This was a very good detailed and insightful article on the security
position of Bangladesh. It is also important to note that the article
has given due mention of the threat posed by the Moist insurgent
groups in Western and Northern Bangladesh. It also does not
exaggerate the threats posed by the ISlamic militants like so many
in the Indian media do.On the whole a rather well written article
from the Daily Star.
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@...> wrote:
>
> Zoglul Husain writes:
>
> A typical Daily Star article in support of the propaganda campaign
of the US-Israel-India axis against Bangladesh
>
>
> --- On Fri, 7/4/08, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@...> wrote:
>
> From: Isha Khan <bd_mailer@...>
> Subject: Bangladesh defence budget 2008-09: An analysis
> To: dhakamails@yahoogroups.com, notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com,
alochona@yahoogroups.com, mbimunshi@..., zoglul@...,
rehman.mohammad@..., abidbahar@..., khabor@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Friday, July 4, 2008, 10:15 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bangladesh defence budget 2008-09: An analysis
>
>
> Air Cdre Ishfaq Ilahi, ndc, psc (retd)
>
>
>
>
>
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>
> ON 9 June 2008, the Finance Adviser to the Caretaker Government
presented the national budget for the financial year (FY) 2008-09 in
a live broadcast over the national radio and TV. The marathon address
touched upon almost all aspects of the nation's economic life - the
difficulties surmounted and the successes achieved. While
highlighting the budget performance last year, he also laid before
the nation the socio-economic targets for the coming year and how the
government planned to achieve those. He covered a wide vista of
governmental activities from agriculture to industries, from
education to employment, from communications to power generation.
However, there was not a word on 'defence', despite it being one of
the largest expenditure sectors of the government.
>
>
>
>
>
> In the past, there used to be a few cursory remarks by the Finance
Ministers in their budget speech promising to "build a strong defence
force, able to safeguard the national sovereignty" etc. etc; but not
this time. In the official website of the Ministry of Finance
(www.mof.gov.bd) the allocation is reported to be Tk. 6306 crore (US$
935 mil). Defence came out as the eighth largest sector, representing
about 6.4% of the Government spending, ahead of sectors like
Transport and Communications (6.1%), Health (5.9%) or Public Order
and Security (5.6%). However, like the previous years, the nation
remained in the dark as to the rationale behind the defence
expenditure. While we know how much electricity the government plans
to generate, how many new schools, hospitals or industrial estates
the government plans to build or how much additional food grain we
plan to harvest, we do not know what we plan to achieve with the
money spent for defence. Unlike
> the developed countries of the west, defence expenditure continues
to remain shrouded in secrecy in our part of the world.
>
> Trends in defence spending
>
> During the last financial year, while most government departments
could not spend their allocated budget, the defence, like previous
years, overspent and got additional budget of Tk.536 crore over the
FY 2007-08 allocations. In fact, this had been the trend over the
last five years when defence got additional allocation in the revised
budget at the end of the year. Although the defence budget in the
absolute term had been increasing, its share in the total national
budget had been falling for more than a decade. While in the 80s and
early 90s, the defence's share used to be around 10% of the total
government spending, it has come down to its present share of 6.4%,
down from 7% in FY 2007-08. The chart below shows that defence budget
has been rising at a rate slower than some important socio-economic
sectors. The rise in government spending on education had been
particularly impressive.
>
> However, we need to remember that while in all other sectors there
are external assistance components the defence budget is exclusively
self-financed. A sizeable chunk of the defence budget is spent on
import of armament, spares and fuel, draining our scarce foreign
exchange reserve. The "burden of defence" falls squarely on the
national exchequer. If we consider the revenue expenditure, the share
of defence rises to 6.8%. In terms of the GDP, defence expenditure in
Bangladesh represents 1.15% of the GDP. One need to compare this with
agriculture and rural development (2.8%), education (2.3%), health
(1%), Transport and Communication (1.8%) and the total budgetary
expenditure being 15% of the GDP. The defence expenditure of
Bangladesh, when expressed as a percentage of GDP, is quite low
compared to our neighbours India (1.99%), Pakistan (3%), Sri Lanka
(6%) and Myanmar (3.3%) of the GDP.
>
> Bangladesh security scenario
> Military expenditure in South Asia is generally high compared to
many developed countries of the west. India-Pakistan rivalry over
Kashmir fuelled an arms race for decades that ended up with both
countries acquiring nuclear weapons and the delivery systems. India-
Pakistan rivalry had posed serious security concerns not only for
those two countries, but also for the region and even beyond. More
recently, Islamic militancy and ethnic conflicts have posed serious
challenges to the South Asian states. In countries such as Sri Lanka,
ethnic insurgency has turned into virtual civil war. Another reason
for high military expenditure is military's authoritarian presence in
the national affairs as in case of Pakistan and Myanmar. In these two
countries high military expenditure have resulted in a bloated
military that is omnipresent in the national life turning the nations
into militarised societies.
>
> Fortunately, Bangladesh had long been an "island of peace" in an
area of turbulent and violent inter-state relations. Our more than
3000 km long land boundary with India and Myanmar is well demarcated.
There are small stretches of undemarcated boundaries with India,
totalling about 5 kilometres, which we inherited as a colonial
legacy. These irritants in our relationship could be solved across
the negotiating tables. Our long sea boundary, however, remains
undemarcated and could be a possible cause of conflict with the
neighbours. As trade and commerce, businesses and investment grow
within the South Asian states and our economies are increasingly
intertwined, the chance of an armed conflict between the nations
reduces. In fact, one could argue that the possibilities of
Bangladesh being engaged in an armed conflict with any of its two
neighbours is extremely slim at present or in near future.
>
> The scenario changes, however, when we consider the unconventional
threat to Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been the focus of international
community because of the rising incidents of Islamic militancy in the
country. The militants, although too weak to pose an immediate
military threat, could be the source of external interference and
internal instability. The nexus between the local Islamic outfits and
their cohorts in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are now well
established. After massive punitive action against the organisations
such as JMB, HUJI etc., there has been a period of lull in their
militant activities, but frequent unearthing of bombs and explosives
from the militant hideouts and the arrest of activists show that the
militants are out there waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
>
> While our primary focus had been on the Islamic extremists, there
had been a simmering left-wing militancy going on in the countryside
for years, especially in the extreme-poverty stricken north-eastern
and western Bangladesh.. With the upsurge of left-wing activities in
the neighbouring Indian states, and especially with the coming to
power of the Maoist political party in neighbouring Nepal, the left-
wing militancy is likely to get a boost in Bangladesh. The combined
onslaught of rightwing Islamic militancy and the leftwing Maoist
insurgency could seriously endanger the national security of
Bangladesh in the coming decades.
>
> Our internal political instability, especially lack of
institutional democracy in the country, will only benefit the
extremist forces and would invite external interference. We need to
adopt a comprehensive national strategy to meet the unconventional
threat in which defence forces will be one of the key players, along
with law enforcing agencies, financial institutions and socio-
economic and educational organisation. A comprehensive approach would
be necessary to tackle the problem because punitive action against
the militants could be a temporary measure at best. It is, therefore,
important that while we prepare our security forces to meet the
future security challenges, we do carry our people along, because
ultimately no plan or preparation can succeed unless it has the
support of the broad mass.
>
> Defence budget and popular participation
> Since the announcement of the budget, there has been debates and
discussions on it some welcoming its positive sides, others pointing
out its shortfalls. In fact, as the budget season approached, there
were spate of write-ups, seminars and symposiums on issues such as
agriculture, education, health, economy or environment participated
by government representatives, intellectuals, politicians and even
ordinary people. There were free exchange of views and many concrete
suggestions to the government on the way forward. In the absence of a
Parliament, these acted as useful forums for the government to
measure the public opinion. However, it appeared that 'defence' is
held as a taboo, kept exclusively for the military to sort out. Even
academic research organisations that specialises on defence and
security matters appeared to have ignored the defence budget issues.
>
> One often quotes French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau's (1841-
1929) witticism, "War is too serious a business to be left to the
Generals" as a justification of civilian control and oversight of the
military. Most democratic societies are based on the principle of a
civilian authority (President, Prime Minister, Congress, Parliament)
that acting on the advice of the military hierarchy sets out the
defence parameters and exercises control on the budget. On the other
hand, intellectuals like Professor Samuel Huntington believes that
civilian interference inevitably degrades the military efficiency,
civilian non-interference in things military is the corollary of
military non-interference in things civilian (and hence political).
>
> There is much truth in both the views and often a mutual respect
for each other, civilian and military authorities, is the best way
forward. In that light, popular participation in the defence debate
should be welcome. In Bangladesh, like elsewhere in the world, there
are essentially two views. One, we might call liberals, who view
military expenditure essentially a drain on the national economy,
taking scarce resources away from social and economic sectors. The
other, we might call conservative, who urges more for defence because
they believe that security can ensure peace and stability that boosts
socio-economic progress. Therefore, how much is enough for defence
depends on which side of the fence you are.
>
> Unlike the West, we do not publish "Defence White Papers" that
actually sets out the goal, strategy and objectives of the forces
over a period. Changes in the White Paper reflect the changes in the
threat scenario. The details of the US or UK defence budget are
published and available on the websites. Before the US Congress
passes the defence budget, which is half of the world's total
military expenditure, they call up the military bosses to justify
their demands. TV channels broadcast these hearings live across the
globe. In contrast, we, in Bangladesh have no knowledge of how the
defence budget is spent. For a meaningful assessment and analysis one
need to know what are the shares of the different Services Army, Navy
and Air Force, how much of the money is spent for the administration
i.e. pay, allowances etc. vis-à-vis on operation, procurement or
training. What are the major procurements and what is the process.
Ordinary citizen come to know of
> the procurement issues only when a scandal is allegedly unearthed.
Thus, there is no meaningful response from the citizen. Even when the
Parliament was in existence, there had never been any meaningful and
critical discussion on defence matters. There used to be a
Parliamentary Committee on Defence, but unlike other parliamentary
committees, it did not really take off. The Parliament continued to
guillotine defence budget every year on the last day of the budget
session.
>
> Conclusion
> Bangladesh continues to make steady progress in all socio-economic
sectors despite serious resource constraint and political turmoil.
Our defence expenditure continues to be the lowest in the region.
Despite resource constraint defence forces, over the years, have
built up an impressive record of international recognition of
efficiency and professionalism. We need to keep it up and in fact,
bolster it. Therefore, every taka spent for defence must be well
spent. The money spent for defence must buy us the "Peace and
Security Dividend" that would ensure sustained social stability and
economic progress for the nation.
>
> While the finer details of the military budget will remain a matter
exclusive to the military, its broad parameter and objectives may be
made public so that the citizens have their say in the matters
military. An honest, unbiased and rational analysis is possible only
when sufficient data is available. At present, available data on
defence expenditure is too insufficient for the citizen to draw any
meaningful conclusion. The Government need to come forward with more
information for the people so that they have a sense of participation
in building tomorrow's defence.
> http://thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=44241
>
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