Patriotism and deal with ConocoPhillips
THE question that the prime minister posed on Saturday—i.e. 'who is more patriotic and looks after the interest of the country than I?'—is pleasing to the ears and even encouraging. After all, the person elected by the people to run the country needs to be a patriot beyond question. While we do not question an elected government's patriotism, we expect the government to prove its claim by its deeds, not by empty rhetoric. However, there are reasons to believe that the question is not merely aimed at vouchsafing the patriotism of the prime minister or, for that matter, the government that she heads. Came as did in the wake of the call for a dawn-to-dusk general strike by the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports on July 3 in protest against the production sharing contract signed between the Awami League-Jatiya Party and the US oil giant ConocoPhillips on June 16, the question seems to be an indirect way of undermining the committee's patriotism.
The citizens' forum has provided critical analysis of economic and energy policies of successive governments since its inception in the late-1990s and persisted with the demand that the people's ownership should be established on the country's natural resources. It has never opposed exploration and extraction of the country's hydrocarbon resources, e.g. coal, gas, oil, and their utilisation in its economic development; its prime demand has been that these resources should be explored and extracted under the supervision of the state-run exploration entity BAPEX and used to the benefit of the people at large. In doing so, its leaders and activists, supporters and sympathisers have time and again proved their readiness to make the ultimate sacrifice. Three persons were killed when the law enforcers opened fire on a largely peaceful demonstration in August 2006 against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government's plan to engage Asia Energy in open-pit coalmining at Phulbari in Dinajpur. If these are not patriotic demands and deeds, one wonders what is.
The prime minister may recall the movement that the committee spearheaded then; after all, she, then the leader of the opposition in parliament, went all the way to Phulbari after the government had shelved the plan in the face of the popular uprising and warned the then incumbents of dire consequences if the agreement they had signed with the protesters were not implemented. One needs to keep in mind that patriotism does not lie in episodic public assertions but has to be proved round the clock, round the year through deeds.
Regrettably, however, the successive governments have pursued neo-liberal policies and unbridled market economy and commercialised services that are supposed to be rendered by the state, e.g. education and health care, at the behest of the imperialist West; these in no way protect the people's interest or are any measure of patriotism. Hydrocarbon exploration and extraction agreements have been signed with international oil companies, deals that have allegedly lined up the pockets of a handful of bureaucrats and businesspeople and been used by the ruling quarters as a diplomatic tool to appease the global and regional big powers with a view to perpetuating control over state power locally. Moreover, the ruling quarters have maintained secrecy about the contents of these agreements. Besides, whenever questions and allegations have been raised about these agreements, those in power more often than not resorted to repressive means, thereby only underlining the legitimacy of these questions and allegations.
The incumbents have not been any exception either. They have also employed the law enforcers to oppress not only their political rivals but also the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports. They have also kept the content of its agreement with ConocoPhillips under the wraps, just as their predecessors did other such agreements.
What makes the national committee's hartal stand out is the fact that these are meant to neither retain nor return to state power, unlike similar programmes called by the political parties like the Awami League or the BNP. Thus, the general strike is anything but 'nonsense', as the finance minister, according to a report published in New Age on Sunday, termed it on Saturday.
http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/editorial/23088.htmlMore:
http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/it-is-now-called-bangladesh-patriot-league/
Who's more patriotic than me: PM
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Saturday came down heavily on the 'National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports', posing the question: who is more patriotic and thinks more for the country's welfare than her?
'My question: who is more patriotic and look after the interest of the country more than me?' Hasina said while laying the foundation stone of the head office building of the Board of Investment at Agargaon in the city.
Without mentioning any name, she indicated that the 'National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports' which is opposing the government's signing of a production sharing contract with an American oil company.
The government on Thursday inked the deal with ConocoPhillips for exploring oil and gas from two deep-sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
The US oil company won the two deep-sea blocks — DS 08-10 and DS-11 — after taking part in an international tender floated by Petrobangla in 2008.
The PSC allows ConocoPhillips to conduct exploration in the undisputed part of the two blocks that cover an area of 5,158 square kilometres. The two blocks are located at a distance of about 280 kilometres from the port city of Chittagong.
The prime minister said these groups often cry out loud in the name of protecting the interest of the country. 'Where were they when there was no production of electricity and no gas exploration? Investors were waiting for years to go into production as there was no gas and electricity supply.'
She said: 'These groups were silent when the previous governments did not do anything for the development of the country. When we are moving forward they are opposing us.'
Hasina categorically assured that the present government would not do anything against the interest of the country and welfare of the people.
She said that her government, soon after taking the office, had given priority to creating investment-friendly environment in the country to attract foreign direct investment and simplified the investment related laws and rules.
The premier said despite resource constraints, the government was providing money for implementing massive development projects in the infrastructure and service sectors.
She informed that various industries, mills and factories would be set up in different corners of the country by establishing seven economic zones in the seven divisions.
The government, she said, has formulated the National Industrial Policy identifying 32 sectors that include agricultural products, readymade garments, shipbuilding, tourism, ICT goods and services, jute and leather goods, plastic goods, and ceramics industry as the thrust sectors. Investment incentives are being given to these sectors.
Hasina said the public-private-partnership policy had been formulated to encourage private investments in infrastructures and in service sectors while tax holiday facilities had been ensured for 17 sectors in the proposed national budget for the next fiscal (2011-12).
She said: 'Bangladesh has become the most attractive investment destination in South Asia for the foreign investors and as a result foreign direct investment is increasing gradually.'
Despite worldwide decline in investment flow in the recent years caused by economic recession in the developed countries, Bangladesh got over $910 million FDI in 2010 alone, she mentioned.
The prime minister said foreign investors become attracted to investment in Bangladesh due to its geographical location, cheap and easily trainable labour, easy regional connectivity, increasing domestic market and attractive incentive package.
As the country's image has brightened following the establishment of good governance, she urged the foreign investors to invest more in Bangladesh.
Hasina said the present government had provided two incentive packages to the export sector to cope with the negative impacts of world economic recession.
She said two closed jute mills had been reopened through reviving the BJMC and five more jute mills will be reopened soon. As a result, jute, the golden fibre of Bangladesh, has regained its past glory.
State minister for housing and public works Abdul Mannan Khan and BoI executive chairman SA Samad also addressed the function, chaired by the Secretary in-charge of the housing and public works ministry.
The Public Works Department is implementing the 14-storey BoI head office building project at an estimated cost of around Tk 100 crore from the government's own resources.
http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/frontpage/23058.html
http://sonarbangladesh.com/blog/bashar/46760
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