BANGLADESH NEWS & VIEWS

What the arrest of former PM means

2007-07-19T12:18:00.000+01:00

What the arrest of former PM means
By Sabir Mustafa
BBC Bengali service editor

Sheikh Hasina being arrested
It's not the first time the former PM has been arrested
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was arrested on Monday and sent off to jail for a month. But this was not just another arrest, triggered by yet another corruption case.

When hundreds of police and elite forces descended on her home in the early hours of Monday, it was the culmination of two months of gradual tightening of the proverbial noose.

Back in May, Sheikh Hasina foiled a government attempt to send her into exile and returned to the country in a blaze of publicity. Thousands of her supporters defied a government ban and cheered her through the streets of Dhaka.

The euphoria was short-lived though, as she was placed under what amounted to house arrest almost immediately after her return.

'No accountability'

Police cordoned off all roads leading to her house in an up-market Dhaka residential area. Only a handful of party leaders and close relatives were allowed to visit her.

SHEIKH HASINA'S BIOGRAPHY
Sheikh Hasina. File photo
Born on 28 September, 1947
Her father was Bangladesh's first president and independence hero, Mujibur Rahman
During Bangladesh's war of liberation War in 1971, was imprisoned by the Pakistani army
Was abroad in August 1975 when her father, mother and three brothers were all murdered in Dhaka
Elected the president of the Awami League in 1981 while in exile
Put under house arrest several times in Bangladesh during the mid 1980s
Became prime minister after elections of 1996 but lost elections of 2001

When she tried to go to the southern port city of Chittagong last month to visit survivors of a catastrophic landslide, police stopped her from leaving the house.

Likewise, when she tried to travel to the US in late June to see her expectant daughter, the police deployed additional forces and prevented her from going to the airport.

In between all that, a number of extortion cases were registered against her in different police stations. On Monday, Sheikh Hasina was arrested in one of those extortion cases, filed over a month ago.

Earlier, she was charged in a murder case allegedly involving her Awami League party members in the death of four Islamist activists during demonstrations last October. The government is also reviving a number of corruption cases filed against her several years ago.

All the while, Sheikh Hasina has been campaigning for early elections, suggesting that the military-backed caretaker government did not have a mandate to govern for a long time.

The government has promised to hold elections before the end of 2008. But Sheikh Hasina believes that is too long in power for an unelected administration without any accountability.

'Torturing politicians'

She upped the ante in this cat-and-mouse game a week ago. While speaking to journalists, she did what has long been regarded in Bangladesh as the ''undoable'' - she publicly accused the defence intelligence agency, the DGFI, of meddling in politics.

Sheikh Hasina accused the military-run DGFI of ''arresting and torturing politicians'' and engaging in efforts to make or break political parties.

''It is not the DGFI's business to get involved in politics, to make or break political parties. What kind of intelligence activity is it, when the agency tortures people, and administers electric shocks?'' she asked.

Police in Bangladesh

Bangladesh crisis Q&A

To many observers in Dhaka, it was only a matter of time before she was arrested. Her supporters believe there is more politics than law behind her arrest.

''The government has arrested her in order to cut her off from her supporters and party workers. This arrest is politically motivated, which is unfortunate. Nobody in this country can support such an arrest'', Motia Chowdhury, a senior Awami League member told the BBC.

Sheikh Hasina herself believes the various corruption and extortion cases are being lined up to force her out of politics. Once convicted, she would be disqualified from standing in the next general elections.

According to political observers in Dhaka, her fears are not without basis.

The arrest comes at a time when the government is making behind-the-scene attempts to force major political parties to change their top leadership.

It has quietly encouraged a group of senior leaders in the Awami League to float ''reform'' proposals aimed at curbing her powers and easing her out of the leadership.

But the ''reformists'' have made little headway, except in grabbing newspaper headlines.

Awami League rank-and-file members around the country have failed to rally to their cause. While most seem to agree on the need for reforms, few want it done at the expense of Sheikh Hasina.

''There is a feeling in Dhaka that, if Hasina remains at the helm, the reformists would lose the battle,'' the newspaper editor Bazlur Rahman told the BBC.

''The government has been taking a series of steps to neutralise Sheikh Hasina by isolating her,'' he said.

Observers believe that, as long as Sheikh Hasina is able to appeal directly to her party's supporters, the "reformers" have little chance. The need to remove her from the scene, therefore, had become imperative.

War-like situation

The government says her arrest is part and parcel of a general drive against corruption launched by the military-backed interim government since 11 January.

Ministers point to a series of corruption and extortion cases filed against Sheikh Hasina, and suggest that nobody should be above the law.

Protest in Bangladesh in 2006
It's not yet clear whether the arrest will generate more street protests

But senior Awami League leaders feel there was no need to arrest her, as she was already under close police observation. Other political party leaders point to the manner of her arrest as disturbing.

''The way she was arrested, with all those hundreds of police and other forces, did not seem a pleasant sight. It appeared almost as if we are going through a war-like situation. I don't think this will create a positive impression,'' said Rashed Khan Menon, leader of the leftist Workers Party.

The arrest of Sheikh Hasina represents a significant event in Bangladesh. The caretaker government has now delivered a clear signal to the Awami League that it wants to see a wholesale change in the party's leadership before the next general elections.

The big question is: which way will the Awami League - the party which led Bangladesh to independence in 1971 and which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year - go now?

Will it give in to government pressure and accept Sheikh Hasina's ''dismissal'' from politics? Or will it regroup its forces and launch yet another long, violent round of protests?

The people of Bangladesh may not have the desire for any more political agitation. But early indications suggest that protests and agitation are very much on the cards.

Sheikh Hasina's Arrest protest at House of Lords

2007-07-19T12:13:00.001+01:00

Hasina Arrested and Jay's Reaction 16-07-07

2007-07-19T12:10:00.000+01:00

No reforms in AL until Hasina is free: Zillur

2007-07-19T12:03:00.000+01:00

No reforms in AL until Hasina is free: Zillur

Relatives wait near a security fencing, seeking approval to see Sheikh Hasina in the special jail Thursday. Photo: Qamruzzaman
Awami League acting president Zillur Rahman Thursday said there would be no reform in the party before Sheikh Hasina was free. "Why reform keeping the leader in jail? All misunderstandings among us have been removed. The leaders and workers of the party at all levels are now united to free the leader," he told reporters at his Gulshan home. Zillur, also a former general secretary, said if indoor politics was reintroduced and if reforms were to take place, only in presence of Hasina would they be carried out.

SOURCE>BDNEWS24.COM

Hasina’s fears are not without reason

2007-07-19T11:51:00.000+01:00

Hasina’s fears are not without reason
Editorial By New Age ,Dhaka,July 17
Although the interim government has claimed that the most recent restrictions imposed on the movements of former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, who was barred from going to Chittagong on Thursday to visit the victims of the recent landslides and then forced to postpone a private trip to the United States on Friday, are for the sake of proper investigation into the two extortion cases that were filed against her on June 13, Hasina herself has expressed an apprehension that the cases against her have been filed to keep her out of the next general elections and thereby to force her out of the political process. This paper, which believes in the rule of law that necessitates equal rights for all and the equal application of the law for all citizens, has consistently maintained that all corruption suspects, be they civil servants or former heads of government, should be prosecuted by the state through the due process of law and duly punished if found guilty of such charges. Hence, if after proper investigations the state wishes to pursue the cases against Sheikh Hasina, and if she is found, through proper trials, guilty of the crimes that she has been accused of, this paper will unfailingly support, for the sake of upholding the rule of law, the implementation of any punishment that is handed down to her by the courts.
However, given this military-backed government’s earlier attempts at keeping Hasina outside the country and of trying to send another former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia into exile, thus expelling the country’s two top political leaders from national politics, we have reason to find substance in Hasina’s apprehension. This anxiety, on our part, is made worse by the government’s visible enthusiasm for introducing a political order that would leave both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia out of the equation. While we feel that the democratisation of the political parties in this country is absolutely imperative, we also believe that democratic reforms within the parties must be initiated and carried out by the parties themselves. It is absolutely vital that the members and activists of the Awami League and the BNP are allowed to select their leaders and drive their own reform agendas, rather than such decisions being taken and then forced upon the parties by an unelected government of non-politicians. Any imposition of external decisions and programmes relating to reforms on the parties, we feel, will not only fail to result in their much talkedabout and much desired democratisation, but will rather aggravate the existing chaos within the parties and create a political vacuum in the country, neither of which can have any positive impact on the flourishing of democracy within the parties and in society.

Update By Sajeeb Wazed Joy

2007-07-19T11:47:00.001+01:00

Update

My mother is being detained under the Emergency Powers Rule, 2007, not under the criminal code of Bangladesh. There is no due process under the emergency powers. Right to bail and right to appeal are denied and the detention can be extended indefinitely even without a trial. Trials are conducted by special tribunals in camera (only the judge is present, there is no jury and the proceedings are closed to outside scrutiny) and summarily (normal procedures such as conducting discovery are not allowed.) This is a violation of international human rights laws, in particular Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

No one is being allowed to visit her, not even relatives. She has no access to telephone or any other means of communication.

Over 200,000 individuals remain arrested for up to six months now under these Emergency Powers. Of these, only a dozen or so cases have gone to trial. One former minister has been sentenced by a special tribunal to 12 years imprisonment for possessing 21 bottles of alcohol in his home without paying import duties on them. No other charges were brought against him.

This is not justice. This arrest itself is illegal and a violation of all human rights.

My Mother's Arrest

2007-07-19T11:40:00.000+01:00

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
My Mother's Arrest
By Sajeeb Wazed

My mother was arrested in a dawn raid (5:00am Bangladesh time) from her house on Monday 16th July. Approximately 1,000 members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the army and the police surrounded her house in Dhaka and searched the premises without a warrant. They then took my mother to court where she was denied bail and ordered detained under authority of the indefinite state of emergency being maintained in the country.

After she was taken away, the armed forces confined all members of the household in a single room and proceeded to search the house without a warrant. They have since seized her personal belongings including her laptop, her mobile phone, her car and CDs.

The cases that were filed against her months ago have not yet gone to trial. Her arrest comes just one week after she exposed attempts by the military’s intelligence wing, Directorate General Forces Intelligence (DGFI) to break up the two major political parties and create a new party of handpicked leaders with dubious track records.

It has been no secret that the goal of this regime is to remove my mother from politics. To that end they first tried to intimidate her with trumped up charges when she was outside the country, but she would not be intimidated and declared she would return to face them. Next the tried to exile her, but were forced to back down and let her return. Then they placed her under virtual house arrest, even though they continued to claim there were no restrictions on her. Her arrest comes as no surprise.

It is also no secret that this regime has been trying to form a handpicked political party. They are attempting to do this with some very familiar faces within the two major parties. These are the same people against whom we have repeatedly heard allegations of corruption. Yet, while vowing to clean up corruption, this regime has actively participated with these corrupt and opportunistic politicians in trying to create divisions within the two parties.

The grassroots of the Awami League are completely united behind Sheikh Hasina. Due to this the regime’s attempt at creating a division within the Awami League was failing. This is the real reason my mother has been arrested. This was the only way they could silence her.

Police had to resort to teargas and rubber bullets outside of the court when my mother was ordered detained because of the large crowd that had gathered there to protest her arrest. On the route to the sub-jail the convoy was confronted at several points by crowds of supporters. Demonstrations and rioting have been breaking out throughout Bangladesh for the last two days, despite the state of emergency. For a short while the Dhaka-Chittagong highway was shut down because of rioting. A three day strike is in effect at all educational institutions throughout the country.

Demonstrations are ongoing in front of Bangladeshi embassies and consulates throughout the world. This includes Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan and the Saudi Arabia just to name a few.

We will not be silenced. We will not let the generals and a few sycophants take over power through the backdoor by destroying democracy under the guise of reforms, as they have done in the past.

I urge all Bengali’s around the world to stand with us at this critical hour. I urge our troops in our armed forces to look at what is happening. This is going to set our nation back 30 years. Our nation’s future is at stake.

Khaleda demands Hasina's release

2007-07-19T11:37:00.000+01:00

Khaleda demands Hasina's release
BNP leaders unaware of her statement
Staff Correspondent
Thu. July 19, 2007,Daily Star ,Dhaka.
Setting a rare example, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday demanded immediate release of her arch political rival Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, and regretted failure of the administration to protect her [Hasina] dignity while being taken to court.

"I am deeply disheartened to see that being a former prime minister, chief of a political party, daughter of a national leader, an aged woman as well as a distinguished citizen of the country, she [Hasina] faced a disgraceful and indecent situation on the court premises," Khaleda said in a statement, signed by Maruf Kamal Khan, deputy press secretary to the former prime minister.

BNP leaders however said they are not aware of any such statement.

"It [indecent situation] hurt all conscious people and destroyed the image of the government both at home and abroad," Khaleda said. The situation could have been avoided if the government would have dealt with the matter carefully and consciously, she added.

The BNP chairperson said, "I think it would be better if her [AL chief] trial is held without arresting and sending her to jail or opposing her bail prayer."

Calling for immediate release of Sheikh Hasina, Khaleda stressed conducting the case keeping her free. It would decrease the possibility of social and political instability and confusion.

The people do not want to see chaos and disorder again which led to promulgation of 'unexpected' state of emergency. Extension of emergency would not however bring any good to the county, she said.

"We have to move forward toward our desired democracy. Ensuring stability and establishing national consensus are necessary for this," Khaleda said. Everybody should be more foresighted and should exercise wisdom as the opportunity is now created.

Mentioning that none is above the law, she said nobody is also above error. And those who discharge major responsibilities of a country beset with problems have the more chances of committing errors.

Successes of politicians should not be underestimated because of their failures, the former premier observed.

"I was hurt by the illogical, non-political and indecent speeches of Sheikh Hasina against me and my family many times, and I am also hurt in the same way to see her facing unexpected behaviour," Khaleda said.

"Accused persons may or may not be guilty. So, it is the duty of the government and administration to protect their honour and dignity," she said. Every accused should get justice, and his/her right to defend, legal assistance and human rights should be ensured.

Separation of powers: Concept and reality

2007-01-19T22:12:00.001Z

Straight Line
Separation of powers: Concept and reality
Muhammad Nurul Huda

The concept of separation of powers has played a major role in the formation of constitutions. The extent to which powers can be and should be separate and distinct was a central feature in formulating, for example, both the American and French revolutionary constitutions. In any state, three essential bodies exist: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. It is the relationship between these bodies which must be evaluated against the backcloth of the principle. The essence of the doctrine is that there should be, ideally, a clear demarcation in function between the legislature, executive and judiciary in order that none should have excessive power and that there should be in place a system of checks and balances between the institutions.

In The Politics, Aristotle proclaimed that: "There are three elements in each constitution in respect of which every serious lawgiver must look for what is advantageous to it; if these are well arranged, the constitution is bound to be well arranged, and the differences in constitutions are bound to correspond to the differences between each of these elements. The three are, first, the deliberative, which discusses everything of common importance; second, the officials; and third, the judicial element."

The constitutional seeds of the doctrine were thus sown early, reflecting the need for government according to and under the law, a requirement encouraged by some degree of a separation of functions between the institutions of the state.

Baron Montesquieu (1689-1755, living in England from 1729-31) stressed the importance of the independence of the judiciary in the following manner: "When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty ... Again, there is no liberty if the power of judging is not separated from the legislative and executive. If it were joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would then be the legislator. If it were joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression. There would be an end to everything, if the same man or the same body whether of the nobles or the people, were to exercise those three powers that of enacting laws, that of executing public affairs, and that of trying crimes or individual causes."

Throughout history, there has been exhibited a tension between the doctrine of separation of powers and the need for balanced government -- an arrangement depending more on checks and balances within the system than on a formalistic separation of powers.

Political thinkers did not mean that the legislature and the executive should have no influence over the other but rather that neither should exercise the power of the other. It was considered that the executive and the legislature should be sufficiently separate to avoid 'tyranny', and that their total separation may potentially lead to the domination of the executive by the legislature. It was opined that partial separation of powers was required to achieve a mixed and balanced constitutional structure. It was thought that constitutional arrangements characterised by powers and personnel being largely -- but not totally -- separated with checks and balances in the system to prevent abuse, that is, mixed government and weak separation of powers would be desirable.

The executive may be defined as that branch of the state which formulates policy and is responsible for its execution. In formal terms, the sovereign is the head of the executive. The judiciary is that branch of the state which adjudicates upon conflicts between state institutions and individuals. The judiciary is independent of both parliament and the executive. It is this feature of judicial independence which is of prime importance both in relation to government according to law and in the protection of liberty of the citizen against the executive.

Bangladesh scenario: "The Constitution of Bangladesh exhibited a very impressive, pragmatic and sound system of governance of which the Supreme Court was a valiant guardian. A testimony to this is the case of Secretary of Finance vs. Masdar Hossain (20BLD[2000] [AD] 141) where the Supreme Court painstakingly laid down twelve directions to give meaning, shape and thrust to the requirements of the Constitution in the matter of separating the judiciary from the executive."
The historic twelve directions
(1) It is declared that the judicial service is a service of the Republic within the meaning of Article 152(1) of the Constitution, but it is functionally and structurally distinct and separate service from the civil executive and administrative services of the Republic with which the judicial service cannot be placed on par on any account and that it cannot be amalgamated, abolished, replaced, mixed up and tied together with the civil executive and administrative services.

(2) It is declared that the word "appointments" in Article 115 means that it is the President who under Article 115 can create and establish a judicial service and also a magistracy exercising judicial functions, make recruitment rules and all pre-appointment rules in that behalf, make rules regulating their suspension and dismissal but Article 115 does not contain any rule-making authority with regard to other terms and conditions of service and that Article 133 and Article 136 of the Constitution and the Services (Reorganisation and Conditions) Act, 1975 have no application to the above matters in respect of the judicial service and magistrates exercising judicial functions.

(4) The appellant and the other respondents to the writ petition are directed that necessary steps be taken forthwith for the President to make Rules under Article 115 to implement its provisions which is a constitutional mandate and not a mere enabling power. It is directed that the nomenclature of the judicial service shall follow language of the Constitution and shall be designated as the Judicial Service of Bangladesh or Bangladesh Judicial Service. They are further directed that either by legislation or by framing Rules under Article 115 or by executive order having the force of Rules a Judicial Services Commission be established forthwith with majority of members from the Senior Judiciary of the Supreme Court and the subordinate courts for recruitment to the judicial service on merit with the objective of achieving equality between men and women in the recruitment.

(5) It is directed that under Article 133 law or rules or executive orders having the force of Rules relating to posting, promotion, grant of leave, discipline (except suspension and removal), pay, allowances, pension (as a matter of right, not favour) and other terms and conditions of service, consistent with Articles 116 and 116A as interpreted by us, be enacted or framed or made separately for the judicial service and magistrates exercising judicial functions keeping in view constitutional status of the said service.

(6) The impugned orders in the writ petition dated 28. 02.94 and 2.11.95 are declared to be ultra vires of the Constitution for the reasons stated in the judgment. The appellant and the other respondents to the writ petition are directed to establish a separate judicial Pay Commission forthwith as a part of the rules to be framed under Article 115 to review the pay, allowances and other privileges of the judicial service which shall convene at stated intervals to keep the process of review a continued one. The pay etc. of the judicial service shall follow the recommendations of the Commission.

(7) It is declared that in exercising control and discipline of persons employed in the judicial service and magistrates exercising judicial functions under Article 116 the views and opinion of the Supreme Court shall have primacy over those of the Executive.

(8) The essential conditions of judicial independence in Article 116A, elaborated in the judgment, namely, (1) security of tenure, (2) security of salary and other benefits and pension and (3) institutional independence from the Parliament and the Executive shall be secured in the law or rules made under Article 133 or in the executive orders having the force of Rules.

(9) It is declared that the executive government shall not require the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to seek their approval to incur any expenditure on any item from the funds allocated to the Supreme Court in the annual budgets, provided the expenditure incurred falls within the limit of the sanctioned budgets, as more fully explained in the body of the judgment. Necessary administrative instructions and financial delegations to ensure compliance with this direction shall be issued by the government to all concerned including the appellant and other respondents to the writ petition by 31.05.2000.

(10) It is declared that the members of the judicial service are within the jurisdiction of the administrative tribunal. The declaration of the High Court division to the opposite effect is set aside.

(11) The declaration by the High Court Division that for separation of the Subordinate Judiciary from the executive no further constitutional amendment is necessary is set aside. If the Parliament so wishes it can amend the Constitution to make the separation more meaningful, pronounced, effective and complete.

(12) It is declared that until the Judicial Pay Commission gives its first recommendation the salary of Judges in the judicial service will continue to be governed by status quo ante as on 8.1.94 vide paragraph 3 of the order the same date and also by the further directions of the High Court Division in respect of Assistant Judges and Senior Assistant Judges. If pay increases are affected in respect of other services of the Republic before the Judicial Pay Commission gives its first recommendation, the members of the judicial service will get increases in pay etc. commensurate with their special status in the Constitution and in conformity with the pay etc. that they are presently receiving.

The ground reality, in Bangladesh, is that the judiciary possesses neither the financial resource nor the power to extract the allegiance of the other organs of the State to the constitution and the implementation of its decision in so far as it relates to the separation of the judiciary from the executive. As such, in spite of public declarations and commitments to judicial separation from the executive branch, political groups and the administration have maintained the status quo. Thus the intentions of our constitution have not been carried through. Therefore, although the judiciary is in the process of separation of late, the civil society and the political class of Bangladesh should relentlessly pursue the issue until the constitutional dignity and effectiveness of the supreme judiciary is fully and credibly established.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a former Secretary and IGP.
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/20/d701201501107.htm

The coup that dare not speak its name

2007-01-19T22:01:00.000Z

Bangladesh The coup that dare not speak its name
The army, not the politicians, now runs Bangladesh
Jan 18th 2007 | DHAKA
From The Economist print edition

WHEN Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh's president, declared an army-backed state of emergency on January 11th and cancelled the election due on January 22nd, neither he nor the foreign governments quietly cheering him on used the word “coup”. Yet that is what it looks like. The army, in the tradition of “guardian coups” from Fiji to Thailand, has stepped in with the usual list of apparently noble goals. The interim government it is backing will enable credible elections, clean up the country's extremely politicised civil service, fight corruption, fix the country's power crisis and keep food prices in check—and then return to the barracks.

The president stood down as head of the caretaker government that had been supposed to oversee the elections. He was replaced by Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former central-bank governor and World Bank official. The technocratic administration he heads has so far sent the right signals. A drive against corruption—in which Bangladesh regularly nears the top of world league tables—is under way. The national-security chief, the top civil servant in the power ministry and the attorney-general have all been ousted. A start has been made in separating the judiciary from the executive.

But restoring democracy remains a tall order. The political system has collapsed. The army insisted the president step in before the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which headed a coalition government for the past five years, could rig the election and secure itself another term.

Delaying the vote averted a possible bloodbath. Allegations of election-rigging levelled by an alliance led by the other big party, the Awami League, had led to weeks of often violent protests and strikes. Their charges were, in effect, backed by foreign observers. Both the European Union and the UN withdrew their support for the election. The UN also warned the army against partisan intervention in politics, adding that this might jeopardise its lucrative role in UN peacekeeping operations. This threat helped sever an alliance between the army and the BNP.

The BNP's leader, the previous prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is reported to have been taken aback by the state of emergency and disappointed in the generals. But the BNP is unlikely to go quietly, raising fears that the administration might be forced to make fuller use of its wide-ranging emergency powers, which it has so far used with restraint.

Unless something extraordinary happens to make the parties behave, there will be no return soon to two-party politics. It will take time to fix a voter list bloated with millions of extra names, to issue voter-identity cards, to set up a new independent election commission, and to purge the bureaucracy. It seems unachievable before the July monsoon, which pushes polls back to the final quarter of 2007. Indeed, what would be the fourth electoral battle between Mrs Zia and the League's Sheikh Hasina Wajed may never happen.

Arguing in favour of the state of emergency, Bangladesh's largest-selling newspaper, Prothom Alo, has exposed the practice of parties' auctioning off parliamentary seats for money. Matiur Rahman, the editor, also alleges that both big parties entered a bidding war to lure the Jatiya Party of the former dictator, Hossain Mohammad Ershad, into their alliance. Jatiya has asked the army to shut the paper down.

Although the state of emergency has supporters even among some liberal democrats, it is a high-stakes gamble. Authoritarian rule is unlikely to appeal for long, however fed up voters are with the two big parties and their mutually-loathing leaders. The main beneficiary from the failure of mainstream politics is an extremist Islamist fringe.

Internationally, the stakes are highest for neighbouring India. It accuses Bangladesh of harbouring insurgent groups from its north-east, and is home, claim politicians, to some 20m Bangladeshi migrants. By 2050 Bangladesh, only twice as big as Ireland, will have about 250m people. In the short term the only voting on offer to Bangladesh's people, half of whom live in abject poverty, is with their feet.

AL, BNP want polls soon but won’t push for them yet

2007-01-19T21:56:00.000Z

Shahidul Islam Chowdhury and Ofiul Hasnat ,New Age ,Dhaka

The Awami League- and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led political alliances want the military-backed interim government to hold the elections to the ninth Jatiya Sangsad within the shortest possible time but are unwilling to create any pressure on it to do so.
The top leaders of the alliances, especially of the Awami League and the BNP, decided after a number of in-house meetings since the promulgation of a state of emergency by the president on January 11 that they would ‘wait and observe the political situation’ and at the same time blame each other for the disruption in the democratic process.
‘Let the Awami League first create the pressure on the government to hold the general elections, as it was they who had launched violent programmes that led to the disruption of the democratic process,’ the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said when talking to New Age on Friday. ‘We will give our opinion if and when we are invited to do so.’
‘As the interim government assumed the state power as per the section 58(C) of the constitution, it should not take more than 90 days to hold free and fair elections,’ the joint general secretary of the Awami League, Obaidul Kader, told New Age on Friday. ‘The polls should be held within 90 days and no excuse for extending the tenure of the interim government, in the name of protecting democracy, will be lawful.’
But a presidium member of the party from greater Faridpur told New Age on Thursday, ‘The Awami League would wait at least six months before it starts to create any pressure on the government to hold the elections.’
The presence of top leaders of the AL-led alliance at the oath-taking of the chief adviser, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, has been viewed as its tacit support to the interim government. It has also thanked the army at different news briefings for its role in the formation of the new government.
Leaders of the BNP-led alliance were conspicuously absent from the oath-taking ceremony. The alliance has ever since issued carefully-worded statements, signed by Mannan Bhuiyan, calling for the elections to be held and power handed over to an elected government ‘as soon as possible’.
‘It is practically impossible for the caretaker government to run about 40 ministries with only 10 advisers, even if they are very efficient,’ Mannan Bhuiyan said.
The AL presidium member was, however, critical of some advisers who have hinted that the interim government might stay in power for more than three months.
‘The people initially supported the new council of advisers, as it apparently saved the nation from an “election of conflict” planned by the BNP-Jamaat alliance,’ he said. ‘However, they will not accept any attempt by any quarter to establish autocracy for a long period of time.’
‘They (the military-backed government) have come and we will keep close watch on their activities. If they discharge their duties properly, it will be good; otherwise, the people will not accept any conspiracy,’ he said. ‘The state should be run by politicians, not by a self-selecting group.’
Although the interim government needs time to ensure an atmosphere conducive for elections, it should not take more than six months to hold the elections after reconstituting the Election Commission, updating the electoral roll, depoliticising the administration and, if possible, preparing voter identity cards, the Awami League leader said.
He insisted that the people would not accept any ‘illogical’ decision and would realise their demands by greater movement if any decision was imposed on them ‘illegally’.

5 more advisers inducted into caretaker govt

2007-01-16T22:53:00.000Z

5 more advisers inducted
into caretaker govt
Staff Correspondent,New Age ,Dhaka
The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Tuesday appointed five more advisers to the caretaker government, taking to 10 the number of members of the cabinet headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed.
The interim cabinet at night decided to prepare a proposal, covering all the issues related to holding of credible elections, to be placed before major political parties.
The advisers are former secretary Ayub Quadri, former chief of police and Rapid Action Battalion Anwarul Iqbal, retired major general Matiur Rahman, who was consultant to the national AIDS programme, Bangladesh ambassador to the UN permanent mission in New York Ifthekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, and Faiz Khan, an information technology expert, a government handout said.
Iajuddin administered oath of office to the three of the five new advisers at a simple ceremony at the Bangabhaban at about 8 pm.
Five advisers took oath on January 13, a day after the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, was sworn in on January 12, after the resignation of Iajuddin as chief adviser on January 11.
The advisers sworn in on January 13 are Mainul Hosein, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, MA Matin, Tapan Chowdhury and Geetiara Safiya Chowdhury.
The president also declared state of emergency throughout the country on January 11.
Ifthekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and Faiz Khan could not take oath as they were staying abroad. They would be sworn in as soon as they return home.
The ninth parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for January 22, stand cancelled with the announcement of the emergency.
Ayub Quadri served the government as secretary to a number of ministries, including water resources, agriculture and Economic Relations Division. Iqbal served as inspector general of police and director general of the RAB. He resigned from the post of IGP during the immediate past caretaker administration headed by the president.
Dr Iftekar Ahmed Chowhdury is a career diplomat and currently ambassador and representative to the Bangladesh’s permanent mission in United Nations.
Chowdhury, who was enjoying a third-time contract in government service, is likely to arrive in Dhaka today.
Faiz Khan, an IT specialist and consultant who worked for the customs administration and modernisation project at the National Board of Revenue, is also abroad.
Reportedly a US citizen, Khan worked as consultant for the controversial machine readable passport piloted by the home affairs ministry, according to sources.
The cabinet meanwhile sat at a meeting at night and decided to prepare a proposal, covering all the issues related to holding of credible elections, to be placed before major political parties seeking their views to end the political standoff.
‘We will deal with the matters seriously so that we can resolve them shortly in consultation with all concerned,’ the adviser in charge of the industries ministry, Geetiara Safiya Chowdhury, told New Age after the meeting.
The meeting presided over by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, also reviewed the overall situation, giving special focus on law and order, preparation of national identity cards, independence of the judiciary, fertiliser and power crisis, de-politicisation of the administration, according to official sources.
The meeting asked the home affairs ministry for immediate measures to check smuggling of fertiliser to a neighbouring country.
The newly appointed advisers and the secretaries concerned attended the meeting in the Chief Adviser’s Office.
This was the second meeting of the interim cabinet after Fakhruddin had taken over as chief of the caretaker administration.

Judiciary independence only one step away

2007-01-16T22:50:00.000Z

Judiciary independence
only one step away
Four fresh sets of rules promulgated;
change in CrPC remains
Shahiduzzaman ,New Age, Dhaka.
The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, at last taking the penultimate step towards making the judiciary independent of the executive, on Tuesday promulgated four fresh sets of rules on judicial service, repealing the sets of rules promulgated by the BNP-led alliance government.
The fresh sets of rules were framed after being corrected by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on January 26, 2003 to keep them in line with the 12-point directive of the court, issued on December 2, 1999.
According to sources in the law ministry, the copies of the rules will be placed before the Appellate Division this morning when the court resumes the proceedings of the contempt-of-court cases against 13 bureaucrats, including four top-ranking ones, for procrastination in the implementation of the directives and for distorting the court’s orders.
The government will also inform the court that the process of implementation of the directives has been almost completed with the framing of the fresh rules and the only thing left — amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedures — will be done by promulgation of an ordinance by the president soon, said sources.
The seven-member full court of the Appellate Division ordered the government on January 10 to promulgate the four sets of rules as revised and approved by the court on January 26, 2003, and inform the court of compliance to the order through an affidavit within a week.
The court also observed that the four sets of rules, promulgated by the last government, were not made in accordance with the 12-point directive on the independence of the judiciary and thus have been ‘scrapped’.
‘Accordingly we have prepared the fresh rules, as revised and approved by the court, for promulgation by the president,’ law adviser Mainul Husein told reporters on Tuesday.
‘It is not a policy matter, but merely a regular administrative function of the government in order to carry out the orders of the highest court of the land,’ he said.
Once the four sets of rules — the Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission Rules, the Bangladesh Judicial Service (Pay Commission) Rules, the Bangladesh Judicial Service (Constitution, Recruitment, Suspension, Dismissal and Removal) Rules and the Bangladesh Judicial Service (Posting, Promotion, Leave, Control, Discipline and other Service Conditions) Rules — and the Code of Criminal Procedures (Amendment) Ordinance, to be promulgated within a day or two, are in place, the judiciary will be made independent of the executive. The judiciary, in the subordinate courts, will be constituted by judicial officers and judicial magistrates.
A judicial magistrate will also be a judicial officer. Entry post of the judicial service will be ‘assistant judge’. Assistant judges will be appointed by the president according to the list of the fit candidates prepared by the Judicial Service Commission. For appointment to the post of assistant judge, the Commission will hold tests of the candidates.
The salaries and other benefits of the judicial officers will be determined by the Judicial Service Pay Commission to be formed under the Judicial Service (Pay Commission) Rules.
The organogram of judicial service may be changed only when recommended by the Supreme Court, according to the rules.
The control (including posting, promotion, leave, suspension, dismissal and removal) of judicial officials will be vested in the president and will be executed by him in consultation with the Supreme Court. If there is any conflict of opinion between the Supreme Court and the president, the opinion of the Supreme Court will prevail, as stipulated by the rules.
According to the rules, the 11-member Judicial Service Commission will be formed with a judge of the Appellate Division, to be nominated by the chief justice, as its chairman.
The commission will include two judges of the High Court nominated by the chief justice, attorney general, a member of the Law Commission, secretaries of the ministries of establishment, finance and law, the dean of the law faculty of Dhaka or Chittagong or Rajshahi University, registrar of the Supreme Court and the district judge of Dhaka.
The last government framed the judicial service commission rules on January 28, 2004, which have been repealed by the new rules, and formed a 7-member Judicial Service Commission on February 25, 2004 with a judge of the Appellate Division as its chairman. The commission also included the establishment secretary, finance secretary, law secretary, registrar of the Supreme Court, a member of the Public Service Commission and the district judge of Dhaka.
The last government also framed the Judicial Service Pay Commission Rules on May 21, 2006, making provisions for the formation of a 5-member Judicial Service Pay Commission with the comptroller and auditor general as its chairman and secretaries of the ministries of finance, establishment and law, and the registrar of the Supreme Court, as members.
According to the new rules, framed on Tuesday after repealing the old ones, the commission will be a 9-member body. A judge of the Appellate Division, nominated by the chief justice, will be the chairman of the commission, which will include a judge of the High Court nominated by the chief justice, a member of the Law Commission, the comptroller and auditor general, secretaries to the ministries of finance, establishment and law, registrar of the Supreme Court, and a judicial officer of the rank of district judge working in Dhaka who will be nominated by the chief justice.
According to the Bangladesh Judicial Service (Posting, Promotion, Leave, Control, Discipline and other Service Conditions) Rules, posting of the judicial officers will be made by the president in consultation with the Supreme Court. A judicial officer will be promoted to a higher post only on recommendation by the General Administration Committee of the High Court, which includes all the judges of the High Court.
According to the new rules, judicial service will have two parts — one includes district and sessions judges, additional district and sessions judges, joint district and sessions judges, senior assistant judges and assistant judges, and the other includes the chief metropolitan magistrate or chief judicial magistrate, additional chief metropolitan magistrate or additional chief judicial magistrate, senior judicial magistrate and judicial magistrate.
The Bangladesh Judicial Service (Constitution, Recruitment, Suspension, Dismissal and Removal) Rules include special provisions for appointing the existing magistrates, who are now performing judicial duties though they are members of the administrative service, in judicial service on deputation as an interim arrangement until a sufficient number of judicial officers are appointed.
According to the special provisions, there will be a selection committee to recommend existing magistrates for absorption in judicial service. The committee will be formed with a judge of the High Court nominated by the chief justice, and five members including the establishment secretary, home secretary, law secretary and registrar of the Supreme Court.
The existing magistrates, however, will have to apply to the selection committee for being absorbed in judicial service. They will have the right to go back to administrative service when the judicial service has a sufficient number of judicial officers. They will also have the scope to continue in judicial service as judicial officers on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission.
The Appellate Division detailed the 12-point directive, which will eventually make the judiciary independent, in its verdict on the government’s appeal in the Masder Hossain case, popularly known as the independence of the judiciary case, delivered on December 2, 1999.
Since the delivery of the verdict, all the subsequent governments took repeated extensions of time for implementation of the directives, but failed to implement them or deliberately did not do so.
The last government, however, framed four sets of rules, which were challenged in the court by the counsel of the contempt petitioner, M Amirul Islam, who claimed that there were a number of deviations from the draft rules that were corrected and approved by the court, and the deviations would eventually make the judiciary more subservient to the government instead of making it independent.
Subsequently the court, on January 10, came up with the order.
Meanwhile, the court issued the contempt rule to four top bureaucrats — the then principal secretary to the prime minister Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, law secretary Alauddin Sardar, establishment secretary Mahbubur Rahman and finance secretary M Siddiqur Rahman — on April 3, 2006 after hearing a contempt petition filed by Chowdhury Munir Uddin Mahfuz, a judge in the tribunal for the prevention of repression of women and children in Kishoreganj.
On April 24, 2006 the four top bureaucrats, including Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, submitted their replies to the contempt rule.
Transferring the onus for making the judiciary independent of the executive to the prime minister in their replies, the top bureaucrats denied the allegation of contempt of court and apologised to the Appellate Division for their ‘unintended mistakes’, if any.
Earlier, on November 29, 2004, the court issued a contempt rule against nine mid-ranking bureaucrats for distorting the court’s order at an inter-ministerial meeting held on November 1, 2004.
In line with the directives, the Supreme Court achieved financial independence in the tenure of the Awami League government in 2000.
Source :

Bangladesh state of emergency gives hope to investors

2007-01-15T23:33:00.000Z

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

2007-01-15T23:31:00.000Z

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

2007-01-15T23:18:00.000Z

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

2007-01-15T23:14:00.000Z

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

2007-01-15T23:02:00.000Z

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

2007-01-15T22:50:00.000Z

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

2007-01-15T22:40:00.000Z

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