Shahbag, Dhaka. Little is known that this was only a side show; delegates had gathered for the main event that was the annual meeting of the Mohammedan Educational Conference, one of the two main initiatives of Sir Syed Ahmed to educate the Indian Muslims. Partition of Bengal a year before (1905) with rural Dhaka upgraded overnight into the capital of a brand new province provided an ideal cradle for the birth of a new political party. The Conference itself deliberated on educating the Muslims of Bengal, East Bengal in particular. Curiously, the emphasis was not as much on the type and content of education as was on the medium; Persian and Urdu were candidates, Bengali was not. One of the delegates, Maulvi Abdul Karim, Inspector of Schools for Mohammedan Education, Chittagong Division, a delegate to the conference from the new East Bengal and Assam Province, strongly pleaded that "the Muslims of Eastern Bengal can not do without Bengali, the vernacular of the Province
.. They could do without the other two languages
.. this I think, far from being a 'suicidal policy', is rather a policy of self-preservation." This was the first and bold declaration that Bengali Muslims were both Bengalis and Muslims, repudiating the Big Brothers who came from Delhi and Lucknow to tell us that Bengali was synonymous with Hindu. To them, educating in the vernacular was a suicidal policy, which Maulvi Karim referred to in his rebuttal.
To trace why our Big Brothers thought education in vernacular was suicidal for the Bengali Muslims and they were so dedicated, if not desperate, to save the souls of their poor little brothers, we need to look as far back as the origin of Urdu as a discrete language. During the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire (13th 16th centuries), soldiers living in the military cantonments in Hindustani-speaking western India, particularly the western Uttar Pradesh, by necessity imported Turkik, Persian and Arabic words to mix with the Sanskrit in Hindustani. The necessity was to express and communicate Islamic thoughts and ideas among themselves the vocabulary for which was not available in Sanskrit or Hindustani. Over the centuries, there emerged an Islamic version of Hindustani, which by then had advanced to become Hindi, and came to be referred to as "Mu'allam-e-Urdu", language/teacher of the camp, ultimately shortened to "Urdu".
After the first failed attempt to overthrow the British colonial yolk in 1857, the colonists skewed the blame heavily upon the Muslims without good reasons but probably because Muslims have not been cooperating with the rulers as much as the Hindus. There were mullahs telling fellow Muslims that learning English, the first step of cooperation with the British, was kufr. The colonial government employed W. W. Hunter to find out. The findings were published in a book in 1871, Our Indian Musalmans: Are they bound in conscience to rebel against the Queen?
The British were ready to help, the Muslims responded positively. Syed Ahmed (to be knighted later) from Aligarh convinced his fellow Muslims that by boycotting English they had fallen a century behind the Hindus in business, education and administration. Thus began the Aligarh Movement by Syed Ahmed who established the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College at Aligarh in 1875 and All India Educational Conference in 1886 with one of the goals being to teach Urdu along with English and develop it through translations and original writing.
The Court language of Delhi Sultanate had been Persian since the 13th century. The East India Co replaced Persian with Urdu in 1837 in addition to English in the Hindi-speaking northern provinces triggering the gradual development of dissent against neglecting Hindi. A perception that "Urdu was the language of the gentry and Hindi that of the vulgar" was insulting to the Hindi speakers and a Hindi-based nationalism grew during the 1860s and was allegedly an additional reason for Syed Ahmed to begin the Aligarh Movement. As offshoots of the Aligarh Movement, Urdu Defence Association in 1900 and Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-i-Urdu in 1903 were born to develop Urdu as the lingua franca for all Muslims of India and preserve its Perso-Arabic script, fearing Devnagari script would be introduced in courts and government offices. Similar organisations mushroomed all over India to allay the fear.
Second protest: 1933
All Bengal Urdu Association was founded in 1926. At its 1933 conference in Kolkata, it urged teaching of Urdu to all Muslim students in all schools and colleges in Bengal. "Bengali is a Hinduised and Sanskritised language
.. in the interest of the Muslims themselves it is necessary that they should try to have one language which cannot but be Urdu", without which any cultural rejuvenation of Bengali Muslims was "next to impossible." This received strong rebuke and repudiation from politicians and the public alike. Aminuddin Ahmed, a notary public, asserted that "The language of the Bengali, whether Hindu or Muslim, is Bengali beyond any doubt or dispute."
The evangelical zeal of the Urduwalas may have taken its cue from W. W. Hunter who had described Bengali Muslims as a mongrel race nothing more than "circumcised Hindus." This unflattering remark notwithstanding, this writer was aware during his childhood of Muslim marriages breaking up for the bridegroom's party not including sankha and sindur in the bridal gift pack, and his father and uncles using the honorific Sree before their names, soon to be replaced with Mohammad (why this is an overwhelmingly dominant first name in Bangladesh).
Origin of "mongrel race" lies in the origin of Bengali Muslims. Low-caste Hindus, mainly the agriculturalist Sudras, and the outcastes, who converted to Islam en mass to get rid of the upper-caste oppressions. This also accounts for the Muslim majority in East Bengal. Practically, this did not improve the class scenario much; the converts were instantly relegated to Atraf class while the Ashraf ruling elite used Bengali as a tool of convenience but spoke Urdu at home. There were, however, no religious edict or royal proclamation against Bengali, and the people naturally grew to love their mother tongue, as we have cited examples that Bengalis have protested at every instance of an attack on their tongue. Winning of the Nobel Prize in literature as early as in 1913 by Rabindranath Thakur was an unimaginable feat, and took the language to an unprecedented height above all other Indian languages. Not understanding the value and significance of this was a pitiable "illiteracy" on the part of the Urduwalas.
Politics & religion
Arrival of M K Gandhi from South Africa into Indian politics in the 1910s set a new course to India's independence movement. Gandhi was a religious fundamentalist who held his personal salvation above everything else, and geared India's national salvation from the colonial yolk along with it. This course fitted well with the Hindu nationalist movement but not with Jinnah. While Jinnah chaired a garden party welcoming Gandhi, Gandhi shrewdly trifled Jinnah by highlighting his faith and thus sowing the seed of discord in the nationalist politics of India.
During 1920s, Jinnah fell out with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress for not being a Gandhiist, and also with the Muslim League for not supporting the Khilafat Movement. The two religious fundamentalist parties: Gandhi's Congress and the Khilafat Movement, tied in a marriage of convenience, rebuked, ridiculed, humiliated and sent Jinnah to political oblivion. Jinnah's private life was also in turmoil; his wife left him and died. Jinnah left India and settled in London, and the Muslim League fragmented. He was brought back by some prominent Leaguers when the 1935 India Act clearly indicated devolution of power to the Indians, and Jinnah was also looking for a way to come home.
Third protest: 1936
At the 1936 annual meeting, the League allowed some fundamentalist concessions as a price for unity and Jinnah had to concur to become its "permanent" president. One of these was to protect and promote Urdu language and its script. A resolution to adopt Urdu as the official language of the League was strongly opposed by A K Fazlul Huq on grounds that it would hamper the League's work among Bengali Muslims who constituted one-third of the Indian Muslims, but as always, he was overruled. League's 1937 Lucknow conference resolved to do everything possible to make Urdu, rather than Hindi, "the universal language of India."
Therefore, when Jinnah arrived in Dhaka in March 1948, he had been carrying a heavy baggage. He declared: "let me make it very clear to you that the State language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language"
. Because, Urdu "embodies the best that is in Islamic culture and Muslim tradition and is nearest to the languages used in other Islamic countries." He spoke of Urdu to be the lingua franca and the State language two in one. Many thought then, and there are still many in Bangladesh who think that Urdu as a lingua franca was not a bad idea after all. One couldn't be more naοve. The provincial education ministers in Karachi had resolved: i) Primary education in mother tongue; ii) Urdu, if not the mother tongue, to replace English in year six whence English to become optional; and iii) English phased out by 1955 when students entering university (after year 10) will have no knowledge of English, and have Urdu only as the medium of learning. Making Urdu the sole medium of higher education was far more than lingua franca, not to mention the subjugation of Bengali. It was in reaction to this conference that the National Language Action Committee was formed in Dhaka; -the rest is history.
[NB. The reference to exotic language was in no way puritanical. Bengali language has been enriched from intrusion of foreign vocabulary, and the process of enriching should and will continue. The reference was to our gullibility; have we learned any lessons? We are still pulled around by the bridle by whoever we stand by with our shaky knees.]
The author writes from Rossmoyne WA, Australia
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'72 Constitution, 4th 5th Amendments
and BKSAL rule
Esam Sohail in Kansas
In the euphoria over the Supreme Court's invalidation of the Fifth Amendment, observers conveniently forget that the spirit of the 1972 Constitution was changed by the Fourth Amendment of 1975 as much as, if not more so, by the Fifth. In fact, even as I write there are constitutional experts huddled together wondering if this week's judicial verdict takes us back to the regime of the Fourth Amendment.
And what was the Fourth Amendment that was written, championed, and passed by the very individuals who today claim the restoration of democracy?
By virtue of the Fourth Amendment, with the stroke of a pen Bangladesh went from a multi-party parliamentary democracy to a one party presidential dictatorship. It banned all parties, association and newspapers not controlled by the state, made the Supreme judiciary subservient to the President, and made it mandatory for all public servants to become members of the ruling party. There are dozens of members in today's parliament and government who voted for this democracy- killing monstrosity in 1975 with the enthusiasm of schoolboys on summer vacation.
Where, may I ask, was the love of the 1972 Constitution then? Where was the beautiful prose of fundamental rights? Where was the burning desire to establish democracy?
It was not there then and it is not there now. Given how the world has changed and even the erstwhile one party states have devolved into thriving representative democracies, the champions of the Fourth Amendment dare not openly display their contempt for dissent. Close observation, however, makes plain that even in 2010 in their third run at state power these people are very uncomfortable with any dissent.
Only the other day, the ruling party cadres beat up co-eds peacefully holding a rally at Dhaka University grounds. A subservient police, reminiscent of Rakhi Bahini days, watched on the sidelines and then put the victims of the atrocity in prison! All this was captured by camera and splashed around the national dailies and the electronic media the world over. And this is on top of the hanging of the five anti-BKSAL 15 August 1975 coup leaders.
No wonder the present rulers are smiling at the demise of the Fifth Amendment: is that because the verdict takes them one step closer to their cherished fiefdom of the times of the Fourth Amendment when a monolithic elite ruled with absolute power? Only time can tell.
(The author is a former college lecturer of international affairs and writes from Kansas, USA. His contact: esohail@cox.net)
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