Death by thousand committees

Naeem Mohaiemen

Published Daily Star, May 22nd

In the end, this is what it takes to create an inquest. When a case of torture and murder involves an Adivasi activist it needs two months of sustained national outrage, a petition signed by hundreds, and many alert notices from groups like Human Rights Watch to finally push the government to appoint a one-person committee to probe Choles Ritchil’s death. How much headway the investigator can make, with limited resources and mandate, in investigating a volatile case, is still hazy.We have seen many committees in our times, they can unfortunately also be used to mothball controversy. A call to a lawyer friend unearthed at least three effective commissions in recent times: BGMEA investigation into Spectrum collapse, Shamsunnahar Hall attack commission (headed by Justice Tofazzel Islam), and Rubel killing commission (headed by Justice Habibur Rahman Khan). The Rubel commission even came up with guidelines for cases involving arrest without warrant.

Unfortunately, kangaroo commissions outnumber effective ones. These are the commissions that never publish results (counting on public outrage to die down), or come out with “findings” that are surreal and ineffective. In the former category are commissions that investigated incidents like the abduction of Kalpana Chakma. In the latter are inquiries into massacres like the one at Logang (headed by Justice Sultan H Khan). Then there are commissions that come up with wishy-washy, non-conclusion conclusions. The August 21st AL rally bomb blast investigation concluded, via reports leaked to the press, that it “could be foreign involvement” (specific, substantial, and actionable!).

Frequently asked questions to people who criticize the CTG

Asif Saleh

Published Daily Star, May 21st, 2007

Q. Are you better off than you were 6 months ago?

A. Depends on whom you ask. The slum dwellers who got evicted, or the 150,000 people who are in the jail without charges, are not. But people perhaps are happy in general with the political stability, with a new hope that the days of politics as usual are over.

Q. Are you happy that some of those people who thought Bangladesh was their own property have been thrown in jail?

A. Absolutely. No well-intentioned person will oppose any anti-corruption drive.

Q. Are you seeing a more hands-on, pro-active, government with good and capable advisers?

A. We like the advisers who talk less and work more. We are happy with some of the announcements, and now we want to see them implemented.

Q. Then why are you complaining?

A. Like everybody else, we see this as a tremendous chance to fix the democratic institutions and set ourselves for the future. We also strongly believe in democracy, more than in any other system in the world.

Taming the Tiger: Farooq Sobhan’s Visit to D.C.

Tazreena Sajjad
Sajjad, T. (2007, May 16). Mr. Sobhan goes to Washington. The Daily Star, 5 (1041)

Bangladesh had definitely sent one of its very best. On a beautiful spring day, some of the who’s who of Washington D.C. and representatives of many of the most established institutions in the nation’s capital had assembled at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to hear Farooq Sobhan speak about Bangladesh.  The title of the talk interestingly enough was changed at the last minute to ‘The Role of Bangladesh in South Asian Cooperation’. The event was sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Center for Strategic Studies and the Hudson Institute.

The  critical timing of such a discussion notwithstanding, the fact that Sobhan’s talk focused on external issues relating to Bangladesh as an emerging regional player, and the choice of the caretaker government to send him as a representative to the U.S. government gives one some cause for thought. After all, there is starting to be a general sense of unease about the motivations and goals of the caretaker government in the international circles. Then too there is a growing level of skepticism about which direction the democracy project is heading. A clever political maneuver, yet one that was not too subtle; the dispatching of a highly intelligent and respected individual to both appease the U.S. government and at the same time, shift the focus of concern from the internal tensions at the home front and focus attention on how Bangladesh can contribute through bilateral and regional ties, to a more secure and economically strong region. It was as if an undertone of a message was communicated; that this caretaker government was one with vision; while tackling domestic issues it was also concerned about the role of this small nation in a volatile region with tremendous potential.

Making the reforms stick

Jyoti Rahman
Rahman, J. (2007, May 7). Making the reforms stick. The Daily Star, 5 (1041)

As the roar of reforms gets stronger, the Election Commission is about to make some sweeping changes in the electoral laws that can have far reaching positive impact in our country. But this is only possible if the reform proposals are actually implemented on the ground rather than just being on paper.In order for us to do that, we need to get the grass-roots on board with this reform proposal. The Election Commission needs to conduct grass-roots consultation on the proposed reform package it published in its website on April 5, and to this end we need a concerted mass awareness campaign on the necessities of the reforms.

Influential members of the government have noted that if elections are held without major reforms to the process, there is no guarantee that the political impasse of late 2006 will not return.