Chief Executives of the Districts - President's Ministers (similar to Premier / Governor)

Zilla level elected chief exucutives should be differentiated from those of Upzilla Level. A better title for these locally elected officials are Governors, who will be bestowed the President's authority within the district. This elected official will be the "President's Minister of the District".

 

An effective local government is very important to ensure the plight of the millions of people in rural Bangladesh be fullfilled in a participatory manner. In order to achieve that the current government is currently proceeding in the right direction - by first holding the Upzilla election. Also, there will be Union level, municipility level elections. The hightest level of the local goverment is the Zilla Porishod.

 

Now, what should we call the chief exucutive of the Zilla Porishod? These positions should be designated as President's Minister for "District Name" (e.g. President's Minister for Faridpur or President's Minister for Dinajpur) with job descriptions that a governor of a US state or the premier of a Canadian or Australian province/state.

 

We could go on describing more details, however, this can be sorted out if we decide on principle to call the chairman of a Zilla Porishod with a different name. It is important to distinguish these important offices of local government which would be the highest post in the local level. These offices should be given the few responsibilities such as primary education, high-schools upto grade 12, sanitation, rural roads, etc.

Moving forward - Akku Chowdhury

THE year 2007 was the most significant for Bangladesh after our liberation on December 16, 1971. The 35 years of chaos and confusion reached a crescendo towards the end of 2006. Although we have not seen the end of it all yet, we can only pray and hope we don't have to see such ruthless violence in the near future as witnessed in October 2006.

All said and done, our political forces talk about democracy -- but in practice it is autocracy and totalitarianism. As a result, to meet their goals or demands, they are more comfortable in using the politics of streets and violence rather than the parliament. This has resulted in the people being totally disgusted with politicians and the political system.

This is the sad part of our history that when democracy is only in an embryonic stage, being merely 15 years old, there is already apathy with large segments of the public about politics, the system, and the value of democracy.

All our values that came with our thousands of years of heritage, culture, history is being drowned in the degradation of our society which has become overcome with greed for power and money, nepotism, intolerance, perversions, intellectual bankruptcy, socio-political degradation, and so on and so forth.

I know I am drawing a very negative picture but look deep down into our society and you can see where we have ended ourselves in. We have reached the bottom of the pit and burnt the ladder to get out. This is all our own doing and we cannot point the finger at anyone else.

It is most unfortunate that even after 36 years of independence we are still struggling to put our history in the right perspective. Although most of the freedom fighters are still alive, we as a nation have not bothered to set the records right, instead they have been used to serve the interest of power hungry leaders and their cronies.

The new generation is being deprived of knowing the glorious history of our liberation struggle, which would, definitely imbue them to become patriots and dedicate to serve the nation.

The present leadership in power has called for national unity to build Bangladesh as a prosperous nation. This can be achieved when we tell our children the true history of our liberation war which will teach them the sacrifice the freedom fighters made for us to be citizens of a free nation.

Since our independence we have been like nomads, and the nation, as a whole, had neither a direction nor a vision. As a result we have engulfed ourselves in corruption, cronyism, and moral degradation that have made us politically, socially, and economically bankrupt.

After January 11, 2007, the nation has a whiff of fresh air and like a "second coming" looks forward to the rebirth of the nation to move towards building a "Golden Bengal" that the freedom fighters fought for. This can only be achieved if we get leaders with the right vision to move forward and the belief in the Spirit of 71 which is that of sacrifice and selflessness to build a "Golden Bengal."

It is not only our moral obligation to the freedom fighters but also our moral obligation to those heroic sons and daughters who sacrificed their lives for the country's independence to commit us to build Bangladesh as a prosperous nation. As we fight to rid our nation of the corruption and evil forces that brought us to our knees we must not forget to punish those who opposed (Razakars, Al-Badr and Al- Shams) our national struggle for independence in 1971. It is important that the truth should be revealed and what happened in 1971 needs to be known not to look backward but for the nation to move forward. We must clear the ashes and debris from 1971 so that we can be reborn like a phoenix and fly to higher grounds.

The big question is how much of this expectation will turn into reality? We have a commission to wipe out corruption and investigate the corrupt, un-transparent Transparency International looking over our shoulders to report our corruption, the international community making sure we follow all the standards of human rights and democratic norms (what a joke), and so on and so forth.

This is all well and good, but what is important now for the nation to move forward is to raise the issues and bring to light the 1971 war crimes, crimes against humanity, the genocide, and other criminal activities that was perpetuated by the Pakistani military, Pakistani politicians, and Pakistani business troika with the collaboration of few Bengalis.

Those who were responsible have already been identified, but except for few Bengali collaborators none were tried. Even the trial of those people that began in 1973 under the Collaborators Act were abruptly stopped after the killing of Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibur Rahman, and the accused including some who were tried and punished were pardoned on December 31, 1975.

Just like the crime itself, this pardon was another crime against humanity to add salt to the wound. The time has come for us to take up the thread and re-open the cases by setting up a tribunal and move towards making a plea to the International Criminal Court to try those Pakistanis who were responsible for the crimes in 1971. The wait has been too long, the families of the victims of 1971 have waited for the last 36 years, let us try to repay the debt by trying the perpetrators and murderers in national and international courts.

As we await for democracy to get rooted with a free and fair election, it is the expectation of all that the evil that dwells amongst us in the form of war criminals and "a legacy of blood that remains unpunished" should be immediately taken care of.

We can move forward if only we wipe out our horrible past by trying and punishing the perpetrators of the 1971 genocide. The time has come for our generation to solve this issue and not pass this burden of guilt to our next generations. It is our responsibility to complete the task we undertook in 1971 to free our motherland from the clutches of evil-doers. Now it is we who must complete that job which remains unfinished.

 

Moving forward

Akku Chowdhury
Published On: 2008-06-01 The Daily Star

[Akku Chowdhury is the founder-director of the Liberation War Museum]

Bangladesh Govt.'s Budget for 2008-2009 Financial Year

We have been suggesting few broad principles over the last year. And we are happy to see many of the things reflected on the broad planning. Thank you! Here are some additional points.

 

1. Increase the implementation rate. BD Govt. has for the first time in history has reduced the ADP year to year. Usually, it is set at higher point and adjusted lower at the end. The current government has also done that with the just finished year. Thanks to our laggard bureacracy, if not incompetent and unpatriotic. Now, take this challenge. For the first time in history, adjust the yearly budgetary allocation upwards - after making sure that you will be actually able to cross the line for the first  time in history. Can you do that? How? If we were you, we would make a list of bureacrats who will be under constant watch. The message should be very clear to them. Work  round the clock - forget sleep. Either achieve the goal or work so hard that you get sick and leave job for medical reasons!

 

2. Introduce incentives for foreign owned local enterprises to invest in R&D. The main target would be to give incentives for the companies to invest their money here, instead of repatriating dollars. The goal would be to netralize some of the reverse FDI. If a proper benchmark can be established, the incentives can be very generous. If one considers how much effort does it take to earn the dollars by our expatriate labours, the importance of restricting the reverse FDI should be fully appreciated. At the sametime, a careful consideration has to be made so that this effort to netralize some portion of the reverse FDI shouldn't adversely affect inward FDI.

 

3. In case of inward FDI, there should be incentives for joint venture initiatives so the industrialization can be balanced without making undue pressure on our long-term forex.

 

4. Make donations for education tax free, please. There might be some mishandling of this opportunity. However, its much better option. Lets see how much mishandle they can do... the degree of mishandling would dicate the policy correction within two three years down the road. But it should start now.

 

5. Many of the foreign owned organizations can start expanding some serive wing in Dhaka to serve their external counterparts. For example, GP call center can start providing call center support to other sister organizations that are owned by Telenor. If they do that, a balance will be achieved in FDI flow. Currently, the high volume of the FDI outflow will be compenstated by the portion of these FDI inflows by this type of service extensions. Now, if policy makers takes a heavy handed approach to this idea, that would back fire. Businesses will do everything, just you have to take them into confidence, let them have a say in the decision making process and do the changes progressively. In short, govt. can start this process by giving incentives. Even if govt. dont get any corporate tax for this branches, we would think them to be good steps since they will generate employment for the local youth and also, they will increase the inward FDI. Off course, the detail arrangement will have to be decided by the experts after reviewing more data. At this stage, this is only an idea. Any thoughts?

 

6. Allocate an amount for a facilitating body or foundation for the promotion of open source movement in the ICT sector. This initiative can be styled as a non-profit or social business type entity. The actual amount can be decided based on some percentage (0.5%) of the outward forex flow that is spent on software and service purchase.

 

7. Allocate an for a venture capital company with a very low interest rate - just for service charge. Just give away this money to some promising venture initiative who will utitilize the money as a start-up fund to support new technology based companies. According to international standards, this type of companies are usually for-profit company. The actual amount can be decided based on some percentage (0.1%) of the outward forex flow that is spent on technology based products purchase. BTW, this is not same as IT Equity and Entrepreneurship Fund which is proposed. The devil is in the details - traditional banks can't operate this fund, let alone the central bank. If that is the case, there won't be thousands of venture capital companies throughout the world.
 

 

8. Allocate an amount for a professional services company initiative that will use money build the local capacity so that local industries can take full advantage of the increasing carbon trading regimes. Again, this professional services company will probably get better results if its incorporated as for-profit company. The actual amount can be decided based on some percentage (1%) of the estimated potential inward forex flow from the carbon trading through participation in CDM. Do not mix up this with the proposed climate change fund. That is a disaster managment approach - which is important. This particular proposal is a proactive approach, which will create job, transfer technology and invigorate overall economy.

 

9. Its time we make the salary of the elected officials much more competitive. If we want to be a giant Signapore one day, we better start that process by paying the elected officials following the same principles that Singpore follows.

 

10. Last but not the least, the govt. should set aside at least 5% of its energy subsidy allocation to invest in renewable energy research, development, commercialization and marketing for obviouis reason. These subsidies can't go on forever if we have to come out of vicious cycle of poverty as a nation. However, government just shouldn't withdraw subsidy without using their brain (just like what donors where suggesting with the jute mills). At the moment, a major thrust should be set up a three component project on solar energy. First component will be about technology transfer arrangement with some German company to build a leading edge PV cell manufacturing plant, second component should try to develop local technology and capacity to combine the cells in solar panels (neutral to any specific PV technology) and the third component should aim to develop a business model and solutions that will allow the individual level solar farms to sell their extra capacity to the national grid. The third component is now being in operation in many areas in California. Its not very complicated and a well-thought out plan could help mitigate our problems with shortage in power grid.

 

 

For proposals 6-8, the actual figures can be adjusted as suitable. However, for all the three initiative, its important that the person behind these initiatives are capable and want to serve the societies. Ideally, these initiatives can be taken with private funding. But the quality of the capital-holders in our current society is such that they would hardly understand and/or be motivated to this kind of initiatives. Hence, government should provide the initial seed funding for these considering the immense potential that these initiatives can bring for the national economy going forward. If you really consider doing these, just do not allocate funding in the budget and let them sit idle somewhere in the exchecker. You will have to identify the correct person(s) who can actually bring these into reality. Why is that? - one might ask. If you do not know the answer to this why, you should not allocate the money at the first place, since most likely that money will either be stolen or misappropriated by someone who has good connections in the bureacracy! Then how would we know where to find the right person? Well, that is the burden of good governance and the burden of being a good policy maker.

 

Aro ekta side comment ase. Meyera naki emnite kom beton pai, compared with their male counterparts with same qualification. If that is the case, income tax holiday should be lower for the females, isn't it? :) Would the policy of upping ceiling of income tax for females have any affect in equalizing the gender gap? How? A better approach could be to reward those companies whose payroll has more balanced representation of both genders. No? Any thoughts?

 

 

Another side comment. Do you know that Brazil has ministry called Ministry of Strategic Affairs? You should know and Bangladesh should consider doing the same. As far as we understand, Bangladesh has four major strategic issues that she needs to clarify to the world community. If that can be done well, our road to a modern and developed country that will be contributing to the world affairs in a responsible manner should be a matter of time. Of those four strategic matters, one relates to a mega-project (no, we are not talking about Mega sea-port. That can be another one, which would bring the number to five). Stay tuned for an upcoming article with a proposal for a nation-wide mega-project, valuation of which would be greater than this budget! Also, we intend to write separate articles on the other three major strategic issues in coming days.

MTV : SPLITSVILLA. Reflection in Bangladeshi Culture.

A kiddo dancing on top of a table is not so rear scene for us but it is really surprising that a grown up lady is doing such deed.MTV a very popular satellite channel is showing a so-called reality show named SPLITSVILLA,where 20 girls are fight for 2 boys.This really amazing that how our mentality has changed.Girls are putting on make-up,sexy outfits and many more stuffs just to attract those two MALE towards them.In return boys are simply having fun,after every round they come infront of the girls and with a smile saying that "We are DUMPING you".With full of tears girls are returning home.

This cannot be a show or whatever they want to name it.MTV is just spoiling the moral values of our young generation.With a heavy heart I admit that SPLITSVILLA is nothing but a insulting platform for the Self-concerned Stupid Girls".I don't know who said it but it is 100% true that beauty and brain doesn't come together,maybe this girls beautiful but aren't they humiliating themselves.We are fighting for Women's' Rights and proving such programmes in our tube.It is so funny.If men and women are equal then why don't we organise a reality show '20 boys fighting for 2 girls?'.MTV will never do this because they most probably love to show off girls.

Yeah some may say that this is for fun but who is enjoying it?ONLY the MALE gender.They laugh at what the girls are doing to win those 2 idiots' hearts.One of them dumped a girl reasoning that "We are dumpimg you because you are playing tricks while this is a real show" please someone explain such stupid comment.Real means Is he going to choose a girl as his Girlfriend or whatever??Everyone is playing with their emotions morals beliefs and just want to be the winner.One of the guy even admitted that "Girls have already started but I will start my flirting tricks later" What is this then?A search for a real love by FLIRTING?"

I don't know but I request all specially girls to look up the word "Dump" in the dictionary.Because I always remember the daily soaps of Indian channels saying that Women's are the nation of Mother,so is this the way they respect their Mother' nation?How can a guy just dump a girl in the first impression and isn't it shameful for those girls who are entitled for being Smart Stylish Hot whatever the fake words are?There is always something to learn from a programme but can anyone say what we are learning from this show?

MTV shouldn't cast such immoral illogical reality show which is simply destroying the next generation of their as well as our because of the satellite progress our young generation could be spoiled too.

Writer:
Dilshad Sarwat
Bangladesh

Mass arrests have created panicky situation in Bangladesh.

It is widely being seen as harassment of political activists
 

Pictured Collected from drishtipat.org
 

It is time to talk about mass arrests again, for the obvious reason that there is growing public disquiet about the whole sordid business. In the eight days since the government launched what was given out as a drive against known and listed criminals, as many as 12,000 people have been detained and carted off to prison. The sheer scale of the operation along with the ferocity of it has left an entire nation reeling. Most surprising is the fact that despite the government's stress on nabbing criminals there has been a wide-ranging operation against political workers throughout the country. In fact, more political individuals than lawbreakers have been taken into custody, which makes hollow the government's claim that the action is only aimed at people who have committed crimes and who have so long remained outside the bounds of the law.

The result has been the creation of unwarranted panic. Reports coming in from various parts of the country vividly describe a condition where workers of the Awami League and the BNP are on the run and party organisational activities are in disarray. And there lies the irony. The relaxation of the ban on indoor politics a few weeks ago had given rise to hope that politics was soon to get back to normal. Now the police as well as joint forces operations have undermined that very move. And at a time when the government says it is trying to bring the parties to a dialogue with it, the drive against political leaders and workers does not tally with its stated intentions. There is a huge disconnect between what it says it is doing and what it is actually doing. The message that is thus being sent out is a disturbing one, especially in conditions that should have been easing the way to the promised general elections. The home ministry has of course issued a statement of the routine sort on the arrests, but it lacks the credibility to be considered acceptable by the public.

The mass arrests, apart from the negative consequences they will likely have on politics, are also a serious instance of a violation of human rights. The wide powers the law enforcers enjoy makes it extremely difficult for innocent people arrested to find their way out of the mess. Over the last few days, the human dimensions of the arrests, similar to those witnessed during the rule of the four-party BNP-led government, have become morbidly clear. Absolute uncertainty about the fate of the arrestees has only compounded the problems for their families, whose anxious presence at the various police stations for news of their dear ones captures, in a large way, the mood of the country.

It is time for the government to evaluate the entire operation and rethink its purpose and effectiveness. The country needs to get back to talk of elections and the ways of their being organised. We ask that, barring those with specific cases against them, all other detained people be freed. And let all harassment against political workers come to an end, if restoration of democracy is the goal.

Four challenges for Mr. Moyeen U. Ahmed - Can you tackle these it?

There has been many talk about the general who was appointed by 4-Party Alliance government to lead the Bangladesh Army and who is also currently a key figure in Bangladesh's public discourse, if not power discourse


So, when it comes to analyzing a personality like him and what he has to offer Bangladesh in terms of leadership beyond the official role of Chief of Army Staff, its not a very easy task. Here are few perspectives and challenges that can be useful while assessing the situation.

1. If the governments of the past has neglected in every other sector of the nation, they too have neglected to perform well in the defence sectors. What are the challenges that Bangladesh's Military Forces face? It can not be a fact that during the last 36 years (as we all refer to the life-span of the country), there is not any logistical as well as resource problem with the force. The national discourse has been focused on all the problems with other sectors and we are certainly fixing as many as problems. However, what was the problem so far with the Military that was neglected? What things should current government and next government do to uplift the status of the military? Can you elaborate and demand of the nation about what should we do to make our military forces better prepared? The emergency that we are going through now was human created - you have no option but help the civilian government if you are asked of it. But if an emergency happens in terms of physical situation (something like Tsunami, Cyclone or Earthquake), what do you need to be better prepared to serve the nation? Can you inform the public about your thoughts on this in broader terms?

 

2. With an extended civilian deployment within the country, what problem it might be creating to the military forces? What are the steps (e.g. training, sessions, etc) that top brass of the military has implemented to counter the side-effects of being exposed to civilian administration for an extended period of time? Two issues are here - do you understand and acknowledge the problem? If you do, what you are doing about it? Would you publicly express your concern about this problem and urge the nation to be aware of the situation and do everything possible so that armed forces can return to their original duty at the earliest possible time leaving the actual determination of the timing to the civilian leadership (i.e. president has asked for help from your force, so you are bound to serve as long as needed. However, would it be within the jurisdiction of yours to let the nation know that as the Army Chief you would rather have your forces back to the barrack asap, if and when government allows that)?

 

3. In addition to being the Chief of Army (government seems to be happy with you in that role as demonstrated by your service contract extension), government has bestowed upon an additional duty to you. You are the boss of the national sports body. How is sports doing lately? We understand that it takes time to get results - be it in development or be it in sports. But laying out the vision should not take that much time, should it? Let us get to some speicifics. Do you envision Bangladesh playing Fifa world cup in the short to medium term? Can you challenge the BFF in achieving that goal within the shortest period of time? How far is that goal? Now that a legend in football has taken the helm of BFF, did you ask Mr. Salahuddin whether he has any excutable plan to work toward that that vision?

 

4. This is the last one and a bit tougher. You have been showing your knowledge and interest in the overal national issues including those of political in nature. Constructively thinking, the nation may welcome a move in that direction if you can demonstrate that you have the capacity. Talking free and giving opinions are easy. Lets see if you also have some materials. For the development of Bangladesh, one of major challenge that Bangladesh faces from foreign policy perspective is the issue of its relations with Myanmar, or rather the lack of relationship with our eastern neighbor. That country is our barrier to benefit from a number of things that we would have otherwise achieved from our South-East Asian neighbors. Since Myanmar is somewhat isolated, we are deprived from that prospect since it has not so far provided us the much needed corridor to the South-East.  Also, the problem with the refugees from that nation has been a continued problem for more than a decade. Both the problem can be addresses simultenously. Specifically, since there is new development focus on Myanmar on the part of UN, this might be an opportune time to come up with overal holistic plan. So here is the most challenging idea. It might be particularly suitable for you since the counterparts in Myamnar also wears uniform and your force is largest contributor to UN peace keeping. Seek permission from your bosses in Dhaka first, off course. If you really can do this, we would assume that the current government would be happy. So, here is your fourth challenge. Connect Cox's Bazar to Yangoon with direct road connection by constructing an international standard wide road. Bypass all the usual hoopla of construction work (e.g. tender, etc), rather once an agreement is reached along with support from UN since it will enable UN agencies to use Bangladesh as another base (similar to Thailand), engage the engineering core of the two national armies to build the road within the shortest period of time. Do it with an urgency since an urgent need of reconstruction is there. If that can be achieved soon enough, people of Bangladesh could more effectively take part in the UN-led reconstruction of Cyclone Nargis. That will also enable our businessmen engage Mynmar economy more quickly and effectively including the possible opportunity of contract farming. This would also be helpful for the refugees, if they want to return to their home countries with specific job offer, working for the contract farmers. Let's see if you are really upto the challenge. Build a railway connection, too, between Yangoon and Chittagong (We are sure you have read the novels of Shorotchondro Chattergy. Remember reading few such novels when others were busy with Masud Rana series, many of the heros of those novels of Shorot Babu would travel to the then Rangoon from Dhaka for professional purposes. Having some of those lost cultural as well as economic connections back would be nice).

 

Accomplish all these challenges, or at least show your intention that you do acknowledge these challenges, we are sure the nation will be proud to have such an effective son.

Surprisingly high interest in Satellite Channels - Can this be translated into consumer benefit?

Sat Channel regulaors and SEC should take this sector as a test case for free investment regime. It might be questioned whether there is an economic justification of this high interest in this sector - however, the approach should be professional. This disproportionate interest, however questionable that might be, should be seen as an opportunity to benefit the national interest (i.e. mature the investment scenario).

If we were the regulator of this sector, we would consider doing the following. Give just several additional license - at least one through auction for a for-profit company (general purpose channel that are foreign language channel), one TV-guide type channel, and at least another for a BBC type non-profit company under social business model, if there is any interested party or a group. In case of for-profit licenses, auction should be used to determine the winner to get a direct financial measure of the interest that numerous corporate houses are showing in this sector (see the following link: http://www.ittefaq.com/content/2008/04/30/news0909.htm ). In case of not-for-profit social business type request, a beauty contest type competition should be arranged to determine the winner - similar to what is followed in many scandinavian countries while giving out licenses.

After this auction is done, there will still many interested investor who want to have a play in this sector. How to translate those market interest into investment that will eventually increase the benefit of the consumers? What to do with that?

So, at the same time, in cooperation with different agencies and the securities exchange commission, we would give a short deadline time for all the locally licensed satellite channel companies to go public through IPO. If the auction value was over-blown (which should be expected demonstrated through these numerous applications), allow the existing satellite companies to value their brand while assessing the value of the company.

Once these companies are public (listed, IPO), do incremental deregulation in the sector - like they have in many other countries. Allow the provision of hostile bidding procedure where interested parties can force AGM by offering more than market price of any company - thereby forcing a transfer of ownership. Off course, there has to safeguards on the issue of national interest so that the local companies do not become easy prey of the foreign investors. We would leave the details for the experts. (This particular practice will an important lesson for our capital markets and the regulator, the SEC. We have not develped our market yet to allow this kind of transactions, however, if we were to progress ahead, these type of rules needs to be examined and implemented as a step by step process to ready the market for global competition).

 

A detailed approach following the broad principles outlined here should be examined to infuse fresh energy in our media sector which is currently going through a dormant phase - as far as creativity and constructive engagement is concerned. We think such an approach will also help settle the question of a sustainable number of businesses for a healthy competition. Also, if a sophisticated policy planning and support is provided to the media industry, this could be another focus area where Bangladeshi economy could aim to become a hub of Asian Engine serving all the major markets (India, China and East Asia).