Much debate has recently been going on regarding the recently promulgated RPO (Amended) 1972 Ordinance. Some provisions in the RPO may face legal challenge and some are difficult to be implemented by the political parties due to time constraints. For instance, the new electoral rules have given an opportunity to the loan defaulting contestants to participate in the upcoming polls through rescheduling of their loans six months prior to the submission of application for candidacy.
   But due to delay in promulgating the RPO, loan defaulters’ bid to run in the polls is over as the stipulated timeframe of rescheduling their loans has ended. Legal experts have opined that such candidates may challenge the provisions in the courts for not providing the stipulated opportunity to them for remedying their disqualifications and there is a good chance that they may win the legal battle as it is indeed the fault of the government in not providing them with sufficient time.
   The case of party registration can also bring in more legal battles. For instance, in order to meet the criteria for registration with the EC, the parties are required to revise their constitutions and elect new committees through national councils.
   Under the state of emergency, this seems a difficult proposition. The parties will also have to sever ties with their front organisations and chapters abroad.
   The idea of bringing the parties under registration is welcome but if the parties file a writ petition with the High Court, challenging the legality of the provision to do away
   with front organisations, then things will get murkier.
   And then the government is also not barring those convicts from polls whose appeals are pending with the higher courts and thus the chief adviser’s recent call for electing ‘clean and competent’ candidates rings hollow. Now it appears that the government and the EC may ultimately have to bow down to the pressure of the political parties to move forward with the electoral process and this will only weaken the image of the government. So despite the fact that some of the provisions of the RPO are praiseworthy (registration of the parties, disallowing civil and military bureaucrats and heads of the NGOs from participating in polls till three years have elapsed after their retirement, option of ‘no’ vote etc), the delay in promulgating the electoral laws may hinder proper implementation of the laws.
   Wasif Wahed
   Old DOHS, Dhaka

The Bayley Road was renamed as the Natak Sarani by the Dhaka City Corporation on August 26, 2005. The street is even now publicly known by its old name. But we always misspell Bayley Road as Baily Road.
   The road was named after British civil servant Sir Steuart Colvin Bayley (November 26, 1836-June 3, 1925) who had been lieutenant-governor of Bengal for 1879-1882.
   The misspelling, which certainly has Bayley turning in his grave in Brompton Cemetery in London, in the case of his name is probably partly influenced by how Sir Donald Coleman Bailey (September 15, 1901-May 5, 1985), also a civil servant, spelt his name. We know him because he designed a portable pre-fabricated truss bridge, now known as Bailey bridge, which earned him knighthood in 1946. There is one such bridge over the Crescent Lake near the national assembly complex in Dhaka.
   There might be another reason for the incorrect spelling of Bayley Road — our indifference to history, coupled with a mentality to simplify or generalise everything we come across. But the city corporation has the name correct in a page titled ‘Dhaka as the provincial capital of East Pakistan’ on its website. Banglapedia also has an entry on him, with the correct spelling.
   Should we not spell the road as Bayley Road? I believe we should.
   Jahanara Nargis
   Via e-mail

My appreciations for Rashed Ahmed’s ‘Taslima, again’ (August). He has correctly pointed out that it is Taslima’s anti-Islamic statements which impress the West and India so much. She is just another pawn in their agenda against Islam.
   FZ Islam
   Baridhara, Dhaka
   

These days we read a lot of editorials, letters and comments about the great lessons that we can learn from Pervez Musharraf’s exit. But I wonder, who is supposed to learn these ‘lessons’? The general public or the politicians?
   As far the general public are concerned, I am sure, they already know these things — they don’t need more lessons. As for our politicians (and those military guys), do we seriously think that they don’t know that military dictatorship is bad for a country and it is not a sustainable option? Do we really believe that our so-called democratic politicians did all those nasty things to our society and our country unintentionally or unknowingly? Dear me! Wake up, people!
   We don’t need our politicians to learn more lessons. What they need to do is to give up hartal and student politics, get rid of their armed fronts, attend parliament regularly, practise democracy within their parties and stop destroying our economy in their evil zeal to destroy their opponents.
   Azad Miah
   Oldham, UK

The Gulshan Lake has a nice walkway on its western bank, and every morning a lot of residents from Gulshan, Badda and nearby areas take their morning walk there. Unfortunately, the bank of the lake is sullied by refuse and garbage dumped on the walkway, mostly, by the residents of the flats and houses bordering the western lakeside. Possibly the same thing happens on the bank in the eastern side of the lake, too, but there is no walkway there so I do not know the situation. I have seen garbage being brought from Badda and dumped at the north-west corner of the walkway into the lake. I have pointed it to the police in their camp right opposite this corner, but they couldn’t care less. Possibly, they too dump the refuse from their camp into the lake. Despite many complaints to the Gulshan Municipality, they do nothing about it. Is it not a part of their conservancy function?
   The army-backed caretaker government should carry out cleaning up of the banks of the lake, with the direct help from the army, to restore the lake to its natural state.
   SA Mansoor
   Gulshan, Dhaka