Even the military regime did not harass us as much Mohammad Asafuddowlah, former bureaucrat who served for 35 years at different levels of the administration, tells Saad Hammadi and Mohiuddin Alamgir about how the persecution of people has increased after the present government assumed power
The Awami League sought a mandate from the electorate titled 'charter for change'. What has changed in the last nine months? The parties make election promises to break them. The reason why they get away with it every time is because people have very short memories. The politicians bank on short public memory. This government has been more translucent and shady and secretive than any other previous government in terms of sharing information with the people. I see persecution has increased, in terms of both individual and institutional persecution. The role of DGFI [Directorate General of Forces Intelligence] has been more pronounced. Even the military regime of the emergency government did not harass us as much with intelligence agencies as they are doing today. We are feeling that we are being observed and persecuted by the DGFI. The only good thing about this government is that it has gone for arbitration against India and Myanmar. I wish this was not arbitration and the government went to the International Court of Justice. The Awami League government, soon after assuming power had replaced the personnel of some of the important government institutions like the police, Rapid Action Battalion and other state agencies. Being a former bureaucrat, what kind of effect, do you feel, this politicisation leave on the bureaucracy? Terrible! There is nothing systemic. Systemically, there is nothing more harmful to a nation than a political government politicising the state. The public servants serve the state. They are not activists of Awami League. Whether it's the civil bureaucracy, police, customs or any other service, by politicising, you are bringing incompetent and inefficient people to service. If the promotions and good postings are done on the basis of party allegiance then invariably it is the rotten ones who will come to you and catch your feet. This is the persecution of efficient and competent people. The government has had a number of cases withdrawn against some of the politicians filed during the tenure of the military-backed interim government. Most of the politicians acquitted of the charges belong to the ruling party. I'll first correct you a little. It was an emergency government which was unconstitutional and illegal. I was a judge for three years. You cannot close a case like this. Where the state is a party, you cannot close a case by forming a committee at the law ministry and withdraw it. The Code of Criminal Procedure clearly lays down the manner in which a case can be closed. Under which law of the country are you withdrawing the cases? The prosecution is the Anti Corruption Commission, which is not involved in the withdrawals. All these withdrawals are illegal. This is again a highly partisan spirit the government have shown, which is expected of them. You have been a vocal protestant of the emergency government. What are your observations about the charges brought against some members of the interim government? A lot of advisers at that time behaved with such arrogance that it seemed as if they were the only angels this country produced and the remaining population are thieves, robbers and looters. Their other attitude was as if they were above the law. I am very happy that some of them have been implicated in some acts of corruption. They should be tried and the punishment should be exemplary, particularly because of the lectures they gave about honesty. Amidst absence of the main opposition party in the parliament and even some of the MPs belonging to the present government as said by the speaker of the house, how effective do you consider the ninth National Parliament to be? Firstly, I don't find any justification on the part of BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party] for not attending the parliament on grounds of a chair or two that they were not given as they demanded. This has allowed issues such as the Tipaimukh, the oppression of intelligence agencies in the last two years, the Asian Highway, the deep-sea port, the special economic zone in the sea and many more issues to pass without a debate. This absence is strategically wrong, ethically untenable and politically murderous. This doesn't speak of mature politics. Secondly, when you win only 30 seats, you should have guessed it beforehand and not taken part in the election in the first place. If you couldn't understand it, then I question your political insight. The parliamentary standing committee on several occasions called on different political leaders including the former speaker and deputy speaker and adviser to the prime minister on charges of power abuse. Do these committees have the jurisdiction to investigate these matters? There's no law at all. There is one article in constitution under which a parliamentary standing committee can call anyone with request to appear before it but it cannot compel anyone. My personal impression is if you behave like that, directing someone to come and issuing summons, I will not go. There has to be a manner in which you should call them. This is a sort of egotistic problem. The MPs always have oversized egos. Standing committees are not ministries. The committee is a watchdog which will intervene and report on issues to the ministry. But this has to be done with courtesy. When it directly tries to do things, it breaks the chain of command. The political party that once strongly protested extrajudicial killings, now defends its continuity after forming the government. Even in the case of the BDR incident, we are now getting acquainted to a new term 'heart attack'. Don't you feel the government is showing a blatant disregard for the rule of law? The first sign of a civilised society is that the laws are not brutal. These are mentally perverse human beings. This [heart attacks] is systemic killing. These are cold-blooded murderers. More than 300 have died only in police custodies. They are not answerable to the district magistrates anymore. The law and order has been left up to the police. The police are self-governed now. Law has given them the power to be brutal. There can only be one cause for these killings and heart attacks. They were killed because they were speaking the truth. These are acts of state terrorism and state sponsored murders. There was a lot of talk during the interim government's tenure, about reforms to our political parties, about the relationship between the two major parties and about a change in the way our governments are run. Do you see any real qualitative change or have we been pushed back into the past? We have been pushed even beyond the past line. Whenever the past continuously looks better than the present, you have no future. |
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