A good initiative

Personal visits are good, but the system needs to be fixed.

The communications minister deserves compliments for giving his personal attention to many things in his ministry that are virtually in a state of decay. The other day he was at the BRTA office to see for himself the condition there. And we are not surprised to learn of his reaction at finding most of the things there in disorder.

Of the many things that were not working, or were there that should not have been, were 'dalals' using both money and links in the BRTA office, to get vehicle documents renewed, newly issued etc. And many of the officers were absent from their work places - quite a normal phenomenon in our country we must add. There were many things that the local heads of the office should have done without having to be directed by the minister, for example, increasing the number of booths for the public. It only shows that those in charge are least interested in enhancing the quality of service that they are obligated to provide to the public.

In fact several departments in the ministry of communications, particularly the BRTA, are reported to be hot bed of corruption. Much of the ailments that afflict the transport sector, we are constrained to suggest, stem from this office. There is a strong nexus between the crooks and certain category of officials at the BRTA that collude to issue fake documents including vehicle registration and licenses. 

But we feel that while such visits are necessary these may prove to be very temporary and short-lived palliatives unless something more permanent was done. What we have in mind is the correction of the systemic flaws. And the system should set up in a manner that it should function normally and have mechanism for internal oversight. There too must be strong action against those that are guilty of dereliction of duty.

Collected :

Journalist-bashing MP Must Be Called To Account

The assault of a woman journalist by Kamal Ahmed Majumder, a lawmaker of the ruling Awami League, on the premises of Monipur High School and College at Mirpur in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday is not only unbecoming of a people's representative but also borders on criminality on more counts than one.

According to a report front-paged in New Age on Wednesday, the journalist, of the private television channel RTV, was pushed and hurled abuse at when she sought Majumder's comment on the allegation that the school was charging extra for admission. She also alleged that the lawmaker's associates 'encircled' her and her colleagues after they had come out of the school and sexually harassed her.

Moreover, the lawmaker, according to witnesses, ordered his associates to 'shoot down' the reporters, as he came out after a meeting with guardians. Suffice it to say, Majumder seems to have allowed arrogance to get better of him, and not only cut a sorry figure of himself but also bring the institution that he represents, i.e. parliament, into disrepute.

It is pertinent to recall here that guardians have long been protesting against the school realising Tk 20,000 in development fee with Tk 5,000 in admission fee fixed by the government.

According to media reports, similar allegations were also raised in 2011. By refusing to talk to the journalist and, worse still, assaulting her, unleashing his musclemen on her and making threats, the AL lawmaker has not only obstructed her journalistic pursuit for the truth, and thus perpetrated an attack on press freedom, but also seemingly betrayed his indulgence in, if not complicity with, the school's practice of realising additional fees from the students, which runs counter with the government's policy on school admissions.

Moreover, if the allegation of the journalist in question of sexual harassment by the lawmaker's associate is true, he cannot simply shirk his responsibility. Besides, as a people's representative, he is expected to uphold the law and uphold public interest needless to say, he has defaulted on both these obligations.

It is encouraging that the education ministry's response to the incident has been prompt. The ministry on Tuesday commissioned a committee to investigate the incident and submit its report within two working days. The inquiry committee appears to have begun its work in earnest, visiting the spot on the very day it was instituted and talking to the people concerned.

The education minister has, meanwhile, expressed his regret about the incident. Overall, the response of the government has thus far been beyond question. However, it needs to understand that the incident needs to be inquired thoroughly, transparently, competently and acceptably. If the lawmaker is found to have been involved in the incident as alleged, he must be called to account and punished.

A decisive and demonstrative action against the lawmaker would, on the one hand, go a long way to prove the government's commitment to the rule of law and, on the other, be deterrent to similar incidents in the future.

Collected :

3 Years of Government : Connectivity, transit dominated diplomacy

Govt focused on improving ties with India. 

Regional connectivity, transit to India, fight against terrorism and climate change debate dominated Bangladesh's diplomacy in the past three years of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government.

Even though Hasina tried to focus on a greater role for Bangladesh in the international arena, especially in the global climate change negotiations, Dhaka's diplomacy centred mainly around its closest neighbour India, according to foreign policy analysts.

Hasina braved opposition criticisms in her courageous move to warm up Dhaka's otherwise cold relations with New Delhi. She cracked down on the Indian insurgents using Bangladesh territory for operations in the northeast, arrested their top leaders and handed them over to New Delhi. Her foreign policy advisers also went out of the way to mobilise public opinion in favour of providing India the road transit facilities New Delhi has been asking for since Bangladesh's independence in 1971.

Bangladesh has yet to give India full-fledged road transit facilities, but it has already been allowed to tranship goods from West Bengal to Tripura by using both river and land routes. Providing transhipment facilities to India without charging any extra fees has sparked criticisms even from those who favour boosting road and railway connectivity with India.

Hasina went ahead with improving ties with New Delhi amid criticisms that Dhaka's friendly overtures have not always been reciprocated by it.

India's decision to allow duty-free access for Bangladeshi garments, round-the-clock access to Tin Bigha corridor and the signing of $1 billion loan deal were overshadowed by New Delhi's failure to sign a promised deal with Dhaka on the sharing of the Teesta water during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's much-hyped visit to Bangladesh in September last year.

The Indian move to build a dam at Tipaimukh on the Barak river not far from Bangladesh's Sylhet district has triggered more protests in Bangladesh testing the diplomatic nerves of Hasina and her advisers.

Critics say the dam will greatly harm Bangladesh's rivers and ecology, which India denied.

However, not all were lost with India.

Dhaka and New Delhi have signed a landmark land boundary agreement to exchange the enclaves, adversely possessed lands and for demarcation of 6.5 kilometre undemarcated border, problems the two countries have inherited since the British rulers left the sub-continent in 1947. The two countries also signed thousands of pages of documents on strip maps between them.

While Bangladesh forged greater relations with India, its ties with Pakistan, another regional power, has hit the lowest point. There have hardly been any exchange of high-level talks and visits between the two countries in the past three years since Hasina's Awami League-led Grand Alliance came to power in 2009.

In a sign of growing tension, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni used her first meeting with the newly-appointed Pakistani High Commissioner Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi to ask Islamabad to offer a formal apology to Dhaka for the genocide the Pakistani military committed during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. The meeting took place on November 20 last year at the foreign ministry.

The United States has been another major focus of Bangladesh's diplomacy in the past three years.

Even though the removal of Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus from his Grameen Bank upset Washington, Hasina's strong policy of zero-tolerance for terrorism earned her appreciation from the western powers.

Hasina still needs to work hard to heal the bruises Dhaka's relations with Washington have suffered over the Yunus issue. Diplomatic circles here say US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is delaying her trip to Dhaka because of Dhaka's maltreatment of Yunus, a recipient of America's highest civilian honour.

The foreign ministry has so far failed in its efforts to arrange a bilateral meeting between Hasina and US President Barack Obama. In her recent meeting with Dipu Moni, the US secretary of state urged Bangladesh to ensure that the media and NGOs are allowed to work freely.

On multilateral plane, Bangladesh was elected to different important bodies in the UN system, including the Human Rights Council and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Dhaka has also been at the centre of the global negotiations on climate change and its impact on the disaster-prone countries. Vulnerable to global warming, Bangladesh has been active in pushing the developed nations to create the climate fund and disburse the money so that countries like it can cope with the change.

Dhaka's role in UN peacekeeping continued to be appreciated.

Regionally, Bangladesh's dispute with Myanmar on the Rohingya refugee issue has remained unresolved even though Dhaka's diplomats are hoping for an early solution following Hasina's recent visit to that country.

Dhaka has also moved for international arbitration on its maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar.

The foreign ministry deserves credit for the repatriation of thousands of Bangladeshis from Libya at the start of the anti-Gaddafi protests. But Dhaka, according to diplomatic observers, has made little progress in expanding the manpower market in the Middle East, the traditional destination of its manpower, and Malaysia.

Dipu Moni made over 100 often costly foreign visits in the past three years aiming to strengthen bilateral ties and promote multilateral diplomacy amid doubts over the benefits Bangladesh gained. 

Collected :

No good news in politics

Caretaker, EC issues give birth to confrontatio. 

 

Politics has turned more volatile and confrontational over the last three years. People fear that possible political unrest ahead of the next parliamentary polls might erupt because of the sudden cancellation of the caretaker government (CG) system.

The cancellation of the CG has already created a political stalemate as the BNP-led opposition parties have unequivocally announced they will not participate in the next parliamentary election if the CG system is not restored. 

The opposition parties, as they have already declared, will make efforts to strengthen the anti-government street agitation in the coming days to have the demand realised. 

The government and ruling AL policymakers in response keep rejecting the opposition camp's demands, believing that the cancellation of the CG has outplayed their rivals as the party itself will remain in office during the next parliamentary polls. 

And in defence of its political stance, the ruling AL may strengthen its efforts to counter the opposition on the streets. The face-off could lead to political violence in the coming days. 

The way the ruling AL-led government unilaterally abolished the CG system in June 2011 was nothing but the outcome of the pervasive culture of confrontation in politics. 

It rejected outright the demands raised by the opposition as well as a number of non-partisan eminent citizens for retaining the CG system in the interest of holding free and fair parliamentary elections. 

The Supreme Court in May declared unconstitutional and void the provision relating to the CG system, but it also stated that two more parliamentary polls could be held under the system. 

Government policymakers vehemently defended and relied on the verdict to reject the demand for retaining the CG system, although there was a controversy over the clarity of the apex court's verdict.

The government action in respect of the cancellation of the CG and non-action on some other issues clearly makes a mockery of the ruling AL's own electoral pledges to bring about changes in the culture of confrontation in politics, which has made parliament ineffective, hampered rule of law, and marred good governance.

In the wake of political violence on the streets in 2006 and 2007 centering around the ninth parliamentary polls, the AL in its electoral manifesto pledged that tolerance and decency would come into political culture and efforts would be taken to formulate a code of conduct acceptable to all.

The AL also pledged reforms for ensuring democratic practices within political parties, and promised to take all measures necessary to make parliament more effective.

But all pledges remain only on paper. The government has yet to make any move to implement the electoral pledges in order to bring about a qualitative change in political culture. 

And as a result political culture has remained bereft of any change. Even the animosities between the two arch rival camps -- AL and BNP -- are on the rise on some fronts, contributing largely to a diminishing of hope for a political consensus among them about the mode of holding the next parliamentary polls after expiry of the incumbent government's tenure. 

Given the developing situation, New Year 2012 will mark the fourth year of the AL-led government in office. The government might not be able to offer anything pleasant in people's political lives since the legacy of yesteryears' political events is set to dominate the next political course. 

The New Year may witness much heat in the political arena centering on the formation of the next Election Commission (EC) after the expiry of the incumbent EC in early February this year.

The formation of the new EC now appears to be much crucial after the cancellation of the CG that earlier took office after the expiry of a partisan government's tenure and provided all support to the EC to hold parliamentary polls since1996. 

So, the government's any unilateral move to appoint people of its own choice as chief election commissioner and election commissioners may add fuel to the opposition parties' street agitation.

In light of the bitter memories of political deadlocks the country has suffered in the pastover EC-related controversies, people aware of political developments have already voiced concern about a further deterioration of the political situation.

The rival ruling and opposition camps may not be equally blamed for the unchanged political culture and for growing anxiety and fear in the public mind. But neither of them has demonstrated the political will necessary to initiate responsible and constructive politics in the last three years.

Instead, many senior leaders and MPs of both parties were seen uninterruptedly engaging in a war of words, even to the point of making derogatory remarks and exchanging tirades in and outside parliament, thus contributing largely to a polluting of the political atmosphere. 

Thanks to the ruling party's indifference to its own electoral promise of making parliament functional, the main opposition BNP seems to have opted for holding parliament hostage to its demands in order to make political gains. 

They have been frequently boycotting the House, making it unable to function effectively. In so doing, the BNP has also ignored its electoral pledges made before the last polls to take tough measures to put a stop to the House boycott culture. 

In brief, one can say that the way things are moving across the political landscape shows a similarity with the events that led to the declaration of a state of emergency in January 2007.

Still, solutions to all the problems lie in the ruling and opposition camps' political will which is the driving force for change. And it is their political will that can offer people good news in the New Year, removing all anxiety from their political lives.

Collected :

Dialogue with the President: What dialogue?

A common apprehension everywhere these days is that violence is round the corner in our politics. The ruling party and the opposition are both openly talking about the forebodings in the air but blaming each other for the violence they are suspecting will happen soon. In fact, they are saying the violence will start in February.

 

The President’s decision to hold talks with the political parties to choose the next Election Commission (EC) has hinted indirectly that a serious clash between the mainstream parties is very much possible because the step he has undertaken is very unusual to say the least. The opposition has underscored the unusual nature of the President’s decision stating clearly that the Constitution does not give him such a power. Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister recommends the names to the President to choose an EC who has little 

 power but to accept.

The President can of course request the Prime Minister to reconsider the recommendation but he must sign on the dotted lines once the Prime Minister makes up her/his mind. Normally, if here is any difference of opinion on any of the Prime Minister’s recommendations, the President has no power under the constitution to say or do anything any public. The constitution by design and purpose has made the office of the President nothing but titular. 

 

The constitutional restriction notwithstanding, there is this little problem that the President himself has created on the issue of his acceptance to the opposition political parties. He had given an interview to a private TV channel after being elected President where he was asked what he would do if he received a recommendation from the Prime Minister with which he did not agree. He answered almost by reflex action that his “Netri” could do no wrong! The exercise upon which the President has embarked could only succeed if he had the option to be neutral. Sadly, we all know our political realities. He just does not have that sort of power, neither by the constitution nor by his position, having been put in office of the President by the ruling party that he had served loyally all his life.

 

Those who advised the President to call the dialogue should have considered these issues. Even in choice of the issue for the dialogue, these Advisers did not act wisely or in the interest of the nation. The choice of the next EC is not the issue that has the potential to push the country towards the dangerous conflict that many people are apprehending. The apprehension is coming from the decision of the ruling party to conduct the next national elections under an interim administration that it will conduct, in all probability with Sheikh Hasina as the interim Prime Minister.

 

In addition, the ruling party will also have a civil bureaucracy that it has politicized totally to assist the interim government. From these loyal bureaucrats, the ruling party is in the process of choosing those bureaucrats whom it considers as its activists for the key posts in district and police administration that would be crucial for the elections. If this is not enough, the government has recently sent its party activists to the posts of administrators in the district councils!

 

With such a blueprint so palpably evident the opposition could be expected to take part in entering into a dialogue with the President to choose the next EC if they are politically naïve or have some other motive. It is sad that those who advised the President did not take into account that he is one of our most senior politicians and has earned respect for himself. The exercise of the dialogue is bound to end in futility and dishonour not just the President personally but also bring disrespect to the high office he holds. The ruling party has pushed the President into the fray merely to show the nation that it is serious about choosing an EC by consensus. It is sad that in using the President’s office this way, the ruling party did not care to remember its predicament with President Biswas in 1996 when he had threatened to use his office beyond what the constitution permitted him.

 

By choosing the EC as the subject of his dialogue, the President has undermined the real issue on which the country could explode in violence, namely the search for acceptable formula for holding the next general election. The issue of the next general election has become everybody’s concern, except of the ruling party, because of the abolition of the caretaker government. The last four elections, three under a non-party and neutral caretaker government and another where neither of the mainstream parties had any role in the government that held the elections, were free and fair. Only the losing party was the one that raised any question of credibility of these elections. All observers, both national and overseas, gave the elections the highest marks on the issue of freeness and fairness. In fact, the  caretaker government was one with which Bangladesh could have made a  claim to introducing into elections of the developing countries a system that ensured a free and fair election.

 

After the present government came to power, the court recommended abolishing the caretaker government because the constitution had given it a limited time span. The court, however, also recommended that at least two more elections should be held under it taking into view the nature of politics in the country where the history of elections under a political party in power has been one of rigging and fraud.  The ruling party used its parliamentary majority to replace the CG system with an interim government without even waiting for the full verdict of the Court which is still awaited!   

 

The indecent hurry with which the ruling party ended the CG system for an interim administration so that it could hold the next national elections spilled the beans on its intentions. Its subsequent actions revealed a blue print for returning to power. Thus by the time the President called the dialogue for selecting the next EC, few outside the ruling party and its coalition partners felt that a new EC would be selected with views from the opposition taken into consideration or that the interim government would allow it the sort of independence that could make it an alternative to the neutral caretaker government.

 

It is a matter of regret that the President himself has chosen to overlook the status of current politics in Bangladesh. His dialogue with the parties in the ruling coalition has been an un-necessary exercise, a waste of both his valuable time and those of the parties that attended the dialogue.  One would not have blamed the BNP if it had stayed away from the dialogue because before the President embarked on such an exercise, his aides should have sounded out the opposition. This does not seem to have been the case. In fact, it looks like those who organized the dialogue knew that the BNP would not attend and the AL would get political mileage for trying to form an EC by consensus.

 

By deciding to attend, the BNP has made a smart political move and has pre-empted the AL from getting the political mileage it expected.  The BNP would now no doubt its participation in the dialogue to inform the President face to face that no one would be able to save the country from an impending disaster unless the ruling party relents on its decision to hold the next general elections under an interim government to be headed by the outgoing Prime Minister. The BNP would also no doubt push the President for the immediate publication of the full verdict of the court on abolition of the CG system and insist that its recommendation for the next two general elections to be held under the caretaker system should be accepted to save the country from an impending crisis.

 

The logic to accept the court’s recommendation to hold the next two general elections under the caretaker government is too blatantly strong for the President to miss it if he wants to save the country. The ruling party is in no power or position to impose its will on the people without pushing the country towards a disaster with less than 40% of support among the people and having failed to deliver on its major election   promises.

 

Collected :