Unheard Voices

This post continues the theme of possible actions that could improve our politics post emergency, assuming a free and fair election with everyone’s participation occurs. In what follows, I make the case for devolution, by which I mean elected local governments (district, municipal, upazilla, union councils) with wideranging responsibilities resulting in a devolution of political power from Dhaka to the local levels. I list general aruments for and against devolution before finishing with a discussion on what local government election might mean in the current political environment. Looking forward to a good discussion (please keep comments relevant - blanket statements like ‘politicians are corrupt / dynasties must be banned’ have very little value, and will be moderated).

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As the promised elections draw nearer, speculation about future political alignments continues to mount. Some ask: Will we see a gradual return to one-person rule over political parties? Will the parliament be able to actually represent the people? Will the creation of new institutions simplify or complicate politics? And many wonder: What will help avoid a future political crisis like the one that precipitated 1/11? These questions often lead to discussions about the need for more checks and balances to the executive power. In order to move away from the unchecked power of the premiership, agreement between the political parties must be achieved in the upcoming dialogue. This article discusses various options, some feasible within the current constitution, and others that require constitutional amendments, to bring about a much-needed balance of power. More

As part of a programme marking the International Women’s Day, the government announced a National Women Development Policy on 8 March (see here). The announced policy was condemned by a section of the clerics as un-Islamic. Specifically, the clerics objected to any possible change to the inheritance laws such that women could get equal inheritance rights as men. On 11 March, the government announced that it had no intention of passing any law that is ‘anti-Islam’ (see here). On 27 March, the government formed a 20-member committee to identify inconsistencies in the policy as per Islamic rules and suggest steps (see here). While the committee deliberated, the clerical opposition continued. Following the Friday prayers on 11 April, violent protests broke out around Baitul Mukarram (see here). On 17 April, the committee recommended that the government amends its policy, replacing any commitment to equality between the sexes with ‘just rights’ for women (see here).

Drishtipat is committed to equal rights - irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or faith - of all citizens. As such, it supports, without any reservation, equal property and inheritance rights for men and women. But this post is not about the commitment to these rights. Nor is it about theological discussions about what Islam has to say on the matter. Rather, it is about some lessons to be drawn from the developments described in the first paragraph.

(More in Mukti)

In the weekend of the first anniversary of 1/11, reports from Bangladesh are of increasing restlessness. Indeed, even the regime realises it, hence the Chief Advisor’s nod to withdrawing the emergency and talking to the political parties. Dr Shahdin Malik made the case for a return to electoral democracy at the soonest in a lucid article in yesterday’s Prothom Alo. This is translated below.

1/11 anniversary posts in Deshi blogosphere.

Dhaka Shohor rambles
Rumi shows the reality
Tacit discusses highs and lows
Rehan asks questions
Mukti won’t get fooled again

UV argued the case for democracy here, here and here.

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Is the current regime doing a good job? If elections are held immediately, will that help or hurt the country? Who is to blame for the fiasco with our ancient treasures? Should the DU teachers under arrest be freed unconditionally? On these, and many other issues, we debate a lot. And if nothing else, we learn how to conduct such debates in a respectful manner - a desirable end in itself. That all of us spend time here despite hectic daily lives is a testament to our concern for Bangladesh and her people. As such, here is an opportunity for all here. If you have a practicable idea that can improve the lives of low and middle income Bangladeshis, then here is your chance. And there is a cool US$25,000 along the way for you to keep.

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photo: Daily Star
As part of the “package proposal” offered by the military high ups in their meeting with Dhaka University Teachers’ Association couple of days ago, the four RU teachers have been pardoned by the President and subsequently released.

If any one had any doubt about where the real powers lie in today’s Bangladesh, the people representating the government in the negotiating table should remove all that doubt.

In the meantime, verdicts in a similar case keep on getting postponed. Coincidence? Hardly. While the teachers’ get released through this pardon, the whole episode truly exposes the state of the “independent” judiciary in our country.

Institutional reforms — R.I.P.

Dhonni rajar punni desh.

Relevant comment from SC in a previous thread

Three DGFI’s representative met DUTA and as per different newspapers, gave some sort of proposal for releasing the teachers/students. Does that bother anyone? Even after that, Fakhruddins will call themselves as the government of the country? Shame on us! Either we stop them here or we are in for a grueling long haul against the Gestapo.

It shows KGazi is partly right; our Universities lost their moral authority little bit. They are sitting down with army to free their colleagues, not with the head of the government or the head of the state.

The road to democracy is in a mess just like the picture above from today’s Daily Star.

Before we get into it, like Shadakalo, let me first acknowledge that I am no fan of the current BNP and the legacy of Khaleda Zia. Neither do I wish to get back to the era of of Tareq Rahman and his gang. Also I believe the folks at the helm are well intentioned people who want to make a change. Having said that someone please tell me how do we get out of this mess that is currently being created in the name of “functional democracy”. The process they are going about making democracy happen through command politics is not only wrong but also is creating far longer term potential danger of unstability in our country. To most of the people who are paying cursory glance to what’s going on centering the BNP break up in Bangladesh lately, you are making mistake if you think this is unimportant. What is being done to BNP is going to be defining the rest of the term for this caretaker government. Make no mistake about it. They are fooling no one.

Here is what we are hearing in the daily speeches — all wonderful things undoubtedly.

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Very few media outlets reported on one of the most welcome statements in recent time from anyone connected to the Caretaker Government. Which in itself is a telling detail.

Speaking the day before the International Day for the Right to Information, ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury was critical of the government’s recent censorship of two economist articles in early September, as first reported by Human Rights Watch. I repeat for those of us prone to label each other as “pro/anti-CTG”: the chairman of the ACC, a retired Lt. General and a former army chief agrees with human rights campaigners (aka a ngo):

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Badiul Alam Majumdar of Shujan has been a tremendous voice for the last 2/3 years for reform in electoral changes. His organization, the hunger project, has tremendous grassroots outreach. Drishtipat recently has been working with the hunger project on its flood campaign. The following piece chonologically posts how the reform proposals evolved — the dialogue for which is starting tomorrow. Check our previous discussion on these proposed changes.

Also take the following poll.

Badiul Alam Majumdar
First Published in Daily Star.

The Election Commission (EC) has invited 15 political parties for dialogue on electoral reforms, which is to begin from September 12. Some political parties have already expressed their hesitation to participate in the dialogue. Others are demanding the lifting of the existing ban on indoor politics as a condition for their participation.

However, many have misgivings about the very intention behind the Commission’s initiative. Some even view it as a part of a conspiracy designed to put into practice the so-called “minus two” formula. Such misgivings are uncalled for in that the electoral reform ideas have not been conceived to exclude anyone, nor have they suddenly fallen as manna from heaven. In fact, ideas of reform have evolved over time and they have a celebrated history.

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The ex prime minister of the country did not pay taxes. Now, deposed from power, she attempted to take the opportunity of an amnesty. The tax Jihadi ex Finance minister too did not pay his tax dues. So he also tried to do the same. If one wants to remain on the right side of the moral watershed, he or she must condemn this sort of behavior and demand a punishment. And this event is a glaring tetimony of the moral bankruptcy our political and administrative leadership are often accused of. And naturally I support the NBR decision not to extend the amnesty to these big leaders. Let law take its own due course.

But the law also

1. Must be a pragmatic and practical law which is updated to the current standard. We can never expect a total religious compliance if we stick to a century old tax law enacted by British Raj. This specific law has evolved over the last century to support tax evasion rather to enforce revenue collection.

2. Treat all in the same way. If Khaleda Zia/ Sheikh Hasina’s tax returns are investigated, so also Fakhruddin Ahmed, Generals Moeen, Masud, all the advisors of the current government and their backers’ tax returns must be investigated with equal effort and vigor.

Law simply can’t be permitted to see two classes ( the rulers and the ex rulers) in two eyes. What is mandatory for Sheikh Hasina must also be mandatory for Barrister Moinul or Tapan Chowdhury. Also please investigate tax return of Dr Kamal Hossain, and all the newspaper editors. On what logic ACC chairmen rests the issue on the goodwill of the government advisors?
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… shouting for silence in a library. Well, that does not quite have the ring of the original slogan popularised during the Vietnam war protests in the U.S., but we have to keep UV family-friendly! It does vaguely capture the sentiment of the original: namely that you cannot hope to achieve a goal through means that are fundamentally contrary with that goal itself. This is exactly what a lot of us are protesting in Bangladesh.

Last week’s arrest of Sheikh Hasina has led to a familiar debate between those who want due process and the rule of law to reign supreme and those who feel that exceptions to these must be made for her and other politicians currently behind bars, especially since they themselves may not have respected the rule of law and the right of others to due process when they were in power. I count myself among the former, and my reasons are those that I put forward above: namely, you cannot hope to establish a “corruption-free Bangladesh” (ostensibly the loudest, if not the most important, goal of this current CTG) by means that breed further corruption - such as lack of due process, unequal application of the law, and subversions of the law itself.
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Picture: the survivers

Over the last few days we heard a lot about reforms and we saw informal break ups of LDP, Awami League, BNP and JP. Amazingly, Jamat is completely missing from the picture. Neither they are talking about any of reform, nor their leaders are banned from travelling abroad in spite of having criminal cases on them (unlike some others we know). When Barrister Mainul Hossain was asked about this apparent favourtism, he expressed his ignorance and said he did not know Mr. Mujahid. Now Deshivoice blog exposes an old video of a conference of Islami Chatro Shibir where Barrister Mainul Hossain was present as a special guest sitting not too far from Mr. Mujahid and Delwar Hossain Sayeedi. If these two cases of favourtism and lying on camera was not enough, here is the most troubling news of institutionalizing presence of Jamat-i-Islami in the voter list creation by the election commission.

Election Commission has recently selected Bangladesh Masjid Mission to “be given the responsibility to encourage the people through mosque-based publicity to be enlisted in the voter enrolment with photographs.” Now first of all it may seem innocuous thinking that it is trying to encourage the picture taking of conservative Muslims through this mission. But let’s not make any mistake that this is indeed giving formal power to an organization that lists as its aim:

Making the mosques a living center to Islam to address all sorts of human problems & suffering in light of Masjid-e-Nababi. Even this would not have been so problematic had Bangladesh Masjid Mission wasn’t so close to Jamate Islami. Their website is adorned with pictures of Jamat Amir and former chief of Albadar Al Shams and a collaborator in our liberation war and alleged war criminal Matiur Rahman Nizami.

Here is a picture:

Also, here is another news story of Nijami and Babar using BMM’s platform to say Bangla bhai was a creation of India. If this doesn’t convince you of the link. Consider this — Bangladesh Masjid Mission was founded by one Maulana Alauddin Al Azhari who is brother in law of none other than our very own Golam Azam. The reference is from the Golam Azam’s own website.

Now that’s the kind of news that makes you go hmmmmm…

Everyone is talking about political reform in Bangladesh, reform of not just the political parties, but also the political system itself. Specifically, since Gen Moeen called for it a few months ago, a rebalancing of the powers of the Prime Minister and the President has been a major subject of speculation. Lately, a few ‘reformist’ politicians like Suranjit Sengupta have asked for such rebalancing. Some of my fellow bloggers are not convinced by the reformists’ bona fide or the effectiveness of their proposals (example, here, here and here). And then there is also the very important fact that any such rebalancing of the executive powers will require constitutional amendments, and at the very least, our experience with constitutional amendments brought forward by unelected governments under cover of extra-constitutional rule is not a very happy one.

Having accepted all of the above, let’s take a step back, and ask: do we need any rearrangement to the executive branch of the government, and if so, what are the options? As usual, looking forward to a constructive debate. (more…)

The much talked about reform proposal has arrived in BNP. While the proposal calling for joint leadership looks really good in paper, the people who it is coming from are a bit problematic. The proposal came from none other than Abdul Mannan Bhuia, the current sec General of BNP. If you didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t blame you if you had thought that secretary was just appointed in the party. However, this very same person was the secretary for the last 5 years — supposedly the years of massive corruption and family dynasty done under the name of his party. What was his role during that time?

If you recell, Oct 27th, 2006, a group of BNP leaders left the party with exactly the same accusation and formed a new party called LDP. At that time, the very next day their houses were attacked, their cars were torched by the BNP goons. What was Mannan Bhuiya’s role during that time ? He said that if a few people leave BNP, it doesn’t hurt the party. In effect, Bhuiya alligned himself perfectly with the people whom he is calling corrupt today in spite of that open revolt inside the party.

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Maneeza Hossain recently came out with a Hudson Institute White Paper on the current interim administration’s impact on democracy in Bangladesh and the radical Islamist agenda in Bangladesh. While it seems to be geared towards a Capitol Hill audience, you can download a copy of the paper here and evaluate the paper for yourself. However, if you’re interested in spoilers and some quick comments, read on.

Ms. Hossain motivates her piece by putting the current situation in Bangladesh in context, relating the importance of a moderate Muslim majority country as a democratic model in the global war on terror, and warning the reader about how the current BD administration’s extra-constitutional and undemocratic actions are strengthening the hands of militant fundamentalists – intentionally or otherwise.

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