Source: The Christian Science Monitor
By David Montero
April 1, 2009
For years corporate corruption has thrived as an open secret in this poor congested nation, a force as destructive as the cyclones that ravage the coastline and the arsenic that poisons people's drinking wells. Last week, Bangladesh's newly elected government took its first high-profile swipe at the problem.
Arafat "Koko" Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and a prominent businessman, was formally charged with laundering nearly $2 million in kickbacks, including $180,000 from Siemens Corporation, the German electronics giant. Mr. Rahman and his brother Tarique, although allegedly at the center of many corrupt deals in Bangladesh, were considered untouchable between 2001 and 2006, when their mother held office. The charges against Arafat Rahman are the first involving foreign bribery and could result in a jail sentence of seven years if he is found guilty.
The case highlights a determined move by Bangladesh's government to root out corruption at the highest levels, while tracing its sources through financial institutions and multinational companies abroad. In so doing, it also sheds light on the little studied dark side of international business: the practice of foreign bribery, whereby some of the world's richest companies directly contribute to instability in the developing world by paying off corrupt governments.
"This issue of foreign companies using bribery to get contracts has been a kind of public knowledge," says Iftekhar Zaman, the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, the Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin based anti-corruption watchdog. "It's a failure of the companies to oblige the rules and regulations, but it's also incumbent on the government to be able to prevent those avenues of corruption."
The case against Siemens portrays a typical pattern for graft here. Between 2004 and 2006, as mobile phone use soared in Bangladesh, Siemens was pushing for a $40 million telecommunications contract with the Bangladeshi government, according to a case filed by US investigators against Siemens. To outbid its competitors, it hired a Bangladeshi consultant with links to the Prime Minister's son, as well as the telecommunicatons minister and at least four others. A payment of $180,000 was arranged and sent to Arafat Rahman's Singapore bank account, according to public statements made by Siemens as well as the case filed by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which is tasked with investigating graft and preparing charges.
"Over a period of time, as we were investigating some of our cases, we could see that, yes, Siemens ... was paying money to some of our people here. This was all put into a bank account in Singapore, so we had to get the cooperation of that government," says Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, the chairman of the ACC.
It is not a problem specific to Bangladesh. Corporate foreign bribery is a thriving global business, according to studies by the World Bank, which estimates that foreign companies annually pay $1 trillion in kickbacks to corrupt government officials. Two weeks ago, as Bangladesh brought charges against Arafat Rahman, Royal Dutch Shell Corporation reported that it was under investigation by US authorities over allegations that it bribed officials in Nigeria.
The victims of such bribery are not only the companies that lose out. There is growing awareness that bribery can have a direct, destabilizing impact on developing countries. The case of Bangladesh and Siemens suggests how that could work: In court documents, Siemens admitted to paying bribes not only to Arafat Rahman, but to Bangladesh's former telecommunications minister. That minister was Aminul Haque, who served between 2001 and 2006. Mr. Haque in turn was sentenced in 2007 to 31 years in prison for patronizing the Islamic terrorist group, Jama'tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
According to cases filed by the government against Haque, the court ruled that he used JMB as a political tool to eliminate members of political opposition groups beginning in 2004. But by 2005, JMB took on a life of its own and launched a national campaign of violence that left dozens dead. Today Haque is a fugitive, but the group he patronized continues to operate underground and is suspected of involvement in the bloody mutiny that rocked Bangladesh last month.
While there is no direct evidence showing that Siemens' bribe money went to JMB, observers in Bangladesh contend that the possibility of a link underscores the dangers of foreign corporate bribery.
"Many of the [multinational companies] don't care who they're giving money to. They don't try to find out what effect it will have on the life of ordinary people," contends Sultana Kamal, the director of Ain O Salish Kendra, a leading human rights group based in Dhaka. "They should be very careful about it."
Amid growing public awareness and public outrage, Bangladesh's government has in recent years acted with force. In the past two years, the ACC has launched hundreds of investigations into some of the most prominent ministers and businessmen in the country – including the sons of Khaleda Zia. Both brothers were arrested in 2007. They are currently on bail as more charges are framed against them.
"To have Khaleda Zia's two sons and powerful higher ministers accused ... was really the first major cleansing process that started," says Mahfuz Anam, the editor of The Daily Star, Bangladesh's most influential English-language newspaper. "Now, we are far from the end of it, but it's gotten started."
Showing posts with label Anti Corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti Corruption. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Would ‘Kokogate’ spare Khaleda Zia’s family?
Would ‘Kokogate’ spare Khaleda Zia’s family?
By A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Khaleda Zia has every reason to consternate when all the major global news network such as Reuters, AP, AFP, etc., are reporting that her youngest son, Arafat Rahman Koko, is in the thick of an extortion operation centered in Dhaka during 2002-2006 when she was the PM of Bangladesh. For better or worse, let me call this investigation the Kokogate. Bangladesh has never experienced anything big like this and trust me, when it will be over, there will be casualties. This investigation has the underpinning of quite a few foreign governments who are very eager to see that the culprits who ran this extortion scheme are taken to task.
The timing for the U.S. government officials to visit Dhaka could not have been better. The newly elected government of Hasina wants to put an end to political extortion and the U.S. authorities know that it will be easier to make the extortion case against Khaleda Zia's son right now than say a year ago when a caretaker government was running the country.
Khaleda Zia had it too good when she was running the country from October 2001 to October 2006. She let her eldest son, Tarek Rahman, run a parallel government sitting in ‘Hawa Bhavan’, while her second son, Arafat Rahman Koko, an “accomplished” businessman run the business side of the family. How good things could be for Zia family. Political power, money, they have everything. But like any side story of Mahabharata, all the power, all the misbegotten wealth, could not keep the family in high standing.
Khaleda Zia suffered a catastrophic defeat in December 29, 2008 parliamentary election. She never offered her concession speech to the victor, Sheikh Hasina. To add insult to injury, she said that the election was rigged on the face of all the newspaper report that which stated that this was the most fair election this nation of 145 million ever had. Hundreds of foreign observers also had opined that the election was peaceful and fair and there weren't any violence on the day of election.
Khaleda Zia's worst fear may come true now that the foreign governments’ agents are in Dhaka to brief the ACC, the chief corruption fighting wing of the government, and other agencies of Bangladesh government. It was very convenient for her in old days to say that her family has many political enemies and all the allegations are false and politically motivated. However, Bangladeshis are not in a mood to listen to her vituperation.
Most newspaper editorials published in Dhaka had commended the works of foreign government. Bangladesh's people are also most eager to see that the $ 200 million, which Khaleda Zia’s “smart” son with so much business acumen had extracted from German company Siemens, find its way to return government treasury. China Communications Construction Co, a giant port builder in China also bribed Khaleda Zia’s son, Koko, to obtain a lucrative construction job in Bangladesh. It seems as if Khaleda’s two boys became Mr. Ten Percent in the heydays of Khaleda rule!
I see a parallel between what happens in low-income urban minority families in America with that of what happened to Khaleda Zia's family. Simply driven by greed many young men in urban America get involved in illegal drug business. They willingly take the risk, earn fast buck, and give part of the easy money to their single mother who gladly accepts it only to find a few days later that her son was gunned down by the rival gang in a turf fight. Well, something almost similar happens to Khaleda Zia family.
The two sons of Khaleda Zia get involved in making easy but illegal money because they know very well that as long as their mother is in catbird seat of power in Bangladesh, they could extort money from foreign companies who want to do business in Bangladesh. It will be laughable if I hear that Khaleda Zia was not aware of her sons' involvement in all these misadventures. Now she will have to prepare herself to pay the penalty for the sin of her sons. I sometimes wonder if General Zia were alive today, how he was to react to his sons’ follies.
The heart of the problem the Zia family is facing these days lies in the fact that these folks are not educated at all. People go to the seat of higher learning to open their mind and learn from the follies made by powerful people throughout the history starting from antiquity. A truly educated person won't do what Koko and Tarek have done most willingly. They simply thought that they are untouchable. Did not Khaleda Zia warn them about their high risk misadventure when they were abusing power that emanated from their mother? In my judgment, Khaleda Zia bears some responsibility in this fiasco.
Please do compare the performance of Khaleda Zia's family with that of Sheikh Hasina vis-à-vis influence peddling and making tons of money with it. Unlike Khaleda Zia whose family is into hedonism and making gobs of money to sustain such worldly pleasure, Hasina Wajed gave education to her two children. Also, I am yet to see a bona fide complaint made against Hasina Wajed’s two kids in respect to making easy money by influence peddling. Lately, in the Internet I read some unsubstantiated allegations, which stated that Sheikh Hasina’s son has business of worth $ 300 million. The last I know that Hasina’s son was employed and then he went for grad school. A person who has assets over $ 300 million won’t work under another person or will not go for a master’s degree. Until no confirmation comes, I would characterize this mere a mudslinging to redirect our attention from emerging Kokogate.
From various news reports on Kokogate I learned that besides Khaleda Zia’s two sons quite a few BNP ministers from 2001 to 2006 are also partners in this extortion scheme. The ACC officials in Dhaka are tightlipped about the identity of this crime syndicate. During Khaleda Zia’s reign these politicians thought no power inside Bangladesh could ever touch them. But sadly how wrong they were!
The ill-gotten $ 200 million, which was laundered by various financial institutions, is now ensconced in a bank in Singapore. This rumor about Khaleda Zia’s sons depositing millions of bribe money in Singapore bank was circulating in various South Asian websites in the Net for more than a year but when 2 U.S. government agents from Washington DC came to Dhaka to investigate the laundered money, many heads were turning in Dhaka. Also, there is a deafening silence in BNP camps and that includes Khaleda Zia herself.
In a just society no crime should ever go unpunished, but then Bangladesh never aspired to have a just society. Even then, a crime committed by Khaleda Zia’s two illiterate sons is not going to go unpunished. I am hoping the wheel of justice would turn finally and the sons of Khaleda Zia and their sidekicks from BNP would rot in jail. This time the authorities should not treat them as VIP. They have committed a serious crime when they thought they were above the law. Now harsh reality is setting in. The take home message is — no one is above the law.
There should be learning for Khaleda Zia too. She failed to educate her sons and that was not all. She let loose her boys to control the government and sell favors. Many sidekicks gathered around Khaleda Zia’s boys and we learned that they were all unsavory characters like her sons. Together, they became a crime syndicate of high order. Their profligate lifestyle in Dhaka during Khaleda’s rule was talk-of-the-town. Thus, when Tarek Rahman’s sidekick, Mamun, was arrested in early 2007, it became a very hot topic of conversation both in the media and in drawing rooms.
In summary, the revelation that Khaleda Zia’s “smart” businessman son Koko had ensconced a cool sum of $ 200 million in Singapore Bank is making news allover the world. This money was not hard earned, but came as manna from heaven. Thanks to Khaleda Zia for paving the way to heaven for her sons. During her “difficult” reign, dollar bills were literally falling from sky but it was for her two sons and a bunch of cronies. The payback time nears now. Who says – crime pays? Similar to single mothers in Brooklyn, Bronx, and many other cities in America, who found it out that the crime spree of their kids did not last long, Khaleda Zia will also learn the same bitter lesson rather belatedly. Nobody is above the law. Those two notorious and profligate boys of Bangladesh’s ex-PM Khaleda will this time learn a lesson of lifetime. The bread of deceit was sweet to Tarek and Koko; but afterwards their mouths shall be filled with gravel. Need I say more?
------------------------
Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA
E Mail : jhankar@bellsouth.net
By A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Khaleda Zia has every reason to consternate when all the major global news network such as Reuters, AP, AFP, etc., are reporting that her youngest son, Arafat Rahman Koko, is in the thick of an extortion operation centered in Dhaka during 2002-2006 when she was the PM of Bangladesh. For better or worse, let me call this investigation the Kokogate. Bangladesh has never experienced anything big like this and trust me, when it will be over, there will be casualties. This investigation has the underpinning of quite a few foreign governments who are very eager to see that the culprits who ran this extortion scheme are taken to task.
The timing for the U.S. government officials to visit Dhaka could not have been better. The newly elected government of Hasina wants to put an end to political extortion and the U.S. authorities know that it will be easier to make the extortion case against Khaleda Zia's son right now than say a year ago when a caretaker government was running the country.
Khaleda Zia had it too good when she was running the country from October 2001 to October 2006. She let her eldest son, Tarek Rahman, run a parallel government sitting in ‘Hawa Bhavan’, while her second son, Arafat Rahman Koko, an “accomplished” businessman run the business side of the family. How good things could be for Zia family. Political power, money, they have everything. But like any side story of Mahabharata, all the power, all the misbegotten wealth, could not keep the family in high standing.
Khaleda Zia suffered a catastrophic defeat in December 29, 2008 parliamentary election. She never offered her concession speech to the victor, Sheikh Hasina. To add insult to injury, she said that the election was rigged on the face of all the newspaper report that which stated that this was the most fair election this nation of 145 million ever had. Hundreds of foreign observers also had opined that the election was peaceful and fair and there weren't any violence on the day of election.
Khaleda Zia's worst fear may come true now that the foreign governments’ agents are in Dhaka to brief the ACC, the chief corruption fighting wing of the government, and other agencies of Bangladesh government. It was very convenient for her in old days to say that her family has many political enemies and all the allegations are false and politically motivated. However, Bangladeshis are not in a mood to listen to her vituperation.
Most newspaper editorials published in Dhaka had commended the works of foreign government. Bangladesh's people are also most eager to see that the $ 200 million, which Khaleda Zia’s “smart” son with so much business acumen had extracted from German company Siemens, find its way to return government treasury. China Communications Construction Co, a giant port builder in China also bribed Khaleda Zia’s son, Koko, to obtain a lucrative construction job in Bangladesh. It seems as if Khaleda’s two boys became Mr. Ten Percent in the heydays of Khaleda rule!
I see a parallel between what happens in low-income urban minority families in America with that of what happened to Khaleda Zia's family. Simply driven by greed many young men in urban America get involved in illegal drug business. They willingly take the risk, earn fast buck, and give part of the easy money to their single mother who gladly accepts it only to find a few days later that her son was gunned down by the rival gang in a turf fight. Well, something almost similar happens to Khaleda Zia family.
The two sons of Khaleda Zia get involved in making easy but illegal money because they know very well that as long as their mother is in catbird seat of power in Bangladesh, they could extort money from foreign companies who want to do business in Bangladesh. It will be laughable if I hear that Khaleda Zia was not aware of her sons' involvement in all these misadventures. Now she will have to prepare herself to pay the penalty for the sin of her sons. I sometimes wonder if General Zia were alive today, how he was to react to his sons’ follies.
The heart of the problem the Zia family is facing these days lies in the fact that these folks are not educated at all. People go to the seat of higher learning to open their mind and learn from the follies made by powerful people throughout the history starting from antiquity. A truly educated person won't do what Koko and Tarek have done most willingly. They simply thought that they are untouchable. Did not Khaleda Zia warn them about their high risk misadventure when they were abusing power that emanated from their mother? In my judgment, Khaleda Zia bears some responsibility in this fiasco.
Please do compare the performance of Khaleda Zia's family with that of Sheikh Hasina vis-à-vis influence peddling and making tons of money with it. Unlike Khaleda Zia whose family is into hedonism and making gobs of money to sustain such worldly pleasure, Hasina Wajed gave education to her two children. Also, I am yet to see a bona fide complaint made against Hasina Wajed’s two kids in respect to making easy money by influence peddling. Lately, in the Internet I read some unsubstantiated allegations, which stated that Sheikh Hasina’s son has business of worth $ 300 million. The last I know that Hasina’s son was employed and then he went for grad school. A person who has assets over $ 300 million won’t work under another person or will not go for a master’s degree. Until no confirmation comes, I would characterize this mere a mudslinging to redirect our attention from emerging Kokogate.
From various news reports on Kokogate I learned that besides Khaleda Zia’s two sons quite a few BNP ministers from 2001 to 2006 are also partners in this extortion scheme. The ACC officials in Dhaka are tightlipped about the identity of this crime syndicate. During Khaleda Zia’s reign these politicians thought no power inside Bangladesh could ever touch them. But sadly how wrong they were!
The ill-gotten $ 200 million, which was laundered by various financial institutions, is now ensconced in a bank in Singapore. This rumor about Khaleda Zia’s sons depositing millions of bribe money in Singapore bank was circulating in various South Asian websites in the Net for more than a year but when 2 U.S. government agents from Washington DC came to Dhaka to investigate the laundered money, many heads were turning in Dhaka. Also, there is a deafening silence in BNP camps and that includes Khaleda Zia herself.
In a just society no crime should ever go unpunished, but then Bangladesh never aspired to have a just society. Even then, a crime committed by Khaleda Zia’s two illiterate sons is not going to go unpunished. I am hoping the wheel of justice would turn finally and the sons of Khaleda Zia and their sidekicks from BNP would rot in jail. This time the authorities should not treat them as VIP. They have committed a serious crime when they thought they were above the law. Now harsh reality is setting in. The take home message is — no one is above the law.
There should be learning for Khaleda Zia too. She failed to educate her sons and that was not all. She let loose her boys to control the government and sell favors. Many sidekicks gathered around Khaleda Zia’s boys and we learned that they were all unsavory characters like her sons. Together, they became a crime syndicate of high order. Their profligate lifestyle in Dhaka during Khaleda’s rule was talk-of-the-town. Thus, when Tarek Rahman’s sidekick, Mamun, was arrested in early 2007, it became a very hot topic of conversation both in the media and in drawing rooms.
In summary, the revelation that Khaleda Zia’s “smart” businessman son Koko had ensconced a cool sum of $ 200 million in Singapore Bank is making news allover the world. This money was not hard earned, but came as manna from heaven. Thanks to Khaleda Zia for paving the way to heaven for her sons. During her “difficult” reign, dollar bills were literally falling from sky but it was for her two sons and a bunch of cronies. The payback time nears now. Who says – crime pays? Similar to single mothers in Brooklyn, Bronx, and many other cities in America, who found it out that the crime spree of their kids did not last long, Khaleda Zia will also learn the same bitter lesson rather belatedly. Nobody is above the law. Those two notorious and profligate boys of Bangladesh’s ex-PM Khaleda will this time learn a lesson of lifetime. The bread of deceit was sweet to Tarek and Koko; but afterwards their mouths shall be filled with gravel. Need I say more?
------------------------
Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA
E Mail : jhankar@bellsouth.net
Thursday, October 23, 2008
70 politicians, 44 others so far jailed on graft charges
70 politicians, 44 others so far jailed on graft charges
By: Md Moneruzzaman
Source: New Age
October 21, 2008
A total of 114 people, including 70 politicians, have so far been convicted of corruption by special judges’ court all over the country under the anti-corruption drive of the military-controlled interim government.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday submitted the list of the convicts to the home ministry. Of the 70 convicted politicians, 41 are from Bangladesh Nationalist Party, 25 from Awami League, three from Jatiya Party led by Anwar Hossain Manju and one from Islami Oikya Jote.
According to the commission’s statement, the 114 people had been sentenced after completion of trial in 100 corruption cases filed by the commission.
The commission has so far lodged 710 cases, as of October 15, and 495 of the cases are now under investigation, and chargesheet in 84 cases now await the commission’s approval, according to the statistics available with the commission.
It said the High Court has so far stayed proceedings of 632 cases. The charge sheet of 262 cases have so far been submitted in Dhaka special judges’ court for trial. Trials of 37 cases have been halted following stay order issued by the High Court.
The convicted BNP politicians are former ministers M Morshed Khan, Nazmul Huda, Shahjahan Siraj, Aminul Haque, Amanullah Aman, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin Ahmed, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, Salahuddin Ahmed and Shahajahan Omar, former lawmakers Mosaddak Ali Falu, Ziaul Haque Zia, Monjurul Ahsan Munshi, Ali Asgar Lobi, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Rashiduzzaman Millat, Naser Rahman, Md Shahjahan Chowdhury, Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu, Hafiz Ibrahim and Shahrin Islam Tuhin, Sigma Huda, Aman’s wife Sabera Aman, Nasir’s son Mir Helaluddin Ahmed, Morshed Khan’s son Faisal Morshed Khan, Siraj’s wife Rabeya Haider, his son Rajib Siraj, Lalu’s wife Shamsunnahar Zaman, Omar’s wife Mehjabeen Farzana, Hafiz’s wife Mahfuza Sultana, Zia’s wife Nasima Haque, his son Mushfiqul Haque Zia, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun, his wife Shahina Yasmin, Doctors Association of Bangladesh secretary general AZM Zahid Hossain, his wife Rifat Hossain, former Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation chairman Taimur Alam Khandker, telephone board CBA leader Firoz Miah, Sonali Bank CBA leader BM Bakir, his wife Nazma Hossain and ward commissioner Mohamamd Chowdhury Alam.
The convicted politicians from Awami League are former ministers Mohammad Nasim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, former chief whip Abdul Hasnat Abdullah, former lawmakers Kazi Jafarullah, Joynal Abedin Hazari, Sheikh Helal Uddin, HBM Iqbal, SM Mostafa Rashidi Suja, Haji Selim, Makbul Hossain, and Shamim Osman, Awami Swechchhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Devnath, Munshiganj Awami League president Mohammad Mohiuddin, former minister Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury’s son Shahdab Akbar Chowdhury Labu, Nasim’s wife Laila Arzumand Banu, Pankaj’s wife Monika Devnath, Helal’s wife Rupa Chowdhury, Iqbal’s wife Momtaz Begum, Suja’s wife Khodeja Rashidi, Maya’s son Sajidul Haque Chowdhury Dipu, Selim’s wife Gulshan Ara Begum, Makbul’s wife Golam Fatema Tahera Khanam, his son Masudur Rahman and Masud’s wife Salma Rahman.
The convict politicians also include Jatiya Party faction chairman Anwar Hossain Manju, his wife Tasmima Hossain, cousin Mahmud Hossain and Islami Okkay Jote president Mufti Shahidul Islam.
The other convicts include former secretaries ANH Akhter Hossain and Ismail Zobiullah, former public service commission chairman Mahfuzur Rahman, former chiefs forest conservator Munshi Anwarul Islam and Osman Ghani, former prime minister Khaleda’s assignment officer Firoz Mahmud Iqbal, former administrative officer of the Prime Minister’s Office SM Ahsan Habib, former National Broad of Revenue member ATM Sarwar Hossain, Akhter’s wife Nazneen Banu, Firoz’s wife Imtiaz Begum, Sarwar’s wife Nazma Sarwar, Zabiullah’s wife Ayesha Zabiullah and Ghani’s wife.
A businessman and Oriental Bank chairman Obaidul Karim was also convicted of corruption charges.
The convicts also include Janakantha editor Atiquallah Khan Masud, Masud’s wife Shamima Khan, former additional inspector general of police Shahidullah Khan, his wife Mahmuda Khannam, Fatullah police station officer-in-charge Ashraf-Ul-Islam, former police constable Golam Azam, post office officials Shamsul Karim Khan, Farid Ahmed Patwary, Sufia Begum, Abu Siddique Mizi, Shahjahan and Krishna Kumar Das, Rajuk authorised officers Mozaffar Uddin and Harun-or-Rashid, Titas Gas engineer Shahid Miah, former Roads and Highways administrative officer Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, Agricultural Extension Department project director Javed Iqbal, land ministry’s stenographer Kutub Uddin, former Sonali Bank managing director Muhammad Tahmilur Rahman and an Tariqul Rahman Prince.
Ten others were also sentenced to imprisonment for different terms in Brahmanbaria last week.
By: Md Moneruzzaman
Source: New Age
October 21, 2008
A total of 114 people, including 70 politicians, have so far been convicted of corruption by special judges’ court all over the country under the anti-corruption drive of the military-controlled interim government.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday submitted the list of the convicts to the home ministry. Of the 70 convicted politicians, 41 are from Bangladesh Nationalist Party, 25 from Awami League, three from Jatiya Party led by Anwar Hossain Manju and one from Islami Oikya Jote.
According to the commission’s statement, the 114 people had been sentenced after completion of trial in 100 corruption cases filed by the commission.
The commission has so far lodged 710 cases, as of October 15, and 495 of the cases are now under investigation, and chargesheet in 84 cases now await the commission’s approval, according to the statistics available with the commission.
It said the High Court has so far stayed proceedings of 632 cases. The charge sheet of 262 cases have so far been submitted in Dhaka special judges’ court for trial. Trials of 37 cases have been halted following stay order issued by the High Court.
The convicted BNP politicians are former ministers M Morshed Khan, Nazmul Huda, Shahjahan Siraj, Aminul Haque, Amanullah Aman, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin Ahmed, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, Salahuddin Ahmed and Shahajahan Omar, former lawmakers Mosaddak Ali Falu, Ziaul Haque Zia, Monjurul Ahsan Munshi, Ali Asgar Lobi, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Rashiduzzaman Millat, Naser Rahman, Md Shahjahan Chowdhury, Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu, Hafiz Ibrahim and Shahrin Islam Tuhin, Sigma Huda, Aman’s wife Sabera Aman, Nasir’s son Mir Helaluddin Ahmed, Morshed Khan’s son Faisal Morshed Khan, Siraj’s wife Rabeya Haider, his son Rajib Siraj, Lalu’s wife Shamsunnahar Zaman, Omar’s wife Mehjabeen Farzana, Hafiz’s wife Mahfuza Sultana, Zia’s wife Nasima Haque, his son Mushfiqul Haque Zia, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun, his wife Shahina Yasmin, Doctors Association of Bangladesh secretary general AZM Zahid Hossain, his wife Rifat Hossain, former Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation chairman Taimur Alam Khandker, telephone board CBA leader Firoz Miah, Sonali Bank CBA leader BM Bakir, his wife Nazma Hossain and ward commissioner Mohamamd Chowdhury Alam.
The convicted politicians from Awami League are former ministers Mohammad Nasim, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, former chief whip Abdul Hasnat Abdullah, former lawmakers Kazi Jafarullah, Joynal Abedin Hazari, Sheikh Helal Uddin, HBM Iqbal, SM Mostafa Rashidi Suja, Haji Selim, Makbul Hossain, and Shamim Osman, Awami Swechchhasebak League general secretary Pankaj Devnath, Munshiganj Awami League president Mohammad Mohiuddin, former minister Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury’s son Shahdab Akbar Chowdhury Labu, Nasim’s wife Laila Arzumand Banu, Pankaj’s wife Monika Devnath, Helal’s wife Rupa Chowdhury, Iqbal’s wife Momtaz Begum, Suja’s wife Khodeja Rashidi, Maya’s son Sajidul Haque Chowdhury Dipu, Selim’s wife Gulshan Ara Begum, Makbul’s wife Golam Fatema Tahera Khanam, his son Masudur Rahman and Masud’s wife Salma Rahman.
The convict politicians also include Jatiya Party faction chairman Anwar Hossain Manju, his wife Tasmima Hossain, cousin Mahmud Hossain and Islami Okkay Jote president Mufti Shahidul Islam.
The other convicts include former secretaries ANH Akhter Hossain and Ismail Zobiullah, former public service commission chairman Mahfuzur Rahman, former chiefs forest conservator Munshi Anwarul Islam and Osman Ghani, former prime minister Khaleda’s assignment officer Firoz Mahmud Iqbal, former administrative officer of the Prime Minister’s Office SM Ahsan Habib, former National Broad of Revenue member ATM Sarwar Hossain, Akhter’s wife Nazneen Banu, Firoz’s wife Imtiaz Begum, Sarwar’s wife Nazma Sarwar, Zabiullah’s wife Ayesha Zabiullah and Ghani’s wife.
A businessman and Oriental Bank chairman Obaidul Karim was also convicted of corruption charges.
The convicts also include Janakantha editor Atiquallah Khan Masud, Masud’s wife Shamima Khan, former additional inspector general of police Shahidullah Khan, his wife Mahmuda Khannam, Fatullah police station officer-in-charge Ashraf-Ul-Islam, former police constable Golam Azam, post office officials Shamsul Karim Khan, Farid Ahmed Patwary, Sufia Begum, Abu Siddique Mizi, Shahjahan and Krishna Kumar Das, Rajuk authorised officers Mozaffar Uddin and Harun-or-Rashid, Titas Gas engineer Shahid Miah, former Roads and Highways administrative officer Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, Agricultural Extension Department project director Javed Iqbal, land ministry’s stenographer Kutub Uddin, former Sonali Bank managing director Muhammad Tahmilur Rahman and an Tariqul Rahman Prince.
Ten others were also sentenced to imprisonment for different terms in Brahmanbaria last week.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Military must not dominate civil administration
BANGLADESH: Military must not dominate civil administration
Source: Asian Human Rights Commission
Date: August 29, 2008
The government of Bangladesh has directed its civil administration to work in collaboration with the officers of the "Joint Forces" stationed across the country.
The government made the decision on August 25, after having reshuffled its administration by appointing 35 new Deputy Commissioners (DCs), the apex bureaucratic authorities in the district administrations. The government briefed the media on its policies on the proposed local and general elections, implementation and monitoring mechanisms and emphasized the need for friendly relations with the local people. Cabinet Division Secretary Mr. Ali Imam Mazumdar chairing the meeting on 25 August directed the officers to work together with the SPs (Superintendents of Police) and the commanders of the Join Forces across the country.
The direction to the administrators asserting collaboration with the Joint Forces which comprises of officers of the armed forces and which is dominated by the army, practically renders the civil administration officials subordinate to the army. It also generates multiple suspicions regarding the government motives behind such controversial directives. This adds to the already adopted government policy of placing the armed forces over the civil administration. This is a small picture of the ongoing disaster in the governance in Bangladesh. Here are some facts:
The Ministry of Home Affairs is headed by Major General (Retired) M A Matin. Major General (retired) Ghulam Quader, former director general of National Security Intelligence, has been made adviser to the Ministry of Communications. Brigadier General (Retierd) M A Malek is the Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Ministries of Social Welfare and Telecommunications
Founding Director General of the Rapid Action Battalion, allegedly the arbiter of hundreds of extra judicial killings, and former head of the Bangladesh Police Mr. Anwarul Iqbal has grabbed the position of the adviser to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. Another Major General (retired), ASM Matiur Rahman previously occupying the Ministry of Health was later asked to resign from his position for poor performance.
Immediate past army chief Lt. Gen. (Retired) Hassan Mashud Chowdhury is the chairperson of the Anti Corruption Commission while Colonel Mr. Hanif Iqbal occupies the position of Director General (Administration).
Brigadier General (Retired) Muhammad Sakhawat Hussain is in the constitutional position of Commissioner of the Election Commission. Bangladesh Army has been given official responsibility to prepare the voter list for the whole country. The army deputed its Principal Staff Officer (PSO) of Armed Forces Division Lieutenant General Masud Uddin Chowdhury to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he had been serving as the Chief Coordinator of the National Coordination Committee for deciding the corruption cases.
Major General (retd) Manzurul Alam chairs Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission while Colonel Md. Saiful Islam takes the position of the Director General and Lieutenant Colonel Shahidul Alam is the Director of its Spectrum Management Department. Lieutenant Colonel Shahidul Alam is the Project Director of a World Bank funded project while Major Rakibul Hassan is a Deputy Director of its Systems & Services Department.
Captain of Bangladesh Navy Mr. A.K.M Shafiqullah is occupying the position of the Director General of the Department of Shipping while Commodore Mr. A K M Alauddin occupying the position of the Chief Engineer and Ship Supervisor.
Navy Captain Mr. Yeaheya Sayeed is a Director of Chittagong Dry Dock Limited, an enterprise of the Bangladesh Steel & Engineering Corporation and also a Member of the Chittagong Port Authority. Captain Mr. SY Kamal is Member (operations), Captain Mr. Ramjan Ali is Deputy Conservator of the Chittagong Port Authority, and Captain Mr. Zahir Mahmood is Deputy Conservator of the Port of Chalna Authority in Khulna.
Brigadier General Md. Rafiqul Islam is the Director (signals) of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd.
Major Gen (retd) Manzur Rashid Chowdhury has been made the newly formed Truth and Accountability Commission's member.
Even the sports sector is not safe from their interference. The current army chief General Moeen U Ahmed grabs the positions of the Chairman of the National Sports Council and the President of Bangladesh Olympic Association. The chief of air force Vice Marshal Ziaur Rahman Khan heads Bangladesh Hockey Federation while the naval chief Admiral Sarwar Jahan Nizam heads the Swimming Federation. Major General Ahsab Uddin, the General Officer Commanding of the 9th Infantry Division, is the President of the National Shooting Federation. The chief of general staff of the army Major General Seena Ibn Jamali is the President of Bangladesh Cricket Board with Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Md. Abdul Latif Khan as Vice President. Lieutenant Commodore A K Sirker is occupying the post of General Secretary of the Basketball Federation.
These are very few out of the numerous positions occupied by the officers of the armed forces in the civil administration and autonomous institutions of Bangladesh. All information on such events is not available as the authorities suppress information to skip criticism.
Moreover, the armed forces have been deployed in all the district headquarters of the 64 districts of Bangladesh since the state of emergency besides the decades' long full-fledged militarization of three districts in the hill tracks of Chittagong region. Initially, the government deployed armed forces in all the upazillas (sub-district units) as soon as the emergency was imposed.
The DCs have been severely humiliate because army Majors being much junior to them have been placed in the districts levels. These Majors hurl abusive and exert illegal influences before the DCs, making the district heads embarrassed and frustrated. “People should no longer have patience and resist the audacity of these uncivilized Majors”, commented a DC, who did not wish to be identified.
All the national level policy decisions are made, changed and influenced by the top officials of the armed forces. The "National Coordinating Committee", which oversees the corruption issues staying atop all administrative setups, recommends the Anti Corruption Commission as to who will be charged and who will not be. The top officers of the armed forces occupy the coordinating body.
The Rapid Action Battalion, also drenched with the officers of the armed forces on deputation, is extended to the district and upazilla levels with their own setups besides the regular police force.
The police who are supposed to be responsible for maintaining law and order in the country have excessively been supported by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the armed forces during the state of emergency. So, in reality, all the forces arrest people. The common people have access only to the police stations for enquiring on the whereabouts of the arrested and detained persons, and none of the law-enforcing agencies explain to anyone whenever arrests are made. When the armed forces and RAB arrest, detain and torture people the police remain out of the picture and none of the police stations record any case regarding such incidents. Even the lawyers rarely agree to assist the victims by drafting and lodging a complaint with the Magistrate’s Court, which is last resort for the vulnerable people to seek redress following a denial by the police.
According to reports, the armed force officers frequently make phone calls to the Magistrates and Judges regarding pending cases to address the issues meeting the interest of the officers. Magistrates also cannot ignore fearing the security of themselves, their families and relatives. However, none of these magistrates agreed to disclose it officially other than "off the record". The condition of the prosecutors is worse than that of the judges and magistrates. The offices of the prosecutors and attorneys are filled up with members of the intelligence agencies and in special cases the officers of the armed forces, who insist and direct them to lead the proceedings as the agencies wish.
Surprisingly enough, under the coverage of emergency provisions, officers of the armed forces remain present in the courtrooms and relevant offices of the courts during, before and after the trials as members of "Task Force". They visit the courts and the relevant offices to monitor, dictate and insist the staffs for the cases they are more interested.
The military remains far away from any mechanism of accountability unlike any other organizations of Bangladesh. Thus, the armed forces enjoy absolute impunity for their unlawful actions supported by the laws made by the government during the state of emergency.
The existing situation evidently shows the silent but gradual, and eventually complete, militarization in Bangladesh. The joint forces deployed across the country frequently intervene into many local and private institutions including the activities of the media, NGO, and human right activisms though they are not eligible and competent to do so. These unlawful attempts have already demoralized the concerned professionals. As a consequence of regular interventions by the armed forces into their work, they cannot contribute to the society and to their respective fields by accomplishing their official responsibilities.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is highly concerned about the all out militarization in Bangladesh. The military cannot be capable or substitute of the civil administration in any place of the world because of their training with arbitrariness. The armed forces are accustomed to command rather than being accountable to any civil authority. The ongoing huge militarization has been destroying the fabrics of democracy and rule of law in the country. AHRC urges the civil society and human rights groups in the country and the international community to insist the authorities of Bangladesh to immediately demilitarize all institutions the armed forces have been occupying illegibly.
Source: Asian Human Rights Commission
Date: August 29, 2008
The government of Bangladesh has directed its civil administration to work in collaboration with the officers of the "Joint Forces" stationed across the country.
The government made the decision on August 25, after having reshuffled its administration by appointing 35 new Deputy Commissioners (DCs), the apex bureaucratic authorities in the district administrations. The government briefed the media on its policies on the proposed local and general elections, implementation and monitoring mechanisms and emphasized the need for friendly relations with the local people. Cabinet Division Secretary Mr. Ali Imam Mazumdar chairing the meeting on 25 August directed the officers to work together with the SPs (Superintendents of Police) and the commanders of the Join Forces across the country.
The direction to the administrators asserting collaboration with the Joint Forces which comprises of officers of the armed forces and which is dominated by the army, practically renders the civil administration officials subordinate to the army. It also generates multiple suspicions regarding the government motives behind such controversial directives. This adds to the already adopted government policy of placing the armed forces over the civil administration. This is a small picture of the ongoing disaster in the governance in Bangladesh. Here are some facts:
The Ministry of Home Affairs is headed by Major General (Retired) M A Matin. Major General (retired) Ghulam Quader, former director general of National Security Intelligence, has been made adviser to the Ministry of Communications. Brigadier General (Retierd) M A Malek is the Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Ministries of Social Welfare and Telecommunications
Founding Director General of the Rapid Action Battalion, allegedly the arbiter of hundreds of extra judicial killings, and former head of the Bangladesh Police Mr. Anwarul Iqbal has grabbed the position of the adviser to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. Another Major General (retired), ASM Matiur Rahman previously occupying the Ministry of Health was later asked to resign from his position for poor performance.
Immediate past army chief Lt. Gen. (Retired) Hassan Mashud Chowdhury is the chairperson of the Anti Corruption Commission while Colonel Mr. Hanif Iqbal occupies the position of Director General (Administration).
Brigadier General (Retired) Muhammad Sakhawat Hussain is in the constitutional position of Commissioner of the Election Commission. Bangladesh Army has been given official responsibility to prepare the voter list for the whole country. The army deputed its Principal Staff Officer (PSO) of Armed Forces Division Lieutenant General Masud Uddin Chowdhury to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he had been serving as the Chief Coordinator of the National Coordination Committee for deciding the corruption cases.
Major General (retd) Manzurul Alam chairs Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission while Colonel Md. Saiful Islam takes the position of the Director General and Lieutenant Colonel Shahidul Alam is the Director of its Spectrum Management Department. Lieutenant Colonel Shahidul Alam is the Project Director of a World Bank funded project while Major Rakibul Hassan is a Deputy Director of its Systems & Services Department.
Captain of Bangladesh Navy Mr. A.K.M Shafiqullah is occupying the position of the Director General of the Department of Shipping while Commodore Mr. A K M Alauddin occupying the position of the Chief Engineer and Ship Supervisor.
Navy Captain Mr. Yeaheya Sayeed is a Director of Chittagong Dry Dock Limited, an enterprise of the Bangladesh Steel & Engineering Corporation and also a Member of the Chittagong Port Authority. Captain Mr. SY Kamal is Member (operations), Captain Mr. Ramjan Ali is Deputy Conservator of the Chittagong Port Authority, and Captain Mr. Zahir Mahmood is Deputy Conservator of the Port of Chalna Authority in Khulna.
Brigadier General Md. Rafiqul Islam is the Director (signals) of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd.
Major Gen (retd) Manzur Rashid Chowdhury has been made the newly formed Truth and Accountability Commission's member.
Even the sports sector is not safe from their interference. The current army chief General Moeen U Ahmed grabs the positions of the Chairman of the National Sports Council and the President of Bangladesh Olympic Association. The chief of air force Vice Marshal Ziaur Rahman Khan heads Bangladesh Hockey Federation while the naval chief Admiral Sarwar Jahan Nizam heads the Swimming Federation. Major General Ahsab Uddin, the General Officer Commanding of the 9th Infantry Division, is the President of the National Shooting Federation. The chief of general staff of the army Major General Seena Ibn Jamali is the President of Bangladesh Cricket Board with Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Md. Abdul Latif Khan as Vice President. Lieutenant Commodore A K Sirker is occupying the post of General Secretary of the Basketball Federation.
These are very few out of the numerous positions occupied by the officers of the armed forces in the civil administration and autonomous institutions of Bangladesh. All information on such events is not available as the authorities suppress information to skip criticism.
Moreover, the armed forces have been deployed in all the district headquarters of the 64 districts of Bangladesh since the state of emergency besides the decades' long full-fledged militarization of three districts in the hill tracks of Chittagong region. Initially, the government deployed armed forces in all the upazillas (sub-district units) as soon as the emergency was imposed.
The DCs have been severely humiliate because army Majors being much junior to them have been placed in the districts levels. These Majors hurl abusive and exert illegal influences before the DCs, making the district heads embarrassed and frustrated. “People should no longer have patience and resist the audacity of these uncivilized Majors”, commented a DC, who did not wish to be identified.
All the national level policy decisions are made, changed and influenced by the top officials of the armed forces. The "National Coordinating Committee", which oversees the corruption issues staying atop all administrative setups, recommends the Anti Corruption Commission as to who will be charged and who will not be. The top officers of the armed forces occupy the coordinating body.
The Rapid Action Battalion, also drenched with the officers of the armed forces on deputation, is extended to the district and upazilla levels with their own setups besides the regular police force.
The police who are supposed to be responsible for maintaining law and order in the country have excessively been supported by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the armed forces during the state of emergency. So, in reality, all the forces arrest people. The common people have access only to the police stations for enquiring on the whereabouts of the arrested and detained persons, and none of the law-enforcing agencies explain to anyone whenever arrests are made. When the armed forces and RAB arrest, detain and torture people the police remain out of the picture and none of the police stations record any case regarding such incidents. Even the lawyers rarely agree to assist the victims by drafting and lodging a complaint with the Magistrate’s Court, which is last resort for the vulnerable people to seek redress following a denial by the police.
According to reports, the armed force officers frequently make phone calls to the Magistrates and Judges regarding pending cases to address the issues meeting the interest of the officers. Magistrates also cannot ignore fearing the security of themselves, their families and relatives. However, none of these magistrates agreed to disclose it officially other than "off the record". The condition of the prosecutors is worse than that of the judges and magistrates. The offices of the prosecutors and attorneys are filled up with members of the intelligence agencies and in special cases the officers of the armed forces, who insist and direct them to lead the proceedings as the agencies wish.
Surprisingly enough, under the coverage of emergency provisions, officers of the armed forces remain present in the courtrooms and relevant offices of the courts during, before and after the trials as members of "Task Force". They visit the courts and the relevant offices to monitor, dictate and insist the staffs for the cases they are more interested.
The military remains far away from any mechanism of accountability unlike any other organizations of Bangladesh. Thus, the armed forces enjoy absolute impunity for their unlawful actions supported by the laws made by the government during the state of emergency.
The existing situation evidently shows the silent but gradual, and eventually complete, militarization in Bangladesh. The joint forces deployed across the country frequently intervene into many local and private institutions including the activities of the media, NGO, and human right activisms though they are not eligible and competent to do so. These unlawful attempts have already demoralized the concerned professionals. As a consequence of regular interventions by the armed forces into their work, they cannot contribute to the society and to their respective fields by accomplishing their official responsibilities.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is highly concerned about the all out militarization in Bangladesh. The military cannot be capable or substitute of the civil administration in any place of the world because of their training with arbitrariness. The armed forces are accustomed to command rather than being accountable to any civil authority. The ongoing huge militarization has been destroying the fabrics of democracy and rule of law in the country. AHRC urges the civil society and human rights groups in the country and the international community to insist the authorities of Bangladesh to immediately demilitarize all institutions the armed forces have been occupying illegibly.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Bangladesh politics heading for uncharted water!
Suddenly, Bangladesh politics heading for uncharted water!
By A.H. Jaffor Ullah, USA
The capricious politics of Bangladesh, which was in doldrums like a boat in a river without any wind to move it in the forward direction, got the much needed gusty wind now — but the direction of the move is unfortunately in the opposite direction. It seems as if the riverine nation with its huddled masses is heading for uncharted water! Thanks to the invisible power that is ensconced in the cantonment, which had been propelling the government run by a bunch of oligarchs for the last 20 months.
Many political observers both inside and outside the country are puzzled by this new direction. Gone are the tough words that used to emanate from General Moeen, the silent dictator who made the coup possible on January 11, 2007. Also, gone are the strongly worded messages from advisors that used to grace the pages of Bangladesh’s newspapers. What lies ahead for this godforsaken nation of 160 million impoverished is quite uncertain.
The outgoing government of Khaleda Zia tried to engineer an election coup by placing election officials allover the nation sympathetic to her party. She also tried to manipulate the selection of advisors of the caretaker government that would conduct the upcoming parliamentary election. This was going on in the aftermath of Khaleda Zia government’s expiry sometime in late October 2006.
President Iajuddin Ahmed, who was a Khaleda Zia’s stooge through and through, took marching order from Hawa Bhavan, the epicenter of Khaleda Zia’s party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He took the onerous job of the chief advisor of the newly minted caretaker government violating the constitution of the land. That however did not ruffle feathers in him or in BNP leaderships. The opposition parties including the Awami League headed by Sheikh Hasina Wajed took to the streets in retaliation to Iajuddin’s move. Consequently, a state of anarchy was engendered.
While all these were going on, the military of Bangladesh who is the arbiter of politics in this impoverished nation, received a warning shot from the United Nation. The U.N. officials knew that an army coup might come anytime soon. To thwart this unwelcoming development, the U.N. officials told the army in no uncertain term that if an army coup is stage, Bangladesh army stand to lose any future lucrative contract from the U.N. as peacekeeping force. This overseas job brought a steady source of extra income for army officials and foot soldiers who participate in the peacekeeping force in disputed areas throughout the world.
The Bangladesh military did not want to lose the contract; therefore, they engineered a silent coup to topple Iajuddin and the advisors from the caretaker government. The chose Fakhruddin Ahmed, an ex-employee of the World Bank, and a handful of ex-military officers and civilians to form the second consecutive caretaker govern for which there is no constitutional mandate. However, in Bangladesh, when the military talks everyone listens.
During the trying times of Bangladesh I penned an article a week after the silent military coup, which was published on January 19, 2007 eight days after the inauguration of the military-backed Fakhruddin Government, in which I clearly pointed out that the new caretaker government, had the tacit approval from the army. To my knowledge, mine was the first article to label the present government as the military-backed unconstitutional government. This extrajudicial government was legitimized because the civil society gave their approval through Center for Policy Development - a non-governmental organization headed by some powerful members of the civil society. This newly minted government also had the approval of Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen bank chief, whose popularity was cresting at the time due to the Nobel Peace Prize which he and his organization received sometime in late October 2006.
The caretaker government promised to make a level playing field for all political party by reconstituting the election commission, a demand waged by the opposition parties. They also promised to clean up the politics by arresting leaders who made theirs misbegotten wealth through bribe-taking, malfeasance, and influence peddling. The civil society gave their approval to this and the nation witnessed a mass arrest of politicians.
The military-backed caretaker government also railroaded the Islamists to walk the gallows for killing two judges in Jhalokati, a town in south Bangladesh. They did not allow the Islamists to talk to the press lest a can of warms comes out to implicate the military and BNP in the spate of bombings allover Bangladesh in August 2006 in which nearly 300-400 homemade bombs were blasted, synchronously. The August 21, 2004 bombing of Awami League’s meeting in Dhaka is an unsolved murder but many observers believe that it was a handiwork of a consortium composed of Islamists, BNP goons and persons from Kurmitola cantonment. It makes hell of a lot of sense as to why the Islamists were sent to gallows so quickly.
The military-backed government spoke mostly through Barrister Mainul Hosein and General Matin. Later, an ex-general Mashhud Chowdhury who got the portfolio of the chairman of a revamped anti-corruption department (ACC or DUDOK in Bangla) became the mouthpiece of the government. This anti-democratic and repressive government ruled Bangladesh tightfistedly for the last 20 months promising to reform many institutions and the politics but instead of solving the problems it has exacerbated the situation. The developmental projects mostly financed by WB and foreign governments came to a standstill. The productivity had slowed down and the economy hardly expanded with an anemic rate of growth.
The military-backed government promised to wipe out corruption from the government and politics. But it miserably failed. The government arrested in excess of 250,000 ordinary people calling them political hooligans. These incarcerated people were languishing in jail without facing the court. The government also arrested a few notable industrialists and newspaper publishers but failed to prosecute them. In April 2007 the government took a new initiative to send the two leaders, Ms. Hasina and Ms. Zia, in exile but for whatever reasons failed to execute the plan. Then the government tried to break the major parties without much success. It also tried to float new political party one time through Grameen Chief, Muhammad Yunus, and another time through an obscure politician by the name Ferdous Qureshi. This mischievous plan did not bore any fruit, though.
During Khaleda Zia’s five years stint at the helm many of her party men including her two worthless sons have amassed billions of Taka (Bangladeshi currency) through bribery, extortions and whatnot. And we thought finally these vile groups of politicians will pay a price receiving stiff jail sentencing and they will be barred from entering politics rest of their lives. But how wrong was I.
On September 11, 2008 when the world was remembering the victims of 9-11, I read Dhaka’s newspapers to learn to my amazement that Khaleda Zia's corrupt son was released from the jail and he was sent to U.K. for treatment. Khaleda Zia who was the protagonist in Bangladesh's “tragic” political drama was also released from the jail. Sheikh Hasina is also out on furlough now visiting America for medical treatment. The general secretary of Awami League, Mr. Jalil, was also freed from the jail. To add insult to injury, hardly a week ago a few other corrupt BNP politicians were let loose from the confinement by the military-backed government.
All of these new developments, which hardly make any sense, are telling a telltale sign. Why the government did make its volte-face? Did they realize at long last that it will be an arduous job for them to reform the existing political parties?
This writer has always expressed a concern for the oligarchs who ruled Bangladesh rather unconstitutionally for the last 20 months. During that time, the Harvard “trained” army General gave enough hints that democracy as practiced in Bangladesh needs to be reformed. The General being the servant of the government overstepped his authority to pontificate his fellow countrymen.
I have the slightest clue now what prompted this government to give up their reform movement. Maybe, under pressure from Big Brothers abroad the military is finally willing to host the parliamentary election. This is also perplexing to know that all the champions of the reform movement - the CPD, Muhammad Yunus, and the rest of the Civil Society Movement is maintaining their reticence. Rather than maintaining their deafening silence this is the time they should open their mouth to protest the unleashing of corrupt politicians from jail. Why it took so long to take the corrupt politicians to court? Where are Barrister Mainul Hosein, General Matin, and General Mashhud Chowdhury at this critical juncture, now that the nation needs to hear their strongly-worded warnings? Should not they vociferously complain the government’s unwise decision to turn the clock backward?
-------------------------
Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA
E Mail : jhankar@bellsouth.net
By A.H. Jaffor Ullah, USA
The capricious politics of Bangladesh, which was in doldrums like a boat in a river without any wind to move it in the forward direction, got the much needed gusty wind now — but the direction of the move is unfortunately in the opposite direction. It seems as if the riverine nation with its huddled masses is heading for uncharted water! Thanks to the invisible power that is ensconced in the cantonment, which had been propelling the government run by a bunch of oligarchs for the last 20 months.
Many political observers both inside and outside the country are puzzled by this new direction. Gone are the tough words that used to emanate from General Moeen, the silent dictator who made the coup possible on January 11, 2007. Also, gone are the strongly worded messages from advisors that used to grace the pages of Bangladesh’s newspapers. What lies ahead for this godforsaken nation of 160 million impoverished is quite uncertain.
The outgoing government of Khaleda Zia tried to engineer an election coup by placing election officials allover the nation sympathetic to her party. She also tried to manipulate the selection of advisors of the caretaker government that would conduct the upcoming parliamentary election. This was going on in the aftermath of Khaleda Zia government’s expiry sometime in late October 2006.
President Iajuddin Ahmed, who was a Khaleda Zia’s stooge through and through, took marching order from Hawa Bhavan, the epicenter of Khaleda Zia’s party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He took the onerous job of the chief advisor of the newly minted caretaker government violating the constitution of the land. That however did not ruffle feathers in him or in BNP leaderships. The opposition parties including the Awami League headed by Sheikh Hasina Wajed took to the streets in retaliation to Iajuddin’s move. Consequently, a state of anarchy was engendered.
While all these were going on, the military of Bangladesh who is the arbiter of politics in this impoverished nation, received a warning shot from the United Nation. The U.N. officials knew that an army coup might come anytime soon. To thwart this unwelcoming development, the U.N. officials told the army in no uncertain term that if an army coup is stage, Bangladesh army stand to lose any future lucrative contract from the U.N. as peacekeeping force. This overseas job brought a steady source of extra income for army officials and foot soldiers who participate in the peacekeeping force in disputed areas throughout the world.
The Bangladesh military did not want to lose the contract; therefore, they engineered a silent coup to topple Iajuddin and the advisors from the caretaker government. The chose Fakhruddin Ahmed, an ex-employee of the World Bank, and a handful of ex-military officers and civilians to form the second consecutive caretaker govern for which there is no constitutional mandate. However, in Bangladesh, when the military talks everyone listens.
During the trying times of Bangladesh I penned an article a week after the silent military coup, which was published on January 19, 2007 eight days after the inauguration of the military-backed Fakhruddin Government, in which I clearly pointed out that the new caretaker government, had the tacit approval from the army. To my knowledge, mine was the first article to label the present government as the military-backed unconstitutional government. This extrajudicial government was legitimized because the civil society gave their approval through Center for Policy Development - a non-governmental organization headed by some powerful members of the civil society. This newly minted government also had the approval of Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen bank chief, whose popularity was cresting at the time due to the Nobel Peace Prize which he and his organization received sometime in late October 2006.
The caretaker government promised to make a level playing field for all political party by reconstituting the election commission, a demand waged by the opposition parties. They also promised to clean up the politics by arresting leaders who made theirs misbegotten wealth through bribe-taking, malfeasance, and influence peddling. The civil society gave their approval to this and the nation witnessed a mass arrest of politicians.
The military-backed caretaker government also railroaded the Islamists to walk the gallows for killing two judges in Jhalokati, a town in south Bangladesh. They did not allow the Islamists to talk to the press lest a can of warms comes out to implicate the military and BNP in the spate of bombings allover Bangladesh in August 2006 in which nearly 300-400 homemade bombs were blasted, synchronously. The August 21, 2004 bombing of Awami League’s meeting in Dhaka is an unsolved murder but many observers believe that it was a handiwork of a consortium composed of Islamists, BNP goons and persons from Kurmitola cantonment. It makes hell of a lot of sense as to why the Islamists were sent to gallows so quickly.
The military-backed government spoke mostly through Barrister Mainul Hosein and General Matin. Later, an ex-general Mashhud Chowdhury who got the portfolio of the chairman of a revamped anti-corruption department (ACC or DUDOK in Bangla) became the mouthpiece of the government. This anti-democratic and repressive government ruled Bangladesh tightfistedly for the last 20 months promising to reform many institutions and the politics but instead of solving the problems it has exacerbated the situation. The developmental projects mostly financed by WB and foreign governments came to a standstill. The productivity had slowed down and the economy hardly expanded with an anemic rate of growth.
The military-backed government promised to wipe out corruption from the government and politics. But it miserably failed. The government arrested in excess of 250,000 ordinary people calling them political hooligans. These incarcerated people were languishing in jail without facing the court. The government also arrested a few notable industrialists and newspaper publishers but failed to prosecute them. In April 2007 the government took a new initiative to send the two leaders, Ms. Hasina and Ms. Zia, in exile but for whatever reasons failed to execute the plan. Then the government tried to break the major parties without much success. It also tried to float new political party one time through Grameen Chief, Muhammad Yunus, and another time through an obscure politician by the name Ferdous Qureshi. This mischievous plan did not bore any fruit, though.
During Khaleda Zia’s five years stint at the helm many of her party men including her two worthless sons have amassed billions of Taka (Bangladeshi currency) through bribery, extortions and whatnot. And we thought finally these vile groups of politicians will pay a price receiving stiff jail sentencing and they will be barred from entering politics rest of their lives. But how wrong was I.
On September 11, 2008 when the world was remembering the victims of 9-11, I read Dhaka’s newspapers to learn to my amazement that Khaleda Zia's corrupt son was released from the jail and he was sent to U.K. for treatment. Khaleda Zia who was the protagonist in Bangladesh's “tragic” political drama was also released from the jail. Sheikh Hasina is also out on furlough now visiting America for medical treatment. The general secretary of Awami League, Mr. Jalil, was also freed from the jail. To add insult to injury, hardly a week ago a few other corrupt BNP politicians were let loose from the confinement by the military-backed government.
All of these new developments, which hardly make any sense, are telling a telltale sign. Why the government did make its volte-face? Did they realize at long last that it will be an arduous job for them to reform the existing political parties?
This writer has always expressed a concern for the oligarchs who ruled Bangladesh rather unconstitutionally for the last 20 months. During that time, the Harvard “trained” army General gave enough hints that democracy as practiced in Bangladesh needs to be reformed. The General being the servant of the government overstepped his authority to pontificate his fellow countrymen.
I have the slightest clue now what prompted this government to give up their reform movement. Maybe, under pressure from Big Brothers abroad the military is finally willing to host the parliamentary election. This is also perplexing to know that all the champions of the reform movement - the CPD, Muhammad Yunus, and the rest of the Civil Society Movement is maintaining their reticence. Rather than maintaining their deafening silence this is the time they should open their mouth to protest the unleashing of corrupt politicians from jail. Why it took so long to take the corrupt politicians to court? Where are Barrister Mainul Hosein, General Matin, and General Mashhud Chowdhury at this critical juncture, now that the nation needs to hear their strongly-worded warnings? Should not they vociferously complain the government’s unwise decision to turn the clock backward?
-------------------------
Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA
E Mail : jhankar@bellsouth.net
Monday, September 15, 2008
Bangladesh anti-graft drive crumbling
Bangladesh anti-graft drive crumbling
Source: Khaleej Times
September 15, 2008
DHAKA- The anti-corruption drive launched in early 2007 by the army-backed government in Bangladesh is falling apart due to sloppy legal work and lack of expertise, observers say.
The government arrested scores of top politicians, including two former premiers and dozens of ex-ministers and lawmakers, after it declared emergency rule and took power in January 2007 following months of political violence.
It said the crackdown was aimed at cleaning up graft-ridden politics in Bangladesh, ranked the world's most corrupt nation by Berlin-based Transparency International.
But since June, the country's High Court has ordered the release of more than 50 "very, very important" detainees including ex-premiers Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia, deputy prisons chief Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said.
"The government filed a huge number of graft cases. But its investigators were not prepared or trained in the relevant anti-corruption laws," veteran human right lawyer and law professor Shahdeen Malik said.
"In most of the graft cases, procedural requirements were not followed. Many cases became weak long before they reached court," he said.
"As a result, many corruption cases are unlikely to end in convictions."
Borhanuddin Khan, an Oxford-trained professor who heads the law faculty at Dhaka University, agreed, blaming "legal technicalities rather than the merits" for the implosion of many of the government's cases.
"They enacted the emergency power laws and the anti-corruption laws in haste. But there were lapses in the laws and technicalities which made it easier for the top suspects to get out of custody," Khan said.
Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League party, was released on parole in June. Her arch-rival Zia, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was freed on bail last week. The charges against both are still pending.
Observers said they were freed under deals struck by the government to secure the participation of their parties in general elections to be held by the end of 2008 -- a step towards restoring democracy here.
But their lawyer Rafique ul Haque -- who has defended scores of high-profile politicians detained under the anti-corruption drive -- says more than a dozen cases against them are without foundation and simply a means of harassment.
"If you ask me about the merit of these cases, the answer would be nil. There were no proper investigations. These cases are meant to harass them," Haque said
"They were put in jail unnecessarily. These cases will never result in punishment. Instead of punishing the two, the government has made them more popular.
Hanif Iqbal, a spokesman for the anti-corruption commission, conceded, "There are some problems but the cases are still on."
"If there are mistakes in the corruption cases, these are inadvertent and are due to lack of expertise, experience and exposure," he told AFP. "We had hiccups but we are trying our best to amend them."
Khan, of Dhaka University, said the government's campaign was waning as it had lost much of the anti-graft zeal it displayed in the initial months after it took power. "The government now looks much more ready to compromise than before," he said.
Source: Khaleej Times
September 15, 2008
DHAKA- The anti-corruption drive launched in early 2007 by the army-backed government in Bangladesh is falling apart due to sloppy legal work and lack of expertise, observers say.
The government arrested scores of top politicians, including two former premiers and dozens of ex-ministers and lawmakers, after it declared emergency rule and took power in January 2007 following months of political violence.
It said the crackdown was aimed at cleaning up graft-ridden politics in Bangladesh, ranked the world's most corrupt nation by Berlin-based Transparency International.
But since June, the country's High Court has ordered the release of more than 50 "very, very important" detainees including ex-premiers Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia, deputy prisons chief Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said.
"The government filed a huge number of graft cases. But its investigators were not prepared or trained in the relevant anti-corruption laws," veteran human right lawyer and law professor Shahdeen Malik said.
"In most of the graft cases, procedural requirements were not followed. Many cases became weak long before they reached court," he said.
"As a result, many corruption cases are unlikely to end in convictions."
Borhanuddin Khan, an Oxford-trained professor who heads the law faculty at Dhaka University, agreed, blaming "legal technicalities rather than the merits" for the implosion of many of the government's cases.
"They enacted the emergency power laws and the anti-corruption laws in haste. But there were lapses in the laws and technicalities which made it easier for the top suspects to get out of custody," Khan said.
Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the Awami League party, was released on parole in June. Her arch-rival Zia, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was freed on bail last week. The charges against both are still pending.
Observers said they were freed under deals struck by the government to secure the participation of their parties in general elections to be held by the end of 2008 -- a step towards restoring democracy here.
But their lawyer Rafique ul Haque -- who has defended scores of high-profile politicians detained under the anti-corruption drive -- says more than a dozen cases against them are without foundation and simply a means of harassment.
"If you ask me about the merit of these cases, the answer would be nil. There were no proper investigations. These cases are meant to harass them," Haque said
"They were put in jail unnecessarily. These cases will never result in punishment. Instead of punishing the two, the government has made them more popular.
Hanif Iqbal, a spokesman for the anti-corruption commission, conceded, "There are some problems but the cases are still on."
"If there are mistakes in the corruption cases, these are inadvertent and are due to lack of expertise, experience and exposure," he told AFP. "We had hiccups but we are trying our best to amend them."
Khan, of Dhaka University, said the government's campaign was waning as it had lost much of the anti-graft zeal it displayed in the initial months after it took power. "The government now looks much more ready to compromise than before," he said.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The release of Tarique Rahman
The release of Tarique Rahman
Shamsuddin Ahmed
Source: The New Nation
September 10, 2008
The release of Tarique Rahman on Wednesday has certainly amused the BNP cadres and bemused the nation. He was accused in 13 corruption and extortion cases and set free on bail when undergoing trial by the special court. Son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, senior joint secretary general of BNP Tarique was supremo of the Hawa Bhaban and earned bad name for running parallel government during the BNP regime. The way BNP former state minister Ehsanul Haque Milon, former Adviser Barkatullah Bulu and former woman MP Bilquis Islam were subjected to mob beating on Wednesday has amply manifested the character of the JCD and Jubo Dal built up by the leader of the Young Turks Tarique Rahman. Their fault, they favoured reforms in the party.
Former minister Anwar Hossain Manju has been convicted, in absentia, and sentenced to jail for five years for keeping few cans of bear and bottles of wine. His closed friends felt wounded by the conviction of Manju, a non-alcoholist, chief of his faction of Jatiya Party, one of the owners of mass circulated daily and also owner of a couple industries. It is natural that he required to host foreign friends at his home and serve them with drinks they take as normal.
Barrister Maudud Ahmed, another former minister, has been accused in a number of cases, including one for having forbidden hard drinks in his house. He could have the similar fate of Manju had not the proceedings of his alcohol case been stayed by the higher court.
Manju and Maudud are among the scores of high profile politicians and business leaders who have been brought to book during anti-corruption drive launched soon after the caretaker government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed was installed in the January 11, 2007 change over. They were undergoing trial by special courts on charges of corruption, extortion and abuse of power. In the midst of trial former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Awami League, facing about a dozen corruption and extortion cases, was released on parol and allowed to leave the country, understandably with the change of winds in the national politics. That opened the floodgate. Many more politicians and business tycoons have been enlarged on bail and proceedings of the cases against them halted by the order of the High Court. Tarique Rahman is the latest corruption suspect released on bail. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia undergoing trial in a number of cases is also expected to be released soon.
Conviction of Manju and setting free Hasina, Tarique and others remind the keen observers of a satirical cartoon. The cartoon depicted a minister-in-waiting brought before the king three men, with handcuff and rope round the waist. The first man, the minister told the king, was caught cursing you. "Off his head," came the order. The second man was caught stealing bread. "Feed him to the lions." The third was caught falsifying documents, money laundering and pilfering 700 million in corporate loans. "Hire him," roared the king.
Release of political leaders detained on corruption charges has indeed caused ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury to lament. "The image of ACC is affected," he admitted referring to the recent bails granted to the accused in corruption cases and stay orders on the cases against them. People want punishment of the corrupt elements and they will certainly not like it, said the chairman.
The government wants the nation to understand that the detained politicians are released to bring all the political parties to the election planned for December. For, the caretaker government is under severe pressure from within and without the country for holding the election with the participation of all parties. But the major parties, especially the Awami League and the BNP, would not take part in the election without release of their detained leaders. So, they are set free.
Now Hasina, Tarique and their associates are free for taking part in the election. We have before us examples of recent democratic elections in Thailand and Pakistan. Followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, overthrown and discredited for corruption, won the election. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a protégé of Thaksin, last week declared emergency in the face of mass upsurge but the military declined to salvage him. Some two lakh people laid siege on the government administrative building and vowed they would not withdraw until Samak steps down.
In Pakistan, PPP won the election held in February. It entered into alliance with Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif and forced President Parvez Musharraf to step down. PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is now poised to become the President of Pakistan through election by the parliament on September 6. Zardari, known as 'Mr 20 percent' (taking commission during PPP rule) was debarred from the parliamentary election because of corruption case against him. Only recently attorney general of Pakistan got the money laundering case against Zardari withdrawn in Switzerland. Investigation found he had funneled 60 million dollars ill-gotten money.
Reputed columnist Mr Cowasjee wrote in daily Dawn on August 31, "I have been inundated with e-mails calling upon me to come to the aid of the country and save it from Zardari." He wondered how the armed forces feel at Zardari's becoming the President for he will also be the Commander in Chief and have his finger on the country's nuclear button. This has frightened the people of the world and the people of Pakistan, he added.
We believe that none would like the situation of Pakistan in Bangladesh. We have been assured by US Ambassador Moriarty who told the Amcham luncheon meet on May 21, "US does not want to see a repeat of Pakistan President Gen Parvez Musharraf government's nemesis in Bangladesh."
Chief of our Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed who was wholly behind the January 11 change over had pledged to free the nation from corruption and dynastic politics. In his statement on April 2 last year he said, "…..we have to read the resolute character of Bangladeshi people that enabled us to overcome the perpetuation of dynastic rule for a transparent and accountable Bangladesh."
Shamsuddin Ahmed
Source: The New Nation
September 10, 2008
The release of Tarique Rahman on Wednesday has certainly amused the BNP cadres and bemused the nation. He was accused in 13 corruption and extortion cases and set free on bail when undergoing trial by the special court. Son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, senior joint secretary general of BNP Tarique was supremo of the Hawa Bhaban and earned bad name for running parallel government during the BNP regime. The way BNP former state minister Ehsanul Haque Milon, former Adviser Barkatullah Bulu and former woman MP Bilquis Islam were subjected to mob beating on Wednesday has amply manifested the character of the JCD and Jubo Dal built up by the leader of the Young Turks Tarique Rahman. Their fault, they favoured reforms in the party.
Former minister Anwar Hossain Manju has been convicted, in absentia, and sentenced to jail for five years for keeping few cans of bear and bottles of wine. His closed friends felt wounded by the conviction of Manju, a non-alcoholist, chief of his faction of Jatiya Party, one of the owners of mass circulated daily and also owner of a couple industries. It is natural that he required to host foreign friends at his home and serve them with drinks they take as normal.
Barrister Maudud Ahmed, another former minister, has been accused in a number of cases, including one for having forbidden hard drinks in his house. He could have the similar fate of Manju had not the proceedings of his alcohol case been stayed by the higher court.
Manju and Maudud are among the scores of high profile politicians and business leaders who have been brought to book during anti-corruption drive launched soon after the caretaker government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed was installed in the January 11, 2007 change over. They were undergoing trial by special courts on charges of corruption, extortion and abuse of power. In the midst of trial former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Awami League, facing about a dozen corruption and extortion cases, was released on parol and allowed to leave the country, understandably with the change of winds in the national politics. That opened the floodgate. Many more politicians and business tycoons have been enlarged on bail and proceedings of the cases against them halted by the order of the High Court. Tarique Rahman is the latest corruption suspect released on bail. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia undergoing trial in a number of cases is also expected to be released soon.
Conviction of Manju and setting free Hasina, Tarique and others remind the keen observers of a satirical cartoon. The cartoon depicted a minister-in-waiting brought before the king three men, with handcuff and rope round the waist. The first man, the minister told the king, was caught cursing you. "Off his head," came the order. The second man was caught stealing bread. "Feed him to the lions." The third was caught falsifying documents, money laundering and pilfering 700 million in corporate loans. "Hire him," roared the king.
Release of political leaders detained on corruption charges has indeed caused ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury to lament. "The image of ACC is affected," he admitted referring to the recent bails granted to the accused in corruption cases and stay orders on the cases against them. People want punishment of the corrupt elements and they will certainly not like it, said the chairman.
The government wants the nation to understand that the detained politicians are released to bring all the political parties to the election planned for December. For, the caretaker government is under severe pressure from within and without the country for holding the election with the participation of all parties. But the major parties, especially the Awami League and the BNP, would not take part in the election without release of their detained leaders. So, they are set free.
Now Hasina, Tarique and their associates are free for taking part in the election. We have before us examples of recent democratic elections in Thailand and Pakistan. Followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, overthrown and discredited for corruption, won the election. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a protégé of Thaksin, last week declared emergency in the face of mass upsurge but the military declined to salvage him. Some two lakh people laid siege on the government administrative building and vowed they would not withdraw until Samak steps down.
In Pakistan, PPP won the election held in February. It entered into alliance with Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif and forced President Parvez Musharraf to step down. PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari is now poised to become the President of Pakistan through election by the parliament on September 6. Zardari, known as 'Mr 20 percent' (taking commission during PPP rule) was debarred from the parliamentary election because of corruption case against him. Only recently attorney general of Pakistan got the money laundering case against Zardari withdrawn in Switzerland. Investigation found he had funneled 60 million dollars ill-gotten money.
Reputed columnist Mr Cowasjee wrote in daily Dawn on August 31, "I have been inundated with e-mails calling upon me to come to the aid of the country and save it from Zardari." He wondered how the armed forces feel at Zardari's becoming the President for he will also be the Commander in Chief and have his finger on the country's nuclear button. This has frightened the people of the world and the people of Pakistan, he added.
We believe that none would like the situation of Pakistan in Bangladesh. We have been assured by US Ambassador Moriarty who told the Amcham luncheon meet on May 21, "US does not want to see a repeat of Pakistan President Gen Parvez Musharraf government's nemesis in Bangladesh."
Chief of our Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed who was wholly behind the January 11 change over had pledged to free the nation from corruption and dynastic politics. In his statement on April 2 last year he said, "…..we have to read the resolute character of Bangladeshi people that enabled us to overcome the perpetuation of dynastic rule for a transparent and accountable Bangladesh."
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Bangladesh rulers kind to prisoners?
Bangladesh rulers kind to prisoners?
By Rater Zonaki
Source: UPI Asia On-line
September 9, 2008
Hong Kong, China — Many critics blame the current military-controlled government of Bangladesh for excessively abusing human rights, especially gross human rights violations during the state of emergency. The more the authorities are disinterested in accepting this reality, the greater is the attempt by human rights defenders and the media to criticize the government.
Many people seem to be too critical of the government all the time, which is rather unfair. However, government authorities, in all fairness, have taken some noble decisions against people and parties involved in abusing human rights. Some stories of government "kindness" deserve attention.
Since the state of emergency began, the government has been "kind" to the people of Bangladesh. They detained around 200 top politicians and businessmen and managed to lodge complaints against targeted politicians filed by public institutions and private individuals. Some were even prosecuted by a special anti-corruption tribunal.
Related to this is the case of Bangladesh Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil, who was arrested on May 28, 2007 by the armed forces and detained without any charge throughout the year until implicated in a graft case lodged by the Anti-Corruption Commission on Dec. 18 with the Ramna police station. On Jan. 1, 2008, he was shown as arrested. While in detention, Jalil feel ill, which prompted a group of medical doctors to suggest that he be released to seek treatment abroad.
Then, the government appeared to be "kind" to the veteran politician by considering his case on humanitarian grounds and, on March 2, 2008, released him on parole without any formal intervention from the court, which could grant bail considering his health condition and subsequent requirements. Although the initial release order was for one month, it was extended to six after several requests by Jalil’s relatives.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was arrested on July 16, 2007 and detained in a "sub-jail" with a number of graft cases against her. She had injured her ear and eye in a grenade attack during a public meeting in Dhaka on Aug. 21, 2004. While she was in detention, a group of doctors and members of a medical board formed by the government suggested that she travel to the United States for certain treatment that was not available any other place in the world.
This "kindness" of the government was exposed when it decided to release Hasina by an "executive order" instead of a judicial order. The initial release order was only for eight weeks, but was extended by a month following a request on behalf of the former prime minister. On Sept. 4, the government set a new record for its "kindness" by spontaneously extending the release order of Hasina for an additional month in the absence of any application or official request from anyone.
Mohammad Nasim, a former minister, was convicted by a special corruption tribunal and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on Oct. 8, 2007 in a graft case. Another tribunal convicted him for three years for concealing information related to his wealth in a report submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission. Recently he suffered a brain stroke and was admitted to a private hospital in Dhaka. On Aug. 15, 2008, the government released him so that he could seek treatment abroad, making it the first ever instance of a convicted person released to seek medical treatment abroad.
The mere suggestion by medical doctors to take someone abroad for treatment raises question about the credibility, standard and impartiality of the country's health professionals.
In the prisons of Bangladesh, dozens of convicted or prisoners under trial are seriously sick and many die while still in prison. For example, in 2006, around 52 prisoners died due to various reasons including health-related issues, according to credible reports. However, these poor people always fail to attract the "kind" attention of the government before their death. In all cases, prison authorities issue a press release or comment when contacted, which states that the person fell sick while in prison and so the prison staff took the person to a hospital where doctors declared him dead. All stories of death in prison have similar ends.
The same authorities that release rich and influential persons from prison without any legal papers exercise double standards toward the poor. They never feel that poor prisoners who are sick need to receive medical treatment either in the prison itself or in a public hospital. Existing laws are either flawed or do not apply to poor prisoners.
Authorities should realize and ensure that laws are applied equally toward all citizens, regardless of their social status and financial condition. Releasing prisoners on humanitarian grounds without proper legal and medical documents raises serious questions about the abuse of governmental power.
Misusing power is a clear violation of Art. 27 of the country's constitution, which enshrines the right to equal treatment before the law.
____________________________
(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
By Rater Zonaki
Source: UPI Asia On-line
September 9, 2008
Hong Kong, China — Many critics blame the current military-controlled government of Bangladesh for excessively abusing human rights, especially gross human rights violations during the state of emergency. The more the authorities are disinterested in accepting this reality, the greater is the attempt by human rights defenders and the media to criticize the government.
Many people seem to be too critical of the government all the time, which is rather unfair. However, government authorities, in all fairness, have taken some noble decisions against people and parties involved in abusing human rights. Some stories of government "kindness" deserve attention.
Since the state of emergency began, the government has been "kind" to the people of Bangladesh. They detained around 200 top politicians and businessmen and managed to lodge complaints against targeted politicians filed by public institutions and private individuals. Some were even prosecuted by a special anti-corruption tribunal.
Related to this is the case of Bangladesh Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil, who was arrested on May 28, 2007 by the armed forces and detained without any charge throughout the year until implicated in a graft case lodged by the Anti-Corruption Commission on Dec. 18 with the Ramna police station. On Jan. 1, 2008, he was shown as arrested. While in detention, Jalil feel ill, which prompted a group of medical doctors to suggest that he be released to seek treatment abroad.
Then, the government appeared to be "kind" to the veteran politician by considering his case on humanitarian grounds and, on March 2, 2008, released him on parole without any formal intervention from the court, which could grant bail considering his health condition and subsequent requirements. Although the initial release order was for one month, it was extended to six after several requests by Jalil’s relatives.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was arrested on July 16, 2007 and detained in a "sub-jail" with a number of graft cases against her. She had injured her ear and eye in a grenade attack during a public meeting in Dhaka on Aug. 21, 2004. While she was in detention, a group of doctors and members of a medical board formed by the government suggested that she travel to the United States for certain treatment that was not available any other place in the world.
This "kindness" of the government was exposed when it decided to release Hasina by an "executive order" instead of a judicial order. The initial release order was only for eight weeks, but was extended by a month following a request on behalf of the former prime minister. On Sept. 4, the government set a new record for its "kindness" by spontaneously extending the release order of Hasina for an additional month in the absence of any application or official request from anyone.
Mohammad Nasim, a former minister, was convicted by a special corruption tribunal and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on Oct. 8, 2007 in a graft case. Another tribunal convicted him for three years for concealing information related to his wealth in a report submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission. Recently he suffered a brain stroke and was admitted to a private hospital in Dhaka. On Aug. 15, 2008, the government released him so that he could seek treatment abroad, making it the first ever instance of a convicted person released to seek medical treatment abroad.
The mere suggestion by medical doctors to take someone abroad for treatment raises question about the credibility, standard and impartiality of the country's health professionals.
In the prisons of Bangladesh, dozens of convicted or prisoners under trial are seriously sick and many die while still in prison. For example, in 2006, around 52 prisoners died due to various reasons including health-related issues, according to credible reports. However, these poor people always fail to attract the "kind" attention of the government before their death. In all cases, prison authorities issue a press release or comment when contacted, which states that the person fell sick while in prison and so the prison staff took the person to a hospital where doctors declared him dead. All stories of death in prison have similar ends.
The same authorities that release rich and influential persons from prison without any legal papers exercise double standards toward the poor. They never feel that poor prisoners who are sick need to receive medical treatment either in the prison itself or in a public hospital. Existing laws are either flawed or do not apply to poor prisoners.
Authorities should realize and ensure that laws are applied equally toward all citizens, regardless of their social status and financial condition. Releasing prisoners on humanitarian grounds without proper legal and medical documents raises serious questions about the abuse of governmental power.
Misusing power is a clear violation of Art. 27 of the country's constitution, which enshrines the right to equal treatment before the law.
____________________________
(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
Monday, September 8, 2008
The advisers' regime
The advisers' regime
Source: Himal Southasian
September, 2008 Edition
Since a military-controlled interim government assumed power in Dhaka in January 2007 – suspending elections, announcing a jihad on corruption, arresting former prime ministers, and promising to right all that is wrong – a little-known Chinese proverb has entered the Bangla street lexicon. Riding a tiger is easy, the danger is in getting off strikes many as tailor-made to describe the unenviable plight that Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and his colleagues find themselves in today, some 20 months after assuming power.
In late July, local elections to a handful of city corporations and municipalities (in Sylhet, Khulna, Barisal and Rajshahi), held under the ongoing state of emergency, may have confirmed the regime’s deepest fears. Last year, the Chief Election Commissioner, A T M Shamsul Huda, had time and again told the media that the emergency would have to be lifted before free and fair national polls could take place. In the wake of July’s local elections, however, he seems to have quickly changed his mind.
Though candidates in the local polls were not allowed to contest under the banner of the mainstream political parties, it was almost exclusively candidates with known party affiliations who won. Since the interim government came to power last year, a pro-government media blitzkrieg that blamed all of the coutnry’s ills on the politicians had sought to ensure that the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) stood thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the public. As undeserving as they are of public favour, these polls have shown that the people of Bangladesh still side with their candidates, despite the fact that almost everyone will agree that the party top brass is corrupt and autocratic.
This failure to transform politics could not have been brought home with greater impact than through a recent remark by CEC Huda, who publicly admitted to the interim government’s failure to bring “honest and capable candidates” to stand in the recently held elections. Huda’s comment made all the more of a splash due to the fact that this tagline of honesty and competence in politics has been regularly touted by the interim government as one of its strongest selling points.
Meanwhile, even the emergent elite, one of the strongest constituencies for this military-controlled government and its ambitious plan to ‘democratise’ the country, there is increasing disillusionment. There is no escaping the proof on the ground that all is not right. The Berlin-based Transparency International, which has ranked Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world for three years in a row, recently ruled that corruption had not abated under Bangladesh’s new uniformed rulers.
Exit and indemnity
In fact, most political observers believe that the coin dropped a long while ago. Having spent the first year arbitrarily arresting top politicos and businessmen for corruption (their confessions often extracted after torture, methods rendered inscrutable by the state of emergency), the government seemed to have changed its tack as the need for a safe landing became more and more pressing. The ‘minus-two’ formula envisioned exiling the two former prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, along the lines of Pervez Musharraf’s Pakistan. Now, this seems to have been abandoned.
In June, Sheikh Hasina (whose supporters largely swept the July polls) was suddenly released on ‘parole’ for ‘medical treatment’. This came after the Awami League leader had spent a year in detention on a slew of corruption charges, with bail being consistently denied through the use of emergency powers. Three months on, the interim cabinet seems to be devoting an inordinate amount of rhetoric to reassure the BNP that its leader, Khaleda Zia, is also in the process of being released from detention. In fact, it is emerging as a source of embarrassment for the interim regime that she has been repeatedly quoted in the press as refusing to accept any form of exile, and demanding instead that her imprisonment run its normal legal course, rather than having an expedited release. If she does not want to be released, people are asking themselves, and yet if she is still as corrupt as the government has been saying, then why does the chief adviser need to reassure the BNP of her imminent release? The waters get murkier as the Awami League mounts pressure on the goverment to release arch-rival Khaleda -- to prevent her from emerging as a symbol of the pro-democracy movement, but mostly due to the fact that her continued incarceration makes Hasina seem too eager to compromise with the cantonment.
It certainly does not help the government’s case that ordinary Bangladeshis know that, historically, such developments have always been the result of dirty deals between the powerful and those in power. There is already talk on the street that the results of the national elections, now scheduled for December, could be determined by whichever party offers the advisers a safer ‘exit route’, as well as indemnity through a desperately necessary constitutional amendment. Bangladesh’s politicians, warts and all, may yet hold the key to ending this latest bout of military rule.
Source: Himal Southasian
September, 2008 Edition
Since a military-controlled interim government assumed power in Dhaka in January 2007 – suspending elections, announcing a jihad on corruption, arresting former prime ministers, and promising to right all that is wrong – a little-known Chinese proverb has entered the Bangla street lexicon. Riding a tiger is easy, the danger is in getting off strikes many as tailor-made to describe the unenviable plight that Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and his colleagues find themselves in today, some 20 months after assuming power.
In late July, local elections to a handful of city corporations and municipalities (in Sylhet, Khulna, Barisal and Rajshahi), held under the ongoing state of emergency, may have confirmed the regime’s deepest fears. Last year, the Chief Election Commissioner, A T M Shamsul Huda, had time and again told the media that the emergency would have to be lifted before free and fair national polls could take place. In the wake of July’s local elections, however, he seems to have quickly changed his mind.
Though candidates in the local polls were not allowed to contest under the banner of the mainstream political parties, it was almost exclusively candidates with known party affiliations who won. Since the interim government came to power last year, a pro-government media blitzkrieg that blamed all of the coutnry’s ills on the politicians had sought to ensure that the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) stood thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the public. As undeserving as they are of public favour, these polls have shown that the people of Bangladesh still side with their candidates, despite the fact that almost everyone will agree that the party top brass is corrupt and autocratic.
This failure to transform politics could not have been brought home with greater impact than through a recent remark by CEC Huda, who publicly admitted to the interim government’s failure to bring “honest and capable candidates” to stand in the recently held elections. Huda’s comment made all the more of a splash due to the fact that this tagline of honesty and competence in politics has been regularly touted by the interim government as one of its strongest selling points.
Meanwhile, even the emergent elite, one of the strongest constituencies for this military-controlled government and its ambitious plan to ‘democratise’ the country, there is increasing disillusionment. There is no escaping the proof on the ground that all is not right. The Berlin-based Transparency International, which has ranked Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world for three years in a row, recently ruled that corruption had not abated under Bangladesh’s new uniformed rulers.
Exit and indemnity
In fact, most political observers believe that the coin dropped a long while ago. Having spent the first year arbitrarily arresting top politicos and businessmen for corruption (their confessions often extracted after torture, methods rendered inscrutable by the state of emergency), the government seemed to have changed its tack as the need for a safe landing became more and more pressing. The ‘minus-two’ formula envisioned exiling the two former prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, along the lines of Pervez Musharraf’s Pakistan. Now, this seems to have been abandoned.
In June, Sheikh Hasina (whose supporters largely swept the July polls) was suddenly released on ‘parole’ for ‘medical treatment’. This came after the Awami League leader had spent a year in detention on a slew of corruption charges, with bail being consistently denied through the use of emergency powers. Three months on, the interim cabinet seems to be devoting an inordinate amount of rhetoric to reassure the BNP that its leader, Khaleda Zia, is also in the process of being released from detention. In fact, it is emerging as a source of embarrassment for the interim regime that she has been repeatedly quoted in the press as refusing to accept any form of exile, and demanding instead that her imprisonment run its normal legal course, rather than having an expedited release. If she does not want to be released, people are asking themselves, and yet if she is still as corrupt as the government has been saying, then why does the chief adviser need to reassure the BNP of her imminent release? The waters get murkier as the Awami League mounts pressure on the goverment to release arch-rival Khaleda -- to prevent her from emerging as a symbol of the pro-democracy movement, but mostly due to the fact that her continued incarceration makes Hasina seem too eager to compromise with the cantonment.
It certainly does not help the government’s case that ordinary Bangladeshis know that, historically, such developments have always been the result of dirty deals between the powerful and those in power. There is already talk on the street that the results of the national elections, now scheduled for December, could be determined by whichever party offers the advisers a safer ‘exit route’, as well as indemnity through a desperately necessary constitutional amendment. Bangladesh’s politicians, warts and all, may yet hold the key to ending this latest bout of military rule.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Is the train on the right track?
Is the train on the right track?
Husain Imam
Source: Daily Star
August 25, 2008
THE time is probably ripe to assess whether the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed has been, as promised, able to lift the derailed political train of Bangladesh from the abyss and put it on the right track. If you ask me, the answer is yes, the answer is no.
Yes, because it has, by preparing a fairly accurate voter list and holding four city corporation and nine pourashava elections successfully, set in motion the much needed electoral process.
No, because the people are still not sure whether the train is on the right track that will take it to its ultimate destination -- the parliament building at Manik Mia Avenue. Even if it is on the right track, one is not sure whether the train will be able to reach its destination without having the borjis (bandits) back on board. The reasons are simple:
One: Despite the fact that the chief adviser, the army chief and the chief election commissioner have time and again reassured the public that the national election will be held by the end of December 2008 at any cost (mori or bachi in the words of the CEC), with hardly four months in hand, people still do not have a clear view of the bogies of the electoral train for national election with their naked eyes.
Two: The government's determination to go ahead with the upazila polls in October this year, before national polls, against the will of the two major parties -- Awami League and BNP -- has not only raised a wall to obscure the electoral scenario of national election, it has also given rise to an air of uncertainty and scepticism about the election.
Three: The bandits, we say godfathers, who were put behind bars (more appropriately in quarantine camp) or kept on the run on charges of wanton corruption, violence, loot, extortion and abuse of state power, now seem to be flexing their muscles to stage a comeback with garlands around their necks and making V-sign with their fingers, thanks to the handling, or should we say mishandling, of the cases. Forgive me if I am wrong.
Let's take stock of the situation. The government, the Election Commission and the armed forces have done an excellent job in preparing a fairly accurate voter list with photos, and thus fulfilled one of their prime responsibilities as a caretaker government.
They have also, to their full credit, separated the judiciary from the executive, reconstituted the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Election Commission (EC), the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC).
The rest are sad stories. The much talked about political reform hasn't met with any success. The attempt to change the top leadership of the two political parties who ruled the country over the last 15 years has backfired.
The possibility of emergence of a third political force to the liking of the caretaker government or the civil society has remained as bleak as it was before. Qualitative change in political culture remains a distant cry.
Administrative reform is not even on the agenda anymore. Electoral reform has not progressed as expected. Even the question of registration of the political parties is still uncertain.
To talk or think about a congenial atmosphere for a free, fair and credible election under emergency rules is bound to receive a mixed reaction from many a quarter at home and abroad. The idea of balancing Awami League with BNP in order to ensure a level playing field was ridiculous.
The anti-corruption drive, the only reason, other than preparation of a correct voter list with photos, that had given the present caretaker government the legitimacy by the people to run the country under emergency rules and extend their tenure well beyond their constitutionally mandated period of 90 days, seems to have run into trouble, if not disarray.
Setting up of a Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC) at the fag end of the tenure of the government to ease the burden on the judiciary in handling the innumerable graft cases filed by the ACC, and the response of the higher courts to the appeals against the verdicts of the lower courts are manifestations of the case in point.
The general people thought that the anti-corruption drive of the caretaker government would reduce corruption, lessen their harassment at the hands of the government agencies, lower the prices of essentials and utility services, and bring about some comfort in their daily life. That did not happen.
According to a TIB survey report, corruption has decreased in the upper level, thanks to the ACC and other agencies for their relentless effort and courageous steps, but it has increased in the middle and lower levels of administration, directly affecting the common people.
On top of it, the spiralling prices of food and other essential items, reaching far beyond the buying capacity of middle and lower income groups, shrinking of employment opportunities, and acute and persistent crisis of water, electricity and fertiliser have made both the farmers and the general public less and less interested in the reform measures of the caretaker government.
The people are no longer prepared to accept that all these problems are not the making of the incumbent government, nor are they willing to understand that most of these problems are the legacy of the most corrupt and anti-people governments of the past.
They are no more interested to know that the prices food, fuel and other essential items have gone to an all-time high in the international market in the recent months, nor are they willing to listen to the argument that the government had very little leverage in their hands to control the internal market price in an open market economy.
To be frank, despite the fact that the sad episodes of corruption, violence, repression and abject abuse of power of the past government still haunt their memories as nightmares, they have begun to believe that running the affairs of a country is not the task of an un-elected non-political government. They have begun to think that the earlier the caretaker government holds national election and hands over power to a truly representative elected government the better it will be.
______________________
Captain Husain Imam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.
Husain Imam
Source: Daily Star
August 25, 2008
THE time is probably ripe to assess whether the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed has been, as promised, able to lift the derailed political train of Bangladesh from the abyss and put it on the right track. If you ask me, the answer is yes, the answer is no.
Yes, because it has, by preparing a fairly accurate voter list and holding four city corporation and nine pourashava elections successfully, set in motion the much needed electoral process.
No, because the people are still not sure whether the train is on the right track that will take it to its ultimate destination -- the parliament building at Manik Mia Avenue. Even if it is on the right track, one is not sure whether the train will be able to reach its destination without having the borjis (bandits) back on board. The reasons are simple:
One: Despite the fact that the chief adviser, the army chief and the chief election commissioner have time and again reassured the public that the national election will be held by the end of December 2008 at any cost (mori or bachi in the words of the CEC), with hardly four months in hand, people still do not have a clear view of the bogies of the electoral train for national election with their naked eyes.
Two: The government's determination to go ahead with the upazila polls in October this year, before national polls, against the will of the two major parties -- Awami League and BNP -- has not only raised a wall to obscure the electoral scenario of national election, it has also given rise to an air of uncertainty and scepticism about the election.
Three: The bandits, we say godfathers, who were put behind bars (more appropriately in quarantine camp) or kept on the run on charges of wanton corruption, violence, loot, extortion and abuse of state power, now seem to be flexing their muscles to stage a comeback with garlands around their necks and making V-sign with their fingers, thanks to the handling, or should we say mishandling, of the cases. Forgive me if I am wrong.
Let's take stock of the situation. The government, the Election Commission and the armed forces have done an excellent job in preparing a fairly accurate voter list with photos, and thus fulfilled one of their prime responsibilities as a caretaker government.
They have also, to their full credit, separated the judiciary from the executive, reconstituted the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Election Commission (EC), the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Public Service Commission (PSC).
The rest are sad stories. The much talked about political reform hasn't met with any success. The attempt to change the top leadership of the two political parties who ruled the country over the last 15 years has backfired.
The possibility of emergence of a third political force to the liking of the caretaker government or the civil society has remained as bleak as it was before. Qualitative change in political culture remains a distant cry.
Administrative reform is not even on the agenda anymore. Electoral reform has not progressed as expected. Even the question of registration of the political parties is still uncertain.
To talk or think about a congenial atmosphere for a free, fair and credible election under emergency rules is bound to receive a mixed reaction from many a quarter at home and abroad. The idea of balancing Awami League with BNP in order to ensure a level playing field was ridiculous.
The anti-corruption drive, the only reason, other than preparation of a correct voter list with photos, that had given the present caretaker government the legitimacy by the people to run the country under emergency rules and extend their tenure well beyond their constitutionally mandated period of 90 days, seems to have run into trouble, if not disarray.
Setting up of a Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC) at the fag end of the tenure of the government to ease the burden on the judiciary in handling the innumerable graft cases filed by the ACC, and the response of the higher courts to the appeals against the verdicts of the lower courts are manifestations of the case in point.
The general people thought that the anti-corruption drive of the caretaker government would reduce corruption, lessen their harassment at the hands of the government agencies, lower the prices of essentials and utility services, and bring about some comfort in their daily life. That did not happen.
According to a TIB survey report, corruption has decreased in the upper level, thanks to the ACC and other agencies for their relentless effort and courageous steps, but it has increased in the middle and lower levels of administration, directly affecting the common people.
On top of it, the spiralling prices of food and other essential items, reaching far beyond the buying capacity of middle and lower income groups, shrinking of employment opportunities, and acute and persistent crisis of water, electricity and fertiliser have made both the farmers and the general public less and less interested in the reform measures of the caretaker government.
The people are no longer prepared to accept that all these problems are not the making of the incumbent government, nor are they willing to understand that most of these problems are the legacy of the most corrupt and anti-people governments of the past.
They are no more interested to know that the prices food, fuel and other essential items have gone to an all-time high in the international market in the recent months, nor are they willing to listen to the argument that the government had very little leverage in their hands to control the internal market price in an open market economy.
To be frank, despite the fact that the sad episodes of corruption, violence, repression and abject abuse of power of the past government still haunt their memories as nightmares, they have begun to believe that running the affairs of a country is not the task of an un-elected non-political government. They have begun to think that the earlier the caretaker government holds national election and hands over power to a truly representative elected government the better it will be.
______________________
Captain Husain Imam is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Truth and graft in Bangladesh
Truth and graft in Bangladesh
By Farid Ahmed
Source: Asia Times Online
August 6, 2008
DHAKA - Just as Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed's newly formed Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC) became functional this week, it ran straight into criticism from domestic economists who've called it conceptually flawed and ultimately unworkable.
Ahmed's government took power under emergency in January 2007, after widespread street violence prevented the scheduled general elections. The new administration soon launched a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that netted hundreds of rich and influential people. But their absence also greatly slowed down the economy of impoverished Bangladesh.
"The government set up the truth commission [TAC] in a bid to spur economic activities which slowed down after the crackdown on corruption suspects," Anisul Huq, one of the authors of the truth commission law and a Supreme Court lawyer, told Inter Press Service (IPS).
The military-backed interim government announced retired Supreme Court judge, Habibur Rehman, as the head of the (TAC). Its members will be a former comptroller and auditor general and a retired army general. As a whole, the commission will be tasked with boosting the economy as well as meting out justice. No easy task in Bangladesh.
"Corruption is everywhere in society and there are some people who were unwillingly involved in it," said Huq. "Moreover, the move [to set up the commission] will lessen the burden of the courts of law dealing with the corruption cases."
But Zaid Bakth, an economist with the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, was not optimistic about the success of the commission. "It may bring respite immediately, but it will not bring in any success in the long run," he told IPS in Dhaka.
"Corruption increases the cost of transaction and the government ultimately needs to curb corruption and ensure good governance for a sound economy," Bakth said.
"The truth commission is the consequence of contradictions in the policy of the present government. They apparently wanted to change the country without changing the policy framework. So, negotiations even with corrupt persons are a must," said Anu Muhammad, professor of economics at the Jahangirnagar University.
He pointed out that the commission would not be able to correct the flawed policies that hindered the growth of business, investment and employment.
But Rehman, the newly appointed chairman of the commission, has a wait-and-see attitude. "There is nothing to be optimistic or pessimistic about it ... [I] will just try to do my job and the end results will show whether the commission succeeds," he said.
Rehman told reporters said that following the series of arrests made by the caretaker government there has been some economic instability and that the investment climate has dimmed. "The truth and accountability commission has been created to avert economic disaster,'' he said.
Under the Right to Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance of 2008, persons willing to voluntarily disclose ill-gotten wealth are exempted from prosecution and imprisonment as long as they surrender the illegal holdings or deposit an equal amount of money with the government.
The commission, formed under the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance, may grant mercy to corruption suspects if they file petitions for voluntary disclosure.
According to the ordinance, no person already charged or convicted in a graft case will have the right to apply for voluntary disclosure. Persons disclosing their corruption will be barred from national or local elections for five years and from holding any public office or executive positions in banks or financial institutions.
More than 200 high-profile suspects, mostly politicians from the country's two main political parties - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League - and including their leaders and former prime ministers Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed were jailed.
Charges have already been filed against Sheikh Hasina in two corruption cases. Khlaeda Zia is yet to be charged.
"There is scope for discrimination as the commission is formed from certain groups of people," Awami League leader Matia Chowdhury said. "The government has formed the commission to help its own people to escape punishment."
The Berlin-based global corruption watchdog Transparency International regularly lists Bangladesh as among the most corrupt countries in the world. Economists say corruption has seriously eroded the country's gross domestic product.
According to Huq, under the commission's scheme business people who have been detained, or who are on the run after being named as graft suspects, would be pardoned if they confess to their crimes.
Meanwhile, profits are reportedly nose-diving at some 30 leading businesses whose owners are in jail or have gone underground to avoid the anti-corruption dragnet. The downturn has cast doubt on more than 300,000 jobs, according to a report in the New Age daily newspaper,
In fact, the average production capacity of these business has decreased between 20 and 50% over the past few months. Some of the businesses have already announced thousands of layoffs, others have allegedly not paid workers' wages for three to seven months.
The country's top trade body, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has complained that the anti-corruption drive has caused a "climate of fear" that has dampened the national economy.
Still, as Rehman puts it, the commission will not pursue a "name-and-shame" policy and the identities of those making voluntary disclosures will be withheld from the public.
(Inter Press Service)
By Farid Ahmed
Source: Asia Times Online
August 6, 2008
DHAKA - Just as Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed's newly formed Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC) became functional this week, it ran straight into criticism from domestic economists who've called it conceptually flawed and ultimately unworkable.
Ahmed's government took power under emergency in January 2007, after widespread street violence prevented the scheduled general elections. The new administration soon launched a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that netted hundreds of rich and influential people. But their absence also greatly slowed down the economy of impoverished Bangladesh.
"The government set up the truth commission [TAC] in a bid to spur economic activities which slowed down after the crackdown on corruption suspects," Anisul Huq, one of the authors of the truth commission law and a Supreme Court lawyer, told Inter Press Service (IPS).
The military-backed interim government announced retired Supreme Court judge, Habibur Rehman, as the head of the (TAC). Its members will be a former comptroller and auditor general and a retired army general. As a whole, the commission will be tasked with boosting the economy as well as meting out justice. No easy task in Bangladesh.
"Corruption is everywhere in society and there are some people who were unwillingly involved in it," said Huq. "Moreover, the move [to set up the commission] will lessen the burden of the courts of law dealing with the corruption cases."
But Zaid Bakth, an economist with the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, was not optimistic about the success of the commission. "It may bring respite immediately, but it will not bring in any success in the long run," he told IPS in Dhaka.
"Corruption increases the cost of transaction and the government ultimately needs to curb corruption and ensure good governance for a sound economy," Bakth said.
"The truth commission is the consequence of contradictions in the policy of the present government. They apparently wanted to change the country without changing the policy framework. So, negotiations even with corrupt persons are a must," said Anu Muhammad, professor of economics at the Jahangirnagar University.
He pointed out that the commission would not be able to correct the flawed policies that hindered the growth of business, investment and employment.
But Rehman, the newly appointed chairman of the commission, has a wait-and-see attitude. "There is nothing to be optimistic or pessimistic about it ... [I] will just try to do my job and the end results will show whether the commission succeeds," he said.
Rehman told reporters said that following the series of arrests made by the caretaker government there has been some economic instability and that the investment climate has dimmed. "The truth and accountability commission has been created to avert economic disaster,'' he said.
Under the Right to Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance of 2008, persons willing to voluntarily disclose ill-gotten wealth are exempted from prosecution and imprisonment as long as they surrender the illegal holdings or deposit an equal amount of money with the government.
The commission, formed under the Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance, may grant mercy to corruption suspects if they file petitions for voluntary disclosure.
According to the ordinance, no person already charged or convicted in a graft case will have the right to apply for voluntary disclosure. Persons disclosing their corruption will be barred from national or local elections for five years and from holding any public office or executive positions in banks or financial institutions.
More than 200 high-profile suspects, mostly politicians from the country's two main political parties - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League - and including their leaders and former prime ministers Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed were jailed.
Charges have already been filed against Sheikh Hasina in two corruption cases. Khlaeda Zia is yet to be charged.
"There is scope for discrimination as the commission is formed from certain groups of people," Awami League leader Matia Chowdhury said. "The government has formed the commission to help its own people to escape punishment."
The Berlin-based global corruption watchdog Transparency International regularly lists Bangladesh as among the most corrupt countries in the world. Economists say corruption has seriously eroded the country's gross domestic product.
According to Huq, under the commission's scheme business people who have been detained, or who are on the run after being named as graft suspects, would be pardoned if they confess to their crimes.
Meanwhile, profits are reportedly nose-diving at some 30 leading businesses whose owners are in jail or have gone underground to avoid the anti-corruption dragnet. The downturn has cast doubt on more than 300,000 jobs, according to a report in the New Age daily newspaper,
In fact, the average production capacity of these business has decreased between 20 and 50% over the past few months. Some of the businesses have already announced thousands of layoffs, others have allegedly not paid workers' wages for three to seven months.
The country's top trade body, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has complained that the anti-corruption drive has caused a "climate of fear" that has dampened the national economy.
Still, as Rehman puts it, the commission will not pursue a "name-and-shame" policy and the identities of those making voluntary disclosures will be withheld from the public.
(Inter Press Service)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Bribe-takers in Anti Corruption Body
Source: AFP
July 9, 2008
DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladesh's top anti-corruption body admitted Tuesday that it has discovered several of its own officials taking bribes while enforcing a nationwide crackdown on the practice.
The Anti-Corruption Commission is planning to take action against 28 of its staff, including 11 who will have to go to court, commission spokesman Colonel Hanif Iqbal told AFP.
"We have decided to take action against 28 of our officials after an internal monitoring and surveillance has found them seeking or taking bribes and breaking service rules such as secretly buying properties," Iqbal said.
The officials exposed include two directors and several assistant directors, he said, adding the ACC would continue its "strict surveillance."
Bangladesh's military-backed government reconstituted the ACC immediately after it took power in January last year following the imposition of a state of emergency and the cancellation of elections.
The commission was made independent and given strong powers in an effort to clean up the country's graft-tainted reputation.
Bangladesh is rated one of the world's most corrupt countries by Berlin-based business watchdog Transparency International.
The body has filed scores of cases against political leaders, former ministers and top businessmen, accused of plundering state wealth and taking millions of dollars in kickbacks.
July 9, 2008
DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladesh's top anti-corruption body admitted Tuesday that it has discovered several of its own officials taking bribes while enforcing a nationwide crackdown on the practice.
The Anti-Corruption Commission is planning to take action against 28 of its staff, including 11 who will have to go to court, commission spokesman Colonel Hanif Iqbal told AFP.
"We have decided to take action against 28 of our officials after an internal monitoring and surveillance has found them seeking or taking bribes and breaking service rules such as secretly buying properties," Iqbal said.
The officials exposed include two directors and several assistant directors, he said, adding the ACC would continue its "strict surveillance."
Bangladesh's military-backed government reconstituted the ACC immediately after it took power in January last year following the imposition of a state of emergency and the cancellation of elections.
The commission was made independent and given strong powers in an effort to clean up the country's graft-tainted reputation.
Bangladesh is rated one of the world's most corrupt countries by Berlin-based business watchdog Transparency International.
The body has filed scores of cases against political leaders, former ministers and top businessmen, accused of plundering state wealth and taking millions of dollars in kickbacks.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Strength or Humility? Time to Change Caretaking Approach
Strength or Humility? Time to Change Caretaking Approach
Contributed by Gopal Sengupta
Source: The Progressive Bangladesh
February 21, 2008
Bangladesh's caretaker government and its military mentors have indeed done some notable work. The first is bringing charges against certain powerful people, who used to be perceived as being above the law, though one cannot say that the ways of detaining them were adequately lawful.
Then, of course, they have had such vital institutions of the state as the Election Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Service Commission reconstituted. Importantly still, they have completed, albeit on paper, the separation of the judiciary from the executive.
Paper vs. reality
Regrettably, the initiatives, however well-intentioned they may be, have thus far yielded hardly any positive results. One need not be a legal expert to understand that the judiciary is still very much under the executive's control. Also, the reconstituted Election Commission, which is ordained and expected to create a level playing field for credible and contested elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad, is perceived by many quarters to be pursuing an agenda of complicating the political process.
Finally, the less said about the government's anti-crime and anti-corruption drives, the better. With the High Court's recent judgement, it is now time for the powers that be to ponder the legality and constitutionality of many of the measures they have undertaken in respect to the prosecution of a whole class of individuals. Emergency or not, how can the government bring a case on charges stemming from crimes allegedly committed many years ago under the purview of rules put in place a mere year ago?
The High Court steps in valiantly
In a landmark judgment recently, the High Court in Bangladesh quashed all trial proceedings of an extortion case against Sheikh Hasina, a former Prime Minister. The High Court observed that the sections of the emergency laws curtailing the court jurisdiction to grant bail to the accused persons were ultra vires of the constitution.
The High Court has delivered what the general public would consider an obvious judgment. The Court has indeed upheld a simple legal point that no law covers any offence committed before its enactment. But equally important, the Court has hammered in a reality check and a lesson in humility to the arrogance of the current government.
The wide-ranging implications of the judgment are not hard to see. The accused could have been tried under the existing laws of the country without creating any controversy. We cannot but question the wisdom of the government’s legal advisers who clearly failed to see in advance the weaknesses and limitations of applying emergency laws that they themselves wrote, when the existing laws could have taken care of the corruption cases. The lesson to be learnt from it is that any short-sighted attempt to take a shortcut in a legal matter might backfire and undermine the whole edifice of the justice system.
Losing steam
So the unprecedented anti-graft crackdown by military-led caretaker government (CTG) is gradually losing impetus. Aside from legal shortsightedness, numerous difficulties, including frequent shift in priorities, have made the drive too complex.
Although the drive succeeded in creating an impression that no one is above the law, valid questions were raised about different issues including discrimination in targeting corruption suspects, preparing quality graft cases, and the role of the National Coordination Committee to Combat Corruption and Serious Crimes (NCC) in dealing with other serious crimes.
Taskforce sources said there were discussions among themselves about a trend of discrimination in targeting graft suspects since many influential persons widely known as corrupt still remain out of the dragnet, while others are allegedly targeted for political reasons. This has resulted in a decline in public faith in the ongoing anti-graft drives, and in a permeating sense of frustration among the taskforce personnel.
Moreover, NCC added a new dimension to the drive by bringing into its focus institutional graft, targeting around seven institutions in the first phase, while leaving widely known corrupt institutions and sectors like local government and rural development (LGRD), local government engineering department (LGED), agriculture, and education still untouched. Also The task force sources said that fearing an adverse reaction in the bureaucratic apparatus they could not even proceed to file many graft charges. There are other questions as well, notably those relating to the grant of bail to detained individuals. To what extent prosecution lawyers' appeals against bails granted to detained political figures amount to an upholding of the law is an issue that must now be broadly assessed within the corridors of the administration.
The arrogance of applying laws at gunpoint
It is not just surprising, but mind-boggling as well, knowing that the legal luminaries of the government, of the Anti-Corruption Commission, did not know what people around the country already knew. The recent High Court judgment has simply put paid to a case pursued in a shoddy, unthinking manner. The government must understand that taking a shortcut in legal matters can boomerang. If so, when the state of emergency is withdrawn, even the genuine offenders may well rush to higher courts and get themselves acquitted of the charges brought against them.
Moreover, the manner in which the interim government has employed the army-led joint forces in its anti-crime and anticorruption drives has induced a climate of fear in the business community, which, in turn, has resulted in a sharp decline in investment and business activities, and concomitant fall in export and loss of employment.
All along, the prices of essential commodities have spiralled out of the reach of even the middle-income people. Last but not least, amid all these, the interim government has failed to deliver on its primary mandate, i.e., help the Election Commission hold the stalled general elections within the 90-day constitutional timeframe. Ultimately, the 'good' work of the government and its military mentors seems to have landed the country in a larger economic and political mess than it was in before the incumbents took over the helm of the state.
Bring back humility
The qualities of the present caretaker government -- authority, fortitude, heroism -- sound like the qualities of an autocrat. At this time, Bangladesh needs a leader with not strength and arrogance, but the humility to admit that the country is on the wrong course. Institution after institution have failed Bangladesh -- the presidency, caretaker government and the judiciary. They all endorsed a war to rid Bangladesh of different things like corruption, while trying to keep the same spoils for themselves.
Many reform critics are no different, who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Bangladesh is in a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and again at the polls and in handing over power to another group after having caused further damage to institutions, accountability, and transparency.
Contributed by Gopal Sengupta
Source: The Progressive Bangladesh
February 21, 2008
Bangladesh's caretaker government and its military mentors have indeed done some notable work. The first is bringing charges against certain powerful people, who used to be perceived as being above the law, though one cannot say that the ways of detaining them were adequately lawful.
Then, of course, they have had such vital institutions of the state as the Election Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Service Commission reconstituted. Importantly still, they have completed, albeit on paper, the separation of the judiciary from the executive.
Paper vs. reality
Regrettably, the initiatives, however well-intentioned they may be, have thus far yielded hardly any positive results. One need not be a legal expert to understand that the judiciary is still very much under the executive's control. Also, the reconstituted Election Commission, which is ordained and expected to create a level playing field for credible and contested elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad, is perceived by many quarters to be pursuing an agenda of complicating the political process.
Finally, the less said about the government's anti-crime and anti-corruption drives, the better. With the High Court's recent judgement, it is now time for the powers that be to ponder the legality and constitutionality of many of the measures they have undertaken in respect to the prosecution of a whole class of individuals. Emergency or not, how can the government bring a case on charges stemming from crimes allegedly committed many years ago under the purview of rules put in place a mere year ago?
The High Court steps in valiantly
In a landmark judgment recently, the High Court in Bangladesh quashed all trial proceedings of an extortion case against Sheikh Hasina, a former Prime Minister. The High Court observed that the sections of the emergency laws curtailing the court jurisdiction to grant bail to the accused persons were ultra vires of the constitution.
The High Court has delivered what the general public would consider an obvious judgment. The Court has indeed upheld a simple legal point that no law covers any offence committed before its enactment. But equally important, the Court has hammered in a reality check and a lesson in humility to the arrogance of the current government.
The wide-ranging implications of the judgment are not hard to see. The accused could have been tried under the existing laws of the country without creating any controversy. We cannot but question the wisdom of the government’s legal advisers who clearly failed to see in advance the weaknesses and limitations of applying emergency laws that they themselves wrote, when the existing laws could have taken care of the corruption cases. The lesson to be learnt from it is that any short-sighted attempt to take a shortcut in a legal matter might backfire and undermine the whole edifice of the justice system.
Losing steam
So the unprecedented anti-graft crackdown by military-led caretaker government (CTG) is gradually losing impetus. Aside from legal shortsightedness, numerous difficulties, including frequent shift in priorities, have made the drive too complex.
Although the drive succeeded in creating an impression that no one is above the law, valid questions were raised about different issues including discrimination in targeting corruption suspects, preparing quality graft cases, and the role of the National Coordination Committee to Combat Corruption and Serious Crimes (NCC) in dealing with other serious crimes.
Taskforce sources said there were discussions among themselves about a trend of discrimination in targeting graft suspects since many influential persons widely known as corrupt still remain out of the dragnet, while others are allegedly targeted for political reasons. This has resulted in a decline in public faith in the ongoing anti-graft drives, and in a permeating sense of frustration among the taskforce personnel.
Moreover, NCC added a new dimension to the drive by bringing into its focus institutional graft, targeting around seven institutions in the first phase, while leaving widely known corrupt institutions and sectors like local government and rural development (LGRD), local government engineering department (LGED), agriculture, and education still untouched. Also The task force sources said that fearing an adverse reaction in the bureaucratic apparatus they could not even proceed to file many graft charges. There are other questions as well, notably those relating to the grant of bail to detained individuals. To what extent prosecution lawyers' appeals against bails granted to detained political figures amount to an upholding of the law is an issue that must now be broadly assessed within the corridors of the administration.
The arrogance of applying laws at gunpoint
It is not just surprising, but mind-boggling as well, knowing that the legal luminaries of the government, of the Anti-Corruption Commission, did not know what people around the country already knew. The recent High Court judgment has simply put paid to a case pursued in a shoddy, unthinking manner. The government must understand that taking a shortcut in legal matters can boomerang. If so, when the state of emergency is withdrawn, even the genuine offenders may well rush to higher courts and get themselves acquitted of the charges brought against them.
Moreover, the manner in which the interim government has employed the army-led joint forces in its anti-crime and anticorruption drives has induced a climate of fear in the business community, which, in turn, has resulted in a sharp decline in investment and business activities, and concomitant fall in export and loss of employment.
All along, the prices of essential commodities have spiralled out of the reach of even the middle-income people. Last but not least, amid all these, the interim government has failed to deliver on its primary mandate, i.e., help the Election Commission hold the stalled general elections within the 90-day constitutional timeframe. Ultimately, the 'good' work of the government and its military mentors seems to have landed the country in a larger economic and political mess than it was in before the incumbents took over the helm of the state.
Bring back humility
The qualities of the present caretaker government -- authority, fortitude, heroism -- sound like the qualities of an autocrat. At this time, Bangladesh needs a leader with not strength and arrogance, but the humility to admit that the country is on the wrong course. Institution after institution have failed Bangladesh -- the presidency, caretaker government and the judiciary. They all endorsed a war to rid Bangladesh of different things like corruption, while trying to keep the same spoils for themselves.
Many reform critics are no different, who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Bangladesh is in a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and again at the polls and in handing over power to another group after having caused further damage to institutions, accountability, and transparency.
Friday, January 25, 2008
New Twist in Corruption Case
Now it's inhuman to keep Hasina confined: AL
Dhaka, Jan 24 (bdnews24.com) – The Awami League thinks it would be inhuman and unjust to keep party president Sheikh Hasina detained after businessman Azam Jahangir Chowdhury said he had not sued the former prime minister for extortion.
Acting AL chief Zillur Rahman Thursday said they thought Hasina had been framed in the case to keep her confined and isolated from the people.
Zillur made the comment at a function to accept donations for the party's central relief fund for cyclone Sidr victims at his Gulshan home in the city.
"From the very beginning we have been saying that Sheikh Hasina is completely innocent. A conspiratorial case has been lodged against her. In this case we will win the legal battle," he said.
Chowdhury, the chairman of Prime Bank, said Thursday he had filed a case only against Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Hasina's cousin, for extorting money from him in return for a promised deal.
"I want to make it clear that I did not file a case against Sheikh Hasina," Chowdhury told bdnews24.com by phone.
Zillur said: "What Azam J Chowdhury has said proves that we have been telling the truth. This is the victory of beauty over ugliness and of truth over lies.
"It has been proved that there is nothing substantial against Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana."
Quoting Selim, the AL presidium member accused in the case, Zillur said, "Sheikh Selim has told the court that his confessional statement was taken under duress. Besides, there is no witness in the case. This is a baseless case."
At the function, a cheque of Tk 10 lakh on behalf of Jeddah Awami League Council and Tk 1 lakh by Fazlur Rahman, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the USA, were given to the relief fund.
It was announced that the central relief fund would accept no financial help after Jan 31.
Awami League leaders Abdur Razzak, Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and Nazma Rahman were present.
Dhaka, Jan 24 (bdnews24.com) – The Awami League thinks it would be inhuman and unjust to keep party president Sheikh Hasina detained after businessman Azam Jahangir Chowdhury said he had not sued the former prime minister for extortion.
Acting AL chief Zillur Rahman Thursday said they thought Hasina had been framed in the case to keep her confined and isolated from the people.
Zillur made the comment at a function to accept donations for the party's central relief fund for cyclone Sidr victims at his Gulshan home in the city.
"From the very beginning we have been saying that Sheikh Hasina is completely innocent. A conspiratorial case has been lodged against her. In this case we will win the legal battle," he said.
Chowdhury, the chairman of Prime Bank, said Thursday he had filed a case only against Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Hasina's cousin, for extorting money from him in return for a promised deal.
"I want to make it clear that I did not file a case against Sheikh Hasina," Chowdhury told bdnews24.com by phone.
Zillur said: "What Azam J Chowdhury has said proves that we have been telling the truth. This is the victory of beauty over ugliness and of truth over lies.
"It has been proved that there is nothing substantial against Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana."
Quoting Selim, the AL presidium member accused in the case, Zillur said, "Sheikh Selim has told the court that his confessional statement was taken under duress. Besides, there is no witness in the case. This is a baseless case."
At the function, a cheque of Tk 10 lakh on behalf of Jeddah Awami League Council and Tk 1 lakh by Fazlur Rahman, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the USA, were given to the relief fund.
It was announced that the central relief fund would accept no financial help after Jan 31.
Awami League leaders Abdur Razzak, Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and Nazma Rahman were present.
Friday, January 18, 2008
One Eleven Analysis: Channel I
The leading political leaders, educators and a former adviser are talking about the army backed caretaker government's one year anniversary in Bangladesh. Dr. Abdul Momen from the USA, Sheikh Shahidul Islam, Begum Motia Chowdhury, Professor Ataur Rahman, former adviser M. Hafizuddin Khan and Hasanul Haque Inu are discussing politics, democracy and the interim government at Tritio Matra presented by Zillur Rahman at Channel I.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Bangladesh Faces Political Storm
After Cyclone, Bangladesh Faces Political Storm
Source: The New York Times
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov. 24 — The political storm that preceded nature’s latest assault on this country still swirls overhead.
Nearly a year into an army-backed state of emergency, basic freedoms remain suspended, a sweeping anticorruption drive has stuffed the jails with some of Bangladesh’s most influential business leaders and politicians, and a fragile economy is tottering under the pressure of floods at home and rising oil prices abroad.
The soaring cost of food is potentially the most explosive challenge facing the military-backed government that has run this country since Jan. 11, when, after debilitating political protests, scheduled elections were scrapped and emergency law was imposed. Climbing inflation was compounded by an unusually harsh monsoon, which destroyed food crops along the flood plains in July.
Then, the Nov. 15 cyclone destroyed acres of rice paddy, ruined the shrimp farms that dot the southern coast, and, according to the World Food Program, left roughly 2.3 million people in need of urgent food aid.
Storm relief is now the government’s most pressing test, including averting famine and disease outbreaks, and ensuring that aid distribution is perceived to be fair and without corruption. The government estimates that six million people were affected by the storm.
“This is going to be the real defining challenge for them,” Rehman Sobhan, the chairman of the Center for Policy Dialogue, an independent research group based in Dhaka, said of the administration. “A huge effort is going to be required.”
Bangladesh is among the world’s poorest nations, with a Muslim-majority population of more than 140 million and nearly half of its youngest children suffering from malnutrition. Polls indicate that even before the cyclone, confidence in the caretaker government was declining.
The way the ordinary Bangladeshi is being pinched every day was on stark display the other day in a working-class quarter of Dhaka called Begunbari, a crowded warren of tenements amid the roar of factories that supply cheap clothes for sale abroad, including in the United States.
Abdul Aziz, 63, a security guard who was buying vegetables at the local market, quietly confessed that even with three grown daughters working in the garment industry, his family was finding it harder to put enough food on the table. On this afternoon, he bought half as many winter beans as he had hoped to and one small head of cauliflower instead of two. Those purchases, along with the staple rice and lentils, would have to feed his family of seven. “We will make do,” he said. “Everyone will have a little bit.”
A tailor who serves the neighborhood said his business had plummeted from about 50 orders a day to barely a couple. Few can afford new clothes when the basics — onions, oil, cauliflower — have become so much costlier.
Firoza Begum, the wife of a civil servant, said the government had failed to curb food prices, even as she gave it credit for cracking down on graft.
“They have caught some corrupt people — we can see that,” she said. “But we also want them to reduce prices of our daily needs, so we can somehow manage our households.”
She said that she had all but given up buying milk and meat for her family because they were too expensive.
In her neighborhood, Election Commission workers were going door to door this afternoon taking names and addresses so they could compile a fresh list of those eligible to vote. Fakhruddin Ahmed, the civilian leader of the country’s military-backed caretaker administration, has promised national elections by the end of 2008.
But exactly how soon elections will take place and under what circumstances, remain mysteries, considering that several major politicians are in jail or in exile. The leaders of the two top political parties, Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Sheik Hasina Wazed of the Awami League, are in custody on various graft and extortion charges. Whether they will be allowed to take part in the election is anyone’s guess.
Under emergency rule, the press is prohibited from publishing anything deemed “provocative” and political activity is banned, including demonstrations. Holding a political meeting outdoors is punishable by up to five years in prison.
The restrictions were loosened slightly in September when indoor political meetings were allowed to resume, but only with permission from the police and with no more than 50 people in attendance.
According to a monthly public perception survey by a consortium of civil society organizations called the Election Working Group, the share of Bangladeshis who expressed high confidence in the caretaker government fell between March and September, while the share of those who had low confidence sharply increased. This was true of respondents from “ordinary” and “elite” socioeconomic groups.
In the latest survey, conducted in face-to-face interviews in late September, the rising price of essential commodities was identified as the biggest concern, and even as the government got good marks for cracking down on corruption, respondents were divided about whether the government had any bearing on their daily lives: 42 percent of them said they were “better off” but about the same percentage said they were “worse off or that there has been no change in their personal situation.”
The government’s anticorruption crusade continues to be seen as a turning point for Bangladesh, which has consistently ranked at the bottom of the annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
Bank accounts have been frozen. Luxury cars have been impounded by the state, or hidden indoors by their owners for fear they will be taken. Nearly 100 prominent politicians and business people have been taken in for questioning, and an unknown number of people have been detained without charge, which is legal under the new emergency laws. A little more than a dozen have been convicted by anticorruption courts, and how quickly, or fairly, the other cases will be tried is unclear.
If entrenched corruption was seen as damaging the economy, the crackdown has also sent shocks through the private sector. The government appears to be retreating from its initial wide sweep and has in recent months, released some detainees.
“Informally, the government wants some sort of reassurance for the business community that they will be allowed to function,” said Akbar Ali Khan, a retired senior government official. He declined to grade the government’s overall performance (criticizing the government is now a punishable offense) except to say that it was vital for the government to prepare for elections and restore business leaders’ confidence in the country.
“The economic problems are very serious and acute,” he said. “These will have to be addressed with more vigor.”
Abdul Awal Mintoo, the chairman and chief executive of Multimode Group, was among the most prominent millionaires taken into custody in May on a vague charge of destabilizing the government, then released six months later. Mr. Mintoo said that while he was in custody he was interrogated less about his own assets than about what evidence he could furnish against Ms. Hasina, the Awami League leader and a former prime minister with whom Mr. Mintoo was friendly.
A naturalized United States citizen, Mr. Mintoo returned to his native Bangladesh 27 years ago and established a number of businesses, from dealing in agricultural seeds to real estate. He estimates his assets in Bangladesh to be $30 million.
Mr. Mintoo, 58, insists that he did not bribe anyone in government in exchange for contracts. But he concedes that he did what he says everyone else has long had to do in this country: grease the wheels of politics and government to get basic things done, including installing a telephone line and getting imported machine parts out of customs. If that were the grounds for his arrest, he said, then “50 million people, every adult male” should be arrested.
“It’s aimless what they’re doing,” he said of the government in an interview, and added that he planned to divest himself of his investments in the country slowly. “I’m not sure how this will end up. I don’t want to take a risk and live in uncertainty.”
“If you take blood out of the arteries,” he added, “it just paralyzes.”
The only charge remaining pending against Mr. Mintoo accuses him of extorting about $700 from a private citizen. Mr. Mintoo laughed at the charge, saying it was too paltry a sum for him to demand of anyone.
Source: The New York Times
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov. 24 — The political storm that preceded nature’s latest assault on this country still swirls overhead.
Nearly a year into an army-backed state of emergency, basic freedoms remain suspended, a sweeping anticorruption drive has stuffed the jails with some of Bangladesh’s most influential business leaders and politicians, and a fragile economy is tottering under the pressure of floods at home and rising oil prices abroad.
The soaring cost of food is potentially the most explosive challenge facing the military-backed government that has run this country since Jan. 11, when, after debilitating political protests, scheduled elections were scrapped and emergency law was imposed. Climbing inflation was compounded by an unusually harsh monsoon, which destroyed food crops along the flood plains in July.
Then, the Nov. 15 cyclone destroyed acres of rice paddy, ruined the shrimp farms that dot the southern coast, and, according to the World Food Program, left roughly 2.3 million people in need of urgent food aid.
Storm relief is now the government’s most pressing test, including averting famine and disease outbreaks, and ensuring that aid distribution is perceived to be fair and without corruption. The government estimates that six million people were affected by the storm.
“This is going to be the real defining challenge for them,” Rehman Sobhan, the chairman of the Center for Policy Dialogue, an independent research group based in Dhaka, said of the administration. “A huge effort is going to be required.”
Bangladesh is among the world’s poorest nations, with a Muslim-majority population of more than 140 million and nearly half of its youngest children suffering from malnutrition. Polls indicate that even before the cyclone, confidence in the caretaker government was declining.
The way the ordinary Bangladeshi is being pinched every day was on stark display the other day in a working-class quarter of Dhaka called Begunbari, a crowded warren of tenements amid the roar of factories that supply cheap clothes for sale abroad, including in the United States.
Abdul Aziz, 63, a security guard who was buying vegetables at the local market, quietly confessed that even with three grown daughters working in the garment industry, his family was finding it harder to put enough food on the table. On this afternoon, he bought half as many winter beans as he had hoped to and one small head of cauliflower instead of two. Those purchases, along with the staple rice and lentils, would have to feed his family of seven. “We will make do,” he said. “Everyone will have a little bit.”
A tailor who serves the neighborhood said his business had plummeted from about 50 orders a day to barely a couple. Few can afford new clothes when the basics — onions, oil, cauliflower — have become so much costlier.
Firoza Begum, the wife of a civil servant, said the government had failed to curb food prices, even as she gave it credit for cracking down on graft.
“They have caught some corrupt people — we can see that,” she said. “But we also want them to reduce prices of our daily needs, so we can somehow manage our households.”
She said that she had all but given up buying milk and meat for her family because they were too expensive.
In her neighborhood, Election Commission workers were going door to door this afternoon taking names and addresses so they could compile a fresh list of those eligible to vote. Fakhruddin Ahmed, the civilian leader of the country’s military-backed caretaker administration, has promised national elections by the end of 2008.
But exactly how soon elections will take place and under what circumstances, remain mysteries, considering that several major politicians are in jail or in exile. The leaders of the two top political parties, Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Sheik Hasina Wazed of the Awami League, are in custody on various graft and extortion charges. Whether they will be allowed to take part in the election is anyone’s guess.
Under emergency rule, the press is prohibited from publishing anything deemed “provocative” and political activity is banned, including demonstrations. Holding a political meeting outdoors is punishable by up to five years in prison.
The restrictions were loosened slightly in September when indoor political meetings were allowed to resume, but only with permission from the police and with no more than 50 people in attendance.
According to a monthly public perception survey by a consortium of civil society organizations called the Election Working Group, the share of Bangladeshis who expressed high confidence in the caretaker government fell between March and September, while the share of those who had low confidence sharply increased. This was true of respondents from “ordinary” and “elite” socioeconomic groups.
In the latest survey, conducted in face-to-face interviews in late September, the rising price of essential commodities was identified as the biggest concern, and even as the government got good marks for cracking down on corruption, respondents were divided about whether the government had any bearing on their daily lives: 42 percent of them said they were “better off” but about the same percentage said they were “worse off or that there has been no change in their personal situation.”
The government’s anticorruption crusade continues to be seen as a turning point for Bangladesh, which has consistently ranked at the bottom of the annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
Bank accounts have been frozen. Luxury cars have been impounded by the state, or hidden indoors by their owners for fear they will be taken. Nearly 100 prominent politicians and business people have been taken in for questioning, and an unknown number of people have been detained without charge, which is legal under the new emergency laws. A little more than a dozen have been convicted by anticorruption courts, and how quickly, or fairly, the other cases will be tried is unclear.
If entrenched corruption was seen as damaging the economy, the crackdown has also sent shocks through the private sector. The government appears to be retreating from its initial wide sweep and has in recent months, released some detainees.
“Informally, the government wants some sort of reassurance for the business community that they will be allowed to function,” said Akbar Ali Khan, a retired senior government official. He declined to grade the government’s overall performance (criticizing the government is now a punishable offense) except to say that it was vital for the government to prepare for elections and restore business leaders’ confidence in the country.
“The economic problems are very serious and acute,” he said. “These will have to be addressed with more vigor.”
Abdul Awal Mintoo, the chairman and chief executive of Multimode Group, was among the most prominent millionaires taken into custody in May on a vague charge of destabilizing the government, then released six months later. Mr. Mintoo said that while he was in custody he was interrogated less about his own assets than about what evidence he could furnish against Ms. Hasina, the Awami League leader and a former prime minister with whom Mr. Mintoo was friendly.
A naturalized United States citizen, Mr. Mintoo returned to his native Bangladesh 27 years ago and established a number of businesses, from dealing in agricultural seeds to real estate. He estimates his assets in Bangladesh to be $30 million.
Mr. Mintoo, 58, insists that he did not bribe anyone in government in exchange for contracts. But he concedes that he did what he says everyone else has long had to do in this country: grease the wheels of politics and government to get basic things done, including installing a telephone line and getting imported machine parts out of customs. If that were the grounds for his arrest, he said, then “50 million people, every adult male” should be arrested.
“It’s aimless what they’re doing,” he said of the government in an interview, and added that he planned to divest himself of his investments in the country slowly. “I’m not sure how this will end up. I don’t want to take a risk and live in uncertainty.”
“If you take blood out of the arteries,” he added, “it just paralyzes.”
The only charge remaining pending against Mr. Mintoo accuses him of extorting about $700 from a private citizen. Mr. Mintoo laughed at the charge, saying it was too paltry a sum for him to demand of anyone.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Giti Ara Chowdhury: The New Godfather
Courtesy of: Shada Kalo
Dr. Mahbub Islam, a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston's Northeastern University and a tenured professor at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania moved back with his wife to Bangladesh a few years ago. He taught at a local university, and invested his hard-earned dollars into a realestate development company. He also built a building in Gulshan, and rented parts of it to Giti Ara Chowdhury and her husband. She is an adviser in the current CTG, and her husband was an MP in the BNP government. Mrs. Chowdhury has another identity: she is the sister-in-law of the chief adviser.So we have the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Moeen, and the CA, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, exhorting NRBs to invest in Bangladesh, while we have Mrs. Chowdhury, an adviser in the government and her husband violently attacking this university professor and trying to usurp his property.
Read the rest from here:
Dr. Mahbub Islam, a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston's Northeastern University and a tenured professor at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania moved back with his wife to Bangladesh a few years ago. He taught at a local university, and invested his hard-earned dollars into a realestate development company. He also built a building in Gulshan, and rented parts of it to Giti Ara Chowdhury and her husband. She is an adviser in the current CTG, and her husband was an MP in the BNP government. Mrs. Chowdhury has another identity: she is the sister-in-law of the chief adviser.So we have the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Moeen, and the CA, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, exhorting NRBs to invest in Bangladesh, while we have Mrs. Chowdhury, an adviser in the government and her husband violently attacking this university professor and trying to usurp his property.
Read the rest from here:
Monday, October 22, 2007
Can a Truth Commission help Bangladesh?
Can a Truth Commission help Bangladesh?
RATER ZONAKI
SYLHET, October 22, 2007
Source: UPI Asia Online
Column: Humanity or Humor?
An ordinary citizen of Bangladesh, frustrated after a long job search in the public and private sectors, decided to establish a small factory to make cotton using cut pieces of fabric from garment factories. The man needed only a few things: a place for the factory, one or more cotton making machines, and an electricity supply to power the factory.
Having fulfilled the first two criteria, he went to the local office of the Power Development Board to apply for an electric connection. The engineer in charge asked for 75,000 taka (around US$1,000) for the approval of the electric connection. Officially the factory owner should have paid the government around 30,000 taka (about US$440) for the whole project.
Business begins with bribes -- this is an unavoidable fact to common businessmen in Bangladesh. Now the military-backed government is talking about establishing a Truth Commission in the country. The idea is to allow some kind of amnesty for the businessmen, according to Barrister Mainul Hosein, the government's Law and Information Adviser. Over the last few weeks this issue has been the hottest topic around.
At a recent meeting with the press Hosein reportedly said, "It is necessary to overcome the economic crisis through reconciliation with businessmen." He explained the idea of forming a commission where businessmen would confess their misdeeds as a means of dealing with major corruption charges, short of bringing them to trial. However, under questioning from reporters the adviser backed down, saying the law would not stipulate that the commission was only for businessmen.
No government official has, so far, clarified the idea of the Truth Commission beyond the barrister's remarks. The tight-lipped attitude of the government toward its talkative adviser suggests that the government itself is in the dark as to the purpose and function of such a body.
It may be too early to talk about this particular commission, as the government has not yet disclosed its structure or function. Yet it is necessary to assess the credibility of the institutions that implement the rule of law in the country, as well as the professionals and public servants involved in such institutions.
The role of the police, so far, has been to allow corrupt segments of society to compete with each other in the race of corruption, by themselves practicing corruption. In return for bribes, they allow offenders to commit crimes one after another; they work as musclemen for corrupt rich and influential groups to exploit and harass the common people, who are poor and helpless.
On one hand, the civil servants and professionals involved in implementing and upholding the laws of the land lost the public trust decades ago. The country's prosecution system is not only faulty and lacking skilled professionals, but also partisan by nature -- the judges, as part of a dysfunctional and lame judiciary, are incompetent to determine justice for its victims. Verdicts are products purchased by the rich in the courts, while the poor are destined to suffer for years for the crime of seeking justice.
On the other hand, the habit of misrule has established a culture of hiding the truth and distorting facts. People do not feel free to speak out for fear of harassment or abuse at the hands of public servants and even professionals who should protect them. This culture has resulted in a forced silence -- a social numbness all around.
The situation requires a monitoring authority, such as an ombudsman, to investigate the behavior of public servants and punish them automatically when misdeeds are discovered. The existing departmental procedures for holding such people accountable have completely failed to address the problems.
Common citizens of Bangladesh do not know who speaks the truth within the nation's legal institutions. Nobody knows who will benefit from the proposed Truth Commission. What will be the criteria for granting amnesty? What sort of solution will this commission bring to the nation's problems?
If the government creates a Truth Commission for the business community, then why not one also for the public servants and bureaucrats who create the problems for the businessmen and the citizens of all segments of society, who swim in a sea of corruption?
The nation has recently demonstrated its unique style of combating corruption by detaining a handful of people and putting them on trial. Meanwhile, hundreds of real champions of corruption remain protected by their loyalty to the armed forces. They are free to do what they will with their successful businesses and political positions.
The government has utterly failed to prove its credibility to the people or the media over the past ten months. Now it is planning to spend public money to set up another misguided and confused institution. Does anyone really think a Truth Commission can solve the prevailing problems in Bangladesh?
______________________________________
(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender living in Sylhet in Bangladesh who has been working on human rights issues in the country for more than a decade and who was a journalist in Bangladesh in the 1990s.)
RATER ZONAKI
SYLHET, October 22, 2007
Source: UPI Asia Online
Column: Humanity or Humor?
An ordinary citizen of Bangladesh, frustrated after a long job search in the public and private sectors, decided to establish a small factory to make cotton using cut pieces of fabric from garment factories. The man needed only a few things: a place for the factory, one or more cotton making machines, and an electricity supply to power the factory.
Having fulfilled the first two criteria, he went to the local office of the Power Development Board to apply for an electric connection. The engineer in charge asked for 75,000 taka (around US$1,000) for the approval of the electric connection. Officially the factory owner should have paid the government around 30,000 taka (about US$440) for the whole project.
Business begins with bribes -- this is an unavoidable fact to common businessmen in Bangladesh. Now the military-backed government is talking about establishing a Truth Commission in the country. The idea is to allow some kind of amnesty for the businessmen, according to Barrister Mainul Hosein, the government's Law and Information Adviser. Over the last few weeks this issue has been the hottest topic around.
At a recent meeting with the press Hosein reportedly said, "It is necessary to overcome the economic crisis through reconciliation with businessmen." He explained the idea of forming a commission where businessmen would confess their misdeeds as a means of dealing with major corruption charges, short of bringing them to trial. However, under questioning from reporters the adviser backed down, saying the law would not stipulate that the commission was only for businessmen.
No government official has, so far, clarified the idea of the Truth Commission beyond the barrister's remarks. The tight-lipped attitude of the government toward its talkative adviser suggests that the government itself is in the dark as to the purpose and function of such a body.
It may be too early to talk about this particular commission, as the government has not yet disclosed its structure or function. Yet it is necessary to assess the credibility of the institutions that implement the rule of law in the country, as well as the professionals and public servants involved in such institutions.
The role of the police, so far, has been to allow corrupt segments of society to compete with each other in the race of corruption, by themselves practicing corruption. In return for bribes, they allow offenders to commit crimes one after another; they work as musclemen for corrupt rich and influential groups to exploit and harass the common people, who are poor and helpless.
On one hand, the civil servants and professionals involved in implementing and upholding the laws of the land lost the public trust decades ago. The country's prosecution system is not only faulty and lacking skilled professionals, but also partisan by nature -- the judges, as part of a dysfunctional and lame judiciary, are incompetent to determine justice for its victims. Verdicts are products purchased by the rich in the courts, while the poor are destined to suffer for years for the crime of seeking justice.
On the other hand, the habit of misrule has established a culture of hiding the truth and distorting facts. People do not feel free to speak out for fear of harassment or abuse at the hands of public servants and even professionals who should protect them. This culture has resulted in a forced silence -- a social numbness all around.
The situation requires a monitoring authority, such as an ombudsman, to investigate the behavior of public servants and punish them automatically when misdeeds are discovered. The existing departmental procedures for holding such people accountable have completely failed to address the problems.
Common citizens of Bangladesh do not know who speaks the truth within the nation's legal institutions. Nobody knows who will benefit from the proposed Truth Commission. What will be the criteria for granting amnesty? What sort of solution will this commission bring to the nation's problems?
If the government creates a Truth Commission for the business community, then why not one also for the public servants and bureaucrats who create the problems for the businessmen and the citizens of all segments of society, who swim in a sea of corruption?
The nation has recently demonstrated its unique style of combating corruption by detaining a handful of people and putting them on trial. Meanwhile, hundreds of real champions of corruption remain protected by their loyalty to the armed forces. They are free to do what they will with their successful businesses and political positions.
The government has utterly failed to prove its credibility to the people or the media over the past ten months. Now it is planning to spend public money to set up another misguided and confused institution. Does anyone really think a Truth Commission can solve the prevailing problems in Bangladesh?
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender living in Sylhet in Bangladesh who has been working on human rights issues in the country for more than a decade and who was a journalist in Bangladesh in the 1990s.)
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