The Bangladesh Today (24-02-2018)

EDITORIAL
SATURDAY,
fEbRUARY 24, 2018
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Saturday, february 24, 2018
many aspects to achieving
higher economic growth
Studies getting shaved off
by donor agencies from time to time have repeated
the point of how economic growth in Bangladesh is
as a consequence of corruption.
According to such studies, the country could probably add
another 1to 2 per cent to its economic growth, annually, from
significantly reducing its corruption or reach a growth level of
7 or 8 per cent from the present 6 percent plus.
This outlook of the donor bodies is a debatable one. But even
if one accepts it, what great benefits can accrue from increasing
the growth rate by 1 or 2 per cent through wiping clean
corruption only when by successfully addressing other
transparently responsible factors for underdevelopment such
as insufficient energy supply, inconsistent policy supports, etc.,
the growth can be raised well into the double digits like 10 or
12 per cent and also on a sustainable basis ?
So, let us not be obsessed by such observations that all
efforts on the part of those who govern the economy or run the
country, should be essentially concentrated on limiting
corruption.
Corruption can be only one component among many others
and scoring well in all of these other components are probably
more crucial than frustrating corruption. For the other
components of growth, if the conditions for fulfilling them are
reached, the same would likely create conditions for economic
growth to soar. It is be no overstatement to say that
Bangladesh has the potentials of attaining annual economic
growth in the double digits provided these other components
of growth are well addressed through proper plans and their
executions and the establishment and retention of a growth
facilitating environment.
These other components which are discussed here range
from human resources formation to abilities and resolve of
leadership at various levels to even overcoming cultural or
religious barriers. The point is this writer looks at achieving of
a much increased growth rate in the context of Bangladesh for
rapid alleviation of poverty and improved standard of living,
as having many facets to it . In sum, what is suggested here is
that the planners should come out of their traditional thinking
on growth and look at it much more innovatively and
dynamically.
It would be impossible to describe in details the numerous
ways and means of achieving growth within the limited space
provided here. But describing a few should help in the
clarification of the views expressed here.
For example, the country's biggest export-oriented
readymade garments (RMG) sector can contribute to growth
by increasing productivity of its workers through selective and
sustained training programmes. The RMG sector can expand
in size from investing in the establishment of new units
creating, thus, more employment and more wealth that would
be contributory to the country's economic growth in a major
way . It can make its production and other processes leaner
and fitter to increase its productivity and earnings. It can
adopt total quality management (TQM) that puts each worker
and every phase in the production process in the position of
quality controllers that would make maintenance of large
quality control departments or operations--redundant--
leading to big saving of costs.
In fact, TQM can be extended to progressively cover all or
nearly all industries in Bangladesh that would be a plus factor
to the viable running of these enterprises from costs savings as
well as better quality control. The same would, then, add to
economic growth.
Some countries , including very prosperous ones like Japan,
have no scope to swiftly increase output from different sectors
by only applying labour and capital to them. This is because
they lack in large physical endowments. Japan, for example,
has very little natural resources of its own. It cannot add to
growth like a physically big and well endowed country such as
Brazil by bringing more lands under the plough or harnessing
for the first time untapped natural resources.
Bangladesh is relatively a rich country with many virgin and
unexploited fields. It can, for instance, take steps to utilize its
vast discovered resources of coal and other minerals. It can
extend diverse forms of agriculture into considerable fallow
lands. It can aim to exploit its sea resources on a large scale in
the long run. Substantial investments on a large scale are
possible in Bangladesh in the tourism sector. Continuing
investments into these and other prospective areas through a
really dedicated business leadership helped by a similarly
dedicated, efficient and visionary national or governmental
leadership, indicate the possibilities of creating a faster pace
of overall economic growth for the country.
Government itself can be a big promoter of growth by
introducing and running policies to that end. Government
can really try hard to overhaul the country's archaic
educational system which is largely a burden than asset. It can
create facilities for scientific, technical and vocational
education on a far larger scale than what are on offer at
present. It can particularly expand in a big way the
opportunities for skill training programmes. The net of these
efforts will be the formation of a large enough workforce
supportive of much stepped up investment activities leading
to higher economic growth. Government on its own or in
partnership with the private sector, should encourage rapid
growth of all sorts of infrastructures to facilitate cost-efficient
business operations. Government can try and be more
successful in preventing smuggling operations that would
stimulate local enterprises to fill up the void from non
availability of smuggled goods.
Government needs to also more and more improve and fine
tune fiscal and monetary policies that would inspire and
encourage entrepreneurship locally. Government can also
more and more raise awareness of people about
empowerment needs of half of the population of the country
who are females by drawing them into gainful economic
activities outside the confines of their homes.
Religious and cultural barriers will have to be overcome to
this end. But doing of it, successfully, will allow the economy
to be the gainer from receiving more and direct output from
female workers in the different formal sectors. This will also
aid the economic growth process.
So, from the above, it may be realized that there are so many
aspects to increasing economic growth than putting too much
into one basket like steps to get rid of corruption only.
Greater investments in the economy helped by enabling
infrastructures, efficient utilities and consumption of
adequate energies, plus helpful fiscal and monetary policies ,
much greater cost-efficient operation by the entrepreneurs
themselves, these are the keys really to attaining record
economic growth by Bangladesh to realize its dreams of a
better existence of its people.
Gulf states lack media clout in the US
Irecently flew home from one of my
regular visits to the most powerful
nation on the planet, the United
States, a country with some of the
greatest people anywhere. I am always
made welcome and afforded warm
hospitality wherever I go.
I held discussions with ordinary
people, politicians and top-level movers
and shakers, but was disappointed by
how few have any grasp of our positions
on the global stage. I concluded that
this sorry state of affairs is not their
fault, it is ours. We have neglected to
use modern tools to put our messages
across.
Public opinion in America is largely
shaped by the media, which is more
opinion-centric than focused on neutral
reporting. Mainstream television
networks and newspapers give stories a
lick of paint according to their political
persuasion. Note, for instance, the
massive disparity in how CNN and Fox
News handle news such as the Florida
school shooting in which 17 young
people died: CNN's anchors called for
gun control, while Fox News - aligned
with the National Rifle Association -
cited the mental illness of the shooter.
In the same way that the American
left and right vie with each other on air,
online and in print to influence minds,
some countries, among them the
smallest and weakest, are sufficiently
media-savvy to manipulate US opinion
at all levels. They flood popular talk
shows with their political emissaries
THE Pakistani diaspora is one of
the biggest and most influential in
the world. It is also incredibly
diverse in its class and ethnic
composition - as well as attitudes
towards politics. In recent times the
importance of the diaspora has been
highlighted both by the Panama Papers
- which detail how rich and powerful
Pakistanis within and without the
country collude to make money - and by
the foreign funding case in the Supreme
Court in which the huge amounts of
money 'donated' to the PTI by
Pakistanis abroad has come to light.
More generally, labour is the
country's biggest export, meaning that
we earn more money from remittances
than any tangible good manufactured
in Pakistan for sale abroad. With a
population of young people exploding
through the roof with little or no
employment prospects within the
country, our export of labour - legal or
otherwise - is very likely to continue
increasing over time.
For all of these reasons (and more), it
is worth dwelling on at least some of the
major segments of the diaspora and
how their influence is likely to grow or
decline on Pakistan's political economy
in times to come.
Unskilled labour: Arguably the
biggest segment of the Pakistani
diaspora is unskilled labour. Iconic
communities include the Mirpuris who
went to England in the 1950s, Pakhtuns
and Punjabis from the Potohar Plateau
and the Peshawar Valley who were the
first Gulf migrants in the 1970s, as well
as the Baloch from the Makran coast
Multipolarity is back, and with it
strategic rivalry among the
great powers. The reemergence
of China and the return of
Russia to the forefront of global politics
are two of the most salient international
dynamics of the century thus far.
During United States President Donald
Trump's first year in the White House,
the tension between the US and these
two countries increased markedly. As
the US domestic political environment
has deteriorated, so, too, have
America's relations with those that are
perceived as its principal adversaries.
When China's President Xi Jinping
rose to power just more than five years
ago, he presented the idea of a "new
type of great-power relations" based on
cooperation and dialogue, as well as
respect for one another's national
interests. But China does not always live
by what it preaches as far as
cooperation is concerned, as its
unilateralism in the South China Sea
indicates. Likewise, the relative loss of
influence of the Chinese diplomatic
corps contrasts with the emerging
symbiosis between Xi and the People's
Liberation Army.
Russia's military spending as a share
of the gross domestic product has been
increasing exponentially. On top of this,
the US and Russia have accused each
other of violating the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the only
Cold War-era agreement on
armaments between the two countries
that remains in force.
While it makes sense to recognise the
KHAlAf AHmAD Al-HAbTooR
and inject massive funds into media
campaigns, self-promotion via
advertisements or even sponsorships,
and public relations and lobbying firms.
The same goes for groups such as the
Muslim Brotherhood, whose leaders
have been photographed visiting the
White House, the Department of State
and the UK's House of Commons as
part of their efforts to persuade highlevel
officials that theirs is a benign
organization, when - as we are only too
well aware in this part of the world - just
the opposite is true. For more than half
a century Israel and its American
backers have perfected the art of
manipulating minds via Hollywood
movies depicting Jewish immigrants to
Palestine as courageous pioneers.
Conversely, Arabs are almost always
portrayed in a negative light. After a
decades-long drip feed of
indoctrination, no wonder the majority
of Americans are more supportive of
Israelis than Palestinians.
Is it not beyond time that our GCC
leaderships took the power of the media
with the seriousness it deserves?
Whether or not we agree with all
aspects of American foreign policy, the
reality is that we need the US to be in
In the same way that the American left and right
vie with each other on air, online and in print to
influence minds, some countries, among them
the smallest and weakest, are sufficiently mediasavvy
to manipulate US opinion at all levels.
They flood popular talk shows with their
political emissaries and inject massive funds
into media campaigns, self-promotion via
advertisements or even sponsorships, and public
relations and lobbying firms.
our camp diplomatically, economically
and militarily if we are ever attacked.
We are in no position to push back
against the scurrilous, propagandist
attacks of our enemies, and we have no
meaningful platforms on which to
effectively counter fake news with truth.
Let us not forget that former US
President George H.W. Bush's
Diaspora diaries
AASIm SAJJAD AKHTAR
working in Oman. In recent times
migrations abroad from the Sindhi and
Seraiki belts have increased. Many of
those who make their away abroad do
so at great risk, travelling without
documentation and in horrific
conditions, whether overland or by sea.
Some never make it, while a large
number who survive must work under
the table with little to show for it. Even
our Muslim brethren in the Gulf that
once provided relatively stable
employment arrangements have
started to turn out many Pakistani
workers. This segment of the diaspora
is poorly organised but can be
sympathetic to democratic politics,
linking up when possible to
progressives fighting for the causes of
immigrants in Europe, America and
Australia. Those who have spent time in
the police states of the Gulf have
sometimes imbibed Wahabi influences
which they bring back to their home
current challenges, we should refrain
from exaggerating them. In the past few
months, the US administration has
published three important documents:
The National Security Strategy, the
National Defence Strategy, and the
Nuclear Posture Review. In all of them,
China and Russia are explicitly
identified as serious threats to the
international order. But the principal
threat to the US today does not come
from China or Russia; it comes from the
confusion characterising its own
policies, owing to Trump's rejection of
the very international order that the US
helped forge and defend for decades.
It is worth remembering that when
Trump tries to intimidate North Korean
leader Kim Jong-un by boasting of US
military power, the facts are - for once -
on his side. US military spending is by
far the world's highest, almost three
times that of second-place China, and
almost nine times that of third-place
JAvIER SolANA
communities, but they have also
developed contradictory impulses as
consumers exposed to the glam and
glitter of capitalist globalisation. All in
all, this class generates untold
remittances for the country without the
requisite political voice.
Upwardly mobile professionals and
businesspeople: This is the most
influential of all of the diasporic
communities. Take Pakistani medical
This segment of the diaspora is poorly organised but can
be sympathetic to democratic politics, linking up when
possible to progressives fighting for the causes of
immigrants in Europe, America and Australia. Those
who have spent time in the police states of the Gulf have
sometimes imbibed Wahabi influences which they bring
back to their home communities, but they have also
developed contradictory impulses as consumers exposed
to the glam and glitter of capitalist globalisation.
doctors in North America who have
their own association (APPNA) and
regularly lobby Congress and Pakistani
officialdom. Since the onset of the
current phase of financial globalisation
in the 1990s, this segment has
strengthened its connections to the
corridors of power, particularly as
Pakistanis working in multinational
firms and private business look to take
advantage of investment opportunities
in real estate, oil and gas, mineral
exploration and infrastructural
Russia. Indeed, the US spends more on
defence than the following eight
countries combined, and possesses the
world's most sophisticated nuclear
arsenal. But, despite the Trump
administration's frequent declarations
of military superiority, its actions imply
that this superiority is not enough.
The Nuclear Posture Review is the
best example of this cognitive
dissonance. The new US doctrine
stipulates an increase in the number of
tactical nuclear arms with relatively
small explosive potential. The objective
of this measure is to neutralise Russian
capacities in this field, thus "denying
potential adversaries any mistaken
confidence that limited nuclear
employment can provide a useful
advantage over the United States and
its allies". But if the confidence is indeed
mistaken, why respond as if it were not?
In contrast to the Pentagon's view, the
costly development of more tactical
determined response to Saddam's
invasion of Kuwait in 1990 saved the
day. I should add that it was thanks to
the pressure heaped on the UK, France
and Israel by President Dwight D.
Eisenhower during the 1956 Suez
Crisis, besides fierce Egyptian
resistance, that British, French and
Israeli troops were forced to withdraw
from Egyptian soil.
As things stand, Saudi Arabia and its
Gulf allies, including my own homeland
the UAE, are in no position to push back
against the scurrilous, propagandist
attacks of our enemies. We have no
meaningful platforms on which to
effectively counter fake news with truth;
perhaps because we naively believed that
righteousness would be recognized by
the people who count.
I fail to understand why we have not
sought to establish international satellite
channels broadcasting around the world
in English. Although news networks in
Arabic abound, as well as Englishlanguage
channels covering local news
and entertainment - apart from one that
works against our collective interests -
there are none capable of attracting a
substantial American viewership. This
should be step one.
Step two should involve mega movie
productions and documentaries aimed
at displaying the finest aspects of our
culture, heritage, modern achievements
and philanthropic endeavors.
Source : Arab News
Horror of militarisation stalks the world
While it makes sense to recognise the current
challenges, we should refrain from
exaggerating them. In the past few months, the
US administration has published three
important documents: The National Security
Strategy, the National Defence Strategy, and the
Nuclear Posture Review. In all of them, China
and Russia are explicitly identified as serious
threats to the international order.
development. These rich and powerful
Pakistanis loved the Musharraf regime,
mostly support overreaching judges
and generals and typically display
contempt for democracy. Some even
donate money to 'Islamic' causes. These
days Imran Khan is their blue-eyed boy,
but they will cultivate connections with
whoever is in government.
Politically aware middle class: This is
the x-factor within the diaspora. It can
espouse both progressive and reactionary
causes. The progressive element is most
visible in Baloch, Sindhi and Pakhtun
ethnic-national movements while the
prominent reactionary elements ply their
trade in transnational Islamist groups like
the Hizbut Tahrir and the Tableeghi
Jamaat. As far as diasporic progressives
go, there's tremendous space to bring
together leftists, feminists, greens, the
labouring poor and ethnic-national
movements, but such organised efforts
are, till now, few and far between.
As intrigue builds in the lead-up to the
general election (see the most recent
Supreme Court judgement against
Nawaz Sharif), it is painfully evident that
rich and powerful Pakistanis residing
abroad continue to find ways to represent
their interests within domestic politics.
It is up to progressives in the diaspora
and those at home to address what is as
much a global as a specifically Pakistani
crisis of politics in the contemporary
period ie that the political mainstream
tends to completely neglect the real
issues faced by the majority of working
people, both here and abroad.
Source : Dawn
arms would in fact lower the threshold
for nuclear conflict. And, as Brookings
expert Robert Einhorn explains, the
Nuclear Posture Review includes
another doctrinal provision with a
similar effect: the statement that the US
could use nuclear arms in response to
"non-nuclear strategic attacks" that are
only ambiguously defined.
Nine years after former US president
Barack Obama's speech in Prague, in
which he committed to seeking a world
free of nuclear weapons, disarmament
has ceased to be a strategic priority for
the US (which, as the world's biggest
power, should lead efforts in this area).
A new arms race appears to be
underway, though for now it may focus
more on perfecting arsenals than on
increasing their total size.
"The greatest risk to the US is that it
could forget the principles and
institutions that have shored up its
global leadership.""
Moreover, the Trump administration
has just presented a budget proposal
that would increase military spending,
while cutting funds for the State
Department by 25 per cent. This is one
of the causes of degradation of
America's international image, a trend
that doesn't seem to trouble the current
administration much.
What really worries the Trump
administration - aside from Iran and
North Korea - is the strategic
competition represented by Russia and,
above all, by China.
Source : Gulf News