Bangladesh state of emergency gives hope to investors

By Serajul Islam Quadir

DHAKA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - A state of emergency in Bangladesh principally aimed at tackling political violence to create conditions for a free and fair election has provided a spark for the economy.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange reported that trading volume on Sunday, a working day in the mainly Muslim country, was the highest in 10 years.

The main port of Chittagong, which handles more than 80 percent of Bangladesh's international trade, went back to full operations after political chaos and transport blockades had caused weeks of disruption.

A Jan. 22 national election has been postponed while a new interim government draws up plans for a fresh ballot. The vote was postponed after the president quit as head of a caretaker government in an attempt to halt weeks of political violence.

Political stability from now would boost the chances of the economy achieving growth of 7 percent in the fiscal year to the end of June, the central bank governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, said on Sunday.

The economy grew 6.7 percent in 2005/2006.

The interim government has imposed a state of emergency to rein in the political violence in the country of 140 million people, half of whom live on less than $1 a day.

The state of emergency has generally been welcomed by Bangladeshis after months of violence in which 45 people were killed and hundreds injured.

BUSINESS HOPES

The all-share price index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) rose on Sunday by 58.04 points, or 4.46 per cent, to 1,359.20, its highest level since 1996, DSE officials said.

"The investors are coming back, encouraged by the improvement in law and order and a thaw in political bickering among mainstream parties," Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, chief executive of the DSE, told Reuters.

Business leaders said transport blockades or strikes cost the country's crucial garments industry more than $70 million a day in lost business.

Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury, a garment exporter and a director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the state of emergency would help trade resume but the credibility of the election would be crucial for longer-term business prospects.

"We need a free and fair election that would ensure sustained peace and stability and allow business to grow undisturbed," he said.

No date for the election has been set, but officials say it may take a few more months to arrange.

Garments exports were worth nearly $8 billion in the fiscal year to the end of June 2006, dominating total exports of $10.53 billion.

($1=70.33 taka)

Press concern at Bangladesh emergency

Press concern at Bangladesh emergency

Media controls are now in place

by BBC

Papers in Bangladesh give a measured welcome to the reduction in political tensions brought about by the declaration of a state of emergency and the swearing-in of an interim government. But the decision to impose media censorship gets short shrift.

DAINIK DINKAL

"It is noteworthy that the state of emergency has brought back a sense of normality to public life. The people have heaved a sigh of relief following the announcement of the state of emergency."

INQILAB

"The wind of normalcy has already begun to blow in public life. But many do not like the censorship that has been imposed in the press and electronic media. We cannot deny the necessity of censorship, even if, as a member of the media, we do not like it."

BHORER KAGOJ

"The country again faces an unnatural situation following the president's declaration of a state of emergency. A state of emergency was issued 17 years ago by the then military dictator. No-one expected that a caretaker government would do the same. The backgrounds of the two regimes are totally different, but it is understood that a state of emergency violates all basic rights of the people."

Abdul Gaffar Choudhury in SHAMOKAL

"At last the president has issued a state of emergency in order to rectify his mistakes. We will not enter the debate as to whether issuing a state of emergency was necessary or not, but we will give the president some praise for his bold step in standing down as chief adviser to the caretaker government. This is not the end. Now he has to take logical steps."

JANAKANTHA

"In the wake of the declaration of a state of emergency, censorship has been imposed on publishing critical analysis, anti-government news, cartoons, feature stories as well as news about rallies and demonstrations. We, in principle, reject the censorship decision."

NAYA DIGANTA

"There is now a state of emergency in the country and that is why we do not have any scope to comment on it."

NEW AGE

" ...by declaring a state of emergency to undo his mistakes, it is once again the people that the president is hurting by suspending their fundamental democratic rights. The citizens are not at fault for the existing political situation and therefore should not be punished for the failures of the caretaker government and the political parties. The president, therefore, should immediately restore the fundamental rights of the citizens."

Source :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6258331.stm

Advisers on a right track

Editorial,Daily Star-Dhaka


Advisers on a right track
Time to get the priorities right
We welcome the caretaker government's (CG) express desire not to place curbs on all the fundamental rights during the state of emergency. That the council of advisers has thought it fit to direct the administration to keep the issue of fundamental rights of freedom of speech and thought in particular out of the ambit of the rules under the emergency power ordinance, is extremely heartening, and must receive our unflinching support. Emergency should not, as a rule, necessitate the abridgement of the basic rights, and this has been rightly demonstrated in the attitude of the CG and of its chief, Dr. Fakhruddin. We urge the chief adviser to ensure that the desire not to impinge on the fundamental rights including the right of press freedom is reflected in the formulation of rules that would be used to enforce the state of emergency.

We also feel the government's taking up the issue of voter list, voter ID card and transparent ballot box represents correct prioritisation of its immediate tasks. Now it is the implementation of the goals that will test them severely.

What the CG has to do now is to ensure that the focus is put entirely on the prioritised tasks and ensure that these are implemented as quickly as possible. But we understand too that some of these are time-consuming matters. We feel that the chief adviser would do well to seek the help of experts to solve some of the vital problems. For example, in the matter of electoral roll, the most contentious issue, he could solicit the advice of the ex-CECs, retired cabinet secretaries and other senior bureaucrats, or relevant NGOs to devise ways to update the list in the shortest possible time. In the same manner, the feasibility of issuing of voter ID card in the shortest possible time could also be studied if CG could get the experts to put their heads together. So far as transparent ballot box is concerned we understand that some of our development partners had already committed to supply them, which the EC in its "wisdom" had declined earlier on. Let a fresh approach be made to the relevant quarters abroad.

The period of emergency need not be prolonged unnecessarily. Time is of essence and we suggest that the greater part of the time of the council of advisors be devoted to addressing all the issues related to the holding of a free and fair election while they could do with apportioning less time to running the daily affairs of the administration.

Source :http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/16/d70116020128.htm

Credible voter list is job number one

Zahid Hossain

President Prof. Iajuddin Ahmed in his address to the nation on January 11 very correctly pointed out that it was not possible to hold an acceptable election within the stipulated 90 days without correcting the voter list.

The existing inaccurate and defective voters list has, in fact, been made further unwieldy by the recent two-week long so-called up-dating efforts by the Election Commission.

Thus, the prime job of the newly appointed non-party caretaker government will be to ensure updating of the existing voter list in an effective and credible manner.

For that, a properly manned and managed re-constituted Election Commission should be in place without delay. Nobody can deny the fact that there cannot be any question of free, fair, and credible election in the absence of an accurate and reliable electoral roll.

But updating of the voter list in a credible and acceptable way within the shortest possible time will basically depend on the efficiency, sincerity, and sense of urgency of the Election Commission.

Generally speaking all citizens of voting age, irrespective of race, ethnicity, class, religion, status, or gender have the unhindered right to register as voters. They have also the right to freely participate in election campaigns and to make voluntary choices when casting their secret votes.

Democracy is generally defined as a political system in which citizens enjoy fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, expression, association, assembly and movement. The rule of law and respect for basic human rights also characterize a democracy.

The BNP-Jamaat appointed Election Commission and the Election Commission secretary have been constantly telling the media for the last several weeks that they have fully updated the voter list as per the guidelines of the higher court.

Even a recent BNP-Jamaat alliance delegation, led by former agriculture minister MK Anwar, after having a meeting with the Election Commission secretary strongly certified that the updated voter list was fully corrected to their satisfaction.

But the position in the field is totally different. Both my wife and myself are citizens of Bangladesh, and have been living in the same house for the last five years or so. Nobody has ever visited our home for registering us as voters.

On a demand from the Awami League-led political alliance, the Election Commission recently took an initiative for updating the voter list by going from house to house. Nobody visited our house. I made two phone calls to the Election Commission giving my full identity, including my 34 years of government service. But it did not work.

Our names have not been enlisted as voters. Interestingly, I have recently made it a point to ask all my friends and relations, whom I happen to meet, as to whether he or she is a voter or not.

Out of possibly 35 such eligible voters, I have so far found only three who have confirmed that their names are on the voter list.

However, the foundation of a good and fair election is grounded on a proper register of voters. A good register is one that, as far as humanly possible, includes the names of all eligible persons and correctly places them in their respective constituencies or polling areas where they should be.

The personnel who will be charged with the preparation of such a register need, obviously, to demonstrate impartiality, efficiency and skill to ensure that the interest of democracy is served, and confidence in the electoral system is enhanced.

To do this, both the letter and the spirit of the electoral laws must be strictly enforced. The revising officers, their assistants, and others associated with the process must, therefore, ensure that the voting population as a whole has easy access to the registration process.

As a matter of fact, a properly registered voter list should contain the names of all known persons who are eligible to vote in a particular election. During the process of creating the voters list certain procedures should, as far as possible, be undertaken:
* Displaying publicly the voters list for inspection.
* Providing the voter list to political parties and civic organizations for scrutiny.
* Making additions, deletions, or corrections to the voters list based on filed claims and objections.
* Resolving disputes lodged by political parties, civic organizations, or citizens, concerning the inclusion or exclusion of particular individuals from the voter list.

Moreover, a voter list can serve many purposes. It guarantees that those legally entitled to vote are able to do so. It prohibits ineligible people from voting, and prevents people from voting more than once. Thus, a really correctly prepared voters list brings individuals into the election process, and protects the right of their vote.

To enhance accuracy, efforts should be made to avoid the duplication of names. Even though indelible ink is used during the election, it is imperative that the registration officials make every effort to avoid duplications.

This may be easier in rural areas than in urban areas since, presumably, more people are likely to know each other in a locality or neighbourhood in a village

Finally, intending candidates, political parties, and civil society organizations must have sufficient opportunity to scrutinize the voter list for errors or omissions. They should have the opportunity to make claims and objections for names to be added, deleted or corrected, in the voter list.

The claims and objections need to be processed properly, and appropriate changes made to the voter list. Since political parties and intending candidates are the main players of the election game, they should be provided with copies of the preliminary, revised, and the final voter list.

Zahid Hossain is a political analyst.

Source : The Daily Star
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/16/d701161501140.htm

Islamism And Expediency

By Delwar Hussain

16 January 2007,www.countercurrents.org
Open Democracy

The general election in Bangladesh scheduled for 22 January 2007, already surrounded by bitter political dispute, has been thrown further into doubt by the declaration of a state of national emergency on 11 January. The country's president, Iajuddin Ahmed, prepares to address the nation after several weeks of mass protest and blockades by the government's opponents who seek to have the election postponed. The long-standing doubts over the fairness of the poll and the legitimacy of the institutions that will oversee it have thus exploded into a wider national crisis.

A new phase has opened in Bangladesh's stormy political trajectory since 2001, a period dominated by the polarisation between the ruling, centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the opposition, centre-left Awami League (AWL). Behind the street barricades and the decisions of state, however, is a far larger story than the nature of the next government and the identity of the prime minister. For the underlying dynamics of Bangladeshi politics suggest the slow rise of Islamism towards political power.

Indeed, it is all too tempting to predict that - unless there is a rapid and unforeseen change - the outcome of the election (if indeed it takes place) will be less significant in statistical terms than as the culmination of the politics of expediency that has dominated the last six years.

In that case, the real losers will be the 140 million people of the country and with them, the ideals of secularism and socialism on which the country was established in 1971. The winner, almost regardless of the results, will be the burgeoning Islamist parties which are unremitting in their ideological drive to establish an Islamic state refounded on sharia law.

A new order in waiting The election victory of the BNP in 2001 was secured in partnership with the ardently fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Islami Oikka Jote (IOJ). Since then, these parties have been working to advance their ideological objectives; a task strengthened by popular antagonism to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the shadow of an increasingly Hindu fundamentalist India, and the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in Bangladesh itself.

However, the politics of expediency - a combination of violence, greed and opportunism - that taints the two major parties is arguably an equally important factor in the slow Islamisation of the country.

In December 2006, the Awami League announced that it had accepted the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish (BKM), an Islamist party led by Shaikul Hadith Azizul Haq as one of its partners. As part of their joint memorandum of understanding, the AWL (led by Sheikh Hasina) has agreed to the BKM's four key demands in the event of an opposition victory:

*"certified" alem (Islamic clerics) will have the right to issue fatwa (Islamic religious edicts)

*the parliament in Dhaka will impose a bar on enacting any law that goes against Quranic values

*the parliament can initiate recognition of the degrees awarded by Qaumi madrasa

*the parliament can implement a ban on any form of criticism of the Prophet Mohammed, including
accepting that he is the last and the most supreme prophet.

The BKM has nominated five prospective candidates for government positions; of these, two are veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war and one supports a Taliban-style regime in Bangladesh. All have been high-ranking members of the banned extremist organisation Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami which has been waging a war to establish Islamic hukumat (rule) in Bangladesh.

One of these, Maulana Habibur Rahman, the principal of a madrasa, is standing in the constituency Sylhet-6 (Biyanibazar province), where many British Bangladeshis originate from. His opponents accuse him of involvement in several bomb blasts in Sylhet, including the one in May 2004 where the British high commissioner to the country, Anwar Choudhury - himself a British Bangladeshi - was nearly killed.

All these demands have been on the agendas of every rightwing extremist party in the country for a very long time. Now, as part of its bid for power, the AWL - albeit in an election it is determined to prevent happening - has suddenly acquiesced to them. Even the JI, which had fought against the liberation of the country and is today implicated in the rise of Islamist militancy and violence, had not managed to achieve what the AWL has agreed to. The decision means in effect that the country is a few steps away from introducing a process whose ultimate outcome will be an Islamic State of Bangladesh.

The announcement of the pact was made on 24 December 2006, the same day Hasina was entertaining a group of Bengali Christians in her home. She made no mention of the pact, but reasserted the party's scripturally-based "commitment to secularism" argument and called on every citizen irrespective of their caste and creed to work to build a secular country. She also added - in what apparently was not a Christmas joke - that "the BNP-Jamaat alliance use religion as a tool of political gains, but the Awami League believes in secularism".

The agreement runs profoundly against the AWL's belief in religion-free politics, an ideology which Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujib had enshrined in Bangladesh's first constitution. It also breaks with the rest of the coalition partners' agreement to eliminate religious bigotry and communalism.

Three of the BKM's demands are a particular cause for worry.

The right to issue fatwa by alem who operate by Islamic law represents the creation of a parallel legal system to the existing, state one. Some years ago, the high court upheld a case brought by human-rights groups opposed to an earlier effort to establish this right. The groups argued that fatwa were biased against women, ethnic and religious minorities and secular organisations. An influential report by the legal aid organisation Ain O Salish Kendra in 1997 stated that "fatwas were issued sentencing women to whipping, stoning, social boycott etc. All these resulted in murder, suicide, physical assault, harassment (and) humiliation".

Islamist groups responded to the verdict by gathering under the banner of an "Islamic law implementation committee", which called for the judges who made the decision to be hanged; a cancellation of the verdict; and a ban on NGO activities. The committee was led by Shaikhul Hadith Azizul Haq, now leader of the BKM. In Dhaka, the committee attempted to block a rally by women's organisations supporting the anti-fatwa ruling; during the confrontation, a policeman was murdered inside a mosque.

Shaikhul Hadith Azizul Haq, then chairman of the Islami Oikka Jote, was arrested for the murder. Altogether ten people were killed and over 200 injured during the month-long protests. The party in power at that time, and which oversaw and initiated the prohibition of fatwa, was the AWL. The violence ended after the supreme court suspended the verdict for an indefinite period. The result was predictable: a report from the United States state department estimates that thirty-five fatwa were issued during 2005.

A minority under pressure

The implementation of a ban on any form of criticism of Mohammed and of laws that contravene Quranic values is a way of using law to forbid and punish blasphemy. But there is particular aspect to such repressive efforts in Bangladesh, which are specifically aimed against the Ahmadiyya community: a sect of Islam whose members are persecuted in Bangladesh.

The Ahmadiyyas do not believe that Mohammed is the final messenger of Allah - a view that Islamist groups (including the Jamaat and the IOJ, organised with others under the banner of the Khatame Nabuwat Movement) find abhorrent. In line with a ruling in Pakistan, they demand the Ahmadiyyas be declared non-Muslim. The community has been attacked with relative impunity, and these attacks are on a rising trend since the 2001 election.

Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns about the safety of the Ahmadiyyas in Bangladesh. The incidents it cites include the killing of an Ahmadi preacher, vandalism against their mosques, the illegal house arrest of Ahmadi villagers, street agitations against Ahmadis, and the waves of "hate speech" and public rallies calling for the declaration of Ahmadis as
non-Muslims.

The BNP government, seeking to preserve the relationship with its extremist partners, has done very little to protect the Ahmadiyyas during its tenure. In 2004, it even initiated a ban on all Ahmadi publications, though currently its implementation is suspended by the high court. By entering into the pact with the BKM, the AWL has reproduced a political anti-Ahmadiyya agenda, further stigmatising and threatening an already vulnerable community.

The new kings

The BNP and the AWL are alike at the root of the politics of expediency, and share responsibility for its persistence in Bangladesh. The problem began soon after independence when (in 1975) Sheikh Mujib was assassinated and power seized by a military dictatorship. The military elite sought to consolidate its position and gain much-needed political legitimacy by turning to the Islamist groups - especially as a counterweight to the AWL's secular, socialist ideals.

General Zia ur-Rahman's BNP party removed secularism from the constitution and replaced it with "... absolute faith and trust in the almighty Allah". He also inserted Bismillah-ar-rahman-ar-rahim (In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful) into this foundational document.

Zia encouraged the return by stealth of what are euphemistically called "the anti-liberation forces", members of the JI, back into power. These were the very same people that Zia himself had fought against in the war of liberation a few years earlier. General Ershad also responded to mounting opposition and popular uprisings against his rule (1982-90) by amending the constitution to declare Islam the state religion.

Democracy returned in 1991 but unfortunately this did not stem the tide of political opportunism. Both parties have sought the support of the Islamists (in particular the Jamaat), either to help form a government or to topple a democratically elected one. Following the 2001 BNP-JI-IOJ coalition victory, the country witnessed a spate of systematic attacks on minority communities.

During the coalition's tenure, some commentators have characterised Bangladesh as a possible "next Afghanistan". Such fears were increased in August 2005, when 500 home-made bombs exploded across the country in a series of coordinated explosions. In order to protect the alliance, and
continue in government, the BNP prime minister Khaleda Zia, (General Zia's widow) accused the AWL of responsibility for this and the other atrocities taking place across the country.

Minority groups and other coalition partners are in uproar and feel abandoned by the AWL's decision to endorse Islamist demands. One coalition partner said the deal will "destroy the country's democratic and progressive spirit and will encourage militancy". The English-language Daily Star newspaper argued the deal has "laid the foundation of destruction of our constitution, our legal system and our way of life. In fact, it is a blueprint for a different Bangladesh, not the one we have now and not the one for which millions died".

In response, the AWL has been quick to resort to damage limitation. Its general secretary Abdul Jalil reiterated the party's "commitment to secularism". He has stated that this relationship with the BKM is crucially not a binding agreement but a "memorandum of agreement" and "an understanding based on an election strategy."

The cost of power-games

This last comment goes to the heart of the problem. The AWL may believe that the agreement with the BKM is nothing but a clever if dangerous game designed to hoodwink the Islamist vote-bank, an attempt to split the numbers who overwhelmingly vote for the BNP-JI-IOJ coalition. The party possibly has no intention of actually fulfilling any of the BKM's demands. In short, this can be understood as an example of the marriage of expediency and crude unprincipled politics which characterises the establishment parties in Bangladesh.

But while the AWL tries to orchestrate extremist opinion, it is also taking for granted the minorities and the secularists, confident that it "owns" their votes. As one Dhaka-based commentator said, the tragedy for minorities and the left in Bangladesh is that they get the long pole from both ends: attacked, raped and looted by BNP thugs and Islamists for voting AWL, then abandoned by the AWL in its bid to gain power.

Over the years, the result of this kind of arrogance is that the Islamist agenda has trickled, drop by drop, into mainstream politics - to the extent that it is becoming hard to tell the difference between the mainstream parties and their extremist partners. The consequences of this kind of degradation in democratic politics can be fatal. A cartoon in a national newspaper is suggestive: it depicts Sheikh Hasina feeding milk and bananas to a snake (wearing a mosque-hat) coiled around her. The snake is no longer interested in the food.

The long-term damage done to the secular project over the years is evident in the fact that its self-declared champion is doing nothing to uphold it. As power is transferred - from Zia to Ershad to Khaleda to Hasina - the Islamist project gets stronger and stronger. The logic is that the next election - whenever it is held - will bring the Islamists to power, regardless of who becomes prime minister. The Islamists were once seen as being against Bangladesh itself, anti-national; then as important power-brokers in the country's politics; today, they are on the point of being crowned kings.

Source :http://www.countercurrents.org/bangla-hussain160107.htm

The New York Times:In Bangladesh, State of Emergency and Election Delay

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: January 12, 2007

NEW DELHI, Jan. 11 — The president of Bangladesh declared a state of emergency on Thursday evening, suspending certain fundamental rights, imposing a nighttime curfew, and effectively postponing elections that were scheduled to be held in less than two weeks. He then resigned as the chief of the caretaker government entrusted to run the vote.

An alliance of political parties had promised to boycott the elections, scheduled for Jan. 22. And in the past couple of days, as the nation of 140 million people sank deeper into political violence, virtually all international backing for the vote fell away.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, said in a televised address in Dhaka on Thursday night that it would be impossible to hold elections that would be acceptable to all parties by the scheduled date. He referred specifically to the contention that the voters’ list had been stuffed with 14 million fake names, one of the main grounds for the boycott.

“It’s not possible to hold the elections on schedule,” Mr. Ahmed said, according to The Associated Press. “We need a flawless voter list to ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible.”

Mr. Ahmed, who will retain the largely ceremonial presidency, said he would appoint an advisory council to conduct the elections at an unspecified date. The state news agency reported that he saw his resignation as being “essential to keep the economy going and maintain law and order.”

He had earlier insisted that the Constitution permitted no postponement of the elections.

Emergency rule paves the way for the army to take control of law and order and imposes new restrictions on the news media, measures that have not been applied in Bangladesh since the restoration of democracy 16 years ago.

The emergency declaration came a day after the United Nations suspended technical support for the coming elections, saying that they would not be “considered credible or legitimate.” Two teams of American election observers, as well as one that was to be dispatched by the European Union, also pulled out.

This week, an alliance of political parties, led by the former opposition Awami League, which had already said it would boycott the elections, announced that they would “resist,” which most Bangladeshis understood to be a barely concealed threat of violence.

The British Foreign Office issued a statement on Thursday urging both parties to compromise in an effort to produce elections that could be seen as “credible, peaceful and universally accepted.” Clashes between the police and political activists in recent days presaged further violence in the days before the elections.

The United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday, “The United Nations is concerned that Bangladesh’s democratic advances and international standing will be affected if the current crisis continues.”

The country’s two main leaders, Sheik Hasina Wazed, leader of the Awami League, and Khaleda Zia, both former prime ministers, have been battling each other for power since 1991, when they and their supporters restored democracy after nine years of military rule. Since then, they have fought bitterly for control of the government and together they have given their country a singular reputation for political violence.

Mrs. Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party stepped down from power last October, when an interim caretaker government took over, with responsibility for running the elections.

The election process then became the heart of the controversy. Sheik Hasina’s party accused Mrs. Zia’s party of having stacked the election commission with partisans and stuffed the voter list with fake names. It also accused President Ahmed of being biased in favor of Mrs. Zia’s alliance. Mrs. Zia’s party, in turn, insisted that the elections could not be postponed, because the Constitution stipulated that they be held within 90 days of an interim government taking over.

Before the emergency order on Thursday, some of Mr. Ahmed’s critics pressed him to be flexible and, for the sake of neutrality, to refer the matter to the Supreme Court. “The Constitution is not the Koran in that it can’t be changed,” Syed Manzur Elahi, a prominent businessman and a member of two previous caretaker governments, said by telephone Thursday afternoon from Dhaka, the capital.

He said he feared for his country’s standing in the world. “As it is, we have an image problem,” he added. “This will multiply the problem.”

The most dire warning came from the United Nations, which said Wednesday that any moves toward military rule could cost Bangladesh its handsome earnings from participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations. Bangladesh regularly contributes hefty numbers of troops.

The statement read: “Should the 22 January parliamentary elections proceed without participation of all major political parties, deployment of the armed forces in support of the election process raises questions. This may have implications for Bangladesh’s future role in U.N. peacekeeping operations.”

Julfikar Ali Manik contributed reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Source :http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/world/asia/12bangladesh.html

Poll date depends on how much reforms parties want

By Daily Star ,Dhaka
A new schedule for general elections depends on the extent and scope of reforms demanded by political parties to ensure free, fair and credible polls, two advisers to the caretaker government said yesterday.

It would take longer to hold the elections if political parties want voter ID cards but it could be held much sooner if only an update of the 2000 voter list is required, they told reporters.

Both the advisers -- MA Matin and Mainul Hosein -- cited updating of voter list, reconstitution of the Election Commission (EC), national ID cards, transparent ballot box, reform and depoliticisation of the administration as priorities for the CG.

They said there is no longer a time limit for holding elections as the constitutional 90-day timeframe is not applicable now. So, it does not matter whether it would take three or six months to hold polls if necessary and reforms demanded are implemented.

But the two advisers did not see any need to prolong the state of emergency, and said they will work for polls without the influence of 'black money' and separation of the judiciary during their tenure.

"We will discuss with political parties their reform demands regarding the election. If they ask for national ID cards, it would take a long time. But, if they want only the 2000 voter list to be updated, an election could take place much sooner," said Matin, adviser for communications, shipping, civil aviation and tourism, and liberation war affairs.

"There are several major demands including introduction of voter identity cards, reconstitution of the Election Commission, preparation of voter list and depoliticisation of the administration.”

He went on, "It is not a matter of two or six months. Reform of the election process will take a long time. We need support of the people and political parties to implement those.

"The national crisis is there. It is largely a political crisis and we (advisers) have discussed how to resolve it."

The adviser stressed, "We will have to attain our goals and objectives of priority reforms to make the elections acceptable at home and abroad."

Asked about the state of emergency, he said, "There is no need to prolong the emergency." He emphasised the need to protect fundamental rights.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Mainul Hosein told reporters at his office, "The constitution has already been violated in terms of the president taking oath as the chief adviser and the inability to hold elections within 90 days. What is done is done. So, we have to protect the constitution as much as we can and move towards holding an acceptable election."

Asked when they expect the polls to be held, Mainul said they could hold elections even within two months if they want, but the CG's main concern is to ensure legitimacy of the election by making it free, fair, neutral and credible.

"We want to hold an election free from the influence of black money. If dishonest people are elected representatives of the people, their wishes will not be fulfilled. So, we have discussed this among us (advisers) and we have also discussed the issue with the Election Commission," Mainul added.

On the Supreme Court directive for separation of the judiciary, he said, "We are thinking about it. I would be glad, very glad, if I could do this during our tenure."

Regarding press freedom during the state of emergency, the adviser said, "Emergency is not against press freedom. Certain changes will take place in the ordinance within a short time."

Blaming politicians for creating a situation followed by a state of emergency, he said the press and the people should not pay for politicians' mistakes.

Source :http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/16/d7011601011.htm