Letters will only be considered if they carry the writer's full name, address and telephone number (if any). The identity of the writers will be protected. Letters must be limited to 300 words. All letters will be subject to editing.

Improving relation between India and China: Hope for peace The world scenario is totally changed in the post-cold war era. It is transferred from bipolar to uni-pollar. And USA is the only superpower in present time. Instability, regional conflict, civil war, ethnic cleansing has become the part of our everyday life. From 1990 to 1994, there were countries undergoing serious, social and political violence. And more than half the ongoing wars in 1994 had lasted more than a decade.

It is generally accepted that in wars, around the turn of this century, from 85 to 90 percent of casualties took place in the armed forces, from which only a small minority were civilians who got caught in the crossfire or killed in atrocities.

But, it is fact now that about three-quarters of war deaths are civilian. If we include refugees and the wounded, this puts the proportion of civilian casualties more than 90 percent, USA being the only superpower conduct her foreign policies for the purpose of own national interest, for which the crisis in the world politics is increasing day by day.

April has been the end of one year war in west Asia and we see little hope for peace in south-east Asia as the Indian Prime minister visited Beijing. This visit opens a new path for peace in Asia as well as for the rest of the world. What is required right now is open dialogue between the neighbouring countries. Now is the time for all of us in Asia to take an honest approach to resolve the differences. This is the plea of all the peaceful people in this planet.

Khaleda Nasrin

International Relations, Dhaka University

Dhaka University and its lost glory

As a regular reader of Daily Star I notice many news that questions the value of Dhaka University in recent times. But as I was reading Rifat Mahbub's Letter (June 24, 2003) under the title "Dhaka University and its lost glory", I can't help but agree with her view. In fact, I am a of the student of Dhaka University and quite familiar with the environment.

Dhaka University opens up many avenues in life but is also blocked by barriers that our society has created by itself. Here we have reputed teachers with brilliant track record, under whose guidance the University has produced many successful people in the country. Our central library is also very resourceful. Cultural programmes, conferences and seminars take place all the time in the University which is very helpful for the students.

But outside these many good things we face many obstacles here that make the educational atmosphere very unhealthy. Many letters published in The Daily Star acknowledged the problems in the past .In this age of hi tech the University need to keep up with rest of the world and introduce computers in every field of the education system. Accommodations, communication, limitation of classrooms, lack of books, journals, and mostly the students involved in politics create problems for common students.

In fact students are more or less passively responsible for this institution's lost glory. For a regular student the main target is to collect notes from the senior students. We waste our time and energy to collect notes. The standard educational system in the country is not good enough comparing with the system in other countries'.

The English language should be made compulsory for the students for future benefits. Some faculty has already started the practice but not all of them. We all pray that the Dhaka University that was known as the Oxford in Asia regain its lost glory.

Khaleda Nasrin, Dhaka University

Communicative English: A failure

In last few years the curriculum of Secondary School Certificate has undergone a massive change. The rationale for this change was to modernise our education system. Modernisation is the demand of time and there is no fault with it. But the curriculum of Secondary English is a complete flop.

What ever is the motive of introducing communicative method in Secondary Schools, it is clear that it was just a "experimental project" of project-hungry-English-teachers of universities and colleges. Their chief concern was the "project money" of the Donors. Communicative method of English Teaching is an innovation only for students whose mother tongue is English and for countries where such favourable environment exits. Naturally it is bound to fail in our country.

Although those who introduced the course emphasised that grammar is there, practically students are not at all eager to learn grammatical rules. As a result though they pass a communicative English test, they can neither write few sentences in correct English nor can converse.

One fact is that most of the teachers are doubtful about teaching English in the communicative method as students and guardians, both are quite uncomfortable with the method. But people who designed the course are quite hopeful.

Anyway, I strongly urge the government to go back to old time-tested method with the addition of audio-visual and speaking tests. No more Guinea Pig model test should be carried out with the students.

Dr Q. M. Ohidul Alam

MBBS, Ph. D.

Panclaish, Chittagong

Other side of the

Iraq war

Some days have passed after the Iraq war. USA and UK are already in control of the country, except for few occasional resistances by Saddam loyalists. There is no real need to harp on the issue politically. Now it is important look into the other side of this US led war on Iraq.

During the war in Iraq, Muslims in millions all over the world were united and prayed for a peaceful solution. We expected some miracle would stop the killing and destruction.

But nothing wonderful happened.

Has goodness and love left the human race forever?

KViqar Moinuddin, Dhaka Separation of Judiciary: A case study

The past Caretaker Government wanted to separate the Judiciary from the Executive by issuing an ordinance. Every thing was ready to take place in October 2001 before the taking over of the present BNP Government. And Khaleda Zia intervened and promised to separate the same as per election manifesto of the BNP. Now as per statement of Law Minister Moudud Ahmed published in Daily Star on the 24th May 2003, the separation process may take more than six years. The key issue is the replacement of 600 administrative staff carrying out judicial responsibilities. The calculation is very simple, the Law Ministry is planning to replace 100 such staff per year for which minimum 6 years will be required (The general public may take consolation that it is not going to take 100 years i.e. six replacement per year).

The present government closed down Adamjee Jute Mill on 1-7-2002 by a stroke of pen for which 25,000 people lost their livelihood, 5,000 students living in the mill area lost their careers. Adamjee mill on average earned 110-150 crore of foreign exchange per year by exporting jute goods, used to purchase 18 lakh mounds of raw jute and there by stabilised the jute price. Even the pretext of loss of taka 1200 crores by the mill in a period of 30/32 years was presented in a misleading way, as 75% of these losses occurred in recent years following the prescription of the World Bank by closing 3500 units of tat of the mill.

The Government was found to be very bold, brave and anxious to handle the lives of 30,000 (25,000+5,000) people of Adamjee area by terminating their services, career etc. but could not tackle the issue of 600 Administrative staff. Perhaps the lives of Adamjee people are insignificant in national context. The replacement, transfer or absorption of these 600 privileged administrative staffs should not pose any problem to any sensible government provided they have a political will to do so.

The process that was going to take place during the period of Caretaker Government in a period of three months might take six years now under the present democratic government. So naturally the question arises what type of government is more efficient for Bangladesh?

Let us make some more case studies.

Abdul Bari Chowdhury

Uttara, Dhaka

Iraq: Free or occupied This is in reference to Mahmood Elahi's "Free Iraqis are speaking at last" (June 30).

What the eminent poet Awad Nasir wrote or what the eminent journalist Hamid Ali Alkifaey says is not signs of freedom. How the people of Iraq take this so-called freedom is the main question and that will tell us what type of liberation US have brought for the Iraqi's.

It is the people of Iraq who should decide what type of rule there would be. It cannot a duty of the outsiders. Democracy that the Westerns mean "the rule of the people, for the people and by the people", is never "the rule of outsider, for the people and by the outsider."

So, I request Mr. Mahmood Elahi to realise first what is invasion or occupation, what is freedom and what is democracy, and not to side lark the actual matter. Syeda Mushfiqua Munira Ajimpur, Dhaka

Test status of

Bangladesh

Former BCB President Mr. Saber Hossain's remarks about the current BCCB leadership have attracted our attention. I would like to tell Mr. Chowdhury that the problem with our cricket is not with the BCB leadership at present. The problem with our cricket is that we entered the test arena not on our ability but on the ability of our cricket administrators of the time.

We were just playing one-day cricket and had won an ICC trophy. Further, not that we just did not have the ability to play test cricket, we had no system of playing the longer version of the game in domestic cricket. With such weak foundations it was not a wise decision to move for Bangladesh's test status.

Instead of criticizing the current BCB administrators, Mr. Chowdhury should better tell us what inspired him to seek test status for Bangladesh. The argument has been made that all teams that were given test status did not fair well in the initial years. That argument is now not holding at all anymore as no country has ever been humiliated like this in the initial days of its test status as we are being humiliated now.

Take it from me: planning or changing coaches, or the administration nothing -- would serve Bangladesh any good. Our test status has now become a noose round our necks and a cause for national embarrassment.

I suggest that an independent inquiry be undertaken to identify the people who were responsible for putting this noose round our necks and meanwhile keep our test playing status on hold till we are first able to lay the foundations of cricket in the country and become matured. We need at least a handful of cricketes of

international cricket playing ability before we venture to play test cricket.

Mr. Chowdhury has attacked the current BCB Chairman for problems that he had created. He should show some moral courage to take responsibility for his actions rather than passing the buck to his successor.

Shahjahan Ahmed, Dhaka

High rising house rent

I wish to thank Ms Shimu Rani Das for her write-up on the above subject on 25th June 2003, in your esteemed daily drawing the attention of the house owners and the tenants in respect of house rent.

Because of my financial limitations, after retirement from service as a Cadet College Principle in 1996, I had to rent a flat at Uttara on monthly rent basis. Now I pay much higher than I used to. I wonder, the owner of the house has increased the rent as per the House Rent Control Ordinance 1991's article 16(2) or not.

Professor Abul Ashraf Noor

Uttara, Dhaka

A hopeless nation

Syed Rashed Zaman(July 03) thinks 'it won't take too long for the entire society to collapse' because of corruption. I do agree with him and I would like to add that our society's foundation is already shaken. The symptoms are already quite visible -- such random and indiscriminate killings were never seen before. Drugs, rape and murder have become regular and we have become quite insensitive about the whole situation.

In my opinion the root cause of every crime is corruption. It has engulfed the entire society like wildfire; and it's spreading

every moment with geometric progression. In the past an honest officer of any department, if not honoured at least was never mistreated. But today they are punished and that is shameful for any nation.

Jkobir

Dhaka