Potpourri
Bangladesh, Democracy In Crisis
Completing their 5-year term in late Oct 2006, Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) duly handed over power to a Caretaker Regime. In a strategic mistake, the Awami League (AL)-led opposition did not agree to Retired Chief Justice K M Hassan, the man who (according to the Constitution) was to be the Head of the Caretaker Regime, as being “partial” to BNP. A man of great integrity and known impartiality, Justice Hassan himself refused the office, leaving the doors open for the President Iajuddin Ahmed (who is very partial to BNP) to double as Chief Advisor. With the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Zakaria clearly BNP-partisan, there was no way that the AL-led 14 party alliance was going to accept this “double whammy”. The resultant 60 days of street unrest, resolved only when the President agreed to send Zakaria on leave beyond the election date and announcement of results thereof. Four of the Advisors resigned rather than not being able to fulfil their responsibilities to the citizens of Bangladesh under the Constitution. Subsequently another three resigned, refusing to be rubber stamps of the President, dozens of honourable men and women also denied to be Advisor-posts on the same grounds. With both sides taking up intractable positions, foreign govts and international institutions applied enormous pressure on both sides to compromise before events spun out of control.
Managing Issues Of Migration
Migration takes place because of many reasons, among the two major ones, viz (1) to escape various forms of oppression viz (a) political (b) racial (c) religious, etc (2) the search for a secure law and order environment and (3) and to earn a better livelihood. Migration mostly happens from country to country, for the same aforesaid reasons, it can also take place within the country. While economic reason dovetails with and encroaches many times over on the others, the fact that business has a central role to play in migration is seldom recognised. International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with Geneva as its HQs, is the international entity tasked to look after the safety, security and welfare of immigrants, to mitigate their circumstances at origin, during transit and in host countries, to stop the flow and even to revising it if possible. Recognising that business is a principal stakeholder in migration, IOM set up the Business Advisory Board (BAB) in 2005.
Fighting Corruption
The founding of Transparency International (TI) in Berlin in 1993 was one of the most significant private sector initiatives in fighting universal corruption. I had the privilege of meeting Dr Peter Eigen, the first Chairman TI (who remains a good friend) very soon afterwards in 1994 during the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Summit in Davos. A lawyer by training, Dr Eigen managed World Bank programs in Africa and Latin America for 25 years. Disgusted at seeing scarce funds being misappropriated by public officials and politicians in third world countries, aided and abetted by senior executives of multinationals of the first world, he alongwith his colleagues decided to do something tangible about it, thus was born the TI initiative. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) was first launched in 1995. This survey of many countries by independent institutions was meant not to measure corruption itself, but to quantify what was perceived to be corruption by ascertaining the views of the general public, interested observers and independent institutions.
Geo-Political Changes
During the 19th century geo-political changes were to be expected every 50 years or so, during the 20th century it came down to about 25 years. With technology racing forward in making the world a global village, this period is now down to a 5-10 years period. Events of the past year, viz (1) the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan (2) North Korean nuclear blast (3) Iran’s uranium enrichment process (4) The Darfur crisis (5) the Somalia problem etc are indications that US ability to influence events as the sole Superpower in the world has diminished from what it was 5 years ago. Elections to the US Congress reflected the frustrations of the US electorate at shortcomings of the Bush Administration foreign policy. With neo-cons wielding absolute power in the US after January 2001, 9/11 gave a powerful excuse to pursue a narrow parochial agenda, with scant regard to any dissent, both within and outside the US. After the geo-political changes because of one september morning of horror, the world is now ready for another course correction. The question remains as to which quagmire the US must get out from and which one to concentrate on.
IDEAS 2006
The 2006 version of IDEAS came back to town, as usual with a bang. Due to heightened security, we thankfully avoided bangs of the real kind. This Exhibition of defence equipment, both indigenous and foreign, is well worth the effort. It is a logistics feat that takes some organizing, not possible without commitment and dedicated effort. Defence Export Promotion Organisation (DEPO) and PEGASUS have, through a consistent team effort made IDEAS a fixture on the Defence equipment display map of the world, an event that has now come to stay. The general public not having access to the Exhibition notwithstanding, those invited certainly found the display of hardware and services interesting. To have professionals explain the function and effectiveness thereof, is invaluable, icing on the cake.
C-100: Intercultural Dialogue
C-100 stands for the “Council of 100 Leaders”, an initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meant to promote and sustain inter-faith dialogue. The co-chairs of C-100 are Prince Turki Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, presently Ambassador Royal Embassy of the Saudi Arabia in the US, and Lord Carey of Clifton, Former Archbishop of Canterbury, UK. It will be a unique privilege to moderate the Session “C-100; Taking Stock of Intercultural Dialogue” in the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul on Friday 24 Nov 2006. The panelists for the Session viz (1) Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, Chairman Executive Committee Shamil Bank of Switzerland and Vice Chairman Arab Business Council, Prof Mehmet Aydin, Minister of State for Religious Affairs of Turkey, Hany El Banna, President, Islamic Relief, UK, Prof John L. Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, and Founding Director, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, USA and Chief Rabbi David Rosen, President, International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations, USA, are all men of substance.
The “Not-So-Ugly” American
Those who demonize Americans (in keeping with the personification in Graham Greene’s “The Ugly American”) for the ills of the entire world tend to forget that US government policies do not accurately reflect either the character and/or wishes of the American public. US citizens tend to go along with the policies of their incumbent government even when they do not agree with them, the international perception responds by taking Americans to be either indifferent or insensitive to the problems of the world in pursuing policies which may not be good for the rest of the world. The disconnect between the average US citizen and international geo-politics is not because the ordinary American does not care, he simply knows very little of the world-at-large, an ignorance tailor-made for vested interest to exploit.
Electoral Process In Bangladesh
It is very difficult in the third world to hold free and fair elections, the result is always contested by the loser. This has both political and economic repercussions for the State. Every regime in power uses its incumbency to tilt the elections in its favour, the normal modus operandi pre-elections is to put its own supporters to run the Local Administration and the Election Commission, making it that much easier to try any number of manipulations in rigging the elections. For influencing the outcome of the vote there is nothing more potent in third world countries than using police functionaries at the street level. An honest election is only possible if supervised by a genuinely neutral administration looking after governance and affairs of the State for the period leading to elections as well as transition of authority to whoever is the winner. One of the better innovations to the Bangladesh Constitution was the institution of the Caretaker Cabinet (called Advisors to the President) to oversee General Elections. The formula agreed by all parties was that the last retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would be the Chief Advisor.
Geneva Security Forum
The greatest challenge to civilisation is the upsurge in terrorism in the world, this threat force-multiplied manifold since the 9/11 benchmark. Meant to contain and eliminate this menace, the war waged almost solely by govts has instead resulted in proliferation of terrorism. Annunciation of mission statement requires clarity, it is now abundantly clear that in both Afghanistan and Iraq this was ambiguous, the real objective being regime and systems change. Because the Talibaan refused to give up Osama Bin Laden, the perpetrator of 9/11, in fact seeming to condone his actions, their removal from governance of Afghanistan was justifiable. The exercise in Iraq had oil written all over it, the script to dominate the Middle East calling for the overthrow of the Syrian and Iranian regimes by peaceful political means if possible, by force if not. Once political and military aims are at cross purposes, the resulting tactical confusion affects strategic objectives.
Crossfire
Senator Tariq Azeem has the credentials and the integrity to do a much better function for the Government of Pakistan (GOP) than the likes of Muhammad Ali Durrani. His present job description as Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting seems limited to requesting the Minister of Information and Broadcasting to request the President to speak. At the Iftar/Dinner hosted for the media at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad on Wednesday Oct 11, 2006, Durrani’s courtier-like introduction of the President was positively embarrassing. He went overboard with his unadulterated flattery. A hard-bitten Pakistani media does not take kindly to such public displays of fawning and servility. This clouds the Pervez Musharraf-image of a blunt, no-nonsense soldier who speaks his mind and is not given to such public displays of adulation.