Post-1/11 caretaker govt
and its challenges
by Imtiaz Ahmed
The post-1/11 caretaker government is beset with manifold challenges, most of which have come about from the inaction or misdeeds of the previous governments but then there are some which are its own making. In meeting these challenges either partially or in full rests the case of total or partial success and as the case may be total or partial failure on the part of the government. I prefer to call the first cluster of challenges as political.
Several key areas could be found in this category where reforms brought about by the government had a fairly positive impact. First is the Election Commission. This institution was salvaged from a state of disrepute, mainly by appointing individuals who are more professional and seemingly non-partisan. But the challenge with the commission is yet to go, and this is related to the task of transforming the commission from a functionally governmental institution to a functionally state institution, with an independent secretariat and the capacity to function independently. In this context, it already tainted itself by choosing one faction of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party over another in the phase of dialoguing with the political parties and now the matter rests with the court. A more professional option would have been to request for a court verdict before opting for one or invite both the factions and let the factions themselves sort out their differences over the EC-imposed electoral reforms.
Second is the voter ID. This was a public demand and also the demand of the opposition parties. This task is progressing well and the caretaker government along with the military, which is actually implementing the work, ought to be praised for the progress thus far made and it now looks that by July this year the task would be fully done. The challenge facing this task has now come down to the issue as to how it would work on the day of the election. There is now an opinion that before the national election, which is due by the end of this year, the voter ID be pre-tested in local or municipal elections. At the same time the commission ought to have a website to inform the public on a weekly basis the progress thus far made in registering the voters.
Third is the separation of the judiciary from the executive. The work on this issue started almost a decade earlier but the previous governments kept on delaying the process of actually separating the judiciary from the executive. ‘Separation’, however, does not guarantee the immediate ‘independence’ of the judiciary, the task of which requires a creative combination of time and judicial-cum-organisational skills. The caretaker government would do well to encourage civil watch bodies to monitor the progress, including inviting critical reviews and suggestions of how best to expedite the process.
Fourth is the Public Service Commission, where replacing the erstwhile partisan commissioners with the seemingly non-partisan professionals have made the institution more credible in the eyes of the public. But then like the Election Commission the independence of the Public Service Commission is yet to be ensured, and only by changing the rule of business, particularly relating to the appointments of the commissioners and other recruitments, could we expect it to be functionally independent and become a state institution in reality.
Finally, and a much-talked-about achievement in this category, is the Anti-Corruption Commission. Here too the replacement of partisan commissioners with more financially clean, non-partisan individuals and, indeed, with the full backing of the military, has made the institution more credible in the eyes of the public and thus far has succeeded in at least making an impact in carrying out its institutional mandate. But then the impact has largely remained limited to the task of bringing allegations of corruption against the ‘larger than life’ politicians and businesspersons, and with few exceptions, without successfully prosecuting them in courts on the basis of judicially credible evidence. However, I must quickly point out that the commission is confident of the evidence of corruption it has in its hands but this is something that needs to be watched very closely.
Some critics, however, question as to why the drive against corruption is so relentless and aggressive when other developed countries, including the United States or Singapore, had phases of corruption in their respective developmental history? One quick answer would be that in developed countries the corrupt reinvested their ill-gotten money in their own land, while in our case the corrupt spent mostly in foreign luxury goods or spurious activities or hoarded in banks beyond borders. The governmental drive against corruption, however, had a negative impact on the economy, the discussion of which I will take up shortly.
The area in which the caretaker government had the least success up until now is impressing upon the political parties to undertake internal reforms, indeed, with the objective of substantially democratising the party. The government is partly to be blamed for it. This includes policies ranging from the so-called minus-two formula to the non-withdrawal of the state of emergency or making it less flexible. At times comments by some advisers have made the task even more difficult, although the government has recently rectified this by firing four advisers and quickly replacing them with newer ones. What is required here is space in which the political parties could activate a form of collective leadership and replace the age-old structure of having an-all powerful leader with almost dictatorial power. Lesser is the time given to collective leadership to start and settle down the greater is the risk of having the older structure survive and create a dent in the political agenda of the government. Keeping this issue in perspective, it is imperative that the state of emergency be either withdrawn or its rules made more flexible so that the political parties could enjoy the required space to congregate, codify and practice internal democratic party reforms. Here both time and space are the essence of the matter.
This brings us to the second cluster of challenges which could be called economic. I have already mentioned about the governmental drive against corruption and the negative impact it had on the economy. This was somewhat inevitable, although it now seems that the government did not foresee such a situation. The TIB (Transparency International, Bangladesh) had consistently pointed out the extent of corruption and the unholy alliance between the big business and the politicians. The fact, however, remains that the government did not prepare itself in facing the issue of an economic stalemate and in certain areas indeed a decline resulting from the policy of incarcerating the corrupt politicians and businesspersons or what could be referred to as the aggressive policing of the business-politician nexus. I will have more to say about this shortly.
Three other challenges complicated the dismal state of economy even further. One is the global impact of oil price hike to nearly $100 per barrel, particularly in making the price of rice and other food items costlier. Second is the mid-level flood in the middle of the year. And third is the devastating impact of cyclone Sidr, which also saw the much-needed aman crop getting washed away completely. All these have contributed to a situation where the common people are finding their purchasing power drastically curtailed within weeks if not days and are increasingly losing trust on the government in facing the economic problem.
Some reports indicate that 8 per cent of the business houses import 80 per cent of the goods. If this is the case and in the backdrop of some of the members of the big business getting incarcerated or getting hunted down then it is quite obvious that such houses would be reluctant to pursue business and instead would look for a long holiday at home or abroad, and also would lend support to forces working for a quick demise of the government. Since the big business has laundered money abroad, there is also the reason to believe that they have a good number of international friends to help them out in their time of distress. Moreover, the hardship of the common masses could create grounds for a moral campaign against the government, indeed, under the leadership of the so-called left or progressive forces, which the forces comfortable with pre-1/11 setting could now find convenient to join only to transform the campaign to its benefit.
How to re-energise the economy then? Although somewhat late, the caretaker government has realised that the enemies within and abroad are formidable enough for stalling not only the economy but also derailing the process of democratisation and good governance, including the political roadmap of having the parliamentary elections before the deadline of December 2008. The government could certainly gear up its efforts towards restoring confidence in the minds and activities of the entrepreneurs, both foreign and local, by undertaking the following task:
One, emphasis ought to be given more to the task of changing the structure reproducing corruption than on the policing and incarceration of the individuals. Not that the latter is not required, only that without changing the structure the impact of the latter would remain temporary and cosmetic.
Two, space ought to be created for the law abiding businesspersons to invest in big business. This ought to include even financial incentives to the fresh ones.
Three, make the electronic and print media a partner to its goal of re-energising the economy. This could only come about by way of ensuring a free media devoid of the restrictions imposed under the state of emergency and other governmental regulations. Licensing of community radio, indeed, of all kinds ought to be made a priority in this context.
Four, making business rules more transparent to the prospective investors both at home and abroad and doing away with the bureaucratic hurdles. Independent watchdogs ought to be established to see whether or not someone is deliberately slowing down the process of business communication and licensing.
Finally, creating new business and employment opportunities by way of aggressively engaging with private investors, both foreign and local, including the members of the Bangladeshi diaspora. Here too independent watchdogs ought to be established to make the process transparent and ensuring an environment of pro-people investments.
The last cluster of challenges facing the caretaker government could be called social. The government has made some success in containing the religion-centred terrorism, namely the violent activities of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, by hanging six of its key leaders. This should not be taken to mean, however, that the issue of religion-centred terrorism is over. Instead the fear is now that those who have suffered politically and/or financially in the wake of 1/11 may now be tempted to make an alliance with the religion-centred extremists and create havoc in the country. The task in this context is threefold and the caretaker government has focused only on one or two.
First, incarcerating the militants, in which the government has had some success.
Second, raising the level of intelligence, and this is still inadequate. This is mainly because the government is yet to come up with a structure of combining traditional security networks with the agencies of civil society, including the academia and research institutes. This certainly calls for a newer structure of intelligence, one which would be able to contain the contemporary forms of post-globalisation non-state terrorism.
Finally, the intellectual task of containing the religion-centred ideas bordering on intolerance and rigidities or what has come to be known as the Wahhabisation of Islam. The caretaker government is yet to undertake a task on this, and this allows for intolerant followers to prosper and continue their activities. The Election Commission can certainly play a critical role in this by making it clear that no political party would be given registration and allowed to sit for elections if discriminatory provisions like limiting the leadership to only male members or keeping the party membership to only one linguistic or religious community are found codified in the party constitution or otherwise practiced. In this light, it would only be prudent for the government to at least start the process of identifying the war criminals and those responsible for the 1971 genocide. A step in this direction would certainly rescue the peaceful religion of Islam from the seemingly empowered hands of intolerant and, if I may add, distorted followers. In this age of globalisation this is as much a global task as it is a national one.
Interestingly, if all the clusters of challenges are put together, there arises yet another kind of challenge and that is, the public fear with respect to how much the caretaker government can deliver and more importantly, now that the election year is on, how much of its reforms can be sustained in post-election era. Critics with a sense of humour and a mindset of yesteryears probably will refer to this as a desperate search for an ‘exit strategy’ of the military-backed government but that is not what I have in mind.
Two quick points are noteworthy even then. Firstly, save the first few years of independence, all the previous government, whether popularly elected or not, had an active backing of the military and that included the latter’s alleged periodic ‘inaction’ as well. Secondly, following the 1991 popular upsurge, the ‘exit’ was limited to a military person in the name of Ershad and not the military as an institution. And now, given the experience of having two subsequent caretaker governments, with the military remaining ‘inactive’ and ‘active’ in the first and second caretaker government respectively, there is no reason to believe that the public fear would vanish the moment the election is held and the military demonstrably goes back to the barracks. This calls for the establishment of a public or national security council, with an overwhelming civil content and a structure where the position and the opposition would have no recourse but to meet and work together and keep the ills of pre-1/11 era at bay. A creative combination of political insight, long-term vision and a passion for democracy and democratisation is what is required to have it institutionalised and make it acceptable to the people.
But then ‘public fear’ is neither linear nor does it seek state protection all the time. Indeed, if there is any setback or derailing of the democratic process, including the announced roadmap of parliamentary elections, the public could start fearing the caretaker government itself, and there lies the greatest challenge! In fact, the history of Bangladesh has repeatedly shown that once the public starts feeling betrayed there is a quick turn of events, from a state of public fear to a state of public fearlessness! But this is a prescription for suicide, not so much of the nation as it is of the caretaker government.
Challenges are enormous and I would expect the caretaker government to work on some of these in the remaining nine or ten months without creating newer ones from ill-designed or half-hearted policies. And once the challenges are met it would certainly go a long way in restoring confidence amongst the people and those seeking to contribute to democracy and democratization of the country. The post-1/11 caretaker government can then rest its case and claim a place in history.
Imtiaz Ahmed is a professor of international relations at Dhaka University and can be contacted at imtiaz@bangla.net
The iniquities and inequalities of war
by Ray McGovern
For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more – always more –even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have and to be the class of the “haves”.’
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
FINALLY, the truth is seeping out. Contrary to how President George W Bush has tried to justify the Iraq war in the past, he has now clumsily – if inadvertently – admitted that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was aimed primarily at seizing predominant influence over its oil by establishing permanent (the administration favours ‘enduring’) military bases.
He made this transparently clear by adding a signing statement to the defence appropriation bill, indicating that he would not be bound by the law’s prohibition against expending funds:
‘(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq,’ or
‘(2) To exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.’
But, if you have been asleep for the past five years, you may ask, what about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and its ties to al-Qaeda? A recent study by the Centre for Public Integrity found that Bush made 260 false claims about these in the two years following 9/11. He was followed closely by then secretary of state Colin Powell with 254. Nor can they any longer pretend they were deceived by faulty intelligence, since hard evidence that continues to accumulate shows they knew exactly what they were doing.
Moreover, it has become abundantly clear that the ‘surge’ of 30,000 troops into Iraq was aimed – pure and simple – at staving off definitive defeat until Bush and vice president Dick Cheney are safely out of office. Some, but not all, of those 30,000 troops are slated for withdrawal, but those who still expect more sizable withdrawals have not been reading the tea leaves. It is altogether likely there will still be 150,000 US troops, and even more than that number of contractors, in Iraq a year from now.
In the administration’s view, the oil-and-bases prize is well worth the indignity of refereeing a civil war and additional troop casualties. That view was reflected recently in the words of a well-heeled suburbanite, who suggested to me, ‘You must concede that a few GIs killed every week is a small price to pay for the oil we need. Many more died in Vietnam, and there wasn’t even any oil there.’
That person was unusually blunt, but I believe his thinking may be widely shared, at least subconsciously, by those Americans who are not directly affected by the war – which is to say he vast majority. It is easier to assimilate and parrot the administration’s dishonesty than to confront the reality that these are consequential lies. They bring untold death and destruction – and not only in Iraq, where several hundred thousand civilians are dead and one out of six families has been displaced – but to thousands of our fellow citizens as well.
The human cost
Not only have almost 4,000 American troops been killed, but another 30,000 have been wounded in action. Veterans Administration documents obtained by Veterans for Common Sense show that nearly 264,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans already have been treated at VA hospitals, including more than 100,000 for mental health conditions.
According to a Harvard University report, the VA is projected to spend up to $700 billion over the next 40 years for medical care and disability payments for veterans of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add the billions sunk every week into the quagmire of Iraq – it is madness.
We are approaching a trillion-dollar war, while our Treasury is bankrupt, our economy is in shambles, and our infrastructure crumbles. The only things on an upward swing are the profits of oil companies...and suicides in the military.
For a fraction of the money wasted on an un-winnable occupation-cum-armed-referee-duty in Iraq, premium health care could be provided to every American, including veterans, whom we owe big time, and the almost 50 million of our brothers and sisters who lack health insurance.
The iniquities of war have widened the inequities in our society, stretching the gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is not right for me, one of the haves, to have so disproportionate a share of the nation’s wealth and opportunity. Nowhere is this more obvious than the access to excellent health care to which privilege has ‘entitled’ me. A recently discovered challenge to my health brought this home to me like a ton of bricks.
Why me?
The doctors said they needed more tissue from what they called the ‘mass’ in my lower abdomen, so they could determine what kind of cancer had set up shop there. There was some sense of urgency, so just days later a surgeon made room for me at the end of a very busy New Year’s Eve.
The cutting was over; the stitches were in; the pain was slight; and there I was, wide awake in a comfortable hospital room, welcoming 2008 with painful questions.
For the hundredth time I found myself asking, Why me?
But wait – it may not be what you’re thinking.
The troubling question was why I was privileged to have prompt access to the best in medical care, when such is not available to most of our veterans and some 50 million other Americans. We are called to be concerned about our brothers and sisters. It did not seem fair.
Why was it that I could expect excellent doctors to plan a therapy regime that would probably shrink the grapefruit-sized cancerous ‘mass’ and add still more years to my 68? What about the others? Without access to good doctors and advanced medical technology, is it likely that they would not become of their ‘mass’ until it was the size of a melon – and perhaps too late?
Waking up
The anaesthesia had worn off, and the only real discomfort came from the dangling questions. December had brought surprise and new awareness. I needed some quiet time to process it all, and the turn of the year seemed appropriate. So I turned off the TV and scribbled what follows.
To hear I had been invaded by cancer was a bummer. But from the very start that unwelcome surprise was softened by awareness that I was one of the lucky ones. No, not ‘lucky’ – privileged.
A health insurance card lay in the white knapsack full of privilege that I carry around with me, usually without much awareness on my part. The voice of conscience was whispering that it is not right to be unaware. One out of six Americans has no insurance card in their knapsack or in the plastic bag that serves as their chest of drawers. Is that the America of which we were once so proud?
It started with my swollen right leg. No big deal, I thought; I had simply sprained that ankle too many times playing basketball. And besides, varicose veins run in my family. Small wonder my blood was having trouble circulating down that way.
But at my annual physical my doctor saw it differently. We needed to find out what was causing the swelling. Sclerotherapy, a sophisticated, expensive procedure seemed indicated, but would my insurance cover it? It would, so we went ahead.
But the swelling got worse, suggesting some kind of blockage higher up. Enter the world of multimillion-dollar technology – CT-scan, PET-scan, and pinpointing of the mass, followed quickly by a needle biopsy. All covered by insurance.
It looked like lymphoma. But the oncologist wanted to be sure of exactly what variety of lymphoma it was before he decided what the optimum treatment regime might be. Hence, the New Year’s Eve surgery and extraction of tissue immediately dispatched to the Mayo Clinic for a thorough pathology report. See what I mean about privileged?
Stress tests...
My thoughts went back to the thallium stress test before the surgery. The nurses injected some dye and measured my heart on an accelerating treadmill to induce stress. They encouraged me, and stood ready to catch me if I fell off. I found myself thinking of less benign ways to induce stress – stress positions, sensory deprivation, and what President Bush calls ‘an alternative set of procedures.’ And my thoughts went to Guantanamo and the hundreds of prisoners flown there in shackles with no assurance they would survive the kind of deliberately induced stress they would encounter there.
And then they strapped me onto a narrow gurney where I had to remain still for twenty minutes while another million-dollar machine hovered low over my chest and took pictures. There were two technicians and nurses there to ensure my comfort and allay my concerns. And I thought of the gurneys of Guantanamo and the strapped-in prisoners surrounded by other kinds of folks, including physicians and psychologists who, in a mockery of the Hippocratic Oath, do their best to inflict, not alleviate pain.
... and suicide
I also thought of the two dozen Guantanamo detainees who tried to starve themselves to death two and a half years ago. They, too, were strapped onto gurneys, while thick plastic tubes were forced through their noses to force-feed enough nourishment to keep them alive, lest the Bush administration be embarrassed. On June 10, 2006 three detainees did succeed in hanging themselves, the first successful suicides after 41 attempts by some 25 individual detainees.
Those detainees’ hope was for the release that comes with death; I could hope for
healing.
The three who killed themselves incurred the wrath of Guantanamo commander, Rear Admiral Harry B Harris, Jr, who announced that the suicides were ‘not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare against us.’ In similar spirit, Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the BBC that the suicides ‘certainly (are) a good PR move to draw
attention.’
I wonder how Graffy would describe the actions of those US veterans experiencing such suffering that they, too, commit suicide. A CBS study showed that in 2005 alone, 6,256 veterans of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan took their own lives, many of them after experiencing very long waiting lines for medical treatment. That is an average of 17 suicides a day. Shame on us!
As for those on active duty, ‘Soldier Suicide at Record Level,’ a report by the Washington Post’s Dana Priest on January 31, shows that in 2007 suicides among active duty soldiers reached their highest level since the army began keeping such records in 1980.
Army 1st Lt Elizabeth Whiteside, 25, made the most recent known suicide attempt. On Monday evening, as the president gave his State-of-the-Union address, Whiteside swallowed dozens of antidepressants and other pills, after leaving a note expressing the hope that ‘this will help other soldiers.’ Thanks to a Good Samaritan neighbour, who quickly called Walter Reed Army Medical Centre authorities, Whiteside survived. She has now been transferred from the intensive care unit to the psychiatric ward.
Lt Whiteside is a high achieving graduate of the University of Virginia and had been given high ratings by her army superiors. She decided to talk to Dana Priest late last year, after a soldier Whiteside had befriended at the psychiatric ward of Walter Reed Army Medical Centre hanged herself after being discharged without benefits.
Blame
Many US servicemen and women can blame their cancer on contamination from the depleted uranium used in artillery and other shells and toxic chemicals that have saturated regions of Iraq, including populated areas, leading to a spurt of cancer illnesses.
Against this background, I reflected on how fortunate I was that the cause of the cancer that had invaded me would probably remain a mystery. I wondered how it would feel to be able to trace a fatal disease to the instruments of war; how it would feel to be an Iraqi parent watching a child die of cancer, or living in fear that a new child might be born with serious birth defects.
No, I cannot blame my illness on someone’s negligence, or cavalier disregard of the consequences of highly toxic weaponry. But thousands of Iraqis can. And so, too, can those US troops who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq – including in the virtually ‘casualty-less’ Gulf War in 1991. How many Americans are aware that, of the almost 700,000 deployed to theatre during the 1991 Gulf War, roughly one in three has sought medical care from the VA?
You didn’t know that? Please ask yourself why.
Higher powers and favourite philosophers
President Bush has recently taken to talking again about his ‘higher power’ and redemption.
The higher power with whom I try to stay in touch is concerned first and foremost with justice and then (only then) peace. In the biblical sense, peace is no more nor less than the experience of justice.
I would guess the Bush’s higher power was appalled at the Coliseum-type spectacle Monday evening, as the president of the United States played cheerleader for Team America killing still more people – to standing ovations from his supporters in Congress.
Nor would the person President Bush has called his ‘favourite political philosopher,’ Jesus of Nazareth, be likely to endorse the spectacle, much less join in. He had a pretty clear take on all this.
As we reflect on the growing inequality in this country, manifested so clearly in whether or not one has access to quality health care, we might remind the president of what his favourite philosopher had to say about goats – not as in ‘My Pet Goat,’ but goats portrayed as lining up for a serious, long-term ‘alternative set of procedures.’
And the goats will turn and ask: ‘Lord, when did we see you ... ill ... and not attend to your needs?’
And he will answer: ‘As often as you neglected to do it for the least of these, you neglected to do it for me.’ (Matthew 25)
CounterPunch, February 1. Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990 and Robert Gates’s branch chief in the early 1970s.
RMG sector and govt’s indifference
The indifferent attitude of the government towards the plight of the RMG workers proves its inability to find an amicable solution. The issues they are facing are not very big. The demands are mainly for settlement of arrear salaries, end of indiscriminate and unlawful lay offs, etc. Is it so difficult for the government to exert its influence and persuade the owners of the factories to agree to those most basic demands? The government is showing interest on those issues where they are not supposed to interfere and playing an inactive role on issues where they are supposed to pay an active role. The life is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, whether it is an individual life or a national life. The reform process is just one of those dimensions, but it is not everything and it is not the end of all issues.
MH Khan
On e-mail
Condition for the political parties
We the common people have only one condition for the political parties –– that you should never again disturb our life and livelihood with hartals, blockades and corruption.
AA
On e-mail
Telecom sector and competition
Vodafone, the British giant telecom operator, has expressed its interest in running a mobile phone company here in Bangladesh. It might buy any of the existing companies, says its Asia region CEO. We welcome such move. The government should seriously consider Vodafone’s offer in order to facilitate a competitive market. We hope the government would sell the limping Teletalk, which is lagging far behind in this race and has no hope of survival. Competition is the name of the game and the operators who have sound network quality and coverage, cheap rates and high standard of customer care will win. Bangladesh government is no business enterprise and it should give up such ambitions before it is too late.
Kazi Saifuddin Hossain
Dhaka
Bush’s last State of Union address
History will judge him in the future. The president who forcefully pushed the ‘democracy’ word, but the USA’s biggest imports are Chinese goods. Spent billions of Dollar for ‘democracy’ in Iraq but could not help the Katrina victims. Push the ‘Fear’ button with the words like ‘terrorism’ and clean the USA treasury. The USA has to change their foreign policy to bring in peace in the Middle East.
Sarah Chowdhury
Los Angeles, USA
* * *
Bush is an evil dictator. I see no difference between him and the other ‘evildoers’ he scorns. He does not care about the welfare of the people. He hates poor people. He gives tax cuts to the wealthy, while others starve. He ignores the education crisis and the US is falling further behind in intelligence. People think we voted for him — it was an election fraud, remember?
Toimur Rahman
On e-mail
* * *
Nothing Bush could say would reassure me. His leadership has been an embarrassment. My husband is Irish and we are considering moving to Ireland in the near future for a better life. I have watched my parents had to sell my childhood home to pay for college and now my mom fights with her insurance company every day to pay her medical bills from cancer. We get limited vacation and can be fired without cause. The quality of life in America is decreasing every day.
Shiuli Kader
New York, USA
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