The Raw Deal that General people of Bangladesh is getting.

The raw deal that general people of Bangladesh is getting

The foolish people elect Hasina and Khaleda to lead them. Both of them are in jail. But none of their Cabinet Secretaries are in jail yet. They are too big to be put in jail. You know why? Cabinet secretaries are all good people, they had no choice but follow the orders of their bosses. But wait, did any of you ever hear that a cabinet secretary resigned from his post due to a conflict with the prime minister? No! Yet, Prime ministers go to jail, but their cabinet secretaries becomes office bearers of constitutional posts. Bah!

(A personal message to readers. If you are privileged so you can have dinner with any of the  Mr. Importants of today's Bangladesh, please make a printout of this article and make them read it over dinner, :) We mean it!)
 

 

We have been repeatedly saying that if we are really serious about changing the fate of the people of Bangladesh, if the CTG really mean business, the most effective thing to do is to ensure some honest, effective and competent people gets elected in all the elections - from unions to the post of MPs. Now, how do you ensure that? There will be many opinions - those convoluted opinions might have some credibility, but why go there? Also, if you guys wants to handpick local leaders using intelligence, that will backfire. Why? If you guys had the capacity to understand those, then Ershad would still be in power in Bangladesh. Democracy has to be allowed to grow with the freewill of people.

It is very straight forward. What is expected of the elected posts and from the politicians are extremely demanding jobs and it needs extremely efficient and competent people to deliver. You have create an environment where people in the individual level are motivated to contest in the election. Once you have a good number of interested people, an enabling environment from the government might accelerate the process. But before that, you have start the process by creating incentives for those who are capable. The best way to ensure that is to make what these posts are - make them professional in the sense that they are very highly paid.

 

The Mayor of Dhaka City should be highest paid job in the city - if we really want this person to perform. Similarly, the Mayors of Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet should be very highly paid jobs. The Mayors of all the municipalities around the country should ensure best paid jobs in the locality. The chairman of the Union Porishod jobs should be full-time jobs and very highly paid. Also, all these positions should entitle them to official residences (a similar practice that we have for President or Prime Minister).

 

The post of MPs should be very highly paid jobs so that these positions become competitive compared with private sector corporate jobs.

 

Until these are done, the country's youth will be repeating the mistakes of Abdul Awal Minto or Morshed Khan. They will think first to steal to become filthy rich with some good intention (may be) in the corner of heart that someday they will start giving back to the country. In the meantime, the rich do not leave them and incapacitate the heart to do any good. And alas! they forget what they were. Even if they don't forget, their baggage becomes so big that they do not have the capacity to maneuver to come out of their corrupt packaging. Another options will be the people like Haji Selims or Mayor Mohiuddins - the people with the street power will be elevated to broker political powers. This group never understood or cared about development in the long term. Or its like Hasina or Khaleda. Some simple housewife or daughter, comes to politics and they are no longer simple. They loose all their originality - if they had any.
 

Or people like Asaduzzaman Noor who don't need money or he is not after corruption. People like him has probably ventured into politics out of pure urge to serve the nation. However, numbers of this kind of people who are accomplished and is beyond many of the shortcomings - they are numbered. So, people like him passes the days in politics making compromises every step of the way and hoping one day he would be big enough so he can make decisions for his party. Alas, with the current structural form - that day would never come. Someone has to change the dynamics within the structure if you have to develop fast. If you do not make those structural changes, Asaduzzaman Noor is also another lost cause in the name of politics - never reaching his own potential.

When all these waste and mis-use of human energy is going on, the only group that is enjoying unchallenged power and the group which is hurting the chance of good governance is this bureaucratic circle of elites. Consciously or unconsciously, they are our burden. This group has to be challenged with injection of professional and competent brains in the politics. Its about time.
 

 

What we are saying that someone has to think about the monthly budget of an office bearer. A mayor or an MP should be paid enough so that his or her standard budget is fully paid and leave some extra when they will no longer be office bearer. This will do a tremendous change in the culture politics. We could go on writing a book on it, but you should just look at any developed modern democracy, you will see the proof. More importantly, we think, it is the only way out from the current hodge-podge situation for Bangladesh.

 

If its that serious then why the proposals aren't moving forward with this otherwise responsive government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed? Do you want to hear? Lets try to  guess. Because, your bureaucrats do not think its a good idea to pay the politicians more than what bureaucrats earn. Or the Election Commissioners do not think that somebody who will be elected through their management should be entitled to earn more than them! Don't you believe this? Off course, this is our guess. But this guess is correct, otherwise, why won't these proposals go forward? And your advisers (most of whom are ex-bureaucrats) aren't sure what to do - listen to they peers or listen to their hearts. Policy making is not so easy - it needs courage. Kake dosh dibo. The elected prime-ministers don't have the courage to break out from the bureaucratic tangle, aar era tu unelected people thinking they have a good opportunity to become famous, but won't take any risk. You guys should know that whatever you thought of these jobs while accepting the offer, its not that easy. Fame and success do not come without courage.
 

 

Lets take a second look.

 

Secretaries think that the politicians should not get paid more money than they get. But when the politicians do crime, they just follow orders. When it comes to going to jail, bureaucrats do not go to jail, its the politicians who goes to jail. Why? Because, bureaucrats were just following order!

 

So, basically what they are saying can be summarized as follows: Bureaucracy is just like a tool. You can use a tool for good purpose or bad purpose. Its the person who should be held responsible if the tool has been used for bad purpose. For example, you can use a knife for good purpose or bad purpose. If someone takes a knife (or a boti) from the kitchen and use that to murder somebody, the knife can't be held responsible. What are you thinking? Don't you agree with this reason? If that is the case, then, can't you just throw a knife in the dustbin and buy a new knife? Eta bolle abaar hobe na. Ebar apnake bola hobe, knife er tu jibon ase! But knife can't be held accountable? That is the raw deal that Bangladesh is getting. Since most of the people is still uneducated, they people elect some fools to office. Doesn't matter who they are, they will become corrupt. The system is designed that way. Politicians comes and goes, but the bureaucrats will become chairmans of different constitutional bodies. How come? One would say the fact that they were part of a failed administration, that would at least disqualify them to take over such an important position as chairman of a regulatory commission. What did they do during their tenure in the bureaucracy? Did they protest in any instances? No, they played by the rule (read they did hamba hamba - thats their qualification). Thats how they became cabinet secretaries or secretaries.

 

All are either incompetent or hypocrites. Most of the bureaucrats are incompetent - a few are competent but they are hypocrites.

 

Not only that. The foreigner group, the people which live in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka or those who fly in to give lessons once in every other week, all are the hypocrites. They know very well (from their home countries) that only a professionally paid elected officials can deliver a working democracy for the benefit of the people. But you will never hear this basic premise from any of those. Why? Because, if you get a group of competent politicians, then how would they be prescribing things upon you!

 

The current leadership of the political parites also do not want to make the elected officials be paid highly. Why is that - you might think? Isn't it counter intuitive that they would be opposing their salary increase? On the face of it, it might seem that way. But if you think a bit, 95% of the current leadership knows that if the positions are made professional, it will attract such competitive people from the private sector that they would not get a chance in that - assuming elections will be held in a level-playing field.

 

So, basically its in nobody's interest to make the positions of the elected officials be made as professional full-time jobs. Except for the general people. Wait, aren't we acting on the assumption that - at least the current CTG is acting in the interest of the general people? Well, these group of emergency room operators seems to beleive that they have operated on the body, there is no need to stich the wounds and make room for the new tissues to be grown to replace the vacuum left by tumors.

 

What exactly we are trying to achieve here? - our esteemed readers might be thinking. Off course, this circular allegations will lead the nation nowhere - you may correctly forecast.

 

And unfortunately, we also agree with you!

 

More unfortunate thing is that if we do not start this cyclic allegations, what we have now - what it seems that we are getting - that is also leading us nowhere. Majority of the people are yet to understand that. They will realize in another 10 years.

 

So, what is the solution? Or do we have any plan to salvage the situation?

 

Yes, we do. We have been shouting for long now. They won't heed to that.

 

Make the elected positions in the Mayor's offices, Upazilla, Zilla and UP Chairman's offices and Parliament full-time paid jobs. The pay scale of these should be much higher than those determined by the PSC. The salary administration of the elected officials should be done through a completely different channel, preferably the EC Secretariat. Politicians go to jail, because the responsibility of failure is upon them. Give them some space. Make these attractive enough so people start considering leaving the corporate jobs and serve the country. Its plain and simple. Only this step can save you all.

 

Also on a different note, for many of you it might be a matter of being famous or popular, for some of you are losing some money, for some of you its about loosing some power, but all of you should remember that most of the people of Bangladesh, it is about life and death, it is about being able to eat two full meal, it is about being able to send their kids to school or buying health care for their old mother. So have some mercy on people.

 

To the daughter of Bangabandhu, have some mercy on people. Go to retirement. Even with your own words, you have reached that point a long time back. So have some mercy on us. Have some mercy on your party. One day you were called in to serve the party. Its strong now. Leave it alone and see from the distance.

 

To the wife of Major Zia, have some mercy on people. Go to retirement. You have shown enough to the nation. Its about time for you.
 

To the members of bureaucracy, have some mercy on people. Stop playing with words, start doing what you are paid for. Also, don't think that war criminals will come back to your rescue. Don't block the tribunal. Its coming.
 

 

You all had your day for dirty plays. Now, let people have a fair chance to life. Before we end, let us append a latest example / evidence that proves our allegation that anything having a potential to make a dent (in real sense) to the power oligarchy of the corrupt self-serving bureaucracy, that is not progressing. And our intelligentsia or civil society members will be mum about it. Why is that? Because, the civil society representation is also taken over by the ex bureaucrats.

Allow us to end this rather lengthy article with a concrete proposal. The salary structure and its administration of the elected officials (starting from councilors of union porishod to the elected MPs) should be part of the budget of Election Commission. It should be their duty to elect this official as they are empowered to hold election by the constitution. It is also their responsibility to make sure that competent citizens gets elected and these people can perform their job professionally. So they should be paid for full time jobs. Now how do you determine the salary. Our proposal is EC should set a benchmark amount (say 500 taka per voter or any lower amount that makes sense) for the salaries of all the elected officials of the republic. They should also set a general formula about how these central fund will be distributed among the elected official as a monthly salary. Next thing that they should address is to find out a way to finance this budget. Its not huge budget if you compare the horiloot that happens in the public accounts (Read the news item below, Just let the ad-hoc public accounts committee to work, you will see. But you have to remove the incumbent secretaries from this ad-hoc committee).

Currently, EC is supposed to get its budget from govt. ex checker. In addition, EC should seek alternate way to finance itself. That does not mean they have to ask for money to foreign governments (We strongly disagree that our EC's decision to bring in transparent boxes from outside help. It is not to say that Bangladesh is already ready to deny foreign help. But the basic governance structure should be built with local resource. Let them help the national ex-checker where those foreign governments are hurting us, but not the election commission or ACC. We should take care of them ourselves, otherwise you will never go there).

Rather EC should sit down with Mr. Chairman of the NBR. In the tax forms, the citizens pay the govt. ex checker the budget to run the country, to provide basic services. Add a separate section in those forms. Let the citizens pay the 300 taka (or more if anyone wants) every year as a salary of their representatives. You can make it voluntary for those who are below the minimum bracket of income tax level. However, let even those who are below the minimum bracket of income to make this yearly payment if they want to. Make this donation tax-free. Government ex checker can compensate any lagging that might be there. For the election commission, it would also be a good feedback mechanism - to understand the support they are getting from the voters. We think this fluctuation of yearly donations will be a better benchmark to judge EC's overall performance - much more effective feedback than the one they are currently considering. Giving the voters none-of-the-above option may be a way to measure the pulse of democracy - but you have to think twice why none of the major democracies has adopted that. Asking the voters to support the EC voluntarily is a better mechanism, we think. Or you can have both and see which one works better.

 

If you do not pave the way for the younger talented committed politicians to engage in the nation building, there would not be much that we can do now. But be sure, there would be time when the current youth might rewrite the stone in your memory "Here lies an important member of the generation which watched over the destruction of their children's future".

Caretaker Govt. formed Public Accounts Committee set to be scrapped

The ad hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) created by the caretaker government in December last year to scrutinise reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is now about to being cancelled as it 'violates the constitution'.

With the consent of President Iajuddin Ahmed, the finance ministry formed the ad hoc PAC on December 18 to scrutinise audit reports on government accounts in absence of a parliament.

But the ad hoc PAC is yet to begin functioning as objections were raised from different quarters including the speaker of the last parliament saying that the constitution does not allow anyone other than an elected parliament to form the committee, sources in the finance ministry said.

In the wake of the criticism, the finance ministry is now pondering cancellation of the circular that declared the formation of the ad hoc PAC, a senior official of the ministry told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

Sensing that the committee could not be effective due to the legal debate, the finance ministry did not move to reconstitute the committee following resignation of its chairman, the erstwhile law adviser to the government, in early January of this year, the senior official added.

Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar has been opposing the government move to form the ad hoc committee from the very beginning.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, the speaker said he again sent his legal opinion over a week ago to the government saying the formation of the ad hoc PAC contradicts with the constitution which authorises only a parliament to form a PAC and other such committees, comprising only its members.

"Duties of elected lawmakers cannot be discharged by non-elected persons. Functions of the committee [ad hoc PAC] will be illegal," Sircar said.

Sources in the office of CAG and finance ministry said the military backed caretaker government formed the ad hoc PAC on suggestion of the World Bank and the CAG office.

But, CAG officials said they objected to the inclusion of incumbent government secretaries as members in the committee. The ad hoc PAC has three incumbent secretaries as its members.

CAG officials said incumbent government secretaries cannot be members of a PAC that investigates financial irregularities in government ministries and other government organisations. For the same reason, no incumbent minister can also be a member of a PAC, they added.

After the formation of the ad hoc PAC on December 18, its member secretary, Mahbub Ahmed who is also an additional secretary to the finance ministry, held an informal meeting with officials of CAG in an effort to start the operations of the committee, CAG officials said.

Another ad hoc PAC was formed earlier on October 19, 1983. The erstwhile chief martial law administrator (CMLA) formed the committee with the then law minister KA Bakar as its head. The then CMLA did not face any obstacle in forming that ad hoc PAC since the constitution was suspended back then. But now, under the current state of emergency the constitution is not suspended, the CAG officials said.

With the dissolution of the eighth parliament on October 27 of last year the immediate past PAC was also dissolved. A new parliament was supposed to be formed following the January 22 general elections, which was stalled due to a political crisis that is still plaguing the country.

Now a new parliament is expected to be formed in early 2009, as the stalled election is scheduled to be held on the third week of December this year. So, resumption of PAC's activity is unlikely in the next eight months.

In absence of a PAC, the number of unresolved audit reports involving hundreds of crores of taka, and the cases of retired government officials who are not getting their pensions due to unsettled objections, are increasing. Moreover, recovery of public money that might have been misappropriated has also been stalling.

HOW AD HOC PAC WAS FORMED

Following the World Bank's advice, the office of CAG in July last year sent a proposal to the finance ministry to form the ad hoc PAC. It however asked the finance ministry to consult with the law ministry as the formation of it had legal matters involved.

CAG is authorised to audit all the income and expenditure of the government, and reports it to the parliament through the president, and PAC adjudicates all objections to the audit reports.

CAG suggested the government last year to form an ad hoc PAC comprising former justices, former government officials, academics, and politicians.

The law ministry also okayed the formation of an ad hoc PAC, and the finance ministry formed the committee headed by the then law adviser Mainul Hosein, sources in the finance ministry said.

The other ten members of the ad hoc PAC are the incumbent director general of National Security Intelligence, incumbent secretary to the Parliament Secretariat, incumbent secretary to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of planning ministry, incumbent chairman of the National Board of Revenue, an incumbent additional secretary to the Finance Division of finance ministry, incumbent president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, President of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, former president of Dhaka District Bar Association Fakir Delwar Hossain, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Farhad Hossain, and Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman who was the chief of Power and Participation Research Centre before becoming an adviser to the caretaker government.

Show Positive Attitude Towards People With Disabilities.

Bangladesh Economic Association President Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad speaks at a view exchange meeting on 'Rights of the people with disability in the national development policy' at Cirdap auditorium in the city yesterday. Prof Anisur Rahman, Khandaker Zahurul Alam and Dr Mohammad Farashuddin. National Forum of Organisations Working with the Disabled and Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad jointly organised the event.
Expressing their concern over the negative attitudes of society towards people with disabilities, speakers at a discussion have said little care and recognition can surely change the scenario.

The situation is such discriminatory towards the people with disabilities that only 4.0 percent physically challenged children are getting opportunities to go to schools whereas 80 percent of them have ability to go to schools and learn, they added.

The discussion titled 'Recognition of people with disabilities in national development policy and budget allocation' was jointly organised by National Forum for Organisations Working with Disabilities (NFOWD) and Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad at the Cirdap auditorium in the city on Sunday.

Bangladesh Economic Association President Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman said only 4.0 percent of the children with disabilities are getting the opportunity for education while 80 percent of them have the ability to study at the mainstream schools.

Mentioning lacking of proper data, Dr Kholiquzzaman while presenting the keynote paper said the government should collect information on people with disabilities during census.

He further said "The government allocated Tk 898 crore in the last budget for them. But there was no specific guideline on how this fund should be spent."

According to a survey by NFOWD and Handicap International in 2005, a total of 5.6 percent of the total population lives with some kinds of disabilities.

Among them, 32.2 percent are visually challenged, 27.8 percent are physically challenged, 18.7 percent are hearing impaired, 6.7 percent are intellectually disabled, 3.9 percent are speech impaired and 10.7 percent are living with multiple disabilities.

During the open discussion, people with disabilities and those working with them expressed their views, suggestions and emotions on what should be done.

Osman Khaled, a hearing impaired architect, said if sign language is used for the hearing impaired at all levels, they can easily study and work with the mainstream people.

"During my visit to several schools for the hearing impaired across the country, I saw that most of the teachers of these schools do not know sign language. They do not have proper training and are teaching the students the way they think is fine. There is no monitoring system at the government level," said Khaled.

Solaiman, a visually challenged person, used to do a programme 'Prottoy' at Bangladesh Betar for people with disabilities, said the programme discontinued since June 2006 due to lack of budget allocation.

Kazi Abdul Gafur, a visually challenged teacher at The Salvation Army, an integrated children centre at Savar, said more accountability is needed while working with people with disabilities.

National Association of Sports for People with Disabilities (NASPD) President MA Baten said at least one playground should be allocated for the sports of children with disabilities.

Economist Anisur Rahman was present at the programme as the chief guest and NFOWD President Dr Md Farashuddin as the special guest with NFOWD President Khandakar Jahurul Alam in the chair.

Jatiya Protibondhi Unnayan Foundation Managing Director Mansur Ahmed Chowdhury, NFOWD Secretary General Jawaherul Islam Mamun, Mahbub Kabir of ActionAid Bangladesh, Assistant Prof Sharmind Nilormi of Economics Department at Jahangirnagar University, Director (acting) SM Keramat Ali of Media Centre at Bangladesh Open University, former education minister Dr Osman Farruq and former lawmakers Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, Rashed Khan Menon and GM Quader took part in the discussion.

Making sure that the changes are stable - ACC can help CTG with the dillema

The current interim government is implementing a lot of reforms, taking many decisions that was unimaginable for a long time and we are hoping these changes will pay divident for the nation in coming days. But there is a IF. Government is also aware of the IF. The IF concerns the stability of the system in the new state. Any social or political changes needs time to make the adjustment for a changed policy. However, the changes that are being implemented in the last two years, these are proving too much for our politicians and traditional elites of the society. So the concern of IF points to the concern that weather it will reverse.

 

Off course, if things reverses, it will have a degenerative effect on the social progress - as opposed to the regenerative effect that many of us are expecting. The concern becomes more serious when one thinks of the implication of that effect on our lives of corrupt politicians. Certainly, that would pave the way for many of jailed or absconding politicians a promise of good old days which is dangerous for the society. Before going into the detail of our topic today, lets take a look at the scorecard of current government.

 

Someone in another forum listed the scorecard of this government as follows:

 

Some of their successes:
#1. National ID
#2. Voter List
#3. Chittagong Port
#4. Separation of Judiciary
#5. Development of Dudok, EC, PSC
#6. Arresting Godfather & Godmothers
 
 
Some of their failures:
#1. Failure to control commodity price

#2. Failure to clean corruption from own organs like police
#3. Failure to give comfort to the honest businessman
#4. Failure to estabilish strong allegation against the Godfather and Godmother held behind the bar.
#5. No control over power sector and trasnport sector

#6. Failure to focus on reduce the widespread "vejal" in consumers goods (we add this)

#7. Failure to making the mess in private universities at a manageable level (we add this)

#8. Failure to introduce a merit and performance based promotion criteria in public service including the co-opting senior buerucrats from the private, semi-government sectors by introducing a separate selection body for policy making level (we add this)

#9. Failure to declare the elected posts competitive with other jobs with similar stress by declaring them as professional posts (we add this)

#10. Failure to act decisively to capture and punish the alleged war criminals by holding tribunals (we add this)

 

The #1 and #10 failure are a result of many factors including deficiencies in timely actions of the government and its perceived risk-averse nature, inexperience and lack of understanding of politics, among many others. However, all other failures can be traced to or generalised as one single failure. That is the government's explicit or implicit decision to leave the major part of the buerucracy out of scope. In other words, the top bosses at the secrertiats are holding on those reform proposal by using a number of tactics. Any lay person can imagine that the favourite tactic of these culprits will be delay things as long as possible - long enough to expire the tenure of the government. And their counterparts in the political parties are making sure that govermnet has a solid expiry date and they have done it very well from the very beginning. Why? A number of factors have led to this situation. The government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is also aware of this. But what they are doing about it? Or are they doing anything?

 

To our judgmement, this is one of most important policy decision that this government is facing. How to balance the need of doing enough vs. doing too much?

 

So far, it seems the government has made a policy decision about not touching the buerucracy (or touch minimally). They are hoping that this policy would help the system to maintain stability over the near term. 50 ministers needs 50 secretaries - isn't it? They are ready to catch all the 50 ministers, but not all the 50 secretaries. Why? Also, since they do not want to touch the 50 secretaries, they will not be able to convincingly prove any of the cases against the ministers. And that is the real problem as far as long term stability is concerned. CTG is actually hurting the stability - if they decided not to touch bureacracy for the sake of stability! A dillema - isn't it?

 

This policy - if it were taken conciously - has also weakened the overall stability. How - would you ask? Let us clarify.

 

The degeneration - if that happens - would start with the relatively weak cases being pursued against the political leaders. Some of these cases are so weak that it might give a perception that the cases are politically motivated - as opposed to the criminal cases as they are being projected now.

 

How did that happen?

 

Since government did not engage the corrupt members of the buerucracy to the full extant, there was not much option but file weak cases. A minister does a corruption with the help of a secretary OR the prime minister did a corruption with the help of a cabinet secretary. Now if those secretaries are still part of the government, how could a strong case be made against the politicians.

 

We are not sure the merit of this compromise in the context of national interest. Its true the burecracy is important for continuity of the policy changes, but that should not come at the cost of 'wrong perception' of politically motivated cases. If you give 13 years to a minister for corruption in a certain ministry, that should implicate the secretary of the same ministry for at least 7 years - general people would expect that.

 

This is a balancing act that government has to re-assess again. No policy decision should be static - all should be addressed dynamically. The only thing that should stay as static is the long term good governance of the country, national interest and goodwill of the general people of Bangladesh. Anything - that increases the possibility of long term good governance of the country, it should not left un-addressed.

 

So, is there anything specific that we are proposing for the government to do, as we usually do in our articles? Yes, we want to propose something. But unlike many of the articles, this particular proposal isn't for the government, per se. It is for the ACC. We hope when the ACC government returns from the much needed personal time-off for him, he would focus on to do some stretching - show some teeth. ACC should unearth some new cases or evidences that creates chasm for the government. Embarrass the government - lets see how it deals with that. We hope Mr. Chairman will do justice to his reputation. We all have two opposing side in our character. In this context, it can be safely said that Mr. Chairman wasn't selected to the Army Chief position during his service to the nation for the reputation of being straight-forward, to the point and honest. To the political government, it was his natural tendency to oblige seniors to the fullest extant which made you an attractive choice. Now is the time to prove this perception wrong. Show some evidence of your reputation that exists among general people and general soldiers. The position that you accepted as ACC chairman does not have any use of your qualities of following order. This position needs your other qualities which is being straight forward, being to the point and being honest. Now is the time - the nation will be watching!

Bangladesh Government plans fuel price hike as oil price soars.

Bangladesh Government warned on Monday it would hike state-set fuel prices soon as the government forecast it would lose $1.2 billion this fiscal year due to soaring global energy costs.

'We simply don't have any alternative but to hike the prices as soon as possible,' said deputy energy minister M. Tamim.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corp. (BPC), the nation's monopoly oil importer and distributor, sells fuel at prices decided by the government.

BPC officials said the company was racking up losses of 50 cents for each litre of diesel it sells. Diesel is the main fuel used for vehicles in the nation which has no domestic oil fields.

"Already this fiscal year (to June 2008) we are going to incur losses of around $1.2 billion due to selling oil much more cheaply than international market rates. We will raise the price very shortly," Tamim said.

In April 2007, Bangladesh's military-backed government raised fuel prices by as much as 21 percent. At that time, it believed the oil price would stabilise around $70 to $80 a barrel.

But last week global oil prices topped a record $135 a barrel with experts forecasting further rises due to tight supply and increasing demand.

Inflation, which has been running at double-digit levels since August 2007, has made the government wary of raising fuel prices further despite pressure from multilateral aid agencies.

Tamim promised there would be 'still be a strong subsidy' after the next price hike while some farmers would get cash handouts to cope with the situation.

'We will protect marginal farmers from the price hike's impact. We will earmark a very big portion of the subsidy for the farmers in the upcoming budget' to be announced in early June, he said.

Over 70 percent of Bangladesh's 144 million people depend on agriculture, with farmers heavily relying on diesel to pump underground water for irrigation.

Bangladesh imported 3.8 million tonnes of mostly refined oil during the last financial year at a cost of over $2 billion.

BPC said "fuel import costs this year would hit more than $3 billion, accounting for 18 percent of the total overall import bill."

Manure Your Recyclebin To Protect The Enviroment

As chemical fertilisers are causing gradual degradation of soil, huge wastes generated from human and animal excreta, and household rubbish should be turned into natural manure by using efficient technologies to protect soil and environment.

Besides, to prevent rivers around the urban centres from getting polluted, management of wastes is also very important as such polluted water enters the food chain causing serious diseases.

This was observed by experts at a workshop titled 'Integrated support for sustainable urban environment' organised by Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (Basa) and Practical Action-Bangladesh at LGED auditorium in the capital yesterday.

"The biggest challenge we are facing today is decreasing quality and quantity of fresh water. Developing countries are feeling the effects intensively," said Dr Mujibur Rahman, professor of civil engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).

Authorities concerned are focusing on drinking water, but not on the management of water, he said, adding that water used to wash off human excreta is not recycled, rather it becomes contaminated with hazardous substances.

Chemical fertiliser being used in agriculture can now be replaced by manure made out of efficient management and processing of urine and human excreta and other wastes that contain ample nutrients, said Dr Rahman in his keynote presentation.

"However, we must be careful about the destruction of pathogenic bacteria of excreta. Those trying for such manure should check it through strong monitoring," he added.

Practical Action Team Leader Iqbal Karim said the current status of environment is not encouraging in the countries like Bangladesh with dense population and high poverty, while solid waste management status, mainly in areas with low-income groups, is getting worse.

As a result, the most rivers around the urban centres carry wastes that eventually enter the food chain, he said, adding that thousands of children die every year due to water-borne diseases.

Besides, the progress of government's goal of bringing the whole country under sanitation by 2010 is not satisfactory, he added.

Chief Engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering Mustafizur Rahman said human excreta contains huge pathogenic bacteria which are threats to public health if exposed.

"While handling such excreta, awareness level should be high among the all concerned," he added.

Speaking as chief guest, Unicef's Water and Environmental Sanitation Chief Paul Edwards said the issue of sanitation in slum areas is getting worse.

Disease, mortality rate, water supply, education- all give a bad picture about these areas, he added.

Big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong attract huge investments, but municipalities face many challenges in case of sanitation and waste management, he said, adding that Bangladesh should give more importance to its sanitation issues.

Gazipur Municipality Chairman Mozammel Huq said with the cooperation of some NGOs, they have already started using solid wastes for making natural manure which is quite useful in his areas.

Practical Action Country Director Veena Khaleque also spoke at the workshop presided over by Basa Executive Director AKM Sirajul Islam.

The fate of the caretaker government - going forward.

On and off, there has been a talk about the need and justification of the caretaker government. Our intellectuals and politicians are acting as if they actually have some grey material.


Please allow us tell you one thing in a very plain language and propose something very humbly.

If our post-independence politicians have done anything good for themselves and for the country, it is the idea, demand and implementation of caretaker government system. The way this idea evolved and eventually got implemented, this is true example of participatory policy innovation where situation had driven the eventual solution to an acute problem that we had.

It is significant for various reasons from the context of political culture of Bangladesh. First of all, this is significant because it is probably one instance where our politicians have spoken the truth, they have acknowledged that they have a problem. And they actually worked to solve the problem. Now, nindukera will say that they neither tell the truth to rescue the country nor they had the best interest of the general people behind this policy. Rather they used their brain here because it was about the ruti-ruji'r vaga-vagi for them! But let us forget that aspect for today. After all, we want to look forward.

So, what is the problem with this rule?

There is no problem. Actually, we think this is a rule that will be copied or should be copied in most of the under-developep countries. Why do we think so? Because, this rule recognizes the limitation of an election-based democratic system for a soceity which is not educated enough, a system which has not developed the institutions to check and balance the problems of a democracy. The system of caretaker government acutally enforces some of the check and balance into the system nicely.


Off course, this is also an indication of a weak democracy - a demonstration of not-so-developed system. In other words, as long as we or any other country have it, it will be an indication that we have a problem within our system. Probably, thats why our intellects are trying to give lesson to us. They are like haturey dactars. You have a disease - but they would like you to beleive that you have been cured! This exactly have been happening in our national porimondol during the last several decades. We think there is still need for the system of caretaker system. It is not only a demonstration of our weakness, but it also is a demonstration of our effort that we are working towards fixing the problem. At least, this system prevents a negative progression.

Ok, ok, lets assume we are working towards fixing the problem - but when would we be done fixing it? How would we know?

This off course is a koti takar prosno. But we think this can be solved by some modification in the act. Election commission should consider making a minor amendment in the rules of the national election. The idea is something like this:

During a national election every five years, the election commission can hold a parallel referendum asking a simple question - "Do you think our next national election should not be held under a caretaker government?" So, during the election people will send a slate of MP to the parliament. At the same time, they will also mention whether they think the upcoming government will be in power during the next election or whether a caretaker government should be installed for the next election. For example, say during the upcoming election, Party X may win the parliament but at the same time people might give a NO VOTE for the Party X. In other words, people sends this Party X to form the government, but they do not think that the national institutions are strong enough to rely on Party X to hold the next national election
. So, when the time of next national election comes, a caretaker government will be formed to hold that election. This would be repeated indefinitely. Or if the people do not want the caretaker government for a consecutive five times, we may then declare that our system is now developed enough to repeal the system of caretaker government. There might be other minor things that can be done to improve the current provision of the caretaker government. But on broad scale, we should not think that our system has already outgrown the need of the system. Not yet.

A national charter for better living standard

"We know what you are thinking. It sounds too much for those rickshaw pullers? How about half the price? Or whatever you think is fair. Can you set this a goal for all politics and policy-making that government and political parties and the leaders would not stop the working hard until this basic goal is acheived.

Start from this basic declaration. Then go forward in stipulating few more items that makes the nation a progressively civilized one where more citizens start using their knowledge to earn a living instead of using labour for a living."

You also mentioned that you would agree for half the price/length. So, there is no problem. Lets work towards that goal, would we?

Let me finish the response with an aside, since you offered one. Have you ever tried to pull a rickshaw in the muddy roads in the village of Bangladesh? Or, to make it easier for you, lets assume the road is not muddy, but it is non-pacca. Would you go there and try it out for yourself and see whether that experience change your opinion?

Oh, we forgot. You are in Canada, taina? Rickhshaw try korte deshe jete tu onek taka lagbe, right? So, lets make it even easier. How about we let you go to one of the muddy trails and pull a chakka-wala stroller? Would you let others know how much would you agree to be paid for that kind of menial work?

And for those who are in Bangladesh, please go find a non-pacca road, or a vanga-chura pacca road. Arrange a rickshaw trip for about 1000m. Once a price is agreed upon, based on prevailing market rate - you should politely ask the rickshaw-wala if it would be OK if you tried to pull the rickshaw instead of him. Invite him to ride the rickshaw in place of you. Please be careful, you might hurt you, hurt the rickshaw-puller or most importantly, you might break the rickshaw. Make sure you have enough funding to compensate for the rickshaw- puller or his money-maker if something happens to them.

Once everything is agreed upon, try to pull the rickshaw. Yes, I mean it. All of you in Bangladesh reading this message, you should go out and try out this assignment this upcoming Friday - do it early in the morning so the roads are not busy and it is somewhat easier for you. Thats a request to each of you who are not yet 40 years old! Do this favour as a gratitue of being not born in the house of a rickshaw-puller, would you?

Tk 588.4 crore in fine - how many has been held accountable?

A crime of this proportion should not only be restricted on paying fine. A process should be developed that allows the law enforcement agencies to get into deeper to held accountable those who were responsible

Five organizations - four for-profit joint venture organizations and one government watchdog. And among them, a total of 588 crore taka of fines. See the following news item attached at the end of the article. The four companies had actually done the wrong, and the government agency didn't do anything to right the worng. Actually, many would argue that the BTRC was actually facilitating the theft over the years.

While the fines are good news, it is incomplete.

Within these five organizations, how many has been held accountable so far? The companies has been fined. But how many of the individuals has been fined?

Punishment on the individual level may not be our main objective, but what is there to deter similar kind of abuse in the future? Can we at least know who were the responsible person in policy-making positions who oversaw this mess, had the capacity to make policies to avoid the mess, but didn't do anything? Again, to emphasize the point, we are worried about the whereabouts of those persons now - what new mess are they are creating now (either because of their incompetence or because of their dishonesty or both) that the nation will know few years later?