Dear Alochoks
This is amateurish gibberish splattered with vanity.
It is fine to support and campaign for AL. It is quite another to
pass this kind of writing off as fine argument.
It is the stuff of first year undergraduates. Far from what it is to
be expected from a hand picked Advisor to the Prime Minister of
Bangladesh. It is a piece aimed solely at 'informing' his American
handlers.
Only Awami League can correct itself!!!!!!!
The presernvation of Hasina at any cost and the lobbying for Joy
(Advisor to PM) are proof enough that Awami League is far from being
able to correct itself. The expuslion of Tariq and sickness of
Khaleda may in the end force BNP to correct itself well before Awami
League.
Joy - you want to help? Write a thesis on 'IGNORANCE AND
ORGANISATIONAL DYNAMICS IN BANGLADESH' and get your Public
Administration Pundits to come up with some darn solutions.
Grow up, get real and deal with the truth.
Kids nowadays!
Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait
- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@...> wrote:
>
> What is at Stake
>
> Only the Awami League can put Bangladesh back on track, argues
Sajeeb Wazed
> Over the past two years we have heard many times how our politics
needs a revolutionary change. We need to throw out all the old
politicians and start fresh. How our political system, and indeed
our constitution, needs to be rewritten in order to create a utopia,
where everyone will live happily ever after.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Amirul Rajiv
> After two years of suspended rights, blatant abuse of justice and
harassment of our leaders and businessmen, it turns out that 96% of
our people cannot wait for a return to democracy. Our economy,
already hurting from the unbridled corruption of the immediate past
BNP-Jamaat alliance government, has sunk further despite the best
efforts of several highly educated people. Even our political scene
is pretty much back to square one. The revolution is dead.
> Time and again I see opinions published, usually by the same
authors, about how both political parties are the same,
both "begums" are the same, etc. This has become a chant for a
select few critics. It is as if they cannot find anything else to
say.
> Why do I bring this up right after my opening paragraph? It is
because both camps have been clamouring for a revolution, the first
in our country and the second within the political parties. Despite
the best efforts of men with
>
> guns, neither of these has taken place. The reason for this is
something those of us involved in politics understand, which cannot
be learned through a degree, even one from Princeton or Oxford.
>
> The secret we politicians know that others do not is this:
Revolutions only work when a government has become autocratic. It
does not work against a democracy. A revolution only succeeds if the
common man joins in. Without this, even the massive organisation of
the largest political party cannot bring about a revolution. A
democracy can only be changed through another means. The technical
name for this is election.
>
> The only way to improve a democracy is through evolution.
Evolution, as opposed to revolution, is a much more gradual, long-
term process. At times it appears that nothing is changing. However,
change eventually comes, often in fits and starts. After all, you do
need periods of stability. Otherwise nothing would ever get done.
>
> Most importantly, at its core, evolution improves the system
through survival of the fittest. In a democracy, leaders and parties
who improve the lot of the people survive and grow stronger. Those
who do not, slowly lose their popular support and fade into
insignificance. This is how political evolution works.
> In this regard, the Awami League has proven itself to be an
extraordinary survivor. Not counting its travails through our
quarter century struggle for independence, it has endured the murder
en masse of its entire top tier of leadership. This was followed by
15 years of political persecution by dictators. It has survived two
attempts by the BNP to retain power through massively rigged
elections. Now, it has survived two years of a variety of schemes
cooked up by the brightest minds in our country to destroy it under
a quasi-military regime.
>
> The reason for this survival is that the Awami League has evolved
slowly through the entire time. Just as with nature's evolution
there have been long stretches where little has changed. However, in
these steady periods it has accomplished a lot. These
accomplishments have been focused on improving the lives of the
majority of our people. This is why the Awami League has not only
survived, but grown steadily stronger.
>
> As an example, I would like to highlight our accomplishments in
one area, the economy. This happens to be the area of most concern
to the largest majority of our people. The one economic achievement
that impacted the greatest proportion of our population was our
extremely successful control of inflation. Even through the Asian
financial crisis of the late 90s we kept inflation at a steady
1.59%. The price of rice stayed at Tk. 12-15 per kilo. For only the
second time in Bangladesh's history we produced a surplus of grain
and were even able to export a significant amount. Can you guess
when we were self-sufficient in grain production for the first time?
It was under the previous Awami League government of my grandfather,
Bongobondhu. Not only could the BNP government not match this the
first time they were in power, but when they returned to power they
promptly turned our surplus into a deficit, resulting in increasing
prices once again.
>
> This did not happen by luck or chance. This was a direct result of
the diametrically opposing policies adopted by the two parties. The
Awami League considers food a basic necessity that must remain
accessible to everyone. Our food source and price must not depend on
factors outside the country. Therefore we subsidised our farmers and
fertiliser production and encouraged new technologies such as
genetically engineered seeds in order to enhance production.
>
>
>
> Amirul Rajiv
>
> The BNP, on the other hand, believed that we could procure grain
and fertiliser cheaper on the world market and so it was wasteful to
subsidise our farmers. This has the added benefit of giving a few
businessmen close to the ruling establishment the opportunity to
profit in importing these items. Of course, this only works as long
as world market prices do remain lower. World market prices tend to
fluctuate and are difficult to predict at best. If and when they do
go up, the price of food in Bangladesh goes up as well. This is
precisely what happened.
>
> On other economic fronts, the Awami League is the party
responsible for greatest share of our innovation and progress. We
privatised the mobile telephone network which made cellular
telephones affordable for the masses. The previous BNP government
kept it a monopoly owned by one of their own ministers! This kept
prices well out of reach of the common man.
> We privatised power generation and left the country with a surplus
of power production capacity. Once again, the next BNP government
promptly turned this into a severe deficit. This deficit, combined
with the unprecedented corruption of their government, severely hurt
our businesses and, as a consequence, our economy.
>
> The Awami League privatised the media, airlines and banks, just to
name a few others. All this led to increased competition, better
products and lower prices for consumers. It also brought about a
boom in the business climate which allowed companies to flourish.
These in turn created new jobs, reduced unemployment, and grew the
middle class. As the middle class grows, the consumer market within
the country grows. This in turn drives increasing business profits
and the cycle continues upwards. If the Awami League's policies
could have been maintained, our economy would have grown
exponentially. Unfortunately for the vast majority of our people,
this was not to be.
>
> Whatever your opinion on the 2001 elections, I would like to point
out that they were in fact very close. In terms of the popular vote,
the BNP and Awami League were virtually tied. Moreover, the Awami
League did not lose any popular support. Rather, its share of the
popular vote had increased over the previous election in which it
had won.
>
>
>
> Shaikh Mohir Uddin/Driknews
>
>
> Just as in nature's evolution, the Awami League is now in a period
of change. A large number of new leaders and parliamentary
candidates have emerged. This evolution was not dictated. Rather,
all the new candidates were nominated by the party grassroots. The
new leaders rose by earning the respect and support of the party
workers in defending the party against the attacks of those who
attempted to destroy it. The people most popular in their
constituencies got nominated and the leaders most capable of
defending the party rose. This is the perfect example of political
evolution improving the party. Now the party is even stronger.
>
> Going back to the topic of the economy, you will see more of the
same from the Awami League. I consider our economic policies a
resounding success. If we win these upcoming elections, as I believe
we shall, you will see us take them even further. We will open up
our economy even more, but we will do so in a planned manner with a
long-term vision. The party president has laid out her "Vision 2020"
plan to eradicate hunger, illiteracy, shortage of power, etc. Not
only is this possible, but we have demonstrated that we are the only
party that can.
>
> Our one constraint has always been our limited finances. We have
always had to hold out our hands to donors to undertake our own
development. I believe that this may no longer necessary. Just take
a look at our own Dhaka Stock Exchange. As the middle class grows
and more people have money to invest, we will soon be able to turn
to our own capital markets to finance large infrastructure
development projects.
>
> Of course, this depends on the middle class having money to spare
for investments. With the skyrocketing prices of essentials during
both the previous BNP-Jamaat government and the present regime, our
middle class is hurting. We need to get our economic engine running
again at full steam. As the past seventeen years have shown, only
the Awami League is capable of accomplishing this.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> AFP
> With regards to privatisation, we plan to continue but in a much
more controlled manner. To give you one example of our planned
approach, I would like to highlight the shutdown of the Adamjee Jute
Mill. My mother had planned to do this, but instead of just shutting
it down her plan was to rehabilitate the employees first. Other than
the direct employees of the factory, there is a small ecology that
has developed around the mill. There are the families of the
employees who live there. There are a multitude of small businesses,
tea stalls, and traders that provide goods and services for the
employees and their families. Shutting down the factory not only
affects the factory workers themselves, but it hurts the livelihoods
of all of these people as well. If the factory worker does not have
income, he cannot afford to spend money on groceries or clothes.
Thus, shutting down Adamjee resulted in unemployment for a huge
number of people.
>
> My mother's plan was to first develop an alternate industry in
that area. The most likely candidate was a steel mill, but any other
industry would suffice just as well. The Adamjee workers could then
be given to opportunity to be retrained to work in that industry.
Once that was set up Adamjee could be shut down. This way the
majority of its workers would still have a job and the surrounding
small businesses and traders would keep theirs as well.
> Such rehabilitation will be the crux of our privatisation schemes.
Through this we will be able to reduce the government expenditure.
It will take longer this way, but it will be far better for the
workers who are currently employed in the state owned enterprises.
The BNP had no such vision. They simply threw everyone out of work.
>
> As the private sector grows it will be able to provide more jobs,
usually with better pay than the government sector. This in turn
will encourage more new entrants to the workforce to go to the
private sector. In the long term we will be able to reduce the size
of the government. This will have several positive effects. It will
reduce bureaucracy and red tape making life easier for everyone. It
will also allow the government to increase salaries for the smaller
public sector work force. As government employee pay increases, they
will have less need and incentive to be corrupt. This is how
corruption can be reduced.
>
> As the past two years and our previous military interventions have
shown, you cannot reduce corruption by suspending democracy and
arresting everyone in sight. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and
in the past two years we have seen an increase in corruption in our
law enforcement, judiciary, and military. This is according to
Transparency International, the much ballyhooed anti-corruption
watchdog.
>
> For all the criticism of the protests of October 2006, let us not
forget that if the Awami League had not done so, what would have
been the consequences for Bangladesh? Today, you would have had a
ruthless, corrupt BNP-Jamaat government back in power. Our economy
would be in even worse shape. It would be guaranteed that five years
later we would see another rigged election..
>
> In equating both parties, people forget that the only peaceful
transfer of power our country has ever witnessed was at the end of
the Awami League's term in 2001. The BNP has chosen to rig elections
each time. This is a fundamental difference in character between the
two parties. The BNP is willing to violate our laws, the
constitution, indeed do anything just to stay in power and make
money. They have done so each time.
>
> Only the Awami League has the integrity and vision to take
Bangladesh forward. Only the Awami League has safeguarded the
fundamental rights and needs of our people. I do not support the
Awami League simply because of my family. I chose to do so because I
believe in it. It is the only large, truly democratic party in
Bangladesh. It is precisely because of its internal democracy that
it sometimes makes mistakes. The decision of the majority is not
always the best one. However, as a professor of mine at Harvard told
me, a democracy is the only form of government that has the ability
to correct itself. The Awami League has the ability to correct
itself. BNP and Jamaat do not.
>
> Sajeeb Wazed is an Adviser to Sheikh Hasina. He has Masters in
Public Administration from Harvard¢s Kennedy School of Government.
>
> http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2008/december/stake.htm
>
------------------------------------
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