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.