Editorial
Lift restrictions on politics
instead of tightening them
We note with concern the latest instruction of the military-driven interim government to the law enforcement agencies to ensure stricter adherence to the conditions on indoor politics under the state of emergency. The order, which came a day after activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party assaulted several ‘reformist’ leaders of the party including standing committee member and former army chief Mahbubur Rahman, was given at the twelfth meeting of the cabinet committee on law and order on Thursday.
We at New Age have repeatedly and unequivocally demanded, from the very beginning of this period of emergency, the full restoration of the fundamental rights of the people as well as the complete lifting of the ban on political activity, indoors and outdoors. While we certainly do not wish to see a return to the crude power struggle between the different groups of self-seeking political parties, we have held firm in our belief that the people of this country should not, even for a fleeting moment let alone for months on end, be deprived of their fundamental rights as citizens of a sovereign state. Similarly, while we have relentlessly opposed the bloody, confrontational politics of the past as had been practiced by our political parties and do not want to see our country being dragged down that tortuous route ever again, we do not believe and can never support the suspension of the democratic process and the ban on political activity, however temporary either may be. To put it simply, we do not subscribe to the idea that democracy can be strengthened through keeping it suspended, or that the nature of politics can be positively transformed through banning it altogether in an effort to remould the polity. In our opinion, the democratisation of the state and society requires an unfailing commitment to democratic values and ideals, which cannot and should not be compromised even under the most difficult of circumstances. After all, real democracy is dependent upon a political process that allows the people the opportunity and space to voice, demand, and fight for their individual and collective aspirations.
Therefore, we cannot help but feel alarmed by the fact that at a time when we had expected that the military-driven government would further relax the restrictions on political activity, it has asked the law enforcement agencies to step up their vigil and tighten their noose around the political parties. We are made increasingly anxious by the fact that instead of allowing the people their necessary democratic space, the government is persisting with the state of emergency that automatically suspends their democratic rights. We are disappointed that despite our repeated demands for the earliest return to a democratic dispensation, the government appears to be taking its sweet time to bring about necessary administrative and electoral reforms and are thereby delaying, without any good reason, elections to the ninth parliament, which have been stalled since January last.
We take this opportunity to remind the government that it is pledge-bound to the people of this country, as well as the international community, to restore the democratic process. Therefore, we urge it, once more, to immediately restore the fundamental rights of the citizens, lift completely the ban on politics and to bring about necessary electoral reforms to hold parliamentary elections without unnecessary delay.
‘Mystery’ illness needs
to be diagnosed
The ‘mysterious’ disease which hit Comilla and Sylhet a few days ago still remains mysterious, but its depredation is alarming. The scourge is spreading and has a high fatality rate. The unknown illness was first detected on November 2 in the Gowainghat upazila of Sylhet. About 50 people were afflicted, of whom nine succumbed to their illness. The disease is now spreading to neighbouring areas and claiming more lives. The victims are reported to be mostly women and children. According to the civil surgeon of Sylhet, the disease could not yet be diagnosed. It is strange that the team of senior specialists took so much time to visit the affected area and till then the civil surgeon was left to grapple with the emergency on his own. It is further worrisome that the team of specialists has not yet been able to make any conclusive finding.
Meanwhile, the disease has spread to neighbouring Companiganj, where out of nine persons afflicted, four including two minor girls have died. For understandable reasons panic has gripped the area but panic cannot help in dealing with the sudden medical crisis. Some of the victims are siblings or members of the same family. This suggests that the disease is in some way contagious. If diagnosis is taking time, immediate steps should be taken to prevent the spread. The people of the affected areas must also be counselled on the initial symptoms and what to do when the first signs are manifested. Some victims died on way to the hospital which means that medical attention has to be immediate if lives are to be saved. In such circumstances, it would be expected that a medical camp of senior specialists would be set up in the area for constant monitoring of the disease and for providing treatment. At the same time, the local hospitals must be reinforced with medical staff, equipment and facilities to minimise deaths.
If the menace is not controlled soon, the help of international organisations like the World Health Organisation should be sought. Also, after the illness has been correctly diagnosed and the cure found, other questions, such as why the disease occurred and how to prevent such an outbreak in future, will need to be answered.
Sound and fury over NGOs
What is it that prompts the people in the corridors of power to take a swipe at the non-governmental organisations whenever they get the opportunity but not take any effective steps to streamline and strengthen their regulation and monitoring,
wonders Mir Ashfaquzzaman
THERE is little doubt about the merit in the argument of the chairman of the just-commissioned regulatory reforms commission, Akbar Ali Khan, that non-governmental organisations must be put under a stricter regulatory framework and made more accountable to better benefit the poor. On November 6, inaugurating the Small Initiative by Local Innovative NGOs or SMILING project funded by the European Commission, he took exception to NGOs ‘leaning all the more towards business activities.’ Akbar, a former secretary of the government and also a former adviser to the caretaker government that preceded the military-driven interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, also made it a point to remind everyone that micro-credit ‘is not the only remedy to poverty alleviation. An overall economic development is a must for eliminating poverty from the country.’
Granted. No one would contest the argument that the NGO sector needs to be better regulated and that micro-credit alone is not the panacea for poverty. In fact, what Akbar said on November 6 has little value in terms of novelty. Politicians, development experts and civil society groups have severally said micro-credit can be an effective component in the overall development matrix, and not the development matrix itself. His observation about the NGOs leaning increasingly towards business activities is also nothing new. It is an allegation that the NGOs (some of whom are making a genuine effort to substitute foreign donor funds with profits from their many enterprises) have learned to live with over the years. This is not to suggest, in any way, that the allegation is unfounded; it is not. What is irrational, however, is such a sweeping characterisation of the entire NGO community. The people in the corridors of power seem to have developed the uncanny habit of undermining the achievement of the NGOs whenever and wherever they get the chance.
There is indeed a strong case for effective monitoring and regulation of the NGOs. A few days back, New Age reported that an NGO continues with its extensive media campaign on multi-million dollar development projects it plans to implement although it is not known to anyone, not even the top hierarchy of the organisation, where the funds will come from. It seems that nothing about the organisation is consistent with the existing rules and regulations. It has started micro-credit operations in 40 districts and already sanctioned credit to 25,000 people without the approval of the micro-credit regulatory authorities of the Bangladesh Bank. It plans to seek external assistance to finance its development projects, which curiously range from distribution of consumer credit cards among people in the rural areas to production and broadcast of a 104-episode drama on the war of independence, but has yet to take clearance from the Bureau of NGO Affairs, the lone regulatory authority for NGOs working in Bangladesh. The NGO is also learnt to have taken money from 200,000 people for membership of its so-called associations. Allegations have already been raised that the NGO, which is headed by a person who was convicted of fraud a few years ago, sentenced to two years in prison and fined, and implicated in 19 other civil and criminal cases, is out to swindle the poor people.
This is just a recent example. There are many. The Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International recently released a report, titled ‘Problem of Good Governance in NGO Sector: The Way Out, which highlights some intriguing information and makes some interesting conclusions. The report, according to the Transparency International Bangladesh, is based on a random survey of 20 NGOs – one international, eight national and 11 local – and says 85 per cent of the national and local NGOs do not have financial transparency as their audit and financial reports are usually exaggerated. It also says 65 per cent of the national and local NGOs bribe officials to get projects from different departments of the government. Interestingly still, it claims that the executives of 70 per cent of the NGOs surveyed enjoy undue financial and other benefits while employees of 35 per cent NGOs do not get their salaries regularly. ‘Though the condition of the service-recipients did not change, changes in socio-economic condition of the NGO founders are recognisable,’ it concludes.
That the TIB revelations are valid and observations justified are corroborated by none other than officials of the NGO affairs bureau themselves. As an example of doctored statement of accounts, one official referred to the case of a particular NGO. Its audit report for 2006 showed Tk 64,183,653 in income and Tk 64,183,653 in expenditure – perfect bookkeeping. Its accountants certainly deserve a pat on their back for making the near-impossible impossible.
The way out? The Transparency International Bangladesh has suggested in its report immediate institution of an independent NGO commission as an umbrella body to supervise the NGO activities in Bangladesh. It has also called for making the NGO laws time-befitting and taking initiatives for social audit under the proposed NGO commission. Here we go again. It is amazing that any deliberation on any irregularities in any sector unfailingly ends with a recommendation for either upgrading the existing laws or enacting new ones and institution of an independent body for monitoring and supervision, as if some new laws and some independent watchdog would do something overnight that existing laws and existing regulation authorities have failed to do in so many years. It is highly likely that even if we did institute an independent NGO commission today and modified the laws related to NGOs, someone would make another case for establishment of another commission and introduction of another set of laws.
The problem seems to be that, while successive governments have scoffed at the NGOs and cried hoarse about stringent monitoring and regulation of the sector, they have never followed up on their words. They have assigned themselves an adversarial role vis-à-vis the NGOs, whereas it should play the facilitator, the monitor and the regulator. The Bureau of NGO Affairs, which started functioning on March 1, 1990, was a good plan badly executed. Had the governments really meant effective monitoring and regulation of the NGOs, they would surely have tried to empower the bureau – legally and logistically. The bureau currently has a 45-strong workforce for more than 3,000 NGOs. Then again, the current director general does not seem to keen on investigating allegations of irregularities by one NGO or the other. As a New Age report says, he has actively dissuaded the audit and inspection wing of the bureau when it sought his approval for investigation into a particular case of alleged irregularities. Therefore, unless there is substantial commitment of the government to meaningfully streamline the NGO sector, whatever regulatory body is commissioned, it will meet the same fate as the NGO affairs bureau.
Now, the NGO community should also realise that it needs an effective regulatory and monitoring authority for its own interest. While it may be true that some NGOs have engaged in unlawful activities over the years in the absence of proper monitoring and regulation, the rest do go by the law and are driven by the ideal of making a difference to the lives of the poor and marginalised. It is the misdeed of the few that eventually taint the image of the many. As the NGOs depend heavily on external assistance, it is imperative that the community projects a credible image to prospective donors. If the rogue NGOs continue to hog the headlines, there will be irreversible erosion of credibility for the entire sector, which may set back whatever socio-economic development the community has been able to achieve. Clearly, the NGOs should, out of self-interest, apply pressure on the government to put in place a meaningful regulatory and monitoring mechanism.
So far, the discourse on NGOs in Bangladesh has been accentuated by a mutual blame game. The government has levelled a wide range of accusations – from profiteering to activities subversive of the state – against the NGOs while the NGOs have complained encroachment by the government upon their operational independence. Both sides need to realise that the blame game has to stop and that they should complement, and not confront, each other. Ultimately, whatever they do will affect the people. One would hope the effect is positive rather than negative.
MAIN PAGE | TOP
|
|
