We are concerned that the military-controlled interim government has forcibly postponed the elections to the executive committee of the Dhaka University Teachers Association that were scheduled for Thursday. The association has said that four members of the joint forces went to the residence of the election commissioner of the teachers' association in the wee hours of Wednesday and asked him to postpone the polls or step down from his position. On Wednesday, the association also received a letter from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police asking it to postpone its polls by at least 15 days. As a result, the association felt compelled to postpone the elections and have rescheduled the polls for April 12.
We believe the government's action to postpone the DUTA polls was an absolutely unnecessary show of its sheer coercive power. For one, the polls were postponed for no apparent reason, and for another, the decision to send the joint forces to the residence of a teacher at the dead of night to force the government's agenda on him and the teachers' association shows that this regime is still using state power to scare and force individuals, associations and organisations to comply with its wishes. Unfortunately, such illegal use of power and such arbitrary actions only occur when there is an absence of the rule of law and when there is utter disregard for due process on the part of the rulers.
We have also witnessed recently the postponement of elections to the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association because of pressure from the government in general, and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in particular, to do so apparently because the association did not seek permission from the police before holding polls. Report also has it that a particular security agency got involved in the matter. On the other hand, the Dhaka University Teachers Association had reportedly applied for permission on January 9 and given a further reminder on January 21. The association is rightly incensed, in our view, that the police, instead of raising objections before, decided to foil the elections only 18 hours before they were scheduled to begin.
However, the regime has not only allowed but has appeared to provide support to elections within business organisations and their apex bodies. As a matter of fact, the chief election commissioner recently visited the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry during its elections in an apparent effort to show support to it. We find it rather revealing that the regime is continuing to put roadblocks on elections within associations of the intelligentsia – the teachers and lawyers – while appearing to bless elections of trade bodies. It is also extremely worrying that the government is continuing to use the joint forces led by the army and a particular security agency to get things done in its way. Unfortunately, this will only tarnish the image of the army in the public mind and erode the credibility of the army as an institution, which, in our view, is not desirable either for the state or the people.
We believe the government's action to postpone the DUTA polls was an absolutely unnecessary show of its sheer coercive power. For one, the polls were postponed for no apparent reason, and for another, the decision to send the joint forces to the residence of a teacher at the dead of night to force the government's agenda on him and the teachers' association shows that this regime is still using state power to scare and force individuals, associations and organisations to comply with its wishes. Unfortunately, such illegal use of power and such arbitrary actions only occur when there is an absence of the rule of law and when there is utter disregard for due process on the part of the rulers.
We have also witnessed recently the postponement of elections to the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association because of pressure from the government in general, and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in particular, to do so apparently because the association did not seek permission from the police before holding polls. Report also has it that a particular security agency got involved in the matter. On the other hand, the Dhaka University Teachers Association had reportedly applied for permission on January 9 and given a further reminder on January 21. The association is rightly incensed, in our view, that the police, instead of raising objections before, decided to foil the elections only 18 hours before they were scheduled to begin.
However, the regime has not only allowed but has appeared to provide support to elections within business organisations and their apex bodies. As a matter of fact, the chief election commissioner recently visited the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry during its elections in an apparent effort to show support to it. We find it rather revealing that the regime is continuing to put roadblocks on elections within associations of the intelligentsia – the teachers and lawyers – while appearing to bless elections of trade bodies. It is also extremely worrying that the government is continuing to use the joint forces led by the army and a particular security agency to get things done in its way. Unfortunately, this will only tarnish the image of the army in the public mind and erode the credibility of the army as an institution, which, in our view, is not desirable either for the state or the people.
RAB induces fear, not
sense of security
Not more of the same, hopefully
The food situation is worsening every day primarily because of the inaction of the government. The problems should not be difficult to identify for such seasoned bureaucrats and recognised economists. The prices of food essentials are high and increasing every month, if not every week. On the other side, the people do not have the means to buy food either because they do not have enough earnings or because they have no earnings whatsoever. The obvious solution, then, is to generate more employment and arrange for food subsidies,
writes Tanim Ahmed
THE recent formation of a 'core' committee, headed by none other than the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, himself, which will exclusively discuss ways and means to keep the market prices within the reach of the commoners and ensure availability of food on the market, is an admission in itself that the military-controlled interim government's efforts to contain the rising food prices have largely been exercises in futility. The chief adviser said the committee would do 'anything and everything' required to address the food situation. The emphasis on 'anything and everything' may well have been an attempt to inspire some confidence in the public mind vis-à-vis the government's commitment and ability to steer the country clear through the ever-worsening food situation. It may not have worked; for valid reasons, one must say.
Thus far, the government's measures to tackle the food situation have been limited to a largely failed bid to procure grains from abroad, withdrawal of import tariff on cooking oil, which would hardly have any impact on the prices since import of refined edible oil is virtually non-existent, and increased market monitoring, which has proved more or less ineffective in the absence of specific laws for price control. If the 'core' committee continues in the same vein, the future, particularly in terms of the food situation, looks rather bleak. The past statements of the other members of the committee – namely food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman and finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam – were any indicator of how the committee would function, the future looks even bleaker.
The food adviser is reported to have said recently that the people should eat less till the boro harvest when the prices are expected to come down and can eat more then to make up for the nutrition loss now. The commerce adviser is quoted to have said that the strong sales during the Dhaka International Trade Fair, which concluded on February 7, were a clear indication that the people's purchasing capacity had not diminished and that their income levels were satisfactory. The finance adviser, in the wake of the devastation by cyclone Sidr, said the damage to standing crops on thousands of hectares of land would not affect the food situation. Earlier, he commented that, in an open-market economy, the government could do nothing about the prices, and that increase in import tariff on capital machinery and its reduction vis-à-vis finished production would not affect industrialisation or employment.
While their statements seem inane, a recent statement of the chief adviser on the number of people detained in the past 13 months or so and the inflation figures released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics point to some disturbing conclusions. In an interview with the al-Jazeera television, when asked whether it was true that his government had detained as many as 2.5 lakh people, the chief adviser told the acclaimed British journalist David Frost that the number should not be more than 80,000. According to latest figures available with the police headquarters, the number of detainees now stands at more 5.7 lakh, as was reported in New Age on March 24. Meanwhile, the latest figures released by the bureau of statistics suggest that inflation actually decreased to 10.16 per cent from 11.43 per cent in January – a figure that would surely be cited many times in future by the government to paint a more tolerable picture of the economy. The figures, needless to say, have been contested by many, including the chairman of the Regulatory Reforms Commission, Akbar Ali Khan, who said the BBS figures did not depict the true picture. The research findings of Unnayan Samunnay arrive at similar conclusions.
These two particular events certainly raise the question as to whether the government is resorting to dissemination of misinformation and manipulation of data to suit its own needs and purpose – a tendency that authoritarian regimes have shown in different times and in different places in the world, including in Bangladesh.
If the 'core' committee is really intent on tackling the food situation, its members should first and foremost shed the apathy they have shown and come out of the state of denial they appear to have been thus far. No one would question the experience and aptitude of the members of the committee. All of them have PhDs – two in economics, one in public administration and the other in political sociology – and their previous positions of employment include governor of the Bangladesh Bank, chairman of the Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, chairman of the Sonali Bank's board of governors, lead author of the national poverty reduction strategy plan, commissioner for the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation, secretary to the ministries of establishment, industries, agriculture, jute, and post and telecommunications. In fact, the same may be said for the interim government, which includes two more PhDs, as a whole. It may not be hyperbolic either to say that never before have such a distinguished league of individuals come together to serve the people of this country in such a fashion.
Whatever their individual aptitude and experience may be, the fact of the matter is that collectively they have neither managed to revive the economy nor been able to mitigate the sufferings of the people. One reason for their failure to revive the economy may be their lack of vision due to years of bureaucratic service or working as consultants for mostly international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bangladesh that primarily require strict adherence to prescribed lines of engagement and hardly taxes one's innovative faculties or resourcefulness.
On the contrary, in running the affairs of the state, one needs more than resourcefulness; one needs vision as well. Running a government also requires that those at the helm feel the pulse of the people and act accordingly whether or not those actions conform to the customs or norms of a free market economy. The primary concern for the policymakers of a government must be the welfare of the people they serve. The welfare of the people should also be the prime concern of the core committee. But in order to elicit genuine results the members would have to go beyond the 'development box' specified by the international lending agencies.
The food situation is worsening every day primarily because of the inaction of the government. The problems should not be difficult to identify for such seasoned bureaucrats and recognised economists. The prices of food essentials are high and increasing every month, if not every week. On the other side, the people do not have the means to buy food either because they do not have enough earnings or because they have no earnings whatsoever.
The obvious solution, then, is to generate more employment and arrange for food subsidies. Since the private sector is still shying away from investment due to the climate of fear that the government itself created through its over-enthusiastic drive against corruption and looks unlikely to invest enough to revive the economy in the near future, the government will have to increase public spending on development work. This might enhance people's purchasing capacity but would not be enough to ensure a reasonable improvement of the miserable situation and thus prices would also have to come down.
To that end, the government should immediately initiate reactivation of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, which would allow the government to intervene in the market and play a significant role in stabilising the market for essential commodities. The state agency could be used to distribute and sell subsidised food items that feature prominently in the common food basket of the poorer section of the people. The possibility of a national prices commission and laws expressly banning collusion or cartels as regards trade in essential commodities may also be among the initiatives that the core committee should recommend or, even better, initiate.
No matter how the core committee goes about addressing the food situation, it would only be making it worse if it looks for guidance from the lending agencies. The lending agencies have not only precipitated economic crises across the world but are also considered as the main actors behind causing serious economic crises from East Asia to Latin America. However, the decisions and actions of the government thus fair, which have resulted in gradual withdrawal of the state from the public sphere by corporatising state-owned enterprises, suggest that it is still sticking to the lenders' prescription. The incumbents must realise that this is a crisis where the market has evidently failed. The bottom line is that the market needs to be brought back on track. It no longer is a question of regulating the market; it is a case for strong government intervention.
__._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
__,_._,___
sense of security
The Rapid Action Battalion stepped into its fifth year on Wednesday. The battalion was formed in 2004 with an objective to contain crime and improve law and order. Four years on, as we look back at its performance, we have more reasons to be scared than feel secured. According to the human rights watchdog Odhikar, the battalion have accounted for more than 500 extrajudicial killings – 480 in 'crossfire' or 'encounter' and the rest in custody. Every time a crime suspect dies after being arrested by the battalion – either in crossfire or custody – the RAB account of the incident is curiously identical, seemingly betraying its disdainful indifference to the very concept of rule of law, which ordains that even the vilest of criminals has the right to be defended in a court of law. When the protectors of law, which the battalion is meant to be, show such inclination to vigilante justice, we have reasons to feel frightened.
At this point, we should point out that the current government, like its elected predecessor, has thus far shown no signs that may suggest that it is worried about the trigger-happy law enforcers. It is true that the number of deaths in RAB custody has marked a decline in the past one year or so. However, the incumbents deserve little credit for that; the decrease has been mainly due to the increasingly vocal opposition to extrajudicial killings by certain sections of society. Extrajudicial killings have not been the only blemish for the battalion, though; several RAB members have reportedly been found guilty of involvement in crime and corruption in the past four years and some of them were even sentenced to imprisonment of varying degrees.
Overall, there are more reasons than one why the authorities need to establish accountability in the affairs of the Rapid Action Battalion. Thus far, the authorities have shown an inexplicable indifference when it comes to streamlining the battalion and reining in its trigger-happy members. We renew our call to the authorities to thoroughly investigate into every incident of 'crossfire' and other custodial deaths that the battalion has been associated with and mete out exemplary punishment to those found guilty of aberrations or excesses.
At this point, we should point out that the current government, like its elected predecessor, has thus far shown no signs that may suggest that it is worried about the trigger-happy law enforcers. It is true that the number of deaths in RAB custody has marked a decline in the past one year or so. However, the incumbents deserve little credit for that; the decrease has been mainly due to the increasingly vocal opposition to extrajudicial killings by certain sections of society. Extrajudicial killings have not been the only blemish for the battalion, though; several RAB members have reportedly been found guilty of involvement in crime and corruption in the past four years and some of them were even sentenced to imprisonment of varying degrees.
Overall, there are more reasons than one why the authorities need to establish accountability in the affairs of the Rapid Action Battalion. Thus far, the authorities have shown an inexplicable indifference when it comes to streamlining the battalion and reining in its trigger-happy members. We renew our call to the authorities to thoroughly investigate into every incident of 'crossfire' and other custodial deaths that the battalion has been associated with and mete out exemplary punishment to those found guilty of aberrations or excesses.
Not more of the same, hopefully
The food situation is worsening every day primarily because of the inaction of the government. The problems should not be difficult to identify for such seasoned bureaucrats and recognised economists. The prices of food essentials are high and increasing every month, if not every week. On the other side, the people do not have the means to buy food either because they do not have enough earnings or because they have no earnings whatsoever. The obvious solution, then, is to generate more employment and arrange for food subsidies,
writes Tanim Ahmed
 |
Thus far, the government's measures to tackle the food situation have been limited to a largely failed bid to procure grains from abroad, withdrawal of import tariff on cooking oil, which would hardly have any impact on the prices since import of refined edible oil is virtually non-existent, and increased market monitoring, which has proved more or less ineffective in the absence of specific laws for price control. If the 'core' committee continues in the same vein, the future, particularly in terms of the food situation, looks rather bleak. The past statements of the other members of the committee – namely food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman and finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam – were any indicator of how the committee would function, the future looks even bleaker.
The food adviser is reported to have said recently that the people should eat less till the boro harvest when the prices are expected to come down and can eat more then to make up for the nutrition loss now. The commerce adviser is quoted to have said that the strong sales during the Dhaka International Trade Fair, which concluded on February 7, were a clear indication that the people's purchasing capacity had not diminished and that their income levels were satisfactory. The finance adviser, in the wake of the devastation by cyclone Sidr, said the damage to standing crops on thousands of hectares of land would not affect the food situation. Earlier, he commented that, in an open-market economy, the government could do nothing about the prices, and that increase in import tariff on capital machinery and its reduction vis-à-vis finished production would not affect industrialisation or employment.
While their statements seem inane, a recent statement of the chief adviser on the number of people detained in the past 13 months or so and the inflation figures released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics point to some disturbing conclusions. In an interview with the al-Jazeera television, when asked whether it was true that his government had detained as many as 2.5 lakh people, the chief adviser told the acclaimed British journalist David Frost that the number should not be more than 80,000. According to latest figures available with the police headquarters, the number of detainees now stands at more 5.7 lakh, as was reported in New Age on March 24. Meanwhile, the latest figures released by the bureau of statistics suggest that inflation actually decreased to 10.16 per cent from 11.43 per cent in January – a figure that would surely be cited many times in future by the government to paint a more tolerable picture of the economy. The figures, needless to say, have been contested by many, including the chairman of the Regulatory Reforms Commission, Akbar Ali Khan, who said the BBS figures did not depict the true picture. The research findings of Unnayan Samunnay arrive at similar conclusions.
These two particular events certainly raise the question as to whether the government is resorting to dissemination of misinformation and manipulation of data to suit its own needs and purpose – a tendency that authoritarian regimes have shown in different times and in different places in the world, including in Bangladesh.
If the 'core' committee is really intent on tackling the food situation, its members should first and foremost shed the apathy they have shown and come out of the state of denial they appear to have been thus far. No one would question the experience and aptitude of the members of the committee. All of them have PhDs – two in economics, one in public administration and the other in political sociology – and their previous positions of employment include governor of the Bangladesh Bank, chairman of the Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, chairman of the Sonali Bank's board of governors, lead author of the national poverty reduction strategy plan, commissioner for the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation, secretary to the ministries of establishment, industries, agriculture, jute, and post and telecommunications. In fact, the same may be said for the interim government, which includes two more PhDs, as a whole. It may not be hyperbolic either to say that never before have such a distinguished league of individuals come together to serve the people of this country in such a fashion.
Whatever their individual aptitude and experience may be, the fact of the matter is that collectively they have neither managed to revive the economy nor been able to mitigate the sufferings of the people. One reason for their failure to revive the economy may be their lack of vision due to years of bureaucratic service or working as consultants for mostly international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bangladesh that primarily require strict adherence to prescribed lines of engagement and hardly taxes one's innovative faculties or resourcefulness.
On the contrary, in running the affairs of the state, one needs more than resourcefulness; one needs vision as well. Running a government also requires that those at the helm feel the pulse of the people and act accordingly whether or not those actions conform to the customs or norms of a free market economy. The primary concern for the policymakers of a government must be the welfare of the people they serve. The welfare of the people should also be the prime concern of the core committee. But in order to elicit genuine results the members would have to go beyond the 'development box' specified by the international lending agencies.
The food situation is worsening every day primarily because of the inaction of the government. The problems should not be difficult to identify for such seasoned bureaucrats and recognised economists. The prices of food essentials are high and increasing every month, if not every week. On the other side, the people do not have the means to buy food either because they do not have enough earnings or because they have no earnings whatsoever.
The obvious solution, then, is to generate more employment and arrange for food subsidies. Since the private sector is still shying away from investment due to the climate of fear that the government itself created through its over-enthusiastic drive against corruption and looks unlikely to invest enough to revive the economy in the near future, the government will have to increase public spending on development work. This might enhance people's purchasing capacity but would not be enough to ensure a reasonable improvement of the miserable situation and thus prices would also have to come down.
To that end, the government should immediately initiate reactivation of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, which would allow the government to intervene in the market and play a significant role in stabilising the market for essential commodities. The state agency could be used to distribute and sell subsidised food items that feature prominently in the common food basket of the poorer section of the people. The possibility of a national prices commission and laws expressly banning collusion or cartels as regards trade in essential commodities may also be among the initiatives that the core committee should recommend or, even better, initiate.
No matter how the core committee goes about addressing the food situation, it would only be making it worse if it looks for guidance from the lending agencies. The lending agencies have not only precipitated economic crises across the world but are also considered as the main actors behind causing serious economic crises from East Asia to Latin America. However, the decisions and actions of the government thus fair, which have resulted in gradual withdrawal of the state from the public sphere by corporatising state-owned enterprises, suggest that it is still sticking to the lenders' prescription. The incumbents must realise that this is a crisis where the market has evidently failed. The bottom line is that the market needs to be brought back on track. It no longer is a question of regulating the market; it is a case for strong government intervention.
__._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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