Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 4 Mon. May 31, 2004  
   
Letters to Editor


Shark gobbling Saarc !


Saarc is going the western way, through the prowling shark of materialism. After Pakistan, now the footprint in India is going to be larger, after the sharp change noticed during the recent general elections. Next course on the menu: Bangladesh (Dhaka has no option to escape). Our local politicians are too insensitive and narcissistic to analyse the long-term implications within the next decade. The recent BDF meet in Dhaka threw light on money laundering (of course the finance minister brushed it off). The first world can't live without the third world--the sustenance factor works both ways!

Let us hear more about this notorious "anti-incumbency factor" in elections.

In India, secularism is back, with attention to rural development. The Kashmir issue looks nearing solution, resulting in a freer trading zone within the region (like EU?)? Monsanto, the GE (genetic-engineering) giant, has postponed the launching of GE seeds in the DCs and LDCs (which ruined S American farmers).

Bangladesh missed the submarine cable agreement a decade ago, and has now missed the Teknaf-Yangoon road link within the official Asian highway project. Foresight and professional judgement in policy making appears to be missing in Dhaka's intransigent politics, losing focus within the have-not minds.

Who will play Dhaka's next moves? No promoters, with face dug in the local sandbanks.