Professor Anu Muhammad, former Member Secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Port and Power, has said that by handing over the management responsibility of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) of Chittagong Port to the Abu Dhabi-based company DP World, an opportunity for control is essentially being given to the United States.
He made these remarks at a discussion meeting titled “National Capability and National Security: The Context of Chittagong Port and Bangladesh’s Development,” jointly organised by the Democratic Rights Committee and the ‘Democratic Rights Movement’ in Chittagong on Saturday.
Professor Anu Muhammad alleged, “Muhammad Yunus is formulating his plans based on a national inferiority complex. This is creating a path for transferring national resources and strategic assets to foreign interests.”
He said, “The World Bank, IMF, ADB – these are actually management institutions for multinational companies. They create policies to protect their own commercial interests, and we call it ‘development cooperation’. This is actually a strategy to maintain economic subjugation.”
Criticising the government, Anu Muhammad further said, “At various times, the government has formed multiple reform commissions but has not implemented their recommendations. The Constitution Reform Commission’s recommendation was to ensure that agreements with foreign institutions are made public. But the government is not doing that, which is contrary to democracy and state accountability.”
At the discussion meeting, lawyer Akhtar Kabir Chowdhury said, “The excuse that foreign companies are being given responsibility because local companies cannot manage well is not valid. If the government itself cannot manage well, then will the responsibility of the country also be handed over to foreigners?”
Also present at the meeting were labor leader Sheikh Nurullah Bahar, Joint Editor of Prothom Alo Bishwabit Chowdhury, member of the Democratic Rights Movement Ferdous Ara Rumi, and others.
