Ashraf’s Column

Sunday, November 26, 2006

In the name of people

A politician in our country does everything and says every word in the name of the people. Even leaders of the political party which was always rejected by the people in every national election, and could never win a seat in the parliament do so in the name of the people. Politicians appoint partisan persons with questionable ability and integrity as judges of the High Court, and chairmen and members of the election commission, public service commission, anti-corruption commission, university grants commission and other similar organisations. Corrupt officers are appointed as secretaries and heads of autonomous organisations. Street agitations are organised to burn/break public and private vehicles and establishments, and, worst of all, to kill people on the streets. Politicians do not allow the local governments to be elected. They take bribes from contractors and suppliers. All this and many other anti-people activities are done in the name of the people.

As one of the people, I would like to covey to our politicians with all the emphasis at my command that I hate all these activities of yours. This is not democracy. Don’t take us as fools. We shall react when the time comes.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Politicians must mend their ways

Politicians in our country have, by their individual and collective deeds and conducts, have made themselves so much unacceptable to the common people that the latter have already started looking at the former as anti-social elements. Ordinary people generally avoid social interactions with the politicians. They do not want to rent out their houses to politicians. Even I have heard many people saying that they would not like to have matrimonial relationship with politicians. If the trend continues like this soon people will use the word ‘politician’ as an abuse, as very well meaning words like ‘razakar’ and ‘mastaan’ are these days used as abuses. Thanks to the electronic and print media, politicians can no more hide their misdeeds from the people.

If the politicians continue to disappoint the people, as they are doing now, a political tsunami will soon come in wave after wave to drown them. They will not have time to run away with their lives. New leaders will come up from nowhere, as it happened locally in Kansat recently, to take care of national politics. Politicians would do better if they remember that no one is indispensable in this world.

It is high time the politicians as a class mend their ways for their own survival.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Where both BNP and AL agree

We are all familiar with the many contradictions between the BNP and the AL. But with little or no effort one may make a list of the points on which these two major political parties have no difference at all. Some of these points are:

a. They do not believe in the practice of democracy within the party. Their party heads never retire. They leave politics only on death. Once a party head/leader is dead the mantle of party leadership is passed on not to a politically competent successor, but to a close family member irrespective of the fact that such a family member has the required education, training, grooming and competence, or not.

b. Such an incompetent successor from the dead leader’s family, on assuming party leadership, finds out who all in the party, or around him/her, are more capable than himself/herself and soon cuts them to size, or gets rid of them by any foul means.

c. In the absence of capable leaders sycophants and corrupt elements from within the party assemble around the new leader to indulge in unabated corruption and misrule.

d. On assumption of power they soon make the state organs like the higher judiciary, anti corruption bureau/commission, parliament, comptroller and auditor general’s office etc, which are meant to ensure public accountability, ineffective and corrupt.

e. Being in power they appoint wo/men with questionable integrity to high offices in the civil and the military for their blind personal/political loyalty to the leader. Instead of selecting kajer lok (useful workers) from among their nijer lok (own men) they have been selecting only okajer lok (useless workers) from among nijer lok, thus creating mess everywhere in the administration.

f. They grant extension of service (even 5 times) to bureaucrats, purely on political considerations, by depriving the younger ones from their due promotions.

g. They stubbornly refuse to implement any reform in the electoral laws which will ensure registration of the political parties, submission of statements of assets of the politicians before assuming public offices and after relinquishing such offices.

h. In a parliamentary election they sell nominations to terrorists, godfathers, smugglers, black marketers, duffers etc at a very high price to fill the parliament with anti social elements.

i. They also dish out nominations to their family members and relations, as many as possible, who are mostly not only incompetent but corrupt too.

j. They want to control the parliament members like a herd of loyal and humble lambs by retaining Article 70 of our Constitution. As long as either of these two parties will be in power Article 70 will remain as a leash around the neck of the parliament members.

k. They find out a nincompoop to appoint as the president so that they can use him as a puppet during rule of the caretaker government. Anyone who on becoming the president tries to show his worth is given the marching order unceremoniously.

l. They do not want to see the local governments at upazila and district levels function so as to make room for the parliament members to make personal gains from development activities carried out at these levels.

m. They only publish so-called white papers to expose the corrupt activities of the politicians who were in the preceding government. But they never arrange their trial and punishment in courts of law. In this respect politicians from all parties behave as if they are members of the same strong trade union.

n. They leave no stone unturned to politicise the teachers and the students of all educational institutions (except primary schools). Thus they have been successfully destroying the education system, whatever we have, of our country.

o. Before the parliamentary election each party makes many tall promises in its manifesto, but only to forget after the election is won.

I have listed only 15 major points. One may add many more.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Lessons from Aziz drama

Right at this moment (November 14 evening) a very high political drama is going on with CEC Justice M A Aziz at the centre of the stage. His total indifference to what all has been happening has justifiably raised question about his mental health.

The blockade, the stoppage of all economic activities including export and import, the closure of all educational institutions, the stoppage of intercity movements of the people including ailing patients, and the painful deaths of common people on the streets, have all failed to touch the conscience of a person who is not only holding a prestigious degree of Bar-at-Law, but also was, the other day, a justice of the highest court of our country.

A justice of the Supreme Court in any country conducts his official business from a very high moral ground. That is why once a person becomes a justice s/he is always and everywhere addressed as ‘Justice’ as a mark of profound respect throughout her/his life. Once one loses that moral authority, rightly or wrongly, the concerned person should voluntarily step down.

In the last 16 years when the BNP and the AL were in power, it seems, the high commands of these two parties were in a competition to appoint as many politically partisan persons as possible as judges of the High Court Division of our Supreme Court whose educational qualification, professional competence and, most importantly, integrity were/are questionable.

Justice M A Aziz by his conduct as the CEC has certainly proved himself as one of them. And the most unfortunate fact is that Justice M A Aziz is not alone. The BNP and the AL have burdened the nation with many such justices. (No Chief Justice ever resigned in protest.

Only the members of the SCBA belonging to the opposite political camp decried such appointments.) We cannot get rid of these gentlemen and ladies in the next 25 or 30 years.

The time has come for the nation to seriously think about the matter and find out more effective ways to select non-partisan persons with known integrity, moral courage and professional competence for appointment as judges of the High Court (and Chairman/ members of the Anti Corruption Commission/ Public Service Commission).

The job can no more be left to the present politicians who are so well known for their lack of integrity, moral courage, false promises and competence. The Constitution should be amended to make provision for a selection committee on which there should be at least three senior most judges of the Supreme Court and two non-partisan senior members of the Bar Council. The job cannot be left to the next political government, whichever it may be. We have seen the way they have been
deceiving the nation for the least last 16 years with the separation of judiciary from the executive.

The present caretaker government (CG), with a very capable legal expert like Justice Fazlul Haque as its member, can easily do it by issuing an appropriate ordinance. The present CG cannot escape from this moral duty by saying that their job is only to hold an election, and not to get involved in such policy matters. (Remember, how Justice Shahabuddin’s CG, in the absence of the parliament, amended the Special Powers Act of 1974, by issuing an ordinance to make the press free from the shackles of the government. The nation is still enjoying that freedom, and remembering Justice Shahabuddin with due respect).

How can you have a fair election with all unfair people around you? It is a dire necessity to do the needful now to select the right people for the higher judiciary. If it is done now, we shall not have a political crisis like the present one before the general election in 2012. May I remind the respected CA and his advisers two very old maxims: necessity knows know law, and better late than never.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Thoughts on Noor Hossain Day

On November 10, 2006 on all local TV channels I saw politicians of various hue and shade paying their respect (?) to the departed soul of Shaheed Noor Hossain who was shot down by the forces of autocratic Gen Ershad on the same day in 1987. The next morning their photographs with flower bouquets in hand adorned the front pages of the national dailies.

Noor Hossain’s fault was, he asked for the restoration of democracy. In the last 19 years, since the death of Noor Hossain, have our politicians been able to learn the essence of democracy themselves and restore democracy in our country? Do they practice democracy within their respective parties? Certainly not. If they had learnt the essence of democracy how could they nominate their own young family members, superseding many senior and capable party members, to senior party positions? How could they establish ‘familicracy’? And finally, how could they go for the caretaker form of government, which is totally against the spirit of democracy?

If, by any miracle, Noor Hossain could come back from heaven, he would have spat on the faces of these hypocrites.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Separate the judiciary from the executive

Separation of the judiciary from the executive is a sine qua non for the establishment of accountability in the society, especially among the politicians who govern the country. For the last 16 years, politicians from the BNP and the AL have been ruling Bangladesh without any accountability by deliberately not separating the judiciary from the executive.

Late Barrister Ishtiaq Ahmed, the law adviser in Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed’s caretaker government, after having done all the needful, was about to issue the presidential order in the form of an ordinance to separate the judiciary from the executive.

At that time Begum Khaleda Zia who, after having won the election was to be the next prime minister, asked Justice Ahmed not to do so, and leave the job to be done by her elected government. Justice Ahmed complied with her request in good faith. Later the Supreme Court tried its best within the limits of law and decency to compel the politicians in power to separate these two organs of the state, but in vain. From the track record of the last 16 years of BNP and AL one can easily presume that, whichever party comes to power next time, it will not separate the judiciary from the executive.

In the greater interest of the state and the nation it will be most appropriate for the incumbent caretaker government to pass an ordinance to separate the judiciary from the executive.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Reform of Anti-Corruption Commission

Previously when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) was there at least some corrupt officials, of course from lower levels, were prosecuted by the bureau and some were punished too. Since the so-called ACC came into being, more than two years ago, the corrupt officials at all levels and the politicians in power got a free hand to indulge in corruption without any fear of accountability. These corrupt elements in bureaucracy and politics have been making the best use of the total inactivity of the ACC. They have been fleecing national wealth right and left. The present Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was formed with three well-known old men from Jatiyatabadi Gharana (BNP camp). After having seen the activities of these three men one can certainly conclude that they were engaged not to fight or control corruption. These three superannuated persons were appointed by the then BNP government to hoodwink the donors as well as the people of Bangladesh. They have served their masters well. During their tenure, so far, no one has been charged and punished for corruption. The chairman and the members of the ACC may, in their self-defence, say that they were not allowed to function by the senior bureaucrats and the politicians in power. In that case, tax-payers may ask them, why didn’t you resign in protest and show your integrity and loyalty to the nation? What justification do you have to enjoy the salary and other privileges for more than two long years without doing anything?

Have you not yourselves indulged in corruption by taking salary and other privileges from the public exchequer by not doing at all what you were supposed to do?

It is high time these three men, who have proved themselves utterly useless, resigned from the ACC. If they don’t, the present caretaker government (CTG) should sack them immediately and appoint honest, efficient and non-partisan persons in their places. After three months whoever, from the present set of politicians, will come to power will not change the ACC and make it effective, simply because they themselves are known to be highly corrupt and their track records do not suggest that they would go for such a strong pro-people action. (For example, take the case of separation of the judiciary from the executive which both BNP and AL have been dodging for the last sixteen years.)

The matter is very urgent and warrants immediate attention of the CTG.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Liberal Democratic Party

Finally the inevitable has happened. Col Oli Ahmed has formally announced the formation of a new political party in Bangladesh. Former President Prof. B Chowdhury has disbanded his own party Bikalpa Dhara and joined Col Oli. Bangladesh already has more than one hundred political parties. One may rightly raise the question, why should there be another one? The answer is: but for four or five parties the remaining are parties only on paper. Of the 4/5 parties with organisational set-ups and considerable followers only two parties are presently playing leading roles.

These are AL and BNP. After its great leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in 1975 the leadership of AL was usurped by his family members without showing any respect to democratic practices. Similarly when the founding father of BNP, Gen Ziaur Rahman was killed in 1981 the leadership of his party was passed on to his family members without caring for democratic considerations within the party. The family members of these two parties have since been ruthlessly ruling, and not leading, their respective parties like medieval feudal lords with unlimited power and authority. Such rulers are always surrounded by sycophants and soon become highly corrupt in the absence democratic accountability.

From our experience of last 15 years when these two families, in the name of their respective parties, alternately ruled Bangladesh, we find height of sycophancy, corruption, politicisation of civil and military bureaucracy and bad governance. Of course, there are honest, dedicated and capable leaders in the rank and file of both these parties who love their respective parties for their ideologies. Voices of these honest leaders are stifled.

Their conscience is treaded under the heavy boots of the top party leaders. It appears some of these leaders from BNP, finding no other choice within the party, have finally revolted against the autocratic party leadership to form a separate political platform. They have named it LDP. It is strongly believed that after the BNP government hands over power on 28 October, 2006 many more honest and dedicated but frustrated leaders and workers from BNP will join LDP.

The situation in AL is not different either. Many honest and patriotic leaders and workers of AL have also been feeling suffocated under its present incompetent and corrupt leadership. If it is seen that LDP passes the test of time and is accepted as a popular democratic forum by the people the honest and frustrated leaders and workers of AL might as well revolt against its top leadership and come out of it openly. On coming out whether they will form a separate party of their own, or will join hands with LDP is difficult to say now. However, it will be good for the country if all such good people from all sectors come out and unite under one leadership.