To face the challenges
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Husain Imam
DESPITE the fact that the military-backed caretaker government (CTG) of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed was not truly a constitutional government, it enjoyed the support of the people in general for a considerable period of time mainly for a number of reasons.
The people wanted a respite from the ever deteriorating law and order situation resulting from violent political confrontation and the CTG could provide that respite; it promised a flawless voter list and a free, fair and credible election; the people thought that the CTG would be able to put a break to the galloping price hike of food and other essential items; and, it launched a massive anti-corruption drive that saw hundreds of political bigwigs and some business magnets behind the bar on charges of corruption and abuse of power. The people were shocked to see the scale of corruption committed by those who were in the corridor of power as they were being unfolded one after another by the CTG.
It was the anti-corruption drive of the CTG that initially received more support from the people than anything else for the simple reason that the all pervasive corruption in the society was not only earning bad name for the country, it was also eating the very vitals of the society.
There were, at least, two reasons why the CTG had in the later half of its two-year tenure (2007-08) begun to lose support of the people and ultimately succumbed to the will of the top political leadership about whom they had so much of complaint and whom, in fact, at one stage they tried to minus from the political scene.
They made a mess of the anti-corruption drive. It didn't take long for the people to realise that the CTG, with the help of armed forces, was actually using the anti-corruption drive more as a tool to disgrace the existing political leadership than to curve corruption. The people also did not like the idea of helping a third force, comprising some of their selected retired military and civil bureaucrats, some members of NGOs and the so-called civil society and some drawing-room based politicians having little or no connection with the common people to take advantage of the situation and to come to power using anti-corruption drive as an weapon.
The other reason was that it failed to bring down the spiralling prices of food and other essential items which were telling upon the daily lives of ordinary people very heavily. The prices of essential items which were already very high went further up during their tenure to make the ordinary people reel for their survival.
The grand alliance government under the leadership of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina will be well advised to remember this part of the episode of the CTG and do the needful before it becomes too late.
They have been successful in bringing down the prices of rice, wheat, vegetable oil and fertiliser to an appreciable level for which they certainly deserve kudos but it is also a fact that there are still a lot of items of daily use such as fish, potato, sugar, lentils, onion, garlic etc., whose prices are very high and far beyond the buying capacity of the ordinary people.
And if we talk about corruption, there is no apparent reason to say that the incumbent government has been serious enough in dealing with the issue. Except for some activities of the parliamentary standing committees to unearth the wrong doings of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the Chief Whip of the last parliament and some members of the immediate past caretaker government, there is hardly any visible progress in either dealing with the hundreds of high-profile graft cases filed by the last caretaker government or in initiating new measures to deal with corruption which is still going on unabated.
The recent utterances of the present chief of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) admitting that his department is no better than a toothless tiger, do not go well with the statement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that her government is determined to strengthen the ACC and curve corruption with an iron hand. Her words need to be matched by actions.
The government is now faced with multifarious challenges-the challenges of acute power and energy crisis, scarcity of pure drinking water, global economic recession, climate change due to global warming, traffic congestion in the big cities, especially in the capital city, absence of even minimum health care facilities for the vast majority of people and lack of employment opportunities for millions of youth -- to name here a few -- not to mention about the ever-increasing challenges of price hike, food security and poverty alleviation.
Then on top of these, there are the challenges for fighting religious militancy, trial of war criminals, trial of those responsible for BDR mutiny, establishment of rule of law and coping with the non-stop non-co operation of a historically arch rival political party in the opposition bench.
These are the challenges the government ought to face now and all at a time. To meet these social, political and economic challenges, the elected government, now in power, not only needs to show political wisdom and takes pragmatic steps but also has to look for huge investments from home and abroad and the prime consideration for such investments to come is an efficient and honest administration.
The country has received billions and billions of dollars as aid, grant and loans from the donor countries in the last 38 years of its independence but to hardly any effect. Most of the money (75%, according to some estimate) has gone down the drain because of rampant corruption and mismanagement.
It is, therefore, imperative that the government deals with the issue of corruption and administrative reform firmly and efficiently, if it really wants to face the challenges of today.
To begin with, it is the administrative machinery that needs to be thoroughly cleaned and overhauled. Now that the salary and other allowances of government employees have been increased to almost double, we believe, there is no scope for them to say that they are compelled to indulge in corruption because of poor salary. Nor is there any reason for the government to show any sort of leniency against those in the administration who are corrupt, inefficient and negligent in their duties.
The writer is a retired merchant navy officer. He can be reached at e-mail: himam55@yahoo.co.uk
DESPITE the fact that the military-backed caretaker government (CTG) of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed was not truly a constitutional government, it enjoyed the support of the people in general for a considerable period of time mainly for a number of reasons.
The people wanted a respite from the ever deteriorating law and order situation resulting from violent political confrontation and the CTG could provide that respite; it promised a flawless voter list and a free, fair and credible election; the people thought that the CTG would be able to put a break to the galloping price hike of food and other essential items; and, it launched a massive anti-corruption drive that saw hundreds of political bigwigs and some business magnets behind the bar on charges of corruption and abuse of power. The people were shocked to see the scale of corruption committed by those who were in the corridor of power as they were being unfolded one after another by the CTG.
It was the anti-corruption drive of the CTG that initially received more support from the people than anything else for the simple reason that the all pervasive corruption in the society was not only earning bad name for the country, it was also eating the very vitals of the society.
There were, at least, two reasons why the CTG had in the later half of its two-year tenure (2007-08) begun to lose support of the people and ultimately succumbed to the will of the top political leadership about whom they had so much of complaint and whom, in fact, at one stage they tried to minus from the political scene.
They made a mess of the anti-corruption drive. It didn't take long for the people to realise that the CTG, with the help of armed forces, was actually using the anti-corruption drive more as a tool to disgrace the existing political leadership than to curve corruption. The people also did not like the idea of helping a third force, comprising some of their selected retired military and civil bureaucrats, some members of NGOs and the so-called civil society and some drawing-room based politicians having little or no connection with the common people to take advantage of the situation and to come to power using anti-corruption drive as an weapon.
The other reason was that it failed to bring down the spiralling prices of food and other essential items which were telling upon the daily lives of ordinary people very heavily. The prices of essential items which were already very high went further up during their tenure to make the ordinary people reel for their survival.
The grand alliance government under the leadership of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina will be well advised to remember this part of the episode of the CTG and do the needful before it becomes too late.
They have been successful in bringing down the prices of rice, wheat, vegetable oil and fertiliser to an appreciable level for which they certainly deserve kudos but it is also a fact that there are still a lot of items of daily use such as fish, potato, sugar, lentils, onion, garlic etc., whose prices are very high and far beyond the buying capacity of the ordinary people.
And if we talk about corruption, there is no apparent reason to say that the incumbent government has been serious enough in dealing with the issue. Except for some activities of the parliamentary standing committees to unearth the wrong doings of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the Chief Whip of the last parliament and some members of the immediate past caretaker government, there is hardly any visible progress in either dealing with the hundreds of high-profile graft cases filed by the last caretaker government or in initiating new measures to deal with corruption which is still going on unabated.
The recent utterances of the present chief of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) admitting that his department is no better than a toothless tiger, do not go well with the statement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that her government is determined to strengthen the ACC and curve corruption with an iron hand. Her words need to be matched by actions.
The government is now faced with multifarious challenges-the challenges of acute power and energy crisis, scarcity of pure drinking water, global economic recession, climate change due to global warming, traffic congestion in the big cities, especially in the capital city, absence of even minimum health care facilities for the vast majority of people and lack of employment opportunities for millions of youth -- to name here a few -- not to mention about the ever-increasing challenges of price hike, food security and poverty alleviation.
Then on top of these, there are the challenges for fighting religious militancy, trial of war criminals, trial of those responsible for BDR mutiny, establishment of rule of law and coping with the non-stop non-co operation of a historically arch rival political party in the opposition bench.
These are the challenges the government ought to face now and all at a time. To meet these social, political and economic challenges, the elected government, now in power, not only needs to show political wisdom and takes pragmatic steps but also has to look for huge investments from home and abroad and the prime consideration for such investments to come is an efficient and honest administration.
The country has received billions and billions of dollars as aid, grant and loans from the donor countries in the last 38 years of its independence but to hardly any effect. Most of the money (75%, according to some estimate) has gone down the drain because of rampant corruption and mismanagement.
It is, therefore, imperative that the government deals with the issue of corruption and administrative reform firmly and efficiently, if it really wants to face the challenges of today.
To begin with, it is the administrative machinery that needs to be thoroughly cleaned and overhauled. Now that the salary and other allowances of government employees have been increased to almost double, we believe, there is no scope for them to say that they are compelled to indulge in corruption because of poor salary. Nor is there any reason for the government to show any sort of leniency against those in the administration who are corrupt, inefficient and negligent in their duties.
The writer is a retired merchant navy officer. He can be reached at e-mail: himam55@yahoo.co.uk