Reforming the Political Parties

It is no secret that the junta is very adamant about removing Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia from the political scene. When the first attempt of not letting Sheikh Hasina return to Bangladesh and sending Khalda Zia to Saudi Arabia failed, the current course of piling up criminal cases against them appear to be succeeding especially with a supreme court setup that so far has sided with the junta regardless of legal merits of any case against any politician.

There is also widespread belief that removing these two leaders would help overcome lot of the limitations of the political parties, especially bring democracy to these parties. This could not be any further from the truth. Removing Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia will neither bring reform nor will it bring democracy inside the parties. It will only intensify inner conflict and power struggle which is already happening within BNP. Weaker political parties can never help democracy. Not to mention these second tier so called reform leaders are not only incompetent, they are way more corrupt by any measure.

To advance true democratic reform in the political parties the government can do the following:

• Election commission can impose a set of rules that every political party must adhere to including term limits for party head and/prime minister and how and when local level party elections should be held.
• Political parties that do not conform to these rules will not be eligible to run in the elections।
• Empower the election commission (by making them accountable to the court and the parliament and not an extension of the executive branch) to enforce these rules transparently.

To bring such reform only requires intention and a fraction of time and energy (not to mention money) the government is spending trying to breakup the political parties and remove Sheik Hasina and Khaled Zia.

Bringing such reform is objective, fair and no one will be able to accuse the government of trying to breakup BNP and Awami League while giving Jamat a free pass.

The governments' current policies of reforming political parties will not work and they are ill conceived and a smoke screen to destroy or weaken the political parties and form a third party of the opportunists (as done by Zia and Ershad in the past).

The government still has an opportunity to bring about right reforms. The question is: will the powerful take the right road or take us in the direction of misery and destruction like the military junta in the past.

The FAT Hope for Bangladesh...

Gen. Moin U Ahmed was the obedient dog of Tareq Rahman and Khaleda Zia and now he has turned against them. He is going to be in power for a long time and anyone that is a threat to him is going to be "taken care of".

This government has no urgency of making changes to the institutions that can create a transparent and accountable government. Instead of creating an independent judiciary, transparent and independent election commission, instead of giving rights to the people, it is consolidating power to the army and it’s public facade (care taker government). None can challenge this government. This government has more unaccounted power than any government in the history of Bangladesh.

In the core of all this is General Moin U Ahmed, the mighty and powerful. While he has banned political activities in Bangladesh, he is often in the headlines making political statements. You only see some sings of the overwhelming power that Gen Ahmed has and it is only matter of time that he is going want formal recognition of his power. So if there is an election in two years, it will be to give that recognition to Gen. Ahmed.

The Army itself is no less corrupt than rest of Bangladesh. Transparency International has repeatedly ranked Military Supply as one of the top most corrupt organization within Bangladesh. So far the charges that have been brought against the corrupt politicians are very minor and some of them are laughable like not paying taxes for few bottles of wine.

You have very likely watched Satayjit Roy's movie Hirok Rajar Deshe. The people who did not support the Hirok Raja were sent to the "Jantar Mantar" ghar and when they came out they would chant “Hiroker Raja Vagaban”. Dhaka central jail is that jantar mantar ghar. All these politicians will come out just in time for 2008/9 election converted and finally "seeing the light of Moin U Ahmed".

The army intervension (coup) on January 11, 2007 has probably saved Bangladesh from a civil war like Somalia but this was another rare opportunity for us to turn in the right direction, but unfortunately this is turning into another episode of history repeating itself. Zia/Ershad all over again :(

It is only a matter of time the FAT hopes of the people of Bangladesh turns into disappointment...

Even then,

Shuvo Naba Barsho!!!

Election Reform in Bangladesh

There have been much discussion about election reform in Bangladesh and the newly appointed election commission is proposing changes to keep out corrupt politicians and to create a level playing field. Some of the proposed changes are banning retired government officials from joining politics within three years of retirement, someone must be a member of a political party for at least three years before they are allowed to run for office, and reducing the number of seats anyone can run from to three seats (currently it is five). The most recent addition is banning use of pictures of "national leaders" in campaign posters.

Assuming all of this has been done with the good intention, I am afraid it will do nothing to address the real problems of our election system and many only create a smoke screen of reform. Reducing the maximum number of seats anyone be allowed to run in MP election to 3, in practice, will have no effect. There are only few people that do run from more than one seat and this change will not change anything on the ground. The parliament member is supposed to represent the constituency that she or he runs from. Therefore, if we are changing the law and the constitution, should we not ensure that the candidate that is representing the constituency should at least be a residence of that constituency and be a voter of that constituency. If the law require some one to be a voter and resident of the constituency that will automatically prevent anyone from running from more than one seat. Moreover, current constitution does not even allow a MP to vote his her conscious or the way that represents his/her constituency desires him to. This is truly a mockery of democracy. This black law that only ensures political dictatorship must be outlawed. This will empower the MPs to do the right thing and not blindly follow the commands of their leaders and can not be blackmailed.

Laws such as not allowing retired government officials to join politics for a time period after their retirement and mandating someone to be a member of a political party for 3 years are clear violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens. Moreover, the crooks and dishonest will find their way in politics and only the good would be prevented. What could be effective is to mandate elections in each constituency among party members and supports to elect the nominee of that party from that constituency (like the primaries in the United States). This will also significantly reduce absolute and dictatorial power of the party leaders.

I can understand the good intention of the current election commission of not allowing portrait of "national" leaders on election campaign posters, especially given our history of all the ugly politics with the picture of some of our past leaders. But this is a clear violation of freedom of speech and complication will arise with the definition of national leader and who will decide who the nation leaders are? This is a subjective matter and though the intention is to prevent controversy, it will create more controversy.

If the true intention of the election commission and the current government is to hold fair elections just not for once but for every time in the future, it must reform the commission itself to be independent, transparent, and accountable. The emergency government may have some good and fair fellows to the election commission to run the next election, what these government can do is create an institution is honest and good by ensuring that the election commission is transparent, accountable, and one person or position does not have the absolute power to do whatever they want without regards to the law. We must create democratic institutions and just not count on good, honest, and fair citizens be appointed to these powerful positions.

Our Nationality and Bangladeshi

1. The word "Bangladeshi" is grammatically incorrect. Bangladesh means: the land where Bengalis live. So the people who live in Bangladesh are Bengalis and not Bangladeshi or Bangladeshan. "Most unique" is grammatically incorrect, because the meaning of unique is one of a kind; therefore, "most unique" does not make sense. "Bangladeshi" does not make sense either.

2. One of the arguments I hear is that we need to include non-Bengalis that live in our geographical boundary and therefore, we should call us Bangladeshis. Bangladesh itself is derived from Bengali. I do not understand how Bangladeshi is anymore inclusive then Bengali. I am pretty sure the non-Bengalis of Bangladesh did not feel any more included by changing the name. The people of Chittagong Hill Tracks would have felt included if we did not rape, murder, and burn them for twenty years. They would have felt included if we did not take away their land and give it to Bengalis. They would have felt included if we kept our promises.

3. Another argument is that we need to differentiate from the Bengalis of West Bengal. This notion itself is communal. There are Bengalis all over the word. Why only differentiate with the Bengalis of West Bengal? Further more, why should we give up our right to the Bengali nationality? We are the only independent Bengali nation, and we have every right to claim Bengali nationality. If we move away form what we are, we can as well be part of Pakistan again.

4. Now that Bangladeshi has been established for 30 years, there are many Bangladeshis in UK, US, and other countries. Following the logic of differentiating Bengalis of Bangladesh and West Bengal, we will have to differentiate between the Bangladeshis of UK and Bangladesh. Now we must change our nationality again. May be, the current citizens of Bangladesh should be called Bangladeshan.

5. The countries that are nation states have not changed their nationality to reflect inclusion. Germans did not change their name to Gemanians to give non-German citizens equal rights. People of Ireland are not Irelandi; they are Irish, though the Northern Ireland is part of UK.

4. Unlike countries like India or Pakistan, Bangladesh is a nation state. Our nationality is Bengali and citizenship is Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. There is nothing controversial about this.

The world Bangladeshi is grammatically wrong and meaningless. Communalism, bigotry, and submission to Pakistan were the motive behind this word. Not to mention, it the brainchild of a Pakistani collaborator and was introduced by a military dictator. This word disconnects us form our past. It is unfortunate that this word is widely accepted and well established. No significant effort has been given by the Bengalis to get back their identity. Even Sheikh Hasina referred to us as Bangladeshis during her visit to US as PM of Bangladesh.

The idea of putting the ethnic group next to nationality of Bangladeshi will only prove that we have accepted Bangladeshi as our nationality.

I know it's just a word. But it defines who I am. It carries thousands of years of my past and I refuse to give that up.

RAB: Is it really a good idea?

I have been reading many articles about how good the RAB is and how they are protecting our fellow citizens. I can understand why someone would feel safer by the actions of RAB. What I can not understand how anyone justifies the unlawful killings by RAB in so called crossfire. These killings are gross violation of the fundamental laws of Bangladesh constitution. The very institution (government) that is supposed to uphold the constitution and the law is not only violating it but also institutionalizing this barbaric act. The government and the RAB is breaking the law and openly lying about it. This, IMHO, will only bring more lawlessness in the future.

The existing law enforcement agencies (mainly police) of Bangladesh are clearly not capable of or the government does not want to use them to control the lawlessness in Bangladesh. They must be overhauled and/or new organizations must be created to address this problem. RAB could be such an alternate organization. However, even if it is assumed that the goal of RAB is great, it is evident that RAB is doing everything wrong to achieve that goal.

It seems like many of us are not very fond of the Human Rights organizations, especially for their opposition to the human rights and fundamental rights (ensured by Bangladesh constitution) violation by governments and government institutions. Many keep asking where these human rights organizations were when all these people were murdered by the terrorists. I can understand the frustration of the victims of these crimes, but since when one wrong justifies another wrong? Are we saying that human rights violation by a criminal and by the government is the same thing? Because they do not follow the law of the land, they are the criminals. Then what is the difference then between the criminal and the government when both are violating the law and constitution of the country?

Many argue that the "quick justice" by the RAB is justified because the judicial system does not work. Criminals come in from one door and goes out from the other door. I understand the weaknesses of Bangladesh judicial system. I will very likely be in violation of Bangladesh law, if I criticize the judicial system of this country, but I am, consciously, willing to violate this law, as I feel the law itself is unjust. In any modern nation, you are in contempt of court if you do not obey an order by the court. In Bangladesh, unfortunately, the aged old colonial law prohibits anyone to even criticize the court or its decisions. All you need to do is say something about the judge/court that some judge does not like and you are in violation. It is urgent that we overhaul our judicial system so that it works. My question is why are we not fixing (or at least taking steps to fix) the judicial system then?

My biggest concern is the unchecked and unlimited power to this organization, RAB. This kind of absolute power, including murdering suspects, will ultimately create a bigger problem for the nation. Let’s look back to the very recent history of Bangladesh. If you remember, the law and order situation before Ershad’s coup in 1982 was pretty bad. Soon after the start of Ershad’s military rule, the law and order situation improved dramatically and corruption went down. But everyone remember how bad the law and order situation became towards the late 1980s and how the corruption had increased by many folds and had been institutionalized. The very system Ershad said he was going to fix and looked promising at the beginning to many, turned into a much bigger problem. I am afraid, the same is going to happen with RAB. Because of no accountability of their action and almost absolute power to execute “justice”, and given so many powerful criminal forces both within and outside the government, soon RAB will become part of the problem and not the solution.

Some have suggested that this is a temporary containment, while the system is fixed. I do not see any urgency or interest (except for sweet talks about it) of current BNP government in fixing the system.

Some say we are a bad nation; some say logic and rule of law will not work for Bangladesh. Is this not our colonial mentality that some of us somewhat feel inferior and we are not capable of doing anything good? This is pure nonsense. I think we are capable of doing lot more. We just have to start…

The lawlessness and corruption in Bangladesh is the result of hundreds of years of oppression by colonial rule and today it is deeply rooted in our society and government organizations. There is no simple or overnight solution to this problem. It’s truly encouraging that the BNP government wants to do something about it, but taking shortcuts and easy way out will not solve the problem, it will only make it worst. We must take the RIGHT road now and not the easy road…