Dear Editor, Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write-ups This is an article titled "Local government administrations should be non-partisan ". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article. Thanks Have a nice time With Best Regards Ripan Kumar Biswas New York, U.S.A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Local government administrations should be non-partisan Ripan Kumar Biswas Ripan.biswas@yahoo.com In his reaction after being spelled from the CPI (M) (Communist Party of India-Marxist), New Delhi Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee told on August 8, 2008 that the party should appreciated him as he didn't compromise with the constitutional position of the Speaker. "No responsible person or authority can treat the speaker as belonging to a party," he added. Somnath was asked to resign from his post and vote against a confidence motion regarding a civilian nuclear deal between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the United States. A person can belong to a party, but speaker is a neutral constitutional authority, Somnath firmly believes. Many critics of political parties and its functions may agree with Somanath that political parties often espouse a certain ideology and vision, but countries may have disparate interests for the greater interest of general people. After local government elections in Bangladesh, political parties are now arguing with the government to get back their democratic and constitutional rights. A legal battle is going on between the government and the political parties whether the local government in Bangladesh should partisan or non-partisan. According to the latest news, the Awami League (AL) and BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) backed elected mayors and councilors are now going to pursue a legal challenge against the new electoral rules that require the winners to resign their party positions before taking the oath of office. The army-backed caretaker administration promulgated this law through the Local Government (City Corporation) Ordinance-2008 and Local Government (Municipality) Ordinance-2008 on May 14, 2008. If an elected mayor or councillor fails to abide by the legal provisions, they will be disqualified from taking oath of their new offices. The affected political parties declined to accept the new provision and said that this will create a vacuum in the leadership of the political parties at the grassroots level. But the interim government wants non-partisan local government authorities as they observed the political demarcation in the past. The Election Commission of Bangladesh (EC) was of the opinion that the local government election should be non-partisan. Since Independence in 1971, a number of attempts have been made to tinker with the local government system in Bangladesh. Changes have been made from time to time in terms of the nomenclature of tiers of local government, but almost nothing was done to strengthen local government. Therefore, the structure of the local government system has remained more or less unchanged. After January 11, 2007, when the military backed interim government came into power, many reforms started including the local government as the government observed that the successive governments since 1971 have tried to use the local government system for their own political interest. The party or regime in power wanted to make the local government representatives their power base and manipulated the system to this end. Although it was non political as per legal status, but all local government elections after 1990, were too much political. Moreover, most expansive politicization and moral decadence took place during the autocratic regime of General H M Ershad (1982-1990). His upazila system of local administration failed to do any good to the rural people. In course of the reform process, the present interim government again uplifted the provision that candidates must not have any political affiliation or attachments, but a writ petition was filed in the High Court (HC) challenging the legality of this provision. In response to the writ petition, the HC observed in the judgment that since the functions and activities of the political parties are acknowledged as per Article 152 of the constitution of Bangladesh, the electoral rules restricting the use of political parties' affiliation in the city corporation and municipality polls are illegal. As a result, the local government election process of Bangladesh gets legal support to be political in nature. We do respect the HC verdict that is undoubtfully essential to ensure the democratic practices, but an elected candidate usually takes an oath of the office to uphold the constitution of his/her country that doesn't mention any political platform. Everybody will agree that any political system is imperfect, but a society or a country needs a political figure who listens to the heart of the people and makes the best weighed decision in the best interests of his/her people. General people expect a leader who can directly address the people without being censored by his/her political party or worrying about the backlash from other pundits. A good leader will have the ability to get those that can not find common ground to at least sit at a table and hear the other's point of view. A good leader will instill in his/her people the confidence of character and morality of the spirit needed to get the people through times of crisis. A good leader does not look to point the finger when things go wrong. A good leader finds ways to rectify the situation and make improvements. A good political leader needs to be idealistic to tie them to the best interests of the people. A good political leader is more akin to a manager than a politician. A good political leader doesn't need party portfolio. Similarly, good political parties can create more than one good political figure by inspiring their good ideologies. However, according to the provision, an elected leader is not barred to be a member of the party. In line with other electoral reforms brought by the current government, the new ordinance will impose bar against individuals legally proven to be war criminals, persons with records of loan defaults within a period of a year prior to nominations, full-time and part-time government employees, convicted felons, and fugitives from contesting in the elections. In addition, according to a new law, an elected candidate will have to go through a background check which includes his/her tax and wealth statements and police records. We didn't feel good while Professor AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury had to leave the presidency following disagreement with the government on the question of "principle." We don't dispute the rights for parties to exist, nor do we think they are ineffective in the local government administration. We expect an elected official, who can work at his/her office without being censored by his/her party. August 14, 2008, New York Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York |
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