Dear Alochok Mizan
Greetings to you from Kuwait! Where it is now 46 degrees Celsius at 10pm!
The constitution, system of governance, rule of law etc etc have all been drafted with the best of intentions though they may be flawed.
It is the people who are in charge of these systems that are responsible. Our systems are not primarily responsible for making politicians corrupt. It is politicians who are primarily responsible for making our systems corrupt.
The worst thing we can do is hand to corrupt people a clever excuse for their corruption. Let's not blame tangibles like flesh – let's blame intangibles like `systems'. Politicians would love that one!
A courtroom is only as good as its judge. A plane is only as good as its pilot. A ministry is only as good as its minister. A battalion is only as good as its commander. A recipe is only as good as its chef. And reform is only as good as the reformist.
It is the political parties who want a centralized government and ensure this is the case. It is political parties who ensure that their senior members are intellectually inferior to bureaucrats.
It is political parties who are against serious political and administrative reform. It is politicians who are entrusted and empowered to bring about change – not bureaucrats, not manuals and not system handbooks.
The minus two theory is absolutely correct. It has two components:
1. Awami League, BNP and Bangladesh will be better off without Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia. 2. For this reason they should both leave, or be removed from, politics as quickly as possible.
A time will come when neither Hasina and Khaleda will be around. Do you think things will then be better or worse?
The CTG tried politics, reasoning, requesting, exile, blackmail, force, espionage, pleas, lawsuits and intimidation in pursuing the minus two theory. But Hasina and Khaleda could not be moved. That doesn't mean that the minus two theory is incorrect. And that does not mean the CTG should take the full blame for the failure to implement the minus two theory.
Hasina and Khaleda could not be moved because they are greedy for power and AL and BNP could not imagine a future without them. And also the CTG – especially the Army driven elements – cannot match politicians in a game of politics. Ultimately politicians won because they played that most rotten of political tricks – wasting time for selfish gain. After a year of trying and seeing the elections coming fast the CTG finally gave up its best ambitions and started to behave in a predictable way. Politicians seized on this surrender. Elements in the Army started to make money and the CTG started desperately looking for a way out.
It was inevitable that a deal would be made with AL. After all BNP was in no condition to offer anything to anyone.
And what is the opposite of the minus two theory? The plus two theory? What is that? That we are better off with Hasian and Khaleda? That it is impossible to live without Hasina and Khaleda? So much for democracy and so much for integrity!
During the entire CTG there was not a whisper anywhere of anyone replacing Hasina or Khaleda! Not even a whisper! We could not imagine it! And yet we brag about democracy. We have elections but we know nothing of democracy. It is simply APPALLING!
When Khaleda visited Hasina at the time of Wazed Miah's death so many wrote about the possibility of a new politics. But it was not about new politics in a modern, democratic sense. If you look closer you will see it was more like: "Mommy and Daddy might finally get back to together again and we can be a family again! Yippee!' For in Bangladesh, our nethris are like our parents – like them or hate them, they are still our nethris. We can't change them.
The argument that there is no point replacing these two because they would be replaced by another two is a poor one. There is no justification to keep these two in power just because they would be replaced by another similar two. In that case let's replace them with another similar two – it would be more democratic. Let others share the spoils! Anyway – these two are unique. There aren't many who can claim to Mujib's daughter or Zia's wife. Which after all is the real reason they are in power anyway!
And finally let me hurt you and hurt myself. You can devolve all you want, reform all you want and do all you want. Many Bengalis can find a way to cheat any system and exploit any weakness and bend any rule.
The heart of the problem is not the system – though it needs an overhaul.
The heart of the problem is that:
`AL and BNP systematically reject certain types of people and systematically embrace certain types of people.'
When the parties chose the right people, and give space and freedom for the right people, we will finally make start.
Right now modern politics in Bangladesh is a pathetic mockery of what it should be. And you can blame the Army and NGOs and WB and IMF and George Bush and what not.
I blame AL and BNP, Khaleda and Hasina, everything they stand for and everything that keeps them in power. After all politicians and political parties claim to be the sole custodians of Bangladeshi politics. So why blame anything else?
And these two need each other to survive. That's why Hasina saved Khaleda from exile and Khaleda might have done the same. Neither would like to contest an election against someone who can command real international respect and be a real role model for our children.
I hope you live long enough to see a world without these two families at the helm of Bangladesh. For you will know, inspite of a new set of problems, that the minus two theory is correct.
Best wishes
Ezajur Rahman
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, mkra12@... wrote:
>
>
>
> It is the system of governance that corrupts everybody including the
> politicians.
> A highly centralized government which depends on non elected bureaucracy
> to govern the whole country from the villages to the capital, is indeed an
> apology of democracy.
> As said absolute power will corrupt absolutely.
>
> As for your contention that the minus two formula was correct,at the end
> of the day it couldn't be implemented.That says a lot about whether it was
> correct or not.Besides if you minus the present cow & goat at the helm of the
> parties,there are many hundreds more in the que, to replenish the vacuum.
> Is it not?
> Devolution of powers of central govt. &empowerment of elected local govt
> to be the day to day rulers of the local affairs, is the core solution to
> the problem.
>
> Mizan
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