Bangladesh took part in a three-day “Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology International Trade Fair” in Indian commercial capital of Mumbai.

Karnaphuli Ship Builders Limited and Dhaka Dockyard and Engineering Works- this two Bangladeshi companies took part in a three-day Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology International Trade Fair in the Indian commercial capital, showcasing their shipbuilding and export potentials, an EPB press statement said in the capital, Dhaka.

The event was launchd by APV Sarma, former Secretary Ministry of Shipping of India.

Some 85 companies from different countries, including Germany, South Korea and Japan, exhibited their equipments, machineries and ship-related technologies in the fair.

SMM India 2009 was the first international trade fair on ship, including ship-related equipment and technologies in the Indian subcontinent.

During the event,Bangladesh scored some big orders. The nation received export orders for oceangoing ships and two tankers worth $14 million at the shipbuilding fair recently held in India.

Each vessel has the capacity of 5000-deadweight tonnage (DWT) and each tanker 1500 cubic meter, the highest capacity ships when compared to others so far exported from the South Asian country, the state-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) said on Tuesday.

Experts say the country’s potential shipbuilding industry might give a force to the national economy.

That is because a number of high-powered business delegations have recently evinced their keen interest in investing in the sector.

Source : www.thedailystar.net   THE BNP’s national council, to be held after nearly 16 years, has generated much interest among both party loyalists and citizen groups. Within the party, this interest is manifested in competition, often violent, for holding higher positions and influence.

The in-fighting is due to competing individual interests among the party activists. In today’s Bangladesh, the primary reason for joining and being active in political parties is the receipt of patronage. It is now well known that the party in power, or coming into power, will reward its followers with benefits, both due and undue.

Key officeholders get even more benefits. With the possibilities of such payoffs in play, it is natural that self-interested people should join major parties and resort to any means, including violence, to achieve prominence. This is what has been happening within both the Awami League and the BNP.

The violent conflict within the BNP rank and file is undoubtedly scandalous. However, it is perhaps even more scandalous for the party higher-ups to deny the problem and shift the blame to the government. With so many legitimate grounds to criticise the government, it is ironic that BNP chooses to invent such disingenuous charges. This is an ugly, all-too-blatant, manifestation of our bankrupt politics.

Such a blame-game must end. The first step towards solving the problem is to recognise its existence. However, by refusing to admit that it has serious conflicts within the party, BNP is sidestepping the need to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, avoiding an issue, as everyone knows, does not make it go away; it only allows it to become bigger and more serious in the future.

It is also well known that nowadays people rarely join our major political parties out of an attraction to their ideology or programs. They do so primarily to get a share of the pie. In fact, politics over the years has become a very profitable “business” — a shameless get-rich-quick scheme. Slogans and symbolism, rather than ideology and principles, have now become the main tools of its trade. Thus, the principal purpose of the competition and conflict within major political parties is for aspirants to get as close as possible to the all-powerful leaders at the top.

Such closeness proportionally increases the opportunity and amount of patronage and favour.

It is no wonder, then, that so much jockeying and manipulation are the order of the day.

In contrast, citizens like us are interested in BNP’s convention for very different reasons. We want to see BNP learn from its past painful experiences and stay clear of the excesses and wrongdoings that led it into trouble. We want them to start practicing democracy, transparency and accountability within the party hierarchy — not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of the nation. We also hope that they will free the party from the clutches of selfishness, corruption and dynastic politics.

As citizens, we want BNP to comply with the Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act, 2009, passed in the first session of the 9th Parliament, especially the conditions for registration of political parties. Section 90B of the amended RPO contains the conditions for such registration, the most important of which are: 90 (1) (b) “[...] political party desiring to be registered with the Commission, shall have the following specific provisions in its constitution, namely:

-To elect the members of the committees at all levels, including members of the central committee;

-To fix the goal of reserving at least 33% of all committee positions for women, including the central committee, and achieving this goal by the year 2020;

-To prohibit formation of any organisation or body as its affiliated or associated body consisting of the teachers or students of any educational institution or the employees or labourers of any financial, commercial or industrial institution or establishment, or the members of any other profession: Provided that nothing shall prevent them from organising independently in their respective fields or forming an association, society, trade union etc. and exercising all democratic and political rights, and individual, subject to the provisions of the existing laws, to be a member of any political party;

-To finalise nomination of candidates by the central parliamentary board of the party in consideration of panels prepared by members of the ward, union, thana, upazila or district committee, as the case may be, of the concerned constituency.”

Section 90C of the RPO also provides: 90 C (I) “A political party shall not be qualified for registration under this Chapter, if … (e) there is any provision in its constitution for the establishment or operation of any office, branch or committee outside the territory of Bangladesh.”

That is, the law mandates the practice of democracy within the party rank and file. It is also illegal to have affiliated and associated organisations of the party. In addition, it would be a violation of the law to have any branch or office of the party outside Bangladesh. It is important to note that the mere inclusion of these provisions in the party constitution is not enough — they must be put to practice. The unfortunate truth is that foreign branches of political parties often take intra-party conflicts outside the country, badly tarnishing the image of Bangladesh.

It may be pointed out that the Awami League and Jatiya Party did not fully comply with these provisions of the RPO. Their committees were not elected; Awami League also played a very unfortunate game by designating its affiliated bodies as associated organisations, although both are illegal.Their foreign branches also still exist.

Will BNP be able to rise above this culture of non-compliance? It goes without saying that unless laws are implemented, we will not have the rule of law. Without rule of law, the rule of jungle prevails — thus the strong prey on the weak, the rich on the poor, and the powerful on the disenfranchised. Such conditions eat away at the vitality of a nation, pushing it into a state of dysfunction.

It may be noted that, while adopting the RPO framed during the caretaker government, the 9th Parliament ratified the conditions of registration of political parties under the Election Commission, but removed the EC’s authority to deregister parties for non-compliance.

By doing so, Parliament has made compliance with the conditions for registrations discretionary rather than mandatory and, in the process, has clipped the authority of the EC, turning it into a paper tiger. Note further that, during the caretaker government, the registration conditions were hammered out through many consultations between the EC and the political parties — they were not unilaterally imposed by the EC.

According to media reports, the BNP chairperson may designate the future leadership, rather than the leadership being elected by the councilors — which would be a violation of the law and thus totally unacceptable. Rumours also abound that BNP will amend its constitution, more or less keeping the chairperson’s power intact — now BNP chairperson has almost absolute power and she can do and undo anything — which will also be contrary to democratic norms.

It is clear from our past experience that, given the opportunity, power tends to concentrate, with unfettered power leading to undesirable outcomes. Such outcomes may not only be a bad omen for the party, but for the country as well.

To conclude, politicians often complain that what they do is their own business; why should some citizens be concerned about it? They infer that politics is for politicians and others should not poke their noses into it. It is obvious, however, that citizens cannot keep mum.

Political parties are not private clubs; they are constitutionally recognised entities, the effectiveness of which primarily determines whether democracy succeeds in Bangladesh. If political parties are not democratic and they are not transparent, accountable and are committed to the people’s welfare, it is unrealistic to expect good and democratic governance in the country.

Furthermore, even private clubs cannot do anything they like; they must comply with prevailing laws and cannot act against public interest. Thus, the behaviour of political parties and the public welfare are inextricably tied together — for the consequences of the irresponsibility of political parties will have to be borne not by the parties alone, but by all citizens of Bangladesh.

THE fifth national council of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) held yesterday in the capital after a long gap of sixteen years, with party chief Begum Khaleda Zia declaring a programme to reinvigorate the party. Re-elected party chairperson, she has been empowered to declare the names of the secretary general, the members of the standing committee and national executive committee. Tarique was made Senior Vice Chairperson.

This council, long overdue, not only brought amendments to the party constitution to fulfil the requirements of the amended RPO set by the Election Commission but also to consolidate democracy and keeping the party wheel move forward. BNP had a tough time to keep its ranks together during the last three years. There were reports of intra-party clashes at different levels of the party organisation. Further delay in holding the central council could have led to frustration among the rank and file. BNP insiders see this council as a turning point and hope to emerge united. Party council strengthens democratic practice and helps resist rise of autocracy. This council is also likely to set the party to a course with renewed vigour.

The role of opposition political parties is of crucial importance for multi-party democracy, which again, is essential for preventing the leaders from setting policies without consultation and challenge. Lively performance of the opposition makes democracy function properly through checks and balance. Multi-party democracy also helps contain physical clashes of interest groups in the society. BNP is one of the major political parties in the country. It had been in power for more than 12 years in four terms. Despite its debacle in the last parliamentary election, it attracted as many as 3.5 crore out of 8 crore votes and has a great role to play in shaping the democratic polity. BNP should come out stronger with a democratically chosen central leadership and, in turn, help consolidate democracy.
more Views :
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her party’s fifth national council yesterday unveiled 19-point programme that includes strengthening the country’s democratic institutions and curbing corruption, criminal activities and injustice.

Addressing the party’s grassroots level leaders, Khaleda, who was re-elected the party chairperson unopposed, urged party men to implement the programmes by shunning the paths of injustice, wrongdoings, greed and corruption.

“We have come out of disasters with new dreams to build Bangladesh and make people happy. We will together implement the dreams. The party will have to be made capable of materialising those dreams,” the BNP chief said, describing the adverse situation her party faced during the last caretaker government’s rule.

The BNP, which conceded a massive debacle in the December 29 parliamentary election mainly because of misrule and unbridled corruption during its 2001-2006 tenure, came up with the future programmes to rejuvenate the party and its grassroots level.

The programmes also include establishing good governance and rule of law, expediting national development by “turning the population into manpower”, ensuring people’s basic needs, taking measures to expand the science, technology and ICT sector to make Bangladesh fit for the 21st century, re-opening of closed down industries, and providing all-out support to local industries for their survival.

Political analysts say the programmes aim at making the party more pro-people and restore people’s support keeping in mind the next general elections.

Amid slogans and clapping of grassroots leaders from across the country, Khaleda said the party council aimed to bring qualitative changes within the party to make it a competent mechanism in implementing those programmes.

She urged all patriotic people, political parties, students, youths, workers and all professional and cultural organisations to unite and work together for the people’s welfare and establish the rule of law.

Lambasting the present Awami League-led government’s rule, Khaleda, also leader of the opposition in parliament, called upon the ruling party to work for the people and the country.

In her 70-minute speech at the opening session of the council at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre, Khaleda asked the government to work to implement its election manifesto. “We will extend constructive cooperation,” she said.

The BNP chief accused the ruling party of not behaving properly with the opposition in parliament and asked the government to pay due respect to the opposition party to get its cooperation.

“Let the opposition talk for the people and stay away from bringing false allegations against it. Discuss any issues related to people and the country in parliament before making any decision. We will help make parliament effective,” she said.

Khaleda said the government’s “go alone” policy on holding trial of the killing of army officers, demarcation of maritime boundary, Tipaimukh Dam issue, Asian Highway and withdrawal of army camps form Chittagong Hill Tracts has aroused suspicion among the people about its sincerity.

The BNP will protest if the government does anything that goes against the people, she said, adding, “If necessary, we will launch movements and resistance taking people with us.”

She said people are not safe now in and outside home and frustration and grievances are increasing among them. “People are saying that the government has not been able to bring changes, rather it has increased their sufferings. The government is busy with making the country volatile instead of building a digital Bangladesh,” she said.

Khaleda, who has been leading the BNP since 1983, described various achievements in different sectors during her party’s 1991-1996 and 2001-2006 tenures. She also portrayed the last caretaker government’s tenure as marked by misrule. She blasted the caretaker government for its effort to exclude her and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina from politics.

“Like politicians, businessmen and other people, my family members were also tortured and I had been confined to my house before my detention,” she said.

Describing the 9/11 as a guerrilla attack, Khaleda said it “hit America in the heart”. “Similarly, the conspirators of 1/11 also hit Bangladesh in the heart,” she said.

Khaleda said with the current government misrule has been established again. “Therefore, we will have to prepare for a tough struggle, for which unity among ourselves and having people beside us are required.”

Earlier in the morning, Khaleda inaugurated the council by hoisting the national and party flags.

Around 20,000 grassroots level leaders, councillors, and delegates of BNP gathered at the council venue.

Leaders of business and professional bodies, intellectuals, cultural personalities, envoys of different countries, and social elites attended the inaugural ceremony.

The council was held to elect BNP’s new leadership and bring changes in the party charter by ratifying the provisional changes brought in it to meet the registration criteria before the last parliamentary polls.

Sri Lanka Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda, UK’s House of Commons member George Gallway, Chairman of international liaison committee of Pakistan People’s Party Prof Ezazul Hasan, Canada’s National Democratic Party chief’s special envoy Daniel Breton and former mayor of a province of Canada Jau Mark Peletiye also addressed the council.