BANGLADESH NEEDS
FRESH LEADERS AND
METICULOUSLY DESIGNED SYSTEM
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA
CHAPTER ONE
POLITICAL LEADERS AND WORKERS
INTRODUCTION :
In 2007 we have got an altogether different government in Bangladesh.
This government is different because of many reasons including its
wonderful successes in :
(i) Creation of independent Judiciary,
(ii) Bringing even the most powerful culprits/offenders to justice and
(iii) Success in establishing discipline, honesty and accountability
in many sectors.
While this is the bright side of the story, the darkest side is, this
government would handover power to the elected government after one
year and then, by all possibilities the previous types of leaders
would be in power. By every likelihood they would repeat their usual
actions. At that time, under their fresh oppression and injustice,
what the people would do are :
(i) They would lament for the short-lasting sweet days under the
caretaker government and
(ii) The architects of the 'golden days' would witness, how the dirty
bulls smash their enviable achievements.
The peace loving citizens of the country should endeavor their best in
order to avoid seeing such a pathetic situation. If we really want to
assure that we would need two things :
(i) Fresh, dedicated, honest and intelligent leaders in our political
arena and
(ii) A political and administrative mechanism capable of retaining
the honesty and accountability of the political leaders and
bureaucrats.
The probable ways in which these can be done will be the subject
matter of our today's discussion.
OUR POLITICAL PARTIES :
In Bangladesh we have got two major types of political parties. These
are : (i) Normal parties and (ii) Profit-oriented parties.
(01) NORMAL POLITICAL PARTIES : These are parties which are formed
with the honest intention of serving the people and the country.
However, on the basis of the basis of the socio-economic systems they
follow they may again be divided into two : (a) Rightist and (b)
Leftist.
(a) RIGHTIST : The party working for the continuation and betterment
of the ongoing economic system is known as the rightist party. The
countries of this region follow some sort of capitalistic economy. USA
is pressing hard to introduce their type of economy, where money
reigns over everything. To keep the poor citizens away from agitation
they have introduced state sponsored social service schemes. Such
schemes are so expensive that a country like Bangladesh cannot even
think of adopting those.
(b) LEFTIST : The party targeting for achieving Socialist political
and economic systems are known as leftist party. It is interesting to
note that even though Bangladesh has been declared as People's
Republic, which is another name for democracy, the leftist party
targets for the socialist type of election, where there is no space
for democracy. Even the Socialists themselves call it the
"dictatorship of the proletariat".
(02) PROFIT-ORIENTED POLITICAL PARTIES : These are the parties formed
by individuals or groups for the purpose of the continuation of the
family rule, or the rule of people belonging to certain sect or faith.
In Bangladesh we have noticed the following three varieties of such
parties :
(a) PARTY OF THE MID-LEVEL LEADERS (EXTINCT) : During British regime
in India some mid-level leaders, who could not get higher positions in
the party in fair completion formed their own platform by utilizing
some aspect of human psychology. Muslim League is one such party that
banked on religion. This extremely powerful party of Pakistan has now
suffered from natural death in Bangladesh.
(b) PARTY OF THE GENERALS : In any country the army is the most
powerful and permanent entity. USA, the most renowned exploiter of the
wealth of the third world countries has been found to utilize the
chief's of the armed forces of the developing countries in order to
ensure their interest. Taking the above two scopes, the chief of the
army has been found to capture power in many countries. Some of these
generals are so greedy that in spite of their apparent failures they
do not like to handover power. As a means of sticking to power they
have been found to form political parties, through which they intend
to continue 'rulers of family' for all times to come. In Bangladesh we
have seen two such parties.
(c) PARTY OF THE FOREIGN AGENTS : Some political are formed solely
for safeguarding the interests of some foreign countries or agents. In
Bangladesh most of such parties are financed by the Gulf countries.
USA, a secular country has also been accused for similar
patronization.
PROBLEMS WITH OUR POLITICAL PARTIES :
(01) NORMAL RIGHTIST PARTY :
Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) : This party is rightly credited for
playing crucial role during the liberation of Bangladesh. After
Pakistan, USA is the number one country that played hostile role
during the liberation war. The role of Pakistan against Bangladesh is
obvious because Bangladesh fought for cessation from their unjust
rule. But the antagonistic role of the powerful, resourceful,
democratic and secular country like USA against the birth of a secular
country is a great mystery. However, it is obvious that the success of
Bangladesh in this war infuriated USA. This country continued its
hostility against the heroes of liberation and Bangladesh Awami
League. Awami League could reign only for a short period during
1971-1975 and 1996-2000. Those who fought for the liberation of
Bangladesh were active workers of this party. But when this party
could not rise to power because of manipulation of election by the
generals, most of their workers got frustrated. The two generals used
to maintain paid musclemen. In such a situation Awami League also
needed to do the same and hence, the party was in need of money. This
created scope for some of their greedy leaders to acquire wealth.
During the time they were in power (1996-2000) the party collected
huge sum for those who wanted government permissions, sanctions etc.
in business. The party was headed by Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation. In spite
of prudence she showed nepotism for her relatives and made many
efficient leaders to feel deprived.
It may be mentioned here that the US type of capitalism is not
appropriate in our country. As a country USA at one time got wide
scope of accumulating and creating wealth because of huge land and
mineral wealth, cheap labor (slaves from Africa), war-time
opportunities, scope of selling war-weapons, capability to maneuver
the decisions of the governments of some poor and religious countries
etc. With this huge wealth USA has been able to tackle the ill-effects
of their type of capitalism. Their citizens who turn victims of
capitalism are given social security assistance by the government.
Naturally, when that type of capitalism will be introduced in
Bangladesh (the process has already begun), lots of citizens will be
affected. But the country is not financially solvent to run that type
of social security schemes for the affected citizens.
(02) NORMAL LEFTIST PARTY :
Communist Parties (CP) : It has been found that generally the honest,
dedicated and sincere type of people form such parties. But they lack
the intelligence to realize that there is no room for democracy in
Socialism. Also socialism cannot be introduced in a country declared
as "people's republic". If Socialist type of administration is to be
introduced in a 'people's republic' or a 'democratic country', then
what they need is not politics, but revolution. Before the moral
deaths of the socialist countries such countries used to help the
leftist parties with money, knowledge and weapons. In Bangladesh the
followers of this party took active role in the liberation war.
Because of their sincere, honest and dedicated workers these parties
have got logical rights and potentiality to run the government. But in
order to do that in a republic, what they need first is free
themselves from the illusion of communism and realize the essence of
democracy. In the contemporary world it is impossible and unnecessary
to ensure "Equal" opportunities for all the citizens that even the
socialist countries endeavored to ensure and then failed. However,
(01) Ensuring the minimum basic needs for all, (02) Ensuring justice
for all and (03) Maintaining competition for the purpose of efficient
growth may be taken as the workable alternative.
In their capitalistic system USA has not been able to establish peace
and harmony in the society and has given birth to numerous hazards.
But that should not mean that a peaceful country cannot be established
under Democracy (political system) and fair competition (Economic
system). Capitalism, devised by USA is definitely defective, and it is
so defective that it cannot even satisfy their common citizens.
If one studies the history of USA, one may not find it difficult to
understand what made USA to adopt this defective system. During the
500 years of their history the common people (most of whom were slaves
and poor immigrants working for few affluent families) could not
organize themselves and to raise their voice for equal rights and
justice. By utilizing this scope the few affluent people established a
system that could mostly serve their interests. When this system
created pains for the common people, the country could manage 'social
supports' from the abundant wealth they possessed. However, the cost
of satisfying the huge demand of the capitalists and that for social
security services went beyond certain limit, the government had to
look for wealth outside its territory. Creating war-like situations
for selling war weapons, manipulating the decisions of the governments
of the poor countries etc. were devised as solutions to combat those
problems. What is more important and relevant to our discussion is,
the capitalistic system of economy has contaminated their democracy
also, where money manipulates the free will of the voters.
(03) PARTY OF THE FIRST GENERAL :
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) : Major General Ziaur Rahman formed
a chain of parties where BNP was the last one. With patronization of
USA, his objective was to rule the country under the disguise of
democracy. Naturally he
(i) Assembled the greedy politicians in his party,
(ii) Forced the honest leaders to shun politics by sending the "join
my party or perish" call and
(iii) Manipulated the system of election.
He used the government fund to purchase and maintain the politicians.
In its second phase (1990-1996 and 2001-2006) BNP allowed the
political workers to collect money in illegal ways in lieu of paying
money to the party's fund.
The bureaucracy could not take steps against them for political
interference. It is almost sure that all the persons who joined the
two generals' parties (BNP and BJP) did so due to greed for money or
power. These parties were formed with the sole objective of ensuring
the interests of the two generals. They later annexed a number of 'big
and sweet sounding' principles to the party's manifesto. From the very
beginning BNP was after killing and dishonoring the freedom fighters
(excepting the few who joined hands) and encouraging those who played
hostile role during the war for liberation.
(04) PARTY OF THE SECOND GENERAL :
Bangladesh Jatiyo Party (BJP) : Established by M.G. H.M. Ershad this
party also has got history similar to BNP in point of humiliating the
freedom fighters, patronizing the enemies of freedom, allowing party
workers to collect fund and so on. H.M. Ershad, its founder was
accused in the past for transferring huge sum to USA. Even though
there were several endeavors to find out the fact those could not
materialize for lack of cooperation. Like BNP Ershad also leased many
establishments or wealth to foreign firms by harming the interest of
the country.
(05) PARTY OF FOREIGN ORIGIN :
Religious Parties : The religious countries and the secular country
like USA patronize the formation and flourishing of such parties. The
religious countries consider it a pious job to help religious
activities. USA does the same such that they can use the religious
parties for pressurizing the government and manipulate their decisions
in their favor. Such parties have already established numerous
income-generating firms inside the country, part of whose income is
now utilized for bearing the cost of their political activities. Such
parties in general worked against the people of Bangladesh and helped
the Pakistani government during the war for liberation. The first and
last thing about the religious parties is, it is not possible to
establish or run "Democracy" in any religious country, because
democracy stresses equal rights for all, where as the religious
parties stress on the interest and superiority of any particular
religion. Till today no "religious" country has been able to establish
democracy. The Gulf countries and Pakistan may be good examples.
PROBLEMS WITH OUR POLITICAL LEADERS :
Above we have presented a brief description of our political parties
during the period 1971-2006. During this period the type of people
who practiced politics were mostly of following three types :
(i) Greedy and less-caliber people, who wanted to make big name and
money through politics. Such people in general joined in all the
parties.
(ii) Sincere type of people who wanted to do something for the
country and the people. Such people joined in Awami League and
Communist parties.
(iii) People who were funded from abroad. The foreign agents did so
in order to ensure their interests and /or ideologies.
In the above situation we may find that in Bangladesh we have only a
few dedicated and honest political leaders and workers in Bangladesh
Awami League and Communist party. Needless to mention that these
people had to continue strong fight against the hostile political
parties in order to maintain their existence and honesty. It is
obvious that there is no dearth of dedicated, honest and sincere
persons in our country. But most of them did not have the interest to
join 'politics' because this noble profession has already been
polluted. In such a situation, the caretaker government should
endeavor to create a situation in which persons with good qualities
may like to join in politics. We painfully notice that the present
activities of the caretaker government are centered around the
established political parties only. It is obvious that the established
parties have got experienced organizers, fund (hidden or open) and
logistical supports for conducting political activities. In case they
caretaker government cannot create conducive situation to attract
better-quality persons in politics in the coming days, then all their
painful endeavors would end up in vain.
CHAPTER TWO
QUALITIES OF THE POLITICIANS
INTRODUCTION :
The essentiality of honest leaders in our political arena is known to
al. However, even if honest leaders are available there is no
guarantee that they would remain honest during the tenure of their
post. Such people deviate from the honest path due to numerous
reasons. We mention here a few :
(i) Personal greed,
(ii) Wife's or family members' insistence,
(iii) Demand or pressure from his party,
(iv) Insistence of the local and foreign firms to accept gratification,
(iv) Insistence from foreign countries,
(v) Thoughts of insecurity of his family in future etc.
While we can say, reason nos. (i) to (iv) are illogical, we believe
reason no. (v) is quite logical and ethical in our country, where the
government or the private employer does not have any well-spelt
provisions for the family of a person who expires or gets crippled man
while in service. It is a known fact that the capitalistic system of
economy, invented and introduced by the USA creates problems for the
innocent, poor, humble and honest people. What is ironic is :
(i) USA, the country which is constantly pressing the developing
countries for introducing 'capitalistic type of economy' does not say
anything about helping the 'victims of this system'.
(ii) In order to take care of the affected people USA themselves has
introduced social security assistance in which they help all the
citizens, irrespective of whether they are honest or crook, or whether
they were actually affected or not by the expansion of the
capitalistic economy.
(iii) Knowing fully well that most, if not all, of the developing
countries do not have the resources to introduce and run the
social security scheme, USA is pressing them to introduce this
system.
(iv) Quite often our leaders and bureaucrats speak highly of the
US-capitalism, without any knowledge of its ill affects and without
knowing how USA combated those in their land by taking remedial
measures.
DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURE OF HONESTY IN BANGLADESH :
There are numerous factors which develop and nourish qualities like
honesty, sincerity etc. Earlier the Bangalee parents, neighbors and
teachers and even the government endeavored for the growth and culture
of these qualities among all, specially the children. They followed
numerous ways including advise, reading books capable of improving
morality, staging suitable drama, composing songs with similar
spirits, instances (like, giving prize for honesty, punishing for
immorality) etc. Now the government and the society have stopped those
practices. In addition, the imported western medias are constantly
preaching their "cultures" in this land. The world already knows what
type of people those teachings create in their society. Nowadays, the
discovery of a good man of child with good equalities in Bangladesh
should be considered just 'accidental'. Naturally we find extremely
few honest persons in the society. Needless to mention that only
honest leaders working at the top are capable of creating honest
people in the country.
For arguments sake let us say that we have designed a mechanism in
which only the honest persons will be allowed to compete in the
election. Does that solve the problem ? The answer is "no". "Why ?"
'Honesty' is in fact a quality whose continuation depends on a number
of factors like time, place, surrounding environment, attitudes of the
friends and associates, person's actual need, person's responsibility
to the family members, the state's commitment towards the fulfillment
of his needs, quantity and quality of probable gratification etc. If
a rich businessman or a fat-salaried government servant accepts
gratification, it is logical to punish him. But is it logical to
punish a poor man, whose honest earning cannot meet his minimum demand
? Or a responsible father, who saves money for his family for hard
days ? Please consider that they are the citizens of a country that
has absolutely no commitment to assist the people in distress.
It is a common experience that the honest persons do not remain honest
unless their salaries/allowances are satisfactory, the working
environments, conducive and there are provisions to help in hard days.
The politicians of this country have spoiled the environment of
creation of honest people in this land, because they themselves were
not honest. At present the government has captured some of them mostly
in money laundering activities. However, their offense in money
laundering is just negligible in comparison to what they did in the
sphere of deterioration of men's qualities. The two generals who
formed political parties for the purpose of elongating their and their
families' reign introduced all sorts of dirty tricks in politics. In
order to assemble musclemen around their parties they allowed the
hoodlums to continue their business on condition of payment of
commission to party fund. The leader coming from the family of the
father of the nation formed 'foundations' and now it has been revealed
they used to collect booty from the privileged businessmen for, or in
the names of those foundations. However, the caretaker government
seems to have the intention to combat such a situation and to
re-introduce 'politics of the honest people' in the country. The net
findings of the above discussion are, honest persons would not remain
honest unless :
(01) The working condition is conducive and
(02) The compensation conditions (by the government or employer) are favorable.
(01) CONDUCIVE WORKING CONDITION :
The caretaker government has arrested many persons who accumulated
wealth illegally. In addition to punishment their "illegally earned
wealth is being confiscated". Even though the laws to this effect
existed in the country none of the past governments enacted those.
Now, if it is established that from now onwards the government
(through its anti-corruption department) would go on continuing this
practice, then definitely the greedy persons would be alerted and a
situation conducive for nourishment of honesty will be created. The
situation may be further modified in the following ways :
(i) All persons holding 'strategic positions' and posts and those
working in 'posts with the scope of illegal earning' have to submit
statement of wealth before joining, then annually and within one month
of the resignation or dismissal from the post.
(ii) The government would forfeit the illegally-earned wealth and
give other punishments.
(iii) The forfeiture would depend upon the person's income and
gravity of the post. Imprisonment would act as substitute for wealth.
Thus while a common man may be asked to return all (1.0 time of the
illegally accumulated wealth), a person working in the law enforcing
positions may be charged 2.0 times, one working in important
administrative posts 2.5 times, judiciary and democratically elected
positions, 3.0 times, anti-corruption department 4.0 times and so on.
Even though the return rate may seem quite 'high', an honest man has
absolute no reason to be afraid, if however justice can be ensured in
the land. Needless to mention that such a system would discourage
dishonest persons to join such posts or seek people's mandate in the
election.
FAVORABLE COMPENSATION CONDITIONS :
While only the above working conditions may be sufficient in case of
the persons with fat salary and those enjoying big savings and/or
paternal wealth, it would be inadequate and highly unethical to apply
the same for the poor persons or low-salaried employees. We have
already mentioned that it is not possible for a country like
Bangladesh to provide social security assistance for all the citizens.
However, it is quite possible for the government to make such
provisions for the families of the poor and honest persons, who face
death or physical disability due to situations beyond their control.
However, such compensations should be extended only to the persons who
do not have any indication of dishonesty during his service.
There is every reason to believe that the government has no ethical
right to enforce such stringent measures till they introduce
compensatory measures for the affected innocent persons. The
compensatory measures for the affected persons may be any of the
following :
(01) Payment of monthly salary (excluding personal allowances) of the
affected person till the speculated end of service, plus payment of
pension benefits at usual rate.
(02) Payment of survival allowance to the family members till the
speculated end of service.
(03) Bearing the costs of the highest-level of education of the
children (maximum two numbers).
It would tremendously help the country in gaining honesty if the
caretaker government could introduce a "contract form" for all working
citizens. In this form both the "working conditions to be performed by
the person" and the "compensatory measures by the government or
employer" should be clearly written. The representatives of the
government and the persons working in important or strategic positions
(including those elected by the public) may sign the form in the court
of law, where the court would assure that both the parties would abide
by those.
OTHER QUALITIES OF THE ELECTED MEMBERS :
We have briefly described the various ways of establishing the
practice of honesty in the context of Bangladesh. In order to get
honest services from an elected member, not only he, but the
high-positioned people working around him also need to be honest. That
is why we have proposed the above measures for all such persons. Now
we shall discuss how we can culture or ensure other qualities in the
elected members. From the instances of the past we can say, running
the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh from the
position of a prime minister or president was not at all a difficult
job. The person working in these position in fact gets the assistances
of intelligent, educated and experienced personnel at his/her
disposal. That make his/her job extremely easy. When a lady with the
record of failures in three subjects in the Secondary School
Certificate examination can successfully (?) run such a post twice,
even a little boy can understand how easy the job is. Well, if a
person with that caliber can somehow run the government, definitely
honest, intelligent superior-caliber persons would be able to
contribute much more.
Once we can establish that for a person there may be little or no
financial gain in holding such posts (where the rule would confiscate
the illegally-earned properties along with other punishments), we
believe, those who strive for these posts for financial interest would
be discouraged. Such a situation may attract intelligent, educated
and non-greedy type of people to politics.
CHAPTER THREE
PREPARATION FOR THE DESIGN
INTRODUCTION :
Earlier we have discussed how we can discourage dishonest and greedy
people from politics by transforming this job as a non-profit making
one. After ensuring this we need to formulate mechanism in which only
the persons willing to take it as challenge would come. Quite often we
have heard the members of the parliament to (i) Cut jokes, (ii) Call
bad names, (iii) Use false accusations to demoralize others, (iv) To
feel happy to have seen 'lively debate' etc.
Can one imagine that the members, who were sent in that extremely
costly 'house' in order to make policies for solving the problems of
the country and her people and to find out solutions along with
development alternatives spend time in that way ? If the people can
express their hatred for such activities of their representatives,
then probably the 'jokers' may feel discouraged to go there. The
elected leaders, specially the ministers should be interviewed by the
journalists on a regular basis. If the "fortune-seeker jokers" with
immense love for "lively debate" can be discouraged and suitable
environment is created, then there is no reason why patriotic educated
persons would not step in politics. Their presence would compel the
'low-caliber jokers' to keep away because of the feeling of
inferiority complex. The counter argument to this proposition may be,
in the past many educated (some even with Ph. D.'s) persons played
submissive (your-most-obedient-servant type) role to one less educated
prime minister. It happened so because of two reasons :
(01) The lady prime minister was the lone image-bearer of the party and
(02) The associates assembled around her not for any patriotic
reason, but for money and other privileges introduced by the founder
of this party.
The above instance however, teaches us one thing. For creating
interference-free environment in politics "image-bearing persons
should be avoided because of their natural advantages of image and
using the same for continuing dictatorial rule and collecting fund".
In the past many superior quality leaders could not get appropriate
positions in the party because of the 'dictatorial mentality' of the
above type of persons.
Earlier we have discussed that in case persons working in important
jobs (including political parties and elected posts) may be assured of
government's help for accidental incidents and at the same time,
brought under accountability in points of wealth-accumulation, then
honest people may feel attracted to this noble job. However, there may
be one exception. Let one Mr. X is elected in a position (say,
parliament member, minister etc.) and leaves the same after 5 years.
The anti-corruption department checked his wealth-statement and found
it satisfactory. Does that indicate that the man did not accept any
gratification ? The answer is "No". Because it might so happen that
this person accepted huge gratification in the name of giving jobs,
tenders, business, licensee etc. and then spent the sum for his
party's activities or deposited in "foundations" where he was a
stake-holder. So, in order to keep the political activists honest we
need to further ensure that :
(01) The cost of maintaining the political party shall be minimum.
The parties would have to maintain all accounts and to keep those open
for examination by the party members and appropriate government
authorities.
(02) No member of the party shall act as stake-holder in any sort of
'foundation'.
FINDING OUT SUITABLE LEADERS :
The above discussion has revealed how we can find out the most
appropriate persons (political leaders) for the most important job
(ruling a nation) of the country. The preconditions of creation of
such leaders are :
(i) The government must be accountable to the elected political
leaders (i.e. their families must be given adequate compensation in
case of accident or sad demise).
(ii) The elected political leaders shall be accountable to the
government (i.e. they must submit wealth statements before joining,
annually and then after their terms are over, where irregularities
would be paid with severe punishment).
(iii) They must not bear any image that may create 'image for
dictatorial rule in the party'. Even though it is expected that the
sons/daughters of dedicated political leaders would be equally or more
dedicated to nation's interest, in practice we have seen numerous
deviations.
(iv) They must not be the stake-holders in any "foundation" or
similar organizations. We have been compelled to make such comments
because of our recent and bitter experiences.
Even after ensuring all these conditions, it won't be possible to get
sweet fruits unless the formation of the political party is easy,
transparent, hazard-free and its formation and maintenance are
inexpensive. These however, may be ensured through meticulously
designed systems in points of:
(01) Registration of the party,
(02) Party's structure
(03) Party's formation and
(04) Maintenance of accounts
(01) REGISTRATION OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES :
The Election Commission is now formulating the process of registering
the political parties and various established parties with records of
big failure are expressing their comments. We suggest that in place of
doing that the EC should introduce (in fact, sell) an intelligently
designed Registration Form and Registration procedure all by
themselves and ask the interested people to use those. The Form should
be extremely easy and inexpensive such that only a few like-minded
people can make use of those at affordable cost. If such a system can
be introduced, then by all possibilities, the common people would
utilize this opportunity before the big parties could arrive at
decisions. Through this procedure those willing to participate in
national politics should be asked to registrar chapters of political
parties in any of the following four levels :
(01) National (capital),
(02) Division,
(03) District and
(04) Upazilla or Thana.
The same form can be used in all the four levels. Since it is not
possible for the common people to form the country-wide party at the
initial stage, they may be asked to register their chapter in the
three local levels (i.e. excepting the National level). In doing so
they would not have to mention the name of the party. The Registering
authorities would give them a temporary Code name. Such a name may be,
say,
03-DHA-BAR(01). It means the chapter is a District level chapter
(indicated by 03), it is under Dhaka division (DHA), name of the
district is Barisal (BAR) and it is the 01 (i.e. First) chapter
registered under this category.
In the same way, another name, say,
04-RAJ-RAJ-PUT(07) means, it is a Thana level chapter (04), it is
under Rajshahi division (RAJ), name of the district is Rajshahi (RAJ),
name of Thana is Putia (PUT) and it is the seventh (07) chapter
registered under this category.
The Election Commission may allow certain time, say three months for
registering the lower level chapters. After this time they may give
one month time for registration at the national level. Please allow me
to explain why we have suggested registration of the central one at
the end. At present the EC is continuing discussion with the
established political parties and they are taking upper hands for
obvious reasons. If the people are asked to registrar chapters at
lower levels, if the form is cheap and the registration process is
easy, then there is every possibility that the common people who did
not participate in politics earlier would utilize the opportunity.
Such a practice would altogether jeopardize the previous
'calculations' of the old and established political parties. Earlier,
the political parties used to fix up everything by themselves at the
central level and then forced their associates (or workers) at lower
levels to swallow those. If this system is introduced, the political
party would have to give importance to those at the lower levels.
After the registrations at three levels are over, it will be the time
for registration at the central level. What would happen in such a
case are :
(a) The established parties would have to look for registered
chapters at lower levels, where there will be a scope for both the
stake-holders to evaluate one another.
(b) Some of the chapters would discuss among themselves and may form
altogether new parties.
In order to registrar a party at the national level, one would need
the name of the party, its principles and objectives. It can annex
chapters at other levels only after they have accepted their
principles and objectives. We know some established political parties
are now bargaining with the EC and some of them are even threatening
to boycott the election. If the common people register the lower level
chapters first, then that would compel them to participate in
election. Alternately, their boycott would not hamper our election.
CHAPTER FOUR
TOOLS FOR ELECTION
INTRODUCTION :
At present Bangladesh Election Commission is working for holding
general election in the country. For this purpose they are devising
systems and taking new programs, the first one of which is the
preparation of voter list. In addition they are having discussions
with the established political parties. It seems as if they are
thinking of finalizing the "tools for election" on the basis of such
discussions. It is known to all that that in Bangladesh all the
political parties have proved their inefficiency. In view of the same
the caretaker government on many occasions has declared their
intension to incorporate fresh people in this arena. But strangely we
have not noticed any serious endeavor on their part to incorporate
fresh brains. The present program of EC in finalizing things as per
discussion with the established political parties may result in
disaster because of a number of reasons. Some of these are :
(i) The EC's 'extreme honor and care' for the established parties
would make the parties to think that they are extremely important in
this program. Naturally they would endeavor to squeeze out optimum
benefit from the EC.
(ii) The EC's discussion regarding various instruments and tools of
election with such parties may create golden opportunity to infuse
their 'motivated' ideas.
(iii) When the parties would realize that the EC cannot hold the
election without their endorsement they may raise unnecessary,
complicated and unsolvable issues in order to waste time and thus to
push the EC to the dead end.
(iv) Whatever logical and appropriate provisions the EC may fix, it
is almost sure that the political parties would not agree to those not
because those are bad, but because they are aware that their
"difference of opinion" would elevate their state of bargain.
(v) The finalization of the tools of election by discussion with the
political parties may result in provisions that might ensure their
return to power.
In such a situation the most intelligent job for the EC is to
incorporate fresh people and to introduce mechanism in which such
people may feel safe to come. If the EC can ensure that then the
political parties would realize that their bargaining tendency or
non-acceptability would make them to 'miss the big train'.
Now we shall present samples of a few "Election tools" that we
believe, are capable of attracting fresh and educated people. These
are :
(01) PARTY'S REGISTRATION,
(02) PARTY'S STRUCTURE,
(03) PARTY'S FORMATION,
(04) FUND PROCUREMENT.
(01) PARTY'S REGISTRATION :
We present hereunder a sample Registration for the purpose of
registration of the political parties :
APPLICATION FORM FOR REGISTRATION OF POLITICAL PARTY
Chapter : National(01) / Divisional (02) / District (03) / Thana (04)
01. NAME OF PARTY : ........................ ....... ........
.......... ........... ............
Or temporary Code name : ……………………………………..
(Applicable in case of Division, District and Thana levels)
02. PRINCIPLES : ....... Nos. (Applicable for the National Chapter
only. These will be applicable to the subordinate chapters after
annexation. Total 05 to 10 Principles to be enclosed as Annexure – A)
03. OBJECTIVES : ....... Nos. (Applicable for the National Chapter
only. These will be applicable to the subordinate chapters after
annexation. Total 10 to 20 Principles to be enclosed as Annexure – B)
04. MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE : ............ Nos.
(Limit : National 80 -100. Divisional 50 -70. District 40-60.
Thana 30 – 50. The list with posts to be enclosed as Annexure – C)
05. MEMBERS OF THE WORKING COMMITTEE : ............ Nos.
(Limit : National 70-80. Divisional 60 -70. District
50-60. Thana 40 – 50. The list with posts to be enclosed as Annexure
– D)
06. ENTRY FEE AND MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION FOR THE MEMBERS :
(i) Members of the Central committee :
(a) Entry fee : Taka .............
(Limit : Central 4000-5000, Divisional 2000-3000, District
1000-2000, Thana-Maximum 500 )
(b) Monthly contribution : Taka .............
(Limit : Central 400-500, Divisional 200-300,
District 100-200, Thana-Maximum 50 )
(ii) Members of Working Committee :
(a) Entry fee Taka .............
(Limit : Central 3000-4000, Divisional 1000-2000,
District 500-1000, Thana-Maximum 400 )
(b) Monthly contribution Taka .............
(Limit : Central 300-400, Divisional 150-250, District
50-150, Thana-Maximum 40 )
07. CONTRIBUTION FROM SUPPORTERS AND COMMON PEOPLE :
(i) Contribution from supporters : Taka ..........
(Limit max.: Central 250, Divisional 200, District
150, Thana - 100, maximum two times a year)
(ii) Contribution from the common people : Taka …………
(Limit max. : Central 50, Divisional 40, District 30, Thana- 20,
maximum once a year)
08. CURRICULUM VITAE OF THE MEMBERS (containing following information):
(01) Name. (02) Photograph (03) National Identity Number, (04)
Father's name, (05) Mother's name, (06) Date of birth, (07) Permanent
address with phone no., (08) Present address with phone no., (09)
Marital status with names and dates of birth of children, (10)
Educational qualification, (11) Present profession, (12) Past
profession(s), (13) Previous political affiliations, if any. (14)
Affidavit.
AFFIDAVIT (sample) :
I, the undersigned do hereby affirm that all information stated above
are true to my knowledge.
(i) I affirm that in my past life I was never a loan-defaulter in any
financial institution, given punishment for any criminal offense or
discharged from service for inefficiency or corruption.
(ii) I authorize the authorities to disclose the above information
for public viewing and verification. I understand that in case any of
challenge, the authorities would invite me to clarify the situation,
in which case either I shall defend myself or withdraw my membership.
(iii) I understand that my party with be abide by written
constitution. In case I discover any deviation, I deserve the right to
take the defaulter to court of law.
(Affidavits are to be enclosed as Annexure – E )
(02) PARTY'S STRUCTURE :
The number of posts in various committees has been mentioned earlier.
The structure indicating the number of office-bearers will be as per
following schedule :
(a) STRUCTURE OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE : (There will not be any
single president of the party). Members of the Presidium - 1/%,
Secretary – 2%, Treasurer 2 nos. Other positions shall be decided by
the chapter .
(b) STRUCTURE OF THE WORKING COMMITTEE : Members of the Presidium -
1/%, Secretary – 2%, Treasurer 2 nos. Other positions shall be decided
by the chapter.
(c) FIRST TIME FORMATION OF THE COMMITTEES : The various chapters
have to apply for registration showing the full-fledged Central and
Working committees. Since there would not be the scope for them to
held election inside the chapters within short time, the like-minded
people would choose the members and their positions as per their
conveniences. The EC would register such chapters if other conditions
are fulfilled. After registration the Central committee shall work for
two years and the Working Committees, one year. Later however, all the
committees shall work for two years, such that the election of the
Central committees will be held in the odd years and that of the
Working committees, in the even years.
(d) FORMATION OF THE SUBSEQUENT COMMITTEES : The subsequent
committees will to be formed by ballot votes given by the members. The
time of election, voters, election procedure of these committees are
given hereunder.
(03) PARTY'S FORMATION (sample):
The process in which committees at various levels will be formed has
been shown hereunder.
(i) CENTRAL COMMITTEE :
(a) National Chapter : Time : Odd Year, December month. Election :
Through ballot votes by the members of the National chapter and postal
votes by the members of the Division, District and Thana chapters.
(b) Divisional Chapter : Time : Odd year, November month. Election :
Through ballot vote by the Divisional chapter and postal votes by the
members of the District and Thana chapters.
(c) District Central Committee : Time : Odd year, October month.
Election : Through ballot votes by the District committee members
and postal votes by the members of the Thana chapters.
(d) Thana Central Committee : Time : Odd year, September month.
Election : Through ballot votes by the committee members of this
chapter.
(ii) WORKING COMMITTEE :
Time of election : The elections will be held in the National,
Divisional, District and Thana chapters exactly in the above manner in
the even years.
Voters : Only the members of the respective working committees would
act as voters.
CHAPTER FIVE
RETAINING THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
FINANCING THE POLITICAL PARTIES :
In any democratic country the question of financing the political
parties is extremely important. It needs a lot of money to run a
party. Ideologically speaking, the supporters of the party should bear
the cost of the party. But in practice it happens differently. Usually
the ethical and moral qualities of the people are not that high as
voluntarily and selflessly finance the country's political parties.
In such a situation there may be several options to finance such
parties. These are :
(i) The government may finance the parties.
(ii) The parties may be allowed to collect fund from the people.
(iii) Arrangements may be made to minimize the cost of political activities.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF VARIOUS TYPES OF FINANCING : We shall
discuss hereunder the advantages and disadvantages of the first two
options.
(i) GOVERNMENT FINANCING THE POLITICAL PARTIES : This system is
already in practice in the countries with fascist or Socialist type of
governments. Even though democracy is absent in the socialist
countries, in order to prove the existence of some sort of "democracy"
these countries at times maintain a few mock parties where the
government finance their cost. There is no reason to include the
Socialist countries in the domain of democracy. The irony is, even in
the democratic countries at times tyrants (mostly army generals with
blessings from USA or religious tyrants) grab political power and then
initiate their own and pet political parties. They allow other parties
to compete in the election, but at the same time, create mechanism for
their failures. The names of some tyrants and their countries may be
mentioned here :
(a) Pakistan – Ayub Khan (inventor of "Basic democracy") and Gen.
Mosharraf, both blessed and backed by USA.
(b) Bangladesh – Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad, blessed and backed by USA.
(c) Indonesia : President Sukarno (inventor of "Guided Democracy"),
election manipulation jobs engineered by USA.
(ii) PARTIES ALLOWED TO COLLECT FUND : If the political parties are
allowed to collect fund without any control from the government, then
politics in fact turns to a good business. Naturally money-hungry and
less educated persons rush in this arena and make the sincere, honest,
educated and polite ones to quit the field. In case of collecting
money the parties usually collect the money from big business with the
promise of giving them in business. Sine the disclosure of this
information may dishearten the voters, such parties use a mock shield
of collecting money from the common people. This practice is followed
by the political parties of USA.
FINANCING PHENOMENON IN BANGLADESH :
It may be interesting to see the above phenomenon as was practiced in
Bangladesh during 1975-2006.
(a) With the exception of the religious parties the political parties
in general used to collect money saying, they would give bigger
business if elected. Since it was not always known which party would
win, quite often the big businessmen used to give money to all the
potential parties either expecting business or apprehending enmity.
(b) The ruling political party used to collect money in lieu of giving
business or assuring "peaceful business" amidst turmoil. In this case,
for obvious reasons, the party created chaotic situation either
through their musclemen or by nourishing the hoodlums.
In Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad were infamous for collecting
money from foreign countries or foreign companies by giving them
privileges. Ershad's KAFCO case is a notable example of how a national
leader can harm the interest of the nation for selfish gain.
Now we shall cite some examples of fund collection as practiced during
Khaleda's and Hasina's regimes.
KHALEDA ZIA : Her party used to collect money from foreign and local
farms at the highest level where her sons and relatives played crucial
role. She allowed her party workers to collect 'commission' such that
they might remain obedient. She also allowed her party leaders to
continue monopolistic border business with India. Since she assured
the businessmen 'peaceful environment in chaotic situation', she was
in need of continuing chaos either by her party's musclemen or by
patronizing the hoodlums.
Consequences : The above activities brought for her blessings from two
powerful countries, USA and India. It resulted in increase of price of
commodities and services. It helped to create turmoil inside the
country and turned the life of the common people miserable.
SHEIKH HASINA : Her party used to collect money mostly from local
farms at the highest level where her relatives and party leaders
played crucial role. Party workers however, were not allowed to
collect money. There was less border business with India.
Consequences : Booty collection helped to increase the price of
commodities and services. India got no reason to be satisfied, where
as USA continued hostility. They could not forget that this party
materialized the liberation of this country by foiling their
conspiracy. There was no 'booty-collection' in lieu of assuring peace.
Life and living was comparatively peaceful, excepting however,
periodic attacks of the religious terrorists.
CATALYSTS FOR ILLEGAL COLLECTION :
Democracy is a system where the people elect a party, and not a
person. For convenience of administration one person takes the
leadership and act as the leader of the group. So, the norms say,
whenever this person would loose the confidence of the party, he would
loose that position and another person would take the lead. However,
this natural phenomenon did not work in Bangladesh during the regimes
of Khaleda and Hasina. In their parties both Khaleda and Hasina used
to enjoy extremely high and privileged positions because of their
inheritance or image. In such a situation it was advantageous for them
to manage the fund of their parties. Also there was no possibility of
removing them from that position, even though the spirit of democracy
endorsed such removal or change. As soon as their stable positions at
the apex were established, the businessmen came to realize whom to
satisfy. In case there was a probability of change, would the
businessmen give booties so easily ? Or, would the powerful President
of a country get the scope to make telephone call to the ruler of a
tiny country and to request him for giving business to certain firms
or persons ? The above discussion indicates why an "all-powerful" and
constant leader of any political party is so harmful for democracy. In
this connection we may have an overview of what happened in the
presidential system of democracy in USA.
DEMOCRACY IN USA : A CRITICAL APPRAISAL :
Above we have seen the poisonous affect of an "all-powerful" and
stable leader of the political party against the outcome of democratic
rule. The same learning and experience would tell us why the spirit of
democracy is missing in the 'presidential form of democracy'. In USA
the activities of the "all-powerful" President has created the widest
scope to collect booty from the companies and firms. The President is
capable of doing it not only inside their territory, but also outside
USA. Naturally the President of USA interferes the policies of various
government to bring those in favor of their multi-national companies.
The President is in a position to decide which firm would supply
ammunitions, other war-time supplies and even relief-goods in various
countries.
USA is an extremely resourceful country with less population and no
religious biasness. If planned intelligently, their government could
easily assure adequate wealth and peaceful life and living for each
and every citizen of this great nation. But what happened in reality ?
They have food problems, jobless situations, high crime-rate and many
other negative aspects. Quote : "More than 1.3 million people do not
have adequate food in New York city" – New York city coalition Against
Hunger (AFP, Samakal, Nov. 23, 07). Majority of the people who lost
homesteads due to Katrina in Louisiana are yet to be rehabilitated.
And there is no dearth of jobless men in USA.
While such is the scenario inside the country, USA has wasted and
still is wasting billions of dollars for the cause of creating wars
and in the name of rehabilitation works outside their territory.
Numerous US companies are utilizing the services of experts and
workers from outside USA in the name of outsourcing because it
ensures larger profit. And the President has to agree to them, knowing
fully well that this practice is harmful for their citizens. It is
interesting to note that an "all-powerful" strong President can remain
above all sorts of criticisms for his anti-patriotic jobs, where as a
popular leader cannot afford to do that. Probably this is the greatest
weakness of USA's constitution that makes its own people and the
people outside USA to enormously suffer at the cost of affluence of
their rich men (capitalists). If one carefully analyses the fiscal
policy of the US government one may be amazed to see that the
government spends a lot of time and energy in devising ways in order
to "TRANSFER PUBLIC FUND TO THE HANDS OF THE CAPITALISTS". Creating
wars or war-like situations outside USA does in no way help USA or her
population. But it creates golden opportunity for their government to
transfer tax-payers' money to the accounts of the capitalists, who are
the manufacturers of war items.
POLLUTERS OF DEMOCRACY :
Democracy was invented long ago in the Greek city states. Since then
there have been lots of improvement in the system of election,
selection of candidature, duties and responsibilities of the electoral
college, privileges attitudes and tasks of the candidates etc. In view
of its apparent failures in many countries it may be opined that still
today it could not achieve perfection. Many dictators have endeavored
to declare their "own system" in the name of democracy. Those who
endeavor to sell out their own systems in the name of democracy or
endeavor to pollute democracy belong to the following groups :
(i) Religious tyrant,
(ii) War tyrant,
(iii) Capital tyrant,
(iv) Image tyrant etc.
We present brief description of the above types of tyrants :
(i) RELIGIOUS TYRANT : The religious leaders in fact continue tyranny
by interfering with human rights by utilizing the religious sentiments
of the citizens. By using this privilege the religious chiefs
themselves in fact turn to dictators. It is a matter of common sense
that there is no or little hope for democracy to grow in the Gulf
countries. One good news is, Nepal, the one time religious country is
stepping towards democracy
(ii) WAR TYRANT : The practice of the generals to continue as
dictators in the name of democracy is known all over the world. Some
of them invented peculiar varieties like : Ayub Khan (Basic
Democracy), Sukarno (Guided Democracy) etc. Almost all of them
polluted the system of election.
(iii) CAPITAL TYRANT : Taking the scope of big cost in the election
the US tyrants have foiled the spirit of democracy in their land. They
nominate and manage to elect their selected person in the
"all-powerful" President post, such that this single man may ensure
their financial interests at home and abroad.
(iv) IMAGE TYRANT : As of today the parliamentary form of democracy
is the best type of democracy. But the spirit of democracy may vanish
in this system also due to two main reasons : (01) When the system of
election is polluted and (02) When the leader of the party attains
unquestionable authorities due to 'image'. In such case the leader can
easily collect fund from the businessmen for ensuring their
business-interest at home and abroad.
PROBLEMS WITH THE CURRENT FORM OF PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY : It has
been already mentioned that till today democracy could not achieve
perfection. In this world there happens numerous changes in the
familial, societal, regional and global issues almost every year.
Naturally Democracy, the system of administrative needs to change
itself to accommodate, address and take care of the changed
situations. The type of democracy that worked so well in the Greek
city-states do not work that efficiently in the contemporary world. We
may find out some reasons behind it. Some of the significant
differences in between the "city-level" and "country-level" elections
may be mentioned here.
COMPARISON BETWEEN ELECTION SYSTEMS IN THE "CITY-STATE " AND THE "REPUBLIC" :
(a) In the city states the few number of citizens used to meet in a
public place and elect their representatives in a direct process
through secret votes or ballots. The same is not possible in case of
republics with large territories and numerous voters. So, an indirect
system of election had to be devised.
(b) The nature of jobs in a city was rather 'tiny and simple' in
comparison with that of a republic. So, what a single person in a
city-state could perform is not possible in case of a republic.
Naturally the 'single person' of the city-state should be replaced by
the "group of leaders", such that the voters would no more elect a
person, but a party. It mat be seen that wherever there were attempts
to replace the 'popular group' by a 'person', the spirit of democracy
was lost. Probably the case of Presidential system is its best
example. Other bright examples are the image bearing Prime Ministers
of Bangladesh.
(c) When the elected head lost the confidence of the voters (as
evident through subsequent elections) in the city states, it was easy
for them to re-elect another person. For practical reasons this is not
possible to follow in the republics. So, the way through which the
system of direct vote of the city has been replaced by indirect vote
in the republic, the system of 'replacement of the head at anytime"
should have been replaced by a suitable system. In the parliamentary
system, whenever there is 'voting' in the parliament on a popular
issue, the "absence of majority votes in favor of the ruling party"
leads to its fall. Such a system makes the elected government
extremely weak.
(d) Even though basically defective, the Presidential system has been
able to somehow overcome the above mentioned weakness. The system
followed in the parliamentary system is defective because the party
elected by the people by majority votes cannot fall only because a few
members inside the parliament have changed their allegiance. Such a
system compels the top leaders to keep on gratifying their members
such that they may not turn hostile.
SUGGESTIONS FOR REMOVAL OF WEAKNESS OF THE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY :
The defects in the parliamentary system may be amended in the
following way :
(i) It may be decided that a party elected by the majority of voters
must run the government for the stipulated period (say, 4 or 5 years).
(ii) The voting in the parliament on various issues should be held
through ballots, where majority vote would decide only the fate of the
proposal, and not that of the ruling party. The members of various
parties can express their free will on the voting-matters only if this
situation is ensured. In the present system the 'whips' need to keep
on whipping their members such that they do not caste votes against
the party.
(iii) In case the ruling party is indulged in anti-people activities,
the people can easily pay them back with equal coins in the following
election.
(iv) In the city state the leader was elected on the basis of
majority of votes, where as in the republics the party wins by the
number of members. Since various constituencies vary in physical
parameter, number of voters, number of candidates etc. the above
system of finding our popular party, number of winner members and the
winning members are erroneous. The present system followed in this
matter bears no logic or ethics.
MODIFICATION OF PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY :
There are ample scopes of improvement of the democracy. However, we
mention here some suggestions which need immediate attention.
(01) FINDING OUT PEOPLE'S MANDATE FROM THE VOTE COUNTS : The votes
counted in various centers of the constituencies should be used to
find out the following : (i) Total votes secured by various political
parties, (ii) Percent of total casted votes secured by each candidate
in his constituency.
(02) DETERMINING THE WINNING PARTY : The political party securing
highest votes in the country should be declared winner in the
election, be invited to form the government and to rule for the
stipulated period. Such a system would stop the hazardous situations
and complexities arising out of 'lack of majority members', 'need for
coalition', 'uncertainty in the question of coalition' etc.
(03) DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF WINNING MEMBERS : The number of winning
members from various parties should be declared on the basis of
percent of total votes secured by each party. For example, say, there
were 30 millions registered voters and 25 millions casted their votes.
Now we shall consider this 25 million as 100%. Let the five parties A,
B, C, D and E secure notes in the following order : A – 20%, B – 15%,
C – 22%, D – 35% and E – 08%. It is obvious that party D was the
winner. Now say there are 300 seats in the parliament. So, the number
of seats for these parties will be : D – 105 (35%), C – 66 (22%),, A
– 60 (20%), B – 45 (15%), E – 24 (08%).
(04) FINDING OUT THE WINNER MEMBERS: The winning members in various
parties would be declared on the basis of the highest votes secured by
such members. For example, let the X party has secured 5% votes and
for that reason, say, 4 seats. Say, their top 8 candidates have
secured votes in various constituencies in the following sequences :
45%, 34%, 32%, 30%, 29%, 25%, 23% and 20%. Naturally the top 4
candidates will be declared as elected.
CHAPTER SIX
MINIMIZING THE COST FOR POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
INTRODUCTION :
From our previous discussions it is evident how crucial the question
of funding of the political parties is. We are aware that due to a
defective system of financing the political parties the government of
USA is after activities like :
(i) Creation of war,
(ii) Expensive and longtime rehabilitation works in the wart-trodden
countries,
(iii) Creation of war-like situations,
(iv) Creating unfair business opportunities for their companies in
the outside world etc.
Unless we can formulate a very intelligent system of this finance, we
find no hope of improvement of our political system. The government of
the country cannot finance such parties because in that case politics
may turn to a profitable business. On the other hand, if the political
parties are allowed to collect fund from the people or companies (like
what happens in USA), the as parties would act business organizations.
In such a situation, they would poke their long noses secretly or
openly, in the government business, resulting in what is now taking
place in USA.
In the above situation the best way to ensure fair game in politics is
to "ensure mechanism in which the political parties can continue
activities at minimum cost, mostly from self-finance". In addition to
ensuring the mechanism, the government may extend help by subsidizing
their various programs and activities. Now we shall discuss how the
cost of politics can be minimized in the context of Bangladesh.
In view of the (i) Large area of the constituencies, (ii) High cost of
materials and services and (iii) Limited wealth of the honest persons
in Bangladesh, it seems that in spite of honest endeavor on the part
of the government, the cost of running a political party and competing
in elections here might be extremely high. In such a situation, the
government may allow the parties to collect fund from their supporters
and the common people in limited quantity. They however, should in no
way be allowed to collect fund from firms, companies or organizations.
It is obvious that in case there is no honest system of financing the
parties and the cost of election becomes quite considerable because of
"mutual competition", the political parties would collect fund in
unethical means, including "negotiation with the foreign countries or
agents for mutual interest". If the common people disagree to help the
political parties on their own, then the government should enlighten
the people by informing that that :
By contributing to the political parties :
(i) The voters help to keep the cost of commodities and services at
minimum level (in case the parties collect money from the businessmen,
then they would increase the price of commodities and services at
their sweet will).
(ii) The voters help to establish moral and ethical control over the
party workers (they attain the right to ask, "Why do you waste my
money? Or why should I spend my money for your party ?") This process
would lead the political parties to feel obliged to the common people,
who would act as their fund-provider. This is the reverse situation of
the "forceful booty collection" adopted by Khaleda Zia's party.
(iii) The voters indirectly discourage the political parties to
collect fund from foreign countries (This is done mostly in the name
of religion or by secret negotiation of giving business).
HOW TO KEEP THE COST MINIMUM :
The cost of politics and election may be lessened by adopting the
following measures :
(01) LESS COST OF MATERIALS FOR POLITICAL ACTIVITIES : Politics is a
group activity including time-consuming discussion and exchange of
ideas. Earlier a lot of money needed to be spent in transport and
assembly for such purposes. Now 'meetings' can be avoided by
exchanging ideas though e-mail, telephone, mobi-phone, tele-conference
etc. So, the government should ask the political parties to utilize
these opportunities in order to lessen the cost. Quite often the
members of political chapters at various levels (like, Thana,
District, Division and National) need to elect members in other
chapters. The cost for such voting can be minimized by introducing
postal vote, mobi-confirmed message or vote etc. The government may
give subside in order to keep the fees for registration and price of
election materials.
(02) GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES FOR MEETING AND MEETING PLACES : The
government may allocate small office rooms for limited number of
political parties. The public halls may be allocated to these parties
at cost price as per predetermined schedule. The authorities at Thana,
District, Division and National levels may allocate hall rooms (Public
hall, auditorium etc.) and open spaces for holding meeting to the top
few parties at reduced rate. The spaces may be allocated in cyclic
order, like, First weekend of the month – A parity, Second weekend – B
party and so on. The government may also arrange common projection
meetings for the candidates from all the parties.
(03) ALLOWING PARTIES TO COLLECT FUND FROM THE PEOPLE : We have
already mentioned in the previous section of this article that, at
the time of registration the political parties would mention the
amount they would ask as contributions from their members and
supporters. In addition, the government may allow limited number of
parties (determined on the basis of votes secured in the national
election) to collect fund from the common people. In this case the
rate will be nominal and it would be allowed only once a year.
PATRONIZATION BY THE GOVERNMENT :
In order to prove that politics is an honorable job and should
continue throughout the year (not only few months preceding the
election) the government may assign the responsibilities of
celebrations on selected political parties. This can be done in the
following ways :
(01) The responsibility of the celebration of national days (like :
Independence day, Victory day, Bengali New Year etc.) may be given on
the top few political parties in a cyclic order. A committee formed
with government personnel and members of one of the parties may
finalize the program and arrange everything by themselves. The money
allocated by the government for this purpose may be given to the
combined committee. Such activity on one hand would create scope for
the political parties to go near the people and to prove their worth.
On the other, it would create scope for the people to compare the
efficiencies of various parties. After the voters witness several such
celebrations, they would be able to evaluate various parties on the
basis of their efficiency, sincerity and honesty.
(02) The office bearers of the top-few parties may be issued identity
cards by the election authorities. Such identity cards may enable them
to get preference in getting transport ticket, appointment with the
government official etc.
WHICH PARTY CAN GET FINANCE :
It is not possible for the people to finance all the parties when
their numbers are many. So, the government should keep the number
within a reasonable limit. For Bangladesh this number may be maximum
4. The parties may be selected after the countrywide election, where
the four parties wining maximum votes, (but not less than 2% of the
total casted votes) may be given this status. However, there may arise
problems in selecting such parties before any national election.
DETERMINING TOP PARTIES BEFORE ELECTION :
It may be possible to find out the top (say) 4 parties even before the
country-wide general election if the registration procedure for the
political parties explained earlier is followed. In that case the
government would allocate certain points at the following rate (say)
for the registered chapters :
(i) Divisional Chapter – 50 points each,
(ii) District Chapter – 25 points each
(iii) Thana Chapter – 10 points each.
The intending people would be given a certain time (say, three months)
to register their chapters at the 3 levels mentioned above. Then they
would be asked to register the National Chapter. At this time the
National chapter would be required to enclose documents of all the
lower-level registered chapters willing to annex with them. The
government can then easily evaluate the parties by counting points.
MANAGEMENT OF FUND BY THE POLITICAL PARTIES :
The government would introduce stringent rules and regulations in
managing the fund of the political parties. All contributions and fees
would be collected through receipts in which the payee's names and
details would be carefully recorded. Non-named and low-priced coupons
may be used for collecting contributions from the common people. The
political parties would re required to open accounts and to make large
transactions through the bank. These accounts will be audited every
year.
ELIGIBILITY TO COMPETE IN THE NATIONAL ELECTION :
(01) EXPERIENCE IN PUBLIC WORKS AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES : In seeking
nomination in the national election the members would need minimum two
years' experience in any Central committee or four years' in Steering
committee. It is not possible to apply this regulation at the initial
stage. So, at the initial stage the parties may be allowed to choose
their candidates in the way they feel convenient.
(02) PERSONAL HONESTY : The intending member would be required to
publish detail accounts of his immovable properties and assets along
with the bank accounts of his and wife's direct relatives (i.e. son,
daughter and their spouse, his and his wife's brother, sister and
their spouse etc.). Also he has to disclose the names of his and
wife's close relatives serving in the high ranking government posts.
CONCLUSION :
We have proposed an entire package showing how the cost of political
activities and election can be minimized. The package included items
like Registration of the political parties, Fees, Collection of
contributions, Process of monitoring parties' activities, Process of
monitoring party members' and candidate's honesty etc. We believe, in
case the proposal is taken for consideration the entire proposal
should be considered and that trying it partially may not bring any
fruit.
Those who think that Democracy is the best tool for political
administration are correct. But those who think Democracy has already
achieved its "best form" are wrong. The reality is, as a system
Democracy needs to be modified on the basis of :
(i) Mental setup, socio-economic condition and cultural needs and
aspirations of the people,
(ii) Potentialities and constraints of the country,
(iii) Probable interferences from outside etc.
In point of Democracy, Bangladesh is a mysterious country. It took
birth from a country (Pakistan) that never saw and still do not see
the same in their land. The country started its mission for democracy
in 1971. Then its mission got polluted in the hands of two generals
(1975-1990) who foiled people's will with their privileges of (i)
Foreign patronization, (ii) Army's support and (iii) Accessibility to
government fund. When it was known that no fair election was possible
in the hands of such tyrants, the people protested. As a result of
this protest a new concept known as "caretaker government" was
invented.
The concept of Care-taker government worked so well in 1991 that many
democratic countries thought of accepting it as a model. But then the
ruling government polluted it first time in 1996 and then finally, in
2006. At this time it was crystal clear that this concept cannot work
when there are "money hungry and submissive to foreign agents" type of
people in the government. In 2007, a new type of caretaker government
has been formed and it is still working. This government is not only
thinking of reforming the system of election, but also of reforming
various associated links. Such approach should be considered wise,
because it is not possible to achieve the sweet fruit of democracy
without the reformation of the associated links. We have stressed
upon the need for superior-quality people for the success of
democracy. In order to encourage such people we have suggested among
others, measures for making political activities and election
extremely low-cost. We believe the measures proposed here will be of
immense help in inviting superior-quality men in the arena of
politics. In preparing the proposed measures attention has been paid
to ensure the following:
(01) The common people should become conscious about politics, which
plays crucial and supreme roles in determining the conditions of their
lives and that of their country.
(02) Political activities should be performed at nominal cost.
(03) Political activities should be continued throughout the year and
not only on the year of election.
(04) A fair competition should be created among the political parties
in points of pleasing the common people by charging less for the
party, spending less for political activities and showing more
efficiency.
(05) The political parties should remain accountable to the common
people to the extent where they can ask, "not you, but we are the
masters of your party because we provide the cost".
If the above proposal is accepted in the present context of
Bangladesh, then it may be seen that the cost of registering a Chapter
at Thana level by the like-minded persons may not be over Taka 2000.00
(Application form -Tk 100.00, Registration Fee -Tk. 1000.00 and other
ancillary cost, say Tk.900.00). That of the District or Division may
rise up to Taka 5000.00 or so. We believe the like-minded people with
no hunger for money but mission to serve the nation can afford to
spend this little sum. In that case they might feel interested to
register such Chapters by themselves, and without any initiative from
the political parties. It has been mentioned that in case of the lower
3 levels they can register without the name of the party. Finally, the
parties formed at the highest level (National chapter) may come to
annex such chapters in their own interest.
If the money hungry businessmen discover that (i) There is little or
no monetary gain in this job, (ii) It involves risk because of
declaration of wealth, (iii) His inadequacy of knowledge may be
exposed in the environment of educated and intelligent people etc.
then they may feel discouraged to enter in politics.
On the other hand, if the superior quality people find that :
(i) The cost of politics is well within their reach,
(ii) The fellow members in the parliament are not below standard,
(iii) There is no mechanism in the party in which he may be asked to
give enormous sum of money to feed the party etc.,
Then, and then only they may feel interested to join in politics.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CONCLUSION
BANGLADESH, THE MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY :
Bangladesh with her about 130 million people accommodating in a
relatively tiny land measuring 1,45,570 Sq. miles, frequently visited
by natural calamities and often agitated by man-made hazards has can
rightly be called the "mysterious country". Some of its reasons are
the following :
(i) Where as no Muslim country, (including her mother country,
Pakistan) ever got a taste of democracy, this land strived hard and
then enjoyed it for a little while. And whenever there happened any
case of its pollution by the local tyrants, her people fought, shed
blood and sacrificed lives relentlessly for regaining the same.
(ii) In 1971 the country achieved liberation with her meager
resources with the help of two secular countries, India and USSR. In
this fight their enemies were : Pakistan (Muslim country with one of
the world's best fighting force), USA (world's mightiest and one of
the wealthiest country) and China (strong and resourceful country of
Eurasia).
(iii) Even though Islam is said to be against performing arts (as
might be evident from the scenario in the gulf countries), Muslim
populated Bangladesh is extremely rich in performing arts. One
principal means in which the war-stricken country (1971) became
successful in achieving sympathy of the common people all over the
globe (including USA, but not China) was through performing arts.
(iv) Frequently visited by natural disasters and hazards, many a
times Bangladesh refuted the ill-predictions made by reputed scholars
and world-renowned medias.
In the contemporary world, such strong desire of the followers of
Islam may be considered as a great exception. When the system of
election for democracy was polluted by Zia-Ershad gang during
1975-1990, Bangladesh invented the concept of the "Care-taker
government". When this concept was polluted by Khaleda in 2006, the
pro-democracy people staged their hardest fight to foil her
conspiracy. Its natural outcome was the "Extended Caretaker Government
(ECTG)". This government is now after inventing a mechanism of fair
election. The country's previous experience says, this time also some
foreign agents would play their usual to role to foil their noble
desire. Such agents may be considered quite dreadful specially when we
know that as a mother, Bangladesh produces both "Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman" and "Mirjafar-Nizami".
AN EARNEST APPEAL :
In this age of science and technology we enjoy seeing every notable
incident taking place at the remotest corner of the world both in
color and sound. There was no way for the people of this world to
forget the anger, the fight and the sacrifice the workers of the
Bangladesh Awami League in December '06 and January '07 when Khaleda's
police were beating them with long bamboos supplied by China and the
religious terrorists, firing at them with weapons supplied by the
Muslim countries. As an ordinary citizen of Bangladesh I earnestly
appeal to those who had the scope to see those "pathetic scenes" to
request to their respective governments not to extend their dirty
hands against these democracy-loving people.
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXTENDED CARETAKER GOVERNMENT: While the
responsibility of the previous caretaker governments was to hold
election only, that of the present Extended Caretaker Government
(ECTG) is quite extensive. The ECTG wants to create an environment in
which free and fair election can be held for the formation of a
pro-people democratic government. They have rightly discovered that
they cannot ensure such a situation without restructuring some of the
government machineries and mechanism and they are now doing those. Due
to their unimaginable courage and determination we came to know :
(i) How corrupt and dishonest some (if not all) of our top politicians were,
(ii) No one including the top-level tyrants is over the rule of law,
(iii) How important the job of confiscation of illegally-earned
wealth is for the practice of 'forceful honesty' among the citizens,
etc.
WHAT ABOUT ELECTION ?
Something can be called "well" only when it ends well. Even though
all the positive steps taken by the ECTG deserve commendation, the
only one act for which the ECTG will be evaluated and remembered with
honor or hatred in the coming days is, how they conduct the election.
As of today we don't find any intelligent step, work-plan or mechanism
by the Election Commission of the ECTG. On the other hand, what they
are doing may be called just the usual jobs. Some of these jobs (like
preparing voter-list) have gained some sort of modernism. But ECTG
cannot claim much credit for it, because it happened so mainly because
of our ever increasing accessibility to modern technology. In other
sectors however, the ECTG is proceeding in the most conventional way.
For example, they are holding discussion with the political parties,
all of whom demonstrated worst type of corruption, failure and
foolishness in the past. The ECTG is asking for their suggestions.
Naturally the political parties have taken it as a scope to bargain
and they are after getting their programs and projects materialized by
the ECTG.
The above attitude of the Election Commission is against the mission
and motto of the ECTG, because the ECTG gave the idea that the
political parties are corrupt. They opined that their mission was to
eradicate such curses permanently. In fact the various daring
activities of the ECTG including the arrest of the top political
leaders and publicly exposing their corruptions gave the people
hopeful about their noble mission. Now, when the Election Commission
asks those political parties about their suggestions in various
aspects of election we become utterly confused. Are they after brining
one of those parties in power ? What 'great benefit' of the country
and the people would they serve by doing that ? Would not it enable
the "leaders of the winner party to declare a general pardon for their
leaders serving jail terms" ? Would not it enable them to start their
previous activities anew ? It should be borne in mind that as soon a
political party is in power, it is empowered to do almost anything
including removal of any or all the previous laws and to impose new
ones. The people of Bangladesh are happy to see the excellent
application of the rule of "confiscation of illegally-earned wealth"
by the ECTG. But who can give the assurance that this rule would not
be waived as soon as one of the 'marked' political parties rise to
power ? The ECTG has no scope to feel contented to think that they
have done a great job until they can create a mechanism that would
retain most, if not all, of their hard-earned positive gains.
WHY THE ELECTION COMMISSION IS ACTING IN THIS WAY ?
When the ECTG has taught us to know and we have already known that our
political parties are corrupt, what made our Election Commission to
flatter the political parties ? Are they afraid that in case the
political parties disagree to participate in the election then they
would fall in great problem ? The reality is, the EC would really fall
in problem in case the political parties disagree to participate. But
in case the EC can make alternate arrangements by forming alternate
and new parties by the fresh people, they won't have any reason to
worry.
MECHANISM FOR INVITING FRESH PEOPLE :
We have already discussed that better quality people may join politics
only if :
(i) The cost of the activities of the political parties is minimized,
(ii) The cost of election is considerably reduced,
(iii) Politics is transformed into a day to day activity,
(iv) The government incorporates the services of the political
parties in the national activities and celebrations,
(v) The accountability of the political parties and the activists can
be ensured.
We have already presented our proposal showing how these can be
ensured through a carefully designed system. A careful study of the
proposed "Registration system" might reveal that in it a group of say,
60/70 like-minded men can form apolitical platform (chapter) at a cost
of Taka 2000.00 to 5,000.00 only. We are confident this cost is well
within the reach of our honest and educated people.
If the entry of the fresh, educated and intelligent persons can be
ensured in our political arena and they can somehow kick out the old
'known-faced party members', then, and then only we may expect to see
the materialization of the dream expressed by the ECTG.
CONCLUSION :
In any country the politicians are the most important people. In USA
the strong multinationals have arranged for sending the mid-caliber
people to politics such that the businessmen may continue their
activities with minimum interferences. At times they prefer defective
(in point of morality or because of other weaknesses) candidates, such
that they may keep them under pressure.
However, the reality is, of all the professionals and persons like
Scientists, Engineers, Doctors, Economists, Sociologists, Artists,
Poets, Novelists etc., the politicians are by far the most important,
because they act as guides for the others. In such a context I have
presented a proposal, a mechanism in which the superior-quality men
may be encouraged and the low-caliber professional-politicians may be
discouraged in the sacred arena of politics. I do not claim that this
is the only mechanism to invite better-quality people and I know,
there may be many others. Also the proposal presented here has got
scope for betterment. I would request the ECTG and the Election
Commission to look at my proposal critically and take it for
consideration only if they find it worthwhile. I am afraid, in absence
of suitable a mechanism capable of discouraging the previous political
parties and encouraging the good-quality people, all the hard-earned
and marvelous achievements of the ECTG would flow in to the drain.
(THE END)
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