Oil, gas protection body - looking at it in different light
The protection from what? The agenda should never align with 'keep oil, gas underground'
This issue has many stakeholders. If one wants to tackle all the issues and do justice to this important topic, you will have to write a book, instead of writing an article. So, we would keep ourself bounded within this specific body - the oil, gas protection body which is led by one of the well-knonw grass-roots economists of the land Professor Anu Muhammad, among others and who is esteemed by many as working tirelessly to help protect the national treasure being plundered by the syndicate of incompetent bureaucracy, the corrupt politicians and the foreign companies.
These foreign companies are here just to make some money by transferring technology and investing money. As long as the country gives provision to invest the money, they will do it in good faith, albeit with many uncertainities on the ground. So, they will be looking at some extra bucks to compensate for the uncertainties. Any straight head analyst will agree with that analysis. At the face of it, it would seem very straightforward. So, whats the big fuss all the time? Lets try to look at the issues from a different light - if you are willing to give us some space.
The protection body has primarily two types of membership - in the broad sense.
One type of the membership who is leading the national body. In other words, the people who are involved with the activities of this body for the sake of patriotism, for the love of general people, for the love of the country, and those who wants to oppose social injustices that is often a trademark of many projects which is done in the name of development projects bourne out of World Bank / ADB type organization (these orgs now recognize that most of the money they loaned so far was plundered or stolen, however, they would happily take the money back from the poor people, not from those who actually stole their money! And they spread around their knoweldge of governance and accountability to all over the world! Selukas, isn't it?)
The other type of members of this body comes from the local people - representing those are directly affected by the proposed projects - be it the project of Asia Energy or some other projects. Presumably, these people do not have much time to think about national interest (That is not to say that they are not patriots. Our guess is that they will act more patriot than all the other parties if such a need arises as was the case in 1971). But now, in everyday regular life, they are too busy with placing two meals on their plate, or arranging money for their children's education or trying to help their old parents with a better treatment. They do not have any interest in how or what you do your thing, but what they are worried about is that they will loose whatever they have now and be forgotten.
So, if we accept this categorization of two types of membership within this group, we can now proceed to our analysis.
The national body often talks about raising local capacity which is certainly a good thing. Local capacity building also needs time. There are two ways to build local capacity - "first learn and then do the job" OR "learning by doing alongside others who already knows how to do it". As a policy, both the approach are fine if we did not have any time urgency. However, we have wasted too much time as a nation. Every month we pass without decision, that hurts the future of the millions. Millions of people go to bed without proper food, millions of children grow up without education and so on. Considering the time urgency, the second option of learning by doing is certainly a quicker option. There should not be any opposition to this approach. The government can hire companies who has done the job before in other countries, making sure that those companies hire local technical hands as much as possible.
But this point is lost whenever we talk about the issue. They tie the issue of local capacity building with the issue of national interest. The implication is that if we do not do the mining with our local capacity, we will be loser as a nation. So what they imply is that we have to wait until local capacity is built, which in turn implies that we have to wait much more time. How long? Nobody knows - they talk about something which they do not know, to tell you the truth.
On the other hand, this particular demand that we have to wait until local capacity is built could be deemed as a way to make sure that our national treasure is prevented to be used for nation-building. Coal underground is nothing for millions of people without electricity. Buje houk, na buje houk, the national committee of this particular type of experts are trying to delay the process - someone could say that easily, isn't it?
Let us make one thing very clear. Allow us to ask a clear-cut question. Do you think when Saudis started their oil drilling, they did it with their own capacity? Nope, the technical know-how was imported from the west. But, how come Saudis are in control of their oil? What is the missing link here? Why don't you guys ask this very simple thing? If one do the thinking, one would find that the missing capacity is not the technical know-how, rather the missing is the "capacity to negotiate". If you represent a soverign nation, the benefit from the mining projects will depend on the capacity to negotiate. Thats what the Saudis could do, but our Ershad, Hasina or Khaleda could not do so far.
Would you ask why didn't they do that? A simple answer could be a very simplistic one. If you negotiate a better deal, that would mean you have to wait until the drilling is done, coal is mined and only after that they could start stealing money from the proceeds. But if you do the deal during negotiation stage, you get your deal-money right at the negotiation stage, paid in dollars. Make sense? The missing thing for Ershad, Hasina or Khaleda is patience, they were not willing to wait! And everyone knows that a negotiator without patience is a very bad in thier job. Some ninduk will say that the actual missing thing is the lack of patriotism on the part of these leaders. What patriotism? We never thought that they understand the meaning of that complex word. Their supporters have all the patritism, they don't need any.
Coming back to the national level leaders of the Oil, gas protection body, we fail to understand what is missing for this group of people. It can't be lack of patience, as was the case for our national chief executives of the past. Presumably, they also do not lack the patriotism. Otherwise, why would they be in this committee, right? So, what is missing here? We hope that they will correct their position and rather focus on the negotiation part - instead of the technology transfer part. Those who have the technology will come here and do the job, just like they are doing in Saudi. If you do not understand the complexity of the problem, then just demand to copy some of the best practices that has been done in the past. But the demands should never align with the agenda of 'keep oil, gas underground'. If someone is acting on the interest of nation, they should demand that mineral resources be used for solving energy crisis at the quickest possible timeframe, which means NOW. Off course, we also want to learn as quickly as possible since we do not have any lack of human resources. If that mean to reopen the books that was closed by Hasina, Khaleda or Ershad, current govt should do that. It should be made clear to the foreign parties that we are open for business, and business only, nothing else.
The next issue is the problem of the local level people who have to be relocated and who faces the dire possibility of losing their everything and even worse, be forgotten. We think the whole liability of this opposition lies with our bureacrats. These people has forgotten why they exists. They take course after course, training after training, degree after degree with the expense of government, only to get promotion and only to have foreign tours. They learn nothing. Even if they learn, they forget those as soon as they enter GoB offices. Those knowledge are for the retired age career when they will be doing consultancy with donor agencies.
The solution is very straight-forward. You can not use a 50 years old compensation policy for a project which will be earning thousands of crores of taka over the next 20 years. If you have to relocate 1 lac people, you have to come up with a project proposal which includes the compensation of these mostly poor people - not based on a 50 years old generic govt. compensation policy which is used in case of road construction or similar works - the compensation policy for a mining project should be specific to the particular project. The projection and economic viability of the project has to consider the compensation - whatever is required to make a happy relocation. For example, if your current estimation envision that initial investments will be recouped within five years, adjust the recoup period to 6 years or 7 years. In other words, increase the initial investment asssessment to make sure that the project have enough money for a healthy compensation for the people who will be relocated. Its very simple, doable. The only thing that is needed is pragmatism. Off course, if the policy makers are looking for making extra bucks, then the issue is different (we really hope that the rumors about the person whom the CA has charged with these policies aren't true).
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columnists in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article as Creative Commons contents.
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Phulbari Coal Extraction
Oil, gas protection body leaders tell meetings at Phulbari, Nilphamari
Our Correspondent, Dinajpur
Leaders of National Oil, Gas, Power, Mineral Resources and Port Protection Committee said here yesterday the food security will be affected in the district if the coal in Phulbari is extracted through open pit mine method.
They said about 40 square mile land in four upazilas in the district will be damaged in the process.
The committee leaders were addressing a meeting titled, 'People's Demand and Phulbari Coalmine,' held yesterday at Rabeya Community Centre at Phulbari where three persons were killed during a carnage there on August 26, 2006.
The meeting was presided by committee convener Md Saiful Islam Jewel.
The coalmine will bring numerous sufferings to villagers, they said.
They said the coal will be utilized outside the country rather than using for domestic purpose.
The meeting expressed dissatisfaction as the government is yet to implement the 6-point demand signed after Phulbari carnage on August 30, 2006. They urged the caretaker government to implement the demand.
They urged the people of the four affected upazilas to thwart any conspiracy of foreign investors in this regard.
Md. Saiful Islam Jewel, convener of Phulbari Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources and Port Protection Committee told the meeting that nation will decide to utilize the underground resources of the country and Phulbari people will thwart any conspiracy against them with the Phulbari coal project, he added.
The speakers observed that a strong political will is needed to resolve the issue.
In his address, Prof Anu Mohammad, general secretary of the committee said that the underground asset belongs to people who will decide their fate.
Among others, Prof Anu Mohammad, Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah and Haider Akbar Khan Rano of Workers' Party, Zunayed Shaki, Gano Sanghati Andolon, Prof Samsul Alam (member), Tipur Biswas of Gano Front and Advocate Abdus Salam spoke.
Earlier, the committee leaders held a press conference at 'Media House' in Nilphamari on Thursday, said our district correspondent.
They said the countrymen won't not allow any amendment in proposed coal policy.
They said for coal extraction, the principle of utilisng mineral resources for betterment of people, not for making profit, should be followed. The coal also should be extracted by national organisations, they said.
Chaired by Sreedam Das, convener of the district unit of the committee, the press conference was addressed by Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Sahidullah, Prof Anu Mohammad and Noor Mohammad.
They said 'Asia Energy' is spreading corruption in order to establish their 'devastating' plan as a development project.
They said the expert committee formed earlier termed the development plan of 'Asia Energy' as illegal and their project against the national interest.
Prof Anu Mohammad alleged 'Asia Energy' is trying to divide public opinion by making some agents.
Phulbari bed reserves at least 572 million tonnes of coal. If Bangladesh Government signs any deal with a company then coal extraction will last for 30 years where about 50,000 people will be relocated, according to officials of Asia Energy.
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