By the time Finance Minister AMA Muhith takes stock of what is inside the World Bank report on the Padma bridge scam, the US Secretary of State John Kerry will have landed in Dhaka on June 25; unless Kerry changes his mind at the last moment due to his reported preoccupations in Delhi.

The Bank’s final report on the Padma bridge corruption investigation was handed over personally to the Finance Minister by the Bank’s country Director, Johannes Zutt, on June 11. Muhith told journalists after receiving the report: “I cannot say anything about the contents as I have yet to open it.”

Silence neither denotes defence, nor is it indicative of a rebuttal to any allegation. The report follows the Bank’s negation to fund the project—which cannot be presumed as an act without sufficient reason-- and a recent budgetary allocation by the government of about Taka 50 billion to construct the proposed bridge with the country’s own resources. 

The budgetary allocation seemed to have sprung from phantom revenue sources at a time when the economy is in visible contraction, and the pre-election political horizon is thickening further with more gathering storms.

Yet, if the budgetary allocation for the bridge aimed at emitting a signal to the Bank, the bank has replied in kind, within days, in this final report by laying down, as we’ve learnt, in minute details why it had to scrap its promised $1.2 billion funding; prompting the ADB and the other co-financiers too to withdraw from their funding from the $2.9 billion project.

Given the sensibility and the backlashes it is likely to arouse, the content of the report may or may not become public ever. But the actions taken by the Bank since the investigation came to a close about two months ago do indicate that there are ‘devastating findings’ unearthed by an expert panel.

 

The Bank and the government of Bangladesh have been at odds since October 10, 2011, when the former suspended its $1.2 billion promised funding for the bridge amid allegations of irregularities, which the government rejected as baseless.

After a year-long haggling over the allegations and the necessity to probe them, the Bank cobbled together an expert panel on October 5, 2012 to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the alleged irregularities. 

Chaired by Luis Moreno Ocampo, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, there is no reason to conclude that the findings of the panel are trivial or inconsequential. The other two panel members involved in the probing were Timothy Tong, former commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People’s Republic of China; and, Richard Alderman, former director of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

 

This expert panel conducted two major probing, as we’ve learnt. The first one relates irregularities spotted in the bridge construction contract while the second one involves irregularities in the consultancy contract. 

These allegations having been handed down to the Bangladesh government by the Bank on September 21, 2011, the government could and should have shown its due diligence by conducting a fair investigation of its own, as did Canada over the alleged corruption of officials belonging to one of its corporate entities. 

It was learnt that the report’s findings include facts relating to the allegations from the Bank’s Integrity Vice-Presidency that SAHCO, a firm connected to then communications minister Syed Abul Hossain, had sought to coerce companies to use it as an intermediary to secure the main bridge contract. 

The report also authenticated the veracity of allegations from eleven confidential witnesses against SAHCO, which Abul Hossain rebutted as being concoctions by companies angered by their rejection by the technical evaluation committee for the contract bid. 

The report further examined whether there was conflict of interest in the participation of SAHCO in the tender bidding, despite Hossain’s contention being that, he had resigned from the post of the company’s managing director.

One finds in retrospect, as Abul Hossain was declared innocent in February 2012 by a hastily conducted internal probing over the allegations by the Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Bank decided to conduct its own probing.

 

By March this year, the Bank’s investigation came to its end, it was learnt, and the expected outcome of it could not be concealed due to the actions already taken. The actions themselves should speak a lot about what is inside the report.

Of the two parties investigated, the state party (Bangladesh government officials) was a sensitive one, and, a report had to be submitted tactfully with carefully chosen time and context. That time is now; ahead of an election and just after the government’s move to go alone with the construction of the bridge.

The second party being a private entity, Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, the Bank in April 2013 banned it from conducting business with the Bank for 10 years due to what the Bank said “its role in a corruption scandal over the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh.’’ 

Unless substantive evidence was unearthed against the SNC- Lavalin of having indulged in corrupt practices, the Canadian government would have opposed such a punitive action against one of its global-brand corporate entities by the Bank. 

To the contrary, no sooner the Bank alleged that SNC-Lavalin conspired to receive bribes over the financing of the $2.9 billion bridge project in Bangladesh, the Canadian authorities moved in full force to investigate and prosecute the alleged criminals. 

 

For its part, Bangladesh even did not care to take into cognizance an emphatic statement by the Bank in June 2012 that it had found “credible evidence” of high-level corruption among Bangladesh officials involved with the project, and that, it had alerted Canadian officials of the same; following which Canadian authorities began to arrest, charge and prosecute a number of SNC-Lavalin officials. 

To say the least, the attitudes of the Bangladesh government have been reprehensible and condescending from the beginning, despite robust actions undertaken by the Canadian authorities based on the same allegations given by the Bank about the alleged misconducts of one of its corporate entities.

That, however, is unlikely to nudge the government out of the hook. The Bank’s final report is learnt to have included information of probative value received from the investigation conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) which, in September 2011, raided the SNC-Lavalin’s offices, and, in April 2012, arrested and charged two SNC-Lavalin executives under Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act for allegedly attempting to bribe Bangladeshi officials in their bid for the consultancy contract of the bridge. 

Moreover, the ongoing court case in Canada involves six Bangladeshi officials as being complicit in the alleged crime, including Bangladesh’s former communications minister and a number of other rogue officials and middlemen linked to the people at the helm of Bangladesh’s power pyramid. That may be why the wall of silence of the government is hard to break.

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Robert Southey in 1810, in his poem The Curse of Kehama wrote, “Curses are like young chicken: they always come home to roost.”

We, expatriate Bangladeshis are beginning to wonder whether a curse indeed is haunting the Sheikh dynasty, as much as we wonder how Bangladeshi intellectuals with liberal democratic credentials could have been fooled by the fanfare around the open-air variety show of the staged Shahbag outcry for hanging of Qader Mollah, a Jamat leader accused of war crimes in 1971, taking it to be “a youth-led uprising promising to take the country to a new and better level of well being.”

Let us take the case of Sheikh dynasty first. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder-President of Bangladesh, was mercilessly gunned down by a team of junior to middle ranking military officers in the staircase of his house, only about five years after he was elected as the undisputed leader of the people of Bangladesh or the-then East Pakistan in a landslide victory in 1970.

What, if any, was Sheikh Mujibur’s mistake? Did he, as some allege, betray his people? Was Mujib’s rule over his people so tyrannical that he had to face the atrocity of merciless assassination along with all members of his family present, including a minor son, on the fateful date of 15th August 1975? Common answer to these questions in the minds of ordinary Bangladeshis is simple enough.

To his people, Sheikh Mujib was the standard-bearer of democracy. They had seen, he was the uncompromising leader who had risked his own life for the cause of democracy and of the people. But, alas, when the day dawned for delivery of his promise, the great leader chose autocracy banning all other political parties and forming the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL), the only legally recognised party of Bangladesh founded on 7 June 1975 as the method of the deliverer, instead of democracy. The blood of thousands of dissenters had already soiled his hands, and an armed mutiny in collusion with his party colleagues sealed his fate.

 

PM Hasina neither acquired nor inherited her father’s qualities of magical leadership, brilliant oratory and candid statesmanship that helped Sheikh Mujib’s rise to the height of his glory as the founding father of a nation-state, Bangladesh. There is but one quality, or a curse as one might say, which both the father and the daughter share in equal measure, and that is their inability to grasp the limit of their power and recognise the signs of disenchantment amongst the people. 

In the case of Mujib, his failure was in overestimating his people’s threshold of tolerance for his use of absolute power, and in the case of PM Hasina, her failure may prove to be her disdain of people’s threshold of tolerance for her misuse of power. Crossing the Rubicon of people’s patience with maladministration and misfeasance is instantly perilous indeed.

Let us now look at the case of Shahbag bloggers. Of all Sheikh Hasina’s follies as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh was her impulse to provide comfort and open support to the so-called ‘atheist bloggers’ of Shahbag. This, in the eyes of her people, was one foul-play too much to swallow from their Prime Minister. 

Who then are the Bloggers of Shahbag? Well, they are a new generation of Bangladeshi elite divorced from the masses of the people and intolerant of religious sentiments and rituals--- particularly of Islam. They may be entitled to their notion that mankind can afford to be Godless, but they cannot deny others the faith that mankind needs God and must submit to Him for the good of the common herd and of the individual soul.

Islamic faith in particular prescribes voluntary devotion: God did not decide in His master-plan of human-creation to subject humans to compulsory submission to Him. Instead, God decided to leave human beings to their own devises, with adequate warnings only of either reward or punishment for obedience or disobedience respectively; and even that to be accorded at God’s own appointed time and not anytime before that. It follows that until God’s appointed time of accountability, mankind is absolutely free to behave in the manner each and every human being may individually choose to follow. As a result, throughout the history of mankind there would, inevitably, be people in God’s kingdom who would prefer absence of accountability to God, or even absence of God altogether.

 

As the champions of ‘secular’ conduct suggesting that religion be kept private and a matter of individual choice for every citizen, it would have been proper for the Bloggers of Shahbag not to try to impose their rituals of agnosticism and un-Islamic symbolism on the rest of the population of the country who do not subscribe to their pervert method of secular regimentation and contra-devotion. 

But the bloggers showed no regard for other people’s sensitivities. They took up positions in the centre of the capital city of Bangladesh to propagate, by way of public display and social media, their abject lack of faith in God and their virulent hatred of Islam and the prophet of Islam. 

The result was a sharply polarising divide between the permissive society of our upper classes and the god-fearing traditionalism of our common folk. The contradiction was compounded by the ruling coterie’s attempts to derive political dividends out of the situation. 

PM Hasina needed to come out clean before the nation, and assuage the hurt feelings of the common folk. But to her great peril she sided with the Shahbag bloggers, and immediately thereupon the whole spectacle of the bloggers of Shahbag turned into a “political” campaign, albeit with a negative content of maligning and ostracising the Opposition alliance as ‘promoters of Islamic terror’. 

Suvolaxmi Dutta Chowdhury, an Indian political analyst patently sympathetic to Sheikh Hasina and to Shahbag bloggers, corroborates in an article the triggering of this unfortunate switch. She noted in her commentary in the journal of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies as recently as June 6, 2013: 

“How has the Shahbag movement impacted the prospects of the Awami League in the impending elections? Has the ostensibly non-political Shahbag Square assumed a political colour by the close association of the Awami League with the upsurge?

“The Shahbag movement has surpassed its initial demand of death penalty for 1971 war crime convict Abdul Qader Mullah, to include banning the Jamaat-e-Islami party, many of the stalwarts of which have been convicted. Crucially, the upsurge has also called for the banning of economic and social institutions in sectors like banking, education, etc where the Jamaat holds the reiens.

In February 2013, the Parliament amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, which along with enabling an appeal against the war crimes tribunal verdict, also empowered the Awami government to try and punish any organisation for 1971 war crimes. This move could lead to nailing the Jamaat.

Pro-opposition media channels and newspapers are also not spared from the wrath of this movement. Offices of the Daily Amar Desh and Nayadiganta, Daily Sangram, and Diganta TV were attacked and vandalised. Interestingly, these media networks had published stories portraying an anti-Islamic picture of the slain blogger and Shahbag activist Ahmed Rajiv Haider.

Despite the fact that the furore at the Shahbag Square has waned more recently, it is undeniable that the movement assumed a popular character. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the ensuing elections would bear an imprint of this (elite-led) massive upsurge.

Associating itself with the Shahbag movement has not entirely been a smooth ride for the Awami League. It has had to maintain a tough balancing act between its secularist proclivity and the rising ride of Islamism in the country. The government had arrested four bloggers on charges of blasphemy in early April this year. This move by the government has been severely criticised by Bangladesh’s liberal civil society circles for mollifying the Islamists.

“A report by the Indian intelligence organisation RAW, in February 2013, has a dismal forecast for the Awami League in the forthcoming elections for its inconsequential performance while in government, massive corruption charges, etc. Awami’s traditional warmth with global and regional players like the US (?) and India imply that these powers would seek its return. Begum Khaleda Zia’s BNP, on the other hand, has linked the Shahbag upsurge to New Delhi in recent months.

“For the Awami League, the fact that it could associate itself with a popular movement of a massive scale has arguably brightened its prospects and given it a fresh lease of life ahead of the elections. However, the electoral arena is laden with many diverse complexities and scoring high on the Shahbag platform is not a sufficient credential of the Awami League to pull off a second consecutive term.”

Realistic as the commentary is about the lack of any electoral dividend for Sheikh Hasina from the Shahbag current, it did not mention anything at all about the counter-current countrywide of the Hefazate Islam led upsurge. World media, nevertheless, did observe if not understand, the reaction of the 90 percent people of the country who are also officially represented by PM Hasina. They came out too, and came out from all parts of the country in very large numbers (especially in their ‘long-march’ and ‘Dhaka seize’ programmes), and voted with their feet in a manner that the nation had never witnessed before. They told Sheikh Hasina - point-blank - that she could no longer retain their mandate to govern unless she changed side. But captive as she can she do it?

If fine, I quote another English poet and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), a mariner kills an albatross (a holy sea bird). He is punished by his shipmates to wear the bird hung around his neck and parrot: “Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.”

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Mohammed Iqbal is a Barrister from Lincoln’s Inn, currently practicing as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

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The Asia-Pacific region now enjoys dynamic development and is home to the three biggest economies and many emerging ones of the world. Here, the trend of multi-layer and multi-sector cooperation and linkages is evolving vigorously and becomes the prevailing one of the day. However, looking back at the full picture of the region in the past years, we cannot fail to be concerned over the simmering risks and challenges to peace and security.

Competition and engagement are by themselves normal facts in the course of cooperation and development. Yet if such competition and engagement embrace calculations only in one’s own interest, without equality, respect of international law and transparency, then strategic trust could in no way be reinforced, and there could be a chance for the rise of division, suspicion and the risk of mutual containment, thus adversely affecting peace, cooperation and development. 

The unpredictable developments in the Korean Peninsula; sovereignty and territorial disputes from the East China Sea to the East Sea that are evolving with much complexity, threatening regional peace and security, firstly maritime security and safety as well as the freedom of navigation, have indeed caused deep concerns to the international community. Somewhere in the region, there have emerged preferences for unilateral might, groundless claims, and actions that run counter to international law and stem from imposition and power politics.

 

If this region falls into instability and especially, armed conflicts, in general there will be neither winner nor loser. Rather, all will lose. Suffice it to say, therefore, that working together to build and reinforce strategic trust for peace, cooperation and prosperity in the region is the shared interest of us all. To build strategic trust, we need to abide ourselves by international law, uphold the responsibilities of nations, especially of major powers, and improve the efficiency of multilateral security cooperation mechanisms. In today’s civilized world, the UN Charter, international law and the universal principles and norms serve as the entire mankind’s common values that must be respected. This also represents the precondition for strategic trust building. ASEAN could only be strong and able to build on its role when it is united as one. An ASEAN lacking unity will by itself, lose its stand and will not be in the interest of any country, even ASEAN member states or its partners. We need an ASEAN united and strong, cooperating effectively with all countries to nurture peace and prosperity in the region, not an ASEAN in which member states are forced to take side with one country or the other for the individual benefit of their own in the relations with big powers. We have the responsibility to multiply trust in the settlement of problems, enhance cooperation for mutual benefit, combine harmoniously our national interest with that of other nations and of the whole region.

When it comes to the issue of the East Sea, ASEAN and China have travelled a long way with no less difficulty to come to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC). ASEAN and China have agreed to work towards a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). Parties need to uphold their responsibilities, mutually reinforce strategic trust, first and foremost by strictly implementing the DOC and doubling efforts to formulate a COC that conforms to international law and in particular, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

 

I believe, ASEAN and its partners can work together to develop a feasible mechanism that could guarantee maritime security and safety and freedom of navigation in the region. 

Vietnam’s foreign policy desire is to establish strategic partnerships with all the permanent members of the UN Security Council once the principles of independence, sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of each other, mutual respect, equal and mutually beneficial cooperation are committed and seriously implemented. Vietnam has decided to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, first in such areas as military engineering, military medicine and military observation. 

Vietnam’s defence policy is that of peace and self-defence. Vietnam will not be a military ally to any country and will not allow any country to set up military bases on Vietnamese territory. Vietnam will not ally itself with any country to counter another. Vietnam’s army modernization is only for self-defense and the safeguard of our legitimate interests. It does not, in any way target any other country.

With regard to the present threats and challenges to regional security such as the Korean Peninsula, the East China Sea and the East Sea, Vietnam perseveres to the principle of peaceful dispute settlement on the basis of international law, respecting the independence, sovereignty and the legitimate interests of each other. All parties concerned need to exercise self-restraint and must not resort to force or threat to use force. Once again, Vietnam reiterates its consistent compliance with the ASEAN Six-point Statement on the South China Sea and will do its utmost to work together with ASEAN and China to seriously observe the DOC and soon arrive at the COC. As a coastal State, Vietnam reaffirms and defends its legitimate rights and interests in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS.

Abridged from the keynote speech of Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam at 12th Shangri-La Dialogue, Singapore, May 31, 2013.

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The big Tk 2.22 trillion budget for 2013-14 fiscal year has a big challenge for the government to put in place a good governance system to make sure the proper utilisation of resources to attain the GDP growth target at 7.2 per cent. The new budget is over 17 per cent bigger than the outgoing fiscal 2012-13 and having a deficit of over Tk 55,000 crore.

The budgetary size has witnessed a phenomenal growth over the past several years as the size of the economy is rapidly expanding in arena and umbrella of socio-economic transformation as the country is working to attain a middle-income nation’s status within this decade.

Economists are meanwhile debating on the nation’s growth potentials. Looking at the poor governance level, political violence and a similar poor quality of public expenditure projects, most experts doubt that attaining the 7.2 per cent growth next year may not be possible in the backdrop of 6.03 per cent this year. They have, moreover, questioned finance minister Muhith’s forecast of 8 per cent growth for 2014-15 based on next year’s high side growth target as quite unrealistic. 

Economists believe these are only high figures to support the government rhetoric of moving the economy towards the middle-income status, however, without real growth in sight. In fact, the economy failed to cross the 6 per cent growth in the past few years with a visible deceleration of growth that was attained under the previous government. 

So the high growth figures as quoted by the finance minister for this year at 6.3 to 6.8 per cent or for next year and beyond may be just wishful figures now at a time when a slow down in the economy is visible at all levels. 

Moreover, snatching of tenders by ruling party goons, over-estimation of project cost to benefit party operatives and poor project implementation capacity of government agencies are all but reminders of a nosedive which may in turn leave the growth potentials of the economy underutilised. 

Corruption, inefficiency, streets violence and vandalism in an election-year may even cause further deceleration of economic activities this year. But the  is not ready to agree to listen to critics such as the CPD which earned the wreath of the minister recently as the think tank made a poor growth forecast, along with voicing scepticism on many other issues such as a 20 per cent growth in revenue targets. Muhith termed CPD’s comments as ‘harmful, bogus and partly hostile.’ 

This is one side of the criticism of the budget. On the other side, many economists believe that the 7.2 per cent growth target is on the lower side of the potentials that the economy now offers. It is capable to produce 8 per cent growth now provided that the government drastically curb corruption, control misuse of money by political operatives and party goons and ensure efficient implementation of the budget. 

 

The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and such other multilateral agencies believe that corruption and inefficiency alone routinely take away the growth potentials by 1 to 2 per cent every year and as the size of the budget is growing fast, a small percentage of misuse or misappropriation of the budget will mean swindling of a huge sum of money. 

So the issue of economic and financial governance is assuming the greater significance as the size of the budget is becoming ever larger. From this perspective, many analysts hold the view that this budget is both ‘overambitious’ in the prevailing context in one hand and also at the ‘lower side of the growth potential’ of the economy on the other. Here the role of the government is crucial to exploit the higher growth potential by ensuring good governance and this is the point where the country is at its worst. 

The proposed budget has been criticised for its vulnerability to misuse in the electioneering year. There are many projects without a clearly charted out plan and design for implementation. There are many lump sum allocations without clearly laid out expenditure plan. The allocation of Tk 6850 crore against Padma Bridge is critically viewed by analysts as there is no clearly charted out master plans and plans for work components for which this money may be used and critics fear much of it may go to the ruling party electioneering campaign.

The communication sector is having 23 per cent of the entire development budget and most money may end up at field level activities which can’t be properly measured in rainy season. 

 

In contrast to that, the budget is indifferent to promote the productive sector of the economy and also support business. The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) has severely criticised the budget questioning the finance minister’s permission to allow the whitening of black money in real estate. The chamber leaders said real estate sector has turned highly speculative and this permission will only tend to increase the cost of land and flats making the buying of a home highly expensive. 

On the other hand, the chamber leaders said, by allowing this money in industrial investment, the government could help expand the production base of the economy to generate more jobs and income for the common people. Whitening black money in real estate only shows that the government is committed to supporting vested interest groups instead of extending support to the real sector of the economy.

The DCCI is working on a scheme to create 200 new investors in the current fiscal and chamber leaders said the budget remained quite indifferent to such business target at national level.  

They have also criticised the target of Tk 25,993 crore borrowing from banks next year saying it may ultimately end up beyond Tk30,000 crore, if this year’s experience is of any lesson. 

The government turned towards more domestic borrowing, especially from banks because it could achieve only part of the loan target for this year from donors. But the government concentration on bank borrowing is only marginalising the private investment and this in turn is only slowing the pace of private sector’s growth. It happened this year and will only accelerate next year. 

The budget has drastically failed to put forward a balanced growth proposition, besides having no in-built governance system to ensure achieving the major budgetary goals and their implementation, and on top of it reigning in the pervasive spread of corruption at all levels. In the election year, the huge budget is more vulnerable to political exploit, analysts say in this connection.

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International Labour Organization –Maritime Labour Convention, 2006(ILO-MLC-2006) has already received the required number of acceptance and accession; and shall come into force in August, 2013 which is only days away. Has Bangladesh signed in the Convention? Even if Bangladesh does not become a signatory, it cannot escape its enforcement. Party States shall enforce the provisions of the Convention to all visiting ships including Bangladesh ships. Obviously Bangladesh ships will have to comply with all the requirements. Then why not become a Party State and be a member of the community of maritime states?

It must be noted that the world will not wait for us or care about our bureaucratic red tape. They will go ahead with their implementation process. Even tiny little Cook Islands have taken necessary action to safeguard their interest. We will suffer for our lack of action. The nation as a whole will suffer because of the lack of political will. We may have continuous political turmoil but that will not stop the world from moving ahead. There is still time, we must wake up and do what we have to do.

Bangladesh is a poor labour supplying country. We also have seafarers not only manning our own vessels but many more are employed all over the world. On many occasions our seafarers have been deprived of their legitimate rights and at times even stranded abroad. This Convention has been commonly referred to as “Seafarers’ bill of rights”. 

We should have embraced the convention ahead of others. In fact we should have been one of the first to accept to bring in force the convention as we have lot to gain. MLC-2006 consolidates several ILO conventions into one effective instrument. It provides for fair employment opportunity, safe work place and environment, good food, accommodation and health care without any discrimination. It even provides for minimum period of rest for wellbeing of the seafarers. I find no reason for Bangladesh to sit idle and remain silent.

We all know that the link body of ILO at our national level is the ministry of labour. However, the Convention deals with ships and seafarers. It makes sense to leave it with ministry of shipping and department of shipping. As a matter of fact, seafarers’ training, certification, employment, article of agreement, discharge and dispute resolution are being dealt by maritime administration right from the days of British rule. They are already embodied in our merchant shipping legislation. I still remember when I was the director general of the department of shipping I moved to the government and got the seamen’s welfare section transferred from the ministry of labour (perhaps in December ’90 or January ’91) to the department of shipping. 

The department of shipping took immediate possession of Seamen’s hostel from the ministry of labour and utilized most of it to establish the Seamen’s School. The idea was to keep everything under one roof and maintain one window service. Even when there was no IMO, maritime administration implemented all ILO conventions relating to seafarers. Present MLC-2006 has mostly unified those existing Conventions and there is no need to suddenly divide the administration by transferring some of its traditional roles. Most of the developed maritime nations view it that way. As a matter of fact both EMSA and Paris MOU have already agreed to include all inspections under MLC-2006 as part of their port state control procedures which is conducted by respective maritime administrations.

The existing Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance has enough scope and powers to make regulations for implementing MLC-2006 and we should do so immediately. However, our merchant shipping law itself is very obsolete and outdated. It is time to review the law and re-write the same by inclusion of the provision of latest maritime conventions including MLC-2006. However, we must not delay implementation of MLC-2006.

Bangladesh being a major ship-breaking country will have to soon focus on another international convention known as Hong Kong Convention that deals with environmentally safe dismantling of disused ships and structures. This is an IMO Convention in the sense that the diplomatic convention was convened by IMO. In this case though the ministry of shipping is the link body of IMO, it will be more sensible for the ministry of industries and the department of environment to deal with its execution because ship-breaking is a purely shore-based industry.

It was nearly a year back that I wrote the first article on MLC-2006 which was published in a number of newspapers in Bangladesh. There I focussed on “recruitment and placement services” as referred to in MLC-2006 and how we should re-arrange our administration to comply with this requirement. According to SOLAS/ ISM and STCW there is no separate entity as RPS because the ISM Company is supposed to be responsible for proper manning of the vessel with duly qualified seafarers. These management companies are mostly based in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Cyprus, Glasgow and Hamburg. They recruit seafarers from third world countries like Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Myanmar through their local agents. Knowing very well that seafarers are often deprived and even some times stranded abroad, MLC-2006 decided to give some key role and leverage to seafarers national administrations by giving them the power to license such RPS. In order to get full benefit of this clause, Bangladesh must privatise RPS with licenses issued to local companies that have necessary expertise of SOLAS-ISM, STCW and MLC-2006. The Government Shipping Office under Department of Shipping must be re-named as Seafarers Employment & Welfare Office; and it is this office that should take over the function of overseeing the performance of RPS.

I conclude this article by making one final appeal to the Prime Minister, minister of foreign affairs and minister of shipping to take immediate measures necessary to protect our shipping and our seafarers. It is the hard work of our entrepreneurs and our seafarers that shipping has reached a respectable stage. We are now a member of the IMO Council. We must not fail. We have to act, and act now.  

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Thousands of India’s paramilitary troops and police have searched the Maoists who killed 30 Congress leaders and workers in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh in an ambush on May 25. But none of the red rebels who took part in the massacre could be rounded up, for police believed they came from other areas. Some villagers suspected to be sympathizers of the Maoists were held and, as usual, subjected to torture. 

Meanwhile, veteran Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla who was among the 33 wounded by bullets in the blatant attack died in hospital last week after fighting for life for 17 days.

Former Information Minister and Home Minister, Shukla will be remembered in India for his iron-fist handling of the media during the infamous emergency imposed by Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1975 in a bid to cling to power after she was unseated from parliament by the Allahabad High Court for abusing official power during the election. 

As Information & Broadcasting minister of Indira government he had acted capriciously. To cite an example, noted actor and playback singer Kishore Kumar was blacked out from All India Radio for declining to sing at a Congress rally. Once colourful and flamboyant, Shukla, 86, was too ambitious and a prospective Congress candidate for the 2014 parliamentary election.

As usual Maoists have defended the May 25 ambush of the Congress convoy. They detailed why they attacked senior Congress leaders Shukla and Nand Kumar Patel. In a four-page statement mailed to the media Maoists wrote four lines about Mr. Shukla. “… the former Central Minister V.C. Shukla who had been in various portfolios including Home Ministry, was also a people’s enemy who had acted as a loyal servant of imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie, landlords and had played a key role in formulating and implementing exploitative government policies… His death should be seen as a result of violence committed by the exploiters on the exploited masses… All leaders like V.C. Shukla or Nand Kumar Patel are responsible for the death of tribals.”

Regretting the unnecessary death of some civilians, outlawed CPI (Maoist) state committee spokesperson Gudsa Usendi said, “While the party would learn lessons from the ambush and educate its cadres and the people … it would be unjust to raise questions about the people’s resistance altogether.”

Various civil rights organisations, including the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, questioned the Maoist action and appealed to state forces and the red rebels to shun violence. They viewed that the situation required urgent intervention of all democratic forces in the country. 

Another report said Maharashtra state committee leader of the Maoist, Katakan Sudarshan said the government was upset at the model of development they have implemented and achieved success in their Dandakaranay ‘liberated zone’. The zone comprises contiguous areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where the government rule is rather absent. 

Sudarshan claimed that the lands of the farmers have been levelled, water reservoirs have been built by the ‘Janta Sarker’ (people’s government). One-third of budget of the people’s government is devoted to the development works in which lakhs of Adhivasis (aboriginals) and tribals took part and the entire people of the liberated zone were benefited.

About eight per cent of India’s total population is Adhivasis and tribals. Most of them live in mineral rich forest areas in the central and northeast India and remain utterly poor, neglected and oppressed. The government planned to uproot them from their lands and lease the lands to companies for exploitation of minerals. This is said to be the main reason why millions of villagers in forest areas turned to the Maoists who have assured them of protecting the rights over their lands.

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Top U.S. companies are now in negotiations to agree on new safety standards for their clothing-producing contractors in Bangladesh, a month after a garment factory’s collapse in Dhaka killed more than 1,100 workers.

The move comes after these companies, most prominently including Walmart and Gap, refused to sign on to a fire and safety standards agreement, announced weeks ago, that has received wide backing among European companies. Yet labour advocates are disparaging the new talks, suggesting the results will likely not be binding and thus will not be able to ensure worker safety.

“They are still looking for political cover so they can preserve the very lucrative status quo.” — Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium

“Walmart is… undermining the constructive efforts of other companies,” Jyrki Raina, general-secretary for IndustriALL Global Union, an umbrella of unions with 50 million worldwide members that has led the European agreement process, said. “The kind of voluntary initiative being put forward by Walmart and Gap has failed in the past and will again fail to protect Bangladeshi garment workers.”

The new discussions, announced, are being sponsored by the BipartisanPolicyCenter, a Washington think tank, and being co-chaired by two respected former U.S. senators, George Mitchell and Olympia Snowe. The negotiations also include several U.S. and Canadian trade associations.

“Over the next several weeks, we look forward to building on [past] efforts … and seeking input from key stakeholders to forge an effective response,” Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), said recently.

Currently, the process is aiming to come up with a final agreement on new standards for Bangladeshi contractor factories by July. (BPC did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)

“We are hopeful that … these discussions will result in a plan for long-lasting change for the garment industry in Bangladesh,” Bill Chandler, vice-president of global corporate affairs for Gap, Inc. told IPS. “We believe the American alliance can be a powerful path forward to achieve lasting change in Bangladesh, and will build upon the work that is already underway.”

Contacted by IPS, a Walmart spokesperson emphasised that the company has already taken “a number of actions that meet or exceed other factory safety proposals”. But he also noted Walmart’s belief that “there is a need to partner with other stakeholders to improve the standards for workers across the industry”.

 

This interest in entering into the new negotiations appears to be motivated particularly by public pressure following the companies’ refusal to sign on to the European Union accord, which now has more than 40 corporate backers, including three U.S. companies.

That agreement would include financing to upgrade factories as well as independent inspections. In addition to concerns over potential costs and the prospect of court litigation, a key sticking point for U.S. companies over the E.U. proposal has been that the agreement would be legally binding.

According to documents on Gap’s corporate website, for instance, in mid-May the company was “ready to sign on today with a modification to a single area – how disputes are resolved … With this single change, this global, historic agreement can move forward with a group of all retailers, not just those based in Europe.”

Yet it is because of this stance – reportedly repeated at a Gap shareholder meeting on May 21 – that observers are now sceptical that a company-led negotiations process will be able to result in strong, and legally enforceable, agreement.

“Forty retailers from all over the world … have agreed to a binding comprehensive safety plan for Bangladesh,” the AFL-CIO, one of the largest labour unions in the United States, said, noting its “deep concern” about the new BPC-led talks.

“No amount of bipartisan window dressing can change the fact that Walmart and the Gap have refused to take this important step. This is a matter of life or death. Quite simply, nonbinding is just not good enough.”

Such concerns are heightened by the fact that, currently, no worker-rights organisation is included in the talks.

“This is the latest, and probably most sophisticated, in a series of industry public relations gambits designed to deflect attention from the real issue: the refusal of these companies to make a binding commitment to clean up their factories in Bangladesh,” Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, an advocacy group, told IPS in an e-mail.

“This shows the pressure these corporations are under and their recognition that the failed inspection schemes they have been touting no longer have any public credibility. Unfortunately, their goal has not changed: they are still looking for political cover so they can preserve the very lucrative status quo.”

 

Concerns over corporate-led international labour and safety programmes have received boosts from U.S. lawmakers in recent days, as well. Last week, Representative Sander Levin warned that the oversight process has “been left up to the retailers, suppliers and government all these years, and that hasn’t worked.”

On May 15, Levin and two dozen members of Congress wrote to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, urging that her government put “the highest priority on aggressively enacting and enforcing comprehensive reforms … including the right to organize and form unions”. The lawmakers also noted, “It is critical that all key stakeholders take action”.

Reports in recent days have suggested that the U.S. State and Labour Departments are currently arguing over how hard to push the Bangladeshi government on these issues. Unions and some advocacy groups are pressuring the U.S. to revoke certain bilateral trade concessions given to Bangladesh, though critics say doing so would give up important leverage for change.

For now, Washington, seemingly led by the embassy in Dhaka, has chosen not to back the E.U. accord, although the U.S. State department says it is urging Bangladeshi officials to institute a suite of labour reforms.

“We need a lot more from the U.S. government – why the embassy has decided not to endorse the E.U. standards is beyond me,” Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, a watchdog group, told IPS.

“Of course, we have to remember that even the E.U. accord hasn’t put any emphasis on workers’ right to organise. It’s only workers themselves that can win their rights, and they can do so only once they have the right to organise and bargain collectively. The U.S. government needs to do far more on two issues: binding agreements on safety codes and the right to organise.”

 

Those responsible for the Bangladesh building collapse that killed more than 1,100 garment workers should be given life in prison, a government-appointed committee has said.

The investigating committee, appointed by Bangladesh’s interior ministry, recommended life in prison for the owner of the five factories based in the building on the outskirts of Dhaka.

The Apr. 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza building, the deadliest garment industry accident in history, highlighted the hazardous working conditions in Bangladesh’s 20 billion dollar garment industry and the lack of safety for millions of workers, who earn as little as 38 dollars a month.

The committee found that the ground on which the Rana Plaza was built was unfit for a multi-storey building and the construction itself was “extremely poor quality”.

 “A portion of the building was constructed on land which had been a body of water before and was filled with rubbish.” Khandaker Mainuddin Ahmed, the committee head, told the Association Press news agency.

Ahmed said Sohel Rana, owner of Rana Plaza was “the main culprit, and because of him 1,127 people have died.”

The report found that Rana ignored construction codes by converting the originally designed six-storey building meant for a shopping mall and commercial space into an eight-storey factory complex where over 3,000 labourers toiled.

Khandaker said Rana, and the factory owners, four of whom have been arrested, forced employees to go to work on Apr. 24 despite cracks which appeared in the building the day before.

“They threatened the workers that they would be fired and that their salaries would be cut if they refused to go to work.”

The committee also said the owners used generators in upper floors, defying building regulations. Combined with other industrial machinery the weight of the generators triggered the collapse.

 

A U.S. delegation arrived led by Wendy Sherman, the State Department’s under secretary for political affairs. The Bangladeshi government has already pledged to tighten factory safety inspections and make it easier for workers to form unions and set up a panel to raise wages for the three million garment workers.

Mozena said there were still “some outstanding issues” to be addressed, without elaborating.

Poor wages and repeated fatal accidents have led to a string of protests in the main garment-manufacturing hubs, halting shipments and forcing some retailers to divert orders to other countries.

More than 2,500 people were rescued after the disaster and the committee has urged the government to provide them with free medical treatment.

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The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, continues to ignore the opposition’s demand for an election-time caretaker government asserting that the next general election will be held in line with the constitution that she had amendment by discarding the caretaker system with her brutal majority in the parliament.

Ignoring Court’s advise to hold next three general elections under the caretaker system, as incorporated in the constitution under political pressure from Awami League, Sheikh Hasina now argues that at least one national election should be held in line with the constitution for the progress on country’s democracy.

In this connection, Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina forewarned that opposition leader Khaleda Zia would have to languish in jail if caretaker government assumes office again.

Hinting at her arch rival Khaleda Zia, she quipped the players of ‘minus-two’ formula were still alive. Those who had wanted to implement the formula during that time often spoke loudly. “Conspirators will take the field with more vigour if they get chance.”

The PM apprehended that cases might be filed against politicians if the caretaker government assumed office again. 

“There is no confusion about it….and she should remember it as nobody will spare her,” Hasina said while addressing a views-exchange meeting with the grassroots of the ruling Awami League’s Naogaon chapter at her official residence Ganabhaban on Wednesday.

“So, I ask the opposition leader to take the path of democracy by shunning other ways and you will be benefited.” 

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina also claimed that the opposition leader lost her mental balance after a failed ultimatum. “What she will do! She has lost her balance.” 

Mentioning the opposition leader’s 48-hour ultimatum, ignoring the government’s proposal for talks, Hasina said, “She wanted to seize power using the armed cadres of Jamaat-Shibir and occupying the street by Hefazat men.” 

“We believe in people’s empowerment and the elections will be held in line with the constitution,” she said, alleging that there had been so many games and experiments on the elections.

“Inshallah, Bangladesh will hold such elections,” she said, thanking the opposition for participating in the city corporation elections. “By contesting the polls, the opposition gives indication that neutral election may take place during the Awami League regime.” 

Emphasising the democratic progress, the Hasina said it is Awami League which would hold a fair, credible and neutral election.

After her introductory speech, a closed-door meeting started with the premier in the chair. Naogaon AL general secretary Abdul Malek placed an organisational report at the meeting. AL senior leaders, including Kazi Zafarullah, Satish Chandra Roy, Prof Alauddin Ahmed and Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, were among others present.

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