Bangladesh violence

The problem for young democracies is always to ensure that the electoral process is not influenced by an outgoing government. Since 1991, Bangladesh’s solution to this has been an appointed caretaker government to oversee the elections. The system, designed to prevent ruling parties from rigging polls, has worked generally well in three elections. But the Awami League now wants the system to be reformed to make it more efficient and reliable. The BNP is reluctant. The ensuing dispute, bitter and violent, has paralyzed life for three days in the country. The fact that it was comparatively calm yesterday, analysts attribute to the fear of the military coming back to power once again.
It all boils down to a question of trust. But so long as the main political parties are led by outgoing Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and opposition leader Hasina Wajed, mutual trust is a factor that can be counted out of Bangladesh politics. Their visceral hatred for each other is such that they cannot trust not only each other but also the persons the other trusts. This fear is not without reason either. A significant percentage of holders of public offices in Bangladesh believe that their loyalty should go to those who appointed them, not to the state or the people.
That is why the opposition Awami League insists that the chief election commissioner must be replaced since he is allegedly biased, wants electoral rolls updated and the whole electoral system reformed. It was for the same reason that there was violent opposition from Awami League supporters when former Supreme Court Chief Justice K.M. Hasan was named caretaker prime minister, which forced him to refuse the job. Now President Iajuddin Ahmed heads the interim government. He is supported by the BNP but the Awami League has so far refused to endorse his position. While the stalemate prevails, violent demonstrations continue and they have already cost 26 lives. This is a deplorable state of affairs. The longer it persists, the greater will be the risk of more deaths and injuries. Worse, the very health of Bangladesh’s democracy will be endangered. The acrimony between Hasina and Khaleda and their families has disfigured the country’s politics. One of the rare occasions they worked together was in 1990 when they both backed popular protests that saw the downfall of the corrupt military government of Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad. With the return of democracy, the compromise of a pre-election caretaker government was hammered out between the two leaders.
The tragedy of Bangladesh’s democracy after Ershad’s fall is that neither of the main parties has shown a willingness to accept electoral verdicts. While the winner takes it as a mandate for triumphalism and petty political revenge, the loser takes it as a mandate for paralyzing the country with continuous strikes. Appeals from their friends and the country’s well-wishers have fallen on deaf ears. If they continue to ignore the advice, analysts fear, there will come a voice they cannot ignore — that of the military generals and martial law. Their country deserves better from them.

Free to choose

If the South African Government’s policy of limiting the importation of Chinese textile products had been implemented, the textile shelves in Africa’s most developed economy would be empty. Perhaps it is the pressure of this combined with protests from textile retailers that prompted Pretoria to postpone implementing this policy to the beginning of 2007.
The question also begs asking-is it possible for local textile traders in South Africa to make up for the lack of Chinese products?
China admits that the large amount of textile exports to Africa is seriously affecting local textile industries, although these inexpensive products have at the same time greatly benefited local wholesalers, retailers and consumers.
In the first half of 2006, China’s imports from, and exports to, Africa amounted to $14.06 billion and $11 billion respectively, a trade deficit that mirrors the previous year. However, this deficit does not free China from trade disputes with Africa, an issue it is fighting on three fronts, with tempers in the United States and European Union also reaching the boiling point.
Thanks to China’s non-interference foreign policy, it’s possible for African leaders to act more freely in their dealings with China. Meanwhile, tangible economic assistance from China is another revenue source. As Jeffrey D Sachs, Director of the UN Millennium Project, said in a recent conference in Beijing, “China has fewer lectures than Europe and the United States and more practical help much of the time.”
However, what China has done in Africa has raised the ire of Western media and some international organizations, which seem to expect China, a developing country of 1.3 billion people, to judge the human rights issue in this least developed continent through the same lens they do.
Chinese leaders are consistent in their view that “China needs Africa.” It is common knowledge that there is mutual support between China and Africa in a series of international affairs. China is a large energy consumer and Africa is abundant in oil and mineral sources. Why should China renege on Africa as long as the relationship between the two represents commercial trade rather than energy stealing?
For Africa, China’s development may be seen as a good example. In the past two decades, China has helped millions of its people out of poverty and transformed itself from a backward agricultural country into a country with the highest growth rate in the world. Roads and railways built by Chinese lead to Africa’s mines and also pass through the villages and towns where African farmers, shopkeepers and craftsmen live. These people now all find their trips to the market more convenient thanks to improved transportation.
In the last two decades of the 20th century, the annual foreign direct investment in the whole African region only amounted to several billion U.S. dollars, but it climbed to $30 billion in 2005. The inflation rate in 2005 was the lowest in the past 25 years. In the same year, capital inflow in the form of economic investment in Africa surpassed development assistance for the first time, which is regarded as a turning point in the continent’s history.

—Beijing Review