Globalaffairs

Issue 13/ February-March 2009
By Javier Delgado Rivera

At the end of 2008, the over-populated South Asian state of Bangladesh was featured in the worldwide headlines not for natural disasters, but because it held parliamentarian elections. Since 1991, the political scene of this Muslim-dominated country has been cursed by the rampant corruption and confrontational politics that its two main political figures have been waging.

In January 2007, following the five years-term of shamefully tainted rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the military reacted to the politically motivated soaring violence that plagued the electoral trail by imposing a Caretaker Government (CTG), charged with clearing up the parties of corrupted policy-makers and organising credible elections.

After being postponed on several occasions, the balloon box was eventually placed in the streets last December 29th. Thanks to a strengthened Electoral Commission (EC) and the electoral reforms launched by the CTG, last month elections has been widely recognised as free and fair. They place as democratically elected prime minister the former premier Sheikh Hasina, chairwoman of the Awami Leagy (AL) and daughter of the founding father and first president of the country.

First of all, this article examines how Bangladesh’s dynastical politics – a phenomenon also rooted in Pakistan and India- have shaped the prospects of this nation, followed by an evaluation of the almost two years of debatable military-backed CTG and its significance in the country’s major political parties. The paper finally tables the challenges the newly elected government will inexorably have to face.

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Issue 13/ February-March 2009
By Glen Ruffle

The dispute over gas that saw much of Europe deprived of energy at the start of 2009 will only harm Ukraine, as both the EU and Russia are in strong positions for the long-term future.

It seems to have become a Christmas tradition that, as Eastern Europe enters another new year, Russia turns off the gas. It is a yearly reminder that the tentacles of Soviet power still stretch into Europe, and with the press of a button, Russia can still bring half of the European Union to a stand still.

Some people have recently begun to question how strong Russia is. Noting that the price of gas and oil has tumbled recently, and that the Russian economy is largely built on the supply of and revenue from these two products, they have suggested that Russia is in for trouble.

Undoubtedly the ruble is over valued, and undoubtedly the Russian economy is based too much on oil and gas, but equally undoubtedly, the hard physical evidence is that Russia has the third largest financial reserves on planet earth (compare that with the billions of Euros of debt Europe is in) and the physical and military capabilities to force people to listen and obey it. This is not a state that is to be laughed at. Just ask Georgia.

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Issue 13/ February-March 2009
By I.M. Mohsin

About two months back, Bombay (Mumbai) experienced extended devastation which held her hostage for over sixty hours. The prevailing pandemonium produced a bitter harvest of massive killings, trauma and terror. Quite naturally every sane person, regardless of his/her nationality, fell outraged, generally, at the loss of life and sufferings of the people. Accordingly the world media and the world itself, including Pakistan, sympathized with the victims. The Indian media, generally, gave gawky coverage to the on-going gory drama round the clock. Ostensibly this would have been prompted by a sense of mission or the wish to score a point in a highly competitive call wherein the stakes for the Indian audience/viewers were particularly high. However, in hindsight it now transpires that the Bolly-wood psyche played its part in dramatizing such a bizarre event.

The media, specially the TV, gave graphic analysis of whatever was going on till the miserable episode ended. Its projection appeared to be concentrating, generally, on three aspects. First, the major focus was on the rich local people along-with the foreigners reveling in the posh hotels and the Kandahar restaurant. They were projected to have been made to suffer the most. To the money-spinners of Mumbai, it appeared to matter little how many poor people had been gunned down by the terrorists. Second, their detailed accounts of the on-going botch, it is believed, may have provided useful information to the assailants. Third, as pointed out by the Daily Mail Reporter on Dec 1, “And some political observers point out an unhelpful tendency by the Indian authorities continually to blame ‘Pakistan elements’ without solid evidence”.(1)

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