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The tough action taken by the Election Commission against the Chittagong Metropolitan Police Commissioner is a sign of the really good and necessary things that can be done given the will on the part of the authorities. The EC has convinced itself and has thus convinced the country that the police officer violated official rules and regulations through his manifestly partisan behaviour in favour of a particular candidate for the forthcoming mayoral elections in the port city. Why he did that can easily be explained by the fact that for ages government officials have as a matter of routine been asked or expected to work in line with the wishes of the people or party in power. Such a style of administration, if one can call that administration, has hugely and badly affected the nature of political governance in the country. In the present case of Amzad Hossain’s being a party to partisan politics in Chittagong, one has the rather queasy feeling that he did a lot more than what others have normally done over the years. His role in filing cases against supporters of the Nagorik Committee-backed ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, coupled with the general harassment of others for no rhyme or reason, is one that the country should roundly condemn. It is a matter of shame for all of us that a police officer whose clear job is to serve the state and thereby the nation has been seen to engage himself happily in the business of disseminating election propaganda on behalf of the four-party backed mayoral candidate, Mir Nasiruddin.
   -The judgement by the Election Commission will surely act as a landmark for the future. It will discourage candidates for political office in future from taking recourse to patently corrupt means of electioneering. At the same time, it will serve notice on government officials, from the lowest to the highest rungs of the administration, that they cannot side with those in power and expect to get away with it. We are not, however, suggesting that the EC decision against the CMP commissioner has suddenly injected an element of morality in our politics. Our collective experience remains one of seeing one good move being subsequently overtaken by a number of bad realities on the ground. One will hope that the decision of the EC in the Chittagong affair will turn out to be a good precedent for others to build on. The decision, in a broad manner of speaking, reflects the clear need for a truly and effectively independent Election Commission in the country. That basically means that the EC must have not only the power to make decisions on its own and in an objective manner. It ought also to have the authority and the machinery to enforce such decisions. Besides, care must also be taken by the EC to see, on its own, that no politician or political worker violates electoral rules or, as is said euphemistically, the accepted code of conduct. While all of these are important, there remains that other point of what the EC can do about candidates who are caught influencing or intimidating government officials into working for them. The clear thought that should work here is that once it is proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a candidate is indeed guilty of such misdemeanour, he or she should be disqualified from being a candidate. Such action will go a long and happy way towards adding flesh to our yet skeletal democracy.
   All said and done, the action of the Election Commission against the CMP commissioner is to be commended. It is intriguing, though, that nothing has been said about the behaviour of the assistant commissioner in the whole affair.

Jagjit Singh Aurora – a tribute

The death of Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora brings the curtain down on an important segment of history in our part of the world. We in Bangladesh have known him chiefly as the man who presided over the surrender of the Pakistan occupation army to the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Command in December 1971. In a very special sense, therefore, Aurora is one individual whose association with and involvement in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent state are facts the people of Bangladesh have recalled with gratitude. He was a polite man and dignified soldier, one of a class of individuals in the military who understood the lessons of war as also the realities of peace. It was his politeness and dignity which demonstrated themselves on the day when he accepted the surrender of General Niazi at the Dhaka race course after a nine-month war for Bangladesh’s liberation. Aurora was the perfect gentleman as he watched Niazi and his officers hand over their arms and badges. Like any good, professional soldier, he was determined to ensure that his defeated enemy was not demeaned in any way.
   And yet General Aurora felt the compulsions, in the months prior to the December happenings in Dhaka, the people of occupied Bangladesh were going through in their desperation for freedom. His interaction with the Mujibnagar government, especially with the officers and men of the Mukti Bahini, remains testimony to his desire to forge a common military strategy in the build-up to the final push on the 1971 fields of war. The Bengali officers who had cause to interact with Aurora in those decisive days have never failed to recall the thorough sense of professionalism he brought to bear on the conduct of the war. Once Bangladesh stood liberated, Aurora went to great lengths to avoid giving the impression to people, in Bangladesh or abroad, that his men were running the show in the new country. Bangladesh was a free country with its own government in charge. In the four months preceding the departure of Indian forces from Bangladesh in March 1972, it was Aurora who made sure that his men stayed unobtrusively in the background. That only accentuated the contrast between the behaviour of his forces and that of the army his men and the Mukti Bahini had beaten in war.
   We pay tribute to Jagjit Singh Aurora. He is an icon in Indian history. He is part of our story as well.

Much has been discussed and written about issues relating to road safety. The news media never failed to project the number of accidents in the highways and even in the city roads. All types of motor vehicles are involved in road accidents that prove fatal for pedestrians as well as passengers. Safety situation on both counts does not appear to have improved. In fact, it may well be said that in the recent past, the situation has worsened.
   Road safety for pedestrians
   In Dhaka city, under the Dhaka urban transport project (DUTP) some improvement has been effected. The interventionary measures include (a) construction of foot over bridge (FOB) and (b) improvement in electronic road signalling system.
   In August 2004, the centre for urban studies (CUS) have conducted an evaluative study of the use of FOBs by pedestrians. The survey covered 16 FOB locations out of 25 study sites. The total number of pedestrians counted at 16 FOB locations stood at 231,091. It was found that less than half (47 percent) of the pedestrians were found to be using FOB. The majority constituting 53 percent did not use the FOB thus raising the question of road safety for pedestrians. In such a situation, the key issue is that the drivers of vehicles to be blamed for road accidents. The sight of a large number of pedestrians crossing the streets without using FOBs is very common at all locations. Apart from endangering road safety, such behaviour also slows down traffic that lead to traffic jam.
   Inhibiting factor for not using FOB
   In course of the survey, a total of 800 pedestrians were interviewed to state the reasons why FOBs were not being used by them. The reasons include (a) uneasy feeling (27 percent), (b) FOBs are dirty (20 percent), (c) takes more time (20 percent), (d) too high (19 percent), (e) occupied by hawkers (15 percent), (f) lack of security (13 percent) (g) takes a long walk (10 percent), (h) poor entry access (10 percent), (i) congested (6 percent) and (j) other reasons (3 percent).
   Views of traffic police
   The opinion of the traffic police obtained during the survey included (a) ignorance of the pedestrians about traffic rules, (b) wilful violations of traffic rules by the pedestrians, (c) inadequacy of pedestrian facilities that impede enforcement and (d) lack of enforcement of rules of law.
   Opinion of experts
   The views of the experts obtained in course of the survey provide more optimism than the pedestrians themselves. These are (a) pedestrians have started the use of FOB and it will take sometime to improve the situation, (b) enforcement mechanism is weak, (c) different methods can be applied for enforcement such as fencing of roads and imposing fines, (d) awareness building for pedestrians to use FOB and (e) low rise of FOB to facilitate easy walk etc.
   Suggested remedies
   Remedies have been suggested by the survey to improve the situation of low use of FOB. Remedies are (i) pedestrians crossings should be marked clearly so that they are easily visible, (ii) strict adherence to traffic rule is necessary, (iii) priority for pedestrians to cross roads, (iv) awareness building for pedestrians and (v) bus stops should be clearly demarcated and buses must not pick passengers from pedestrians intersections. Other recommendations included priority for location of FOB, user-friendly FOB and freeing FOBs of commercial activities etc.
   There is little or nothing to disagree with the findings and recommendations of the survey. There are, however, some missing links that need to be stated. There is perhaps need to prioritize the recommendations. Some of the recommendations such as low rise will be applicable for future FOBs. What about existing FOBs? Fencing and enforcement appear to be important. Lot of money, claimed to be not from government exchequer, has already been spent for beautification. The fencing materials used are not uniform so that open and abrupt road crossing at will is more a rule than an exception.
   Guardians are often seen to cross roads with the children near schools even though a FOB is in place and it is not intersection. Take the case of Shaheen school for instance. About enforcement, you have just to look at the FOB inside the cantonment. Pedestrians there behave as they should because the military police is able to enforce the rule. Their very presence is enough to secure lawful rather than unlawful behaviour. During the mid-nineties, members of the armed forces were deployed for traffic management.
   The presence of such personnel near FOB at the intersection of Banani led to a change of behaviour of pedestrians, who would use the FOBs without any complaint. Similar sight was there near farmgate intersection. Our traffic police can also do it if only they are motivated and their work adequately supervised. In this context, it is necessary to point out that the high ups in the government, in particular, the senior police and military officials including ministers can set standards of conduct by themselves obeying the traffic rules and not taking pride in breaking the queue, unless it is absolutely necessary in public interest. For instance, when the police officers are in hot pursuit of criminals, they should get priority.
   The issue of standards of conduct is necessary to instil confidence among the traffic policemen who are responsible for the control and management of traffic. They should be supreme over anyone except the rules that are to be followed. Such rules should be made transparent so that people know what to do and what is not to be done. Concurrently, there is need to discipline the heavy vehicles like buses. An overwhelming majority of the bus and truck drivers stop at will and increase their speed with impunity specially at intersections.
   Accidents in the highway
   This brings us to the equally important issue of the safety of passengers. During the last couple of weeks, some unprecedented fatal accidents had taken place. There appears to be a common pattern of such accidents. Buses loaded with passengers go off the bridges. Buses playing in opposite directions collide. Sometimes, the head-on collision is with a speedy truck. Who else but the drivers are to be blamed for such tragic events. Pedestrians innocently walking by the roadside are also crushed under the wheels of speedy trucks and buses.
   In the city roads, also such danger are clearly visible in the form of overtaking by buses and trucks. In city areas more than the cars, the buses do not pay any attention to conform to the lane concept. They change the lanes at will and with complete impunity. The CNG auto-rickshaws do it as well. Most cars are also guilty of frequent change lanes. Our city planners often emphasize the lack of total area of roads compared to other countries. There is little scop of increasing the length of roads in cities like Dhaka. The option is to optimise the use of existing roads by enforcing a more disciplined behaviour by drivers of all descriptions.
   In Kolkata and other cities of India, buses stick to the extreme left lane that is meant for such vehicles. Enforcement is good so that fast moving light vehicles can move without any hindrance. The scenario in Dhaka and most other cities in Bangladesh is just the opposite. Signs indicating location of schools require that all vehicles slow down to allow school children easy and safe passage while crossing roads. It is said that once a Bangladeshi while travelling in a taxi in the USA was surprised when it suddenly came to a stop. He asked the driver what the matter was. Don’t you see, children are passing through, they are the future of America, was the reply from the driver. This type of awareness among our drivers is not there.
   It is felt that ensuring road safety is more than a mere traffic engineering and management function. Without disciplined driving by drivers of all types of vehicles, engineering and management effort can do very little to ensure road safety for pedestrians and passengers of vehicles.