Bangladesh Election 2008. Part -07

BANGLADESH NEEDS FRESH LEADERS AND
METICULOUSLY DESIGNED SYSTEM

PART SEVEN : CONCLUSION
BANGLADESH, THE MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY :

Bangladesh with her about 130 million people accommodating in a
relatively tiny land measuring 1,45,570 Sq. miles, frequently visited
by natural calamities and often agitated by man-made hazards has can
rightly be called the "mysterious country". Some of its reasons are
the following :

(i) Where as no Muslim country, (including her mother country,
Pakistan) ever got a taste of democracy, this land strived hard and
then enjoyed it for a little while. And whenever there happened any
case of its pollution by the local tyrants, her people fought, shed
blood and sacrificed lives relentlessly for regaining the same.

(ii) In 1971 the country achieved liberation with her meager
resources with the help of two secular countries, India and USSR. In
this fight their enemies were : Pakistan (Muslim country with one of
the world's best fighting force), USA (world's mightiest and one of
the wealthiest country) and China (strong and resourceful country of
Eurasia).

(iii) Even though Islam is said to be against performing arts (as
might be evident from the scenario in the gulf countries), Muslim
populated Bangladesh is extremely rich in performing arts. One
principal means in which the war-stricken country (1971) became
successful in achieving sympathy of the common people all over the
globe (including USA, but not China) was through performing arts.

(iv) Frequently visited by natural disasters and hazards, many a
times Bangladesh refuted the ill-predictions made by reputed scholars
and world-renowned medias.


In the contemporary world, such strong desire of the followers of
Islam may be considered as a great exception. When the system of
election for democracy was polluted by Zia-Ershad gang during
1975-1990, Bangladesh invented the concept of the "Care-taker
government". When this concept was polluted by Khaleda in 2006, the
pro-democracy people staged their hardest fight to foil her
conspiracy. Its natural outcome was the "Extended Caretaker Government
(ECTG)". This government is now after inventing a mechanism of fair
election. The country's previous experience says, this time also some
foreign agents would play their usual to role to foil their noble
desire. Such agents may be considered quite dreadful specially when we
know that as a mother, Bangladesh produces both "Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman" and "Mirjafar-Nizami".




AN EARNEST APPEAL :

In this age of science and technology we enjoy seeing every notable
incident taking place at the remotest corner of the world both in
color and sound. There was no way for the people of this world to
forget the anger, the fight and the sacrifice the workers of the
Bangladesh Awami League in December '06 and January '07 when Khaleda's
police were beating them with long bamboos supplied by China and the
religious terrorists, firing at them with weapons supplied by the
Muslim countries. As an ordinary citizen of Bangladesh I earnestly
appeal to those who had the scope to see those "pathetic scenes" to
request to their respective governments not to extend their dirty
hands against these democracy-loving people.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EXTENDED CARETAKER GOVERNMENT: While the
responsibility of the previous caretaker governments was to hold
election only, that of the present Extended Caretaker Government
(ECTG) is quite extensive. The ECTG wants to create an environment in
which free and fair election can be held for the formation of a pro-
people democratic government. They have rightly discovered that they
cannot ensure such a situation without restructuring some of the
government machineries and mechanism and they are now doing those. Due
to their unimaginable courage and determination we came to know :
(i) How corrupt and dishonest some (if not all) of our top
politicians were,
(ii) No one including the top-level tyrants is over the rule of law,
(iii) How important the job of confiscation of illegally-earned
wealth is for the practice of 'forceful honesty' among the citizens,
etc.

WHAT ABOUT ELECTION ?

Something can be called "well" only when it ends well. Even though
all the positive steps taken by the ECTG deserve commendation, the
only one act for which the ECTG will be evaluated and remembered with
honor or hatred in the coming days is, how they conduct the election.
As of today we don't find any intelligent step, work-plan or mechanism
by the Election Commission of the ECTG. On the other hand, what they
are doing may be called just the usual jobs. Some of these jobs (like
preparing voter-list) have gained some sort of modernism. But ECTG
cannot claim much credit for it, because it happened so mainly because
of our ever increasing accessibility to modern technology. In other
sectors however, the ECTG is proceeding in the most conventional way.
For example, they are holding discussion with the political parties,
all of whom demonstrated worst type of corruption, failure and
foolishness in the past. The ECTG is asking for their suggestions.
Naturally the political parties have taken it as a scope to bargain
and they are after getting their programs and projects materialized by
the ECTG.

The above attitude of the Election Commission is against the mission
and motto of the ECTG, because the ECTG gave the idea that the
political parties are corrupt. They opined that their mission was to
eradicate such curses permanently. In fact the various daring
activities of the ECTG including the arrest of the top political
leaders and publicly exposing their corruptions gave the people
hopeful about their noble mission. Now, when the Election Commission
asks those political parties about their suggestions in various
aspects of election we become utterly confused. Are they after brining
one of those parties in power ? What 'great benefit' of the country
and the people would they serve by doing that ? Would not it enable
the "leaders of the winner party to declare a general pardon for their
leaders serving jail terms" ? Would not it enable them to start their
previous activities anew ? It should be borne in mind that as soon a
political party is in power, it is empowered to do almost anything
including removal of any or all the previous laws and to impose new
ones. The people of Bangladesh are happy to see the excellent
application of the rule of "confiscation of illegally-earned wealth"
by the ECTG. But who can give the assurance that this rule would not
be waived as soon as one of the 'marked' political parties rise to
power ? The ECTG has no scope to feel contented to think that they
have done a great job until they can create a mechanism that would
retain most, if not all, of their hard-earned positive gains.
WHY THE ELECTION COMMISSION IS ACTING IN THIS WAY ?

When the ECTG has taught us to know and we have already known that our
political parties are corrupt, what made our Election Commission to
flatter the political parties ? Are they afraid that in case the
political parties disagree to participate in the election then they
would fall in great problem ? The reality is, the EC would really fall
in problem in case the political parties disagree to participate. But
in case the EC can make alternate arrangements by forming alternate
and new parties by the fresh people, they won't have any reason to
worry.

MECHANISM FOR INVITING FRESH PEOPLE :

We have already discussed that better quality people may join politics
only if :

(i) The cost of the activities of the political parties is
minimized,
(ii) The cost of election is considerably reduced,
(iii) Politics is transformed into a day to day activity,
(iv) The government incorporates the services of the political
parties in the national activities and celebrations,
(v) The accountability of the political parties and the activists can
be ensured.

We have already presented our proposal showing how these can be
ensured through a carefully designed system. A careful study of the
proposed "Registration system" might reveal that in it a group of say,
60/70 like-minded men can form apolitical platform (chapter) at a cost
of Taka 2000.00 to 5,000.00 only. We are confident this cost is well
within the reach of our honest and educated people.

If the entry of the fresh, educated and intelligent persons can be
ensured in our political arena and they can somehow kick out the old
'known-faced party members', then, and then only we may expect to see
the materialization of the dream expressed by the ECTG.

CONCLUSION :
In any country the politicians are the most important people. In USA
the strong multinationals have arranged for sending the mid-caliber
people to politics such that the businessmen may continue their
activities with minimum interferences. At times they prefer defective
(in point of morality or because of other weaknesses) candidates, such
that they may keep them under pressure.
However, the reality is, of all the professionals and persons like
Scientists, Engineers, Doctors, Economists, Sociologists, Artists,
Poets, Novelists etc., the politicians are by far the most important,
because they act as guides for the others. In such a context I have
presented a proposal, a mechanism in which the superior-quality men
may be encouraged and the low-caliber professional-politicians may be
discouraged in the sacred arena of politics. I do not claim that this
is the only mechanism to invite better-quality people and I know,
there may be many others. Also the proposal presented here has got
scope for betterment. I would request the ECTG and the Election
Commission to look at my proposal critically and take it for
consideration only if they find it worthwhile. I am afraid, in absence
of suitable a mechanism capable of discouraging the previous political
parties and encouraging the good-quality people, all the hard-earned
and marvelous achievements of the ECTG would flow in to the drain.
(THE END)

PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY,
BANGLADESH

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT For Frank and Andre
    ... anti-gay, anti-women, anti-secular culture into something that they ... would have ended any mainstream politicians career in the UK. ... country has been so shaped by so few people in recent times. ... Kennedy administration worked overtime as soon as they arrived into ...
    (rec.music.opera)
  • Mexico Bronco: the beheadment of a government
    ... Back in the days when Salinas was trying to lead Mexico to development ... virtual winner of the future elections under the PRI regime. ... registered in that country. ... opportunity to politicians without future in the old regime, ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: different topic - personal
    ... 'access' to those politicians and political parties, ... > leaders and military leaders possible criminals tried at the ICC. ... Country X wants a military base in Country Y, ... > Africa. ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • In Bangladesh, Relief Turns to Worry
    ... The caretaker government is being accused of human rights abuses as mucking out ... Concerns are growing both inside and outside Bangladesh that the January ... politicians believed to be corrupt, ...
    (soc.culture.malaysia)