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A Stock-taking of BNP Government

Beneath the Surface

by Abdul Bayes
***By and large, the present BNP government is leaving with same plus points, mostly arising during the first three years of its rule, and some negative points. Whether its pluses could outweigh the minuses could only be judged by a people's verdict.WITH the end of the Fifth Parliament of Bangladesh. the ruling BNP government finished It* 5-year tenure in office. It now continues to stay tn power Juat as an interim government as desired by the President of People's Republic of Bangladesh and has to be there till a new government takes oath after the! general election scheduled to be held on the 19th of this month. The present brief note alms to highlight the successes and failures of various policy formulations and implementations that the BNP government had to undertake in the realm of socio-economic and political needs of the country over the last five years. This is purely a personal assessment and barely has anything to do with ideology and value Judgement. Again, for space constraint, an attempt will be made to present only few of the key episodes.
Immediately after having been placed at the pivot of power, the government had to encounter a tough choice on the nature of government that the country should embrace i.e. whether the country would be ruled by a presidential or a parliamentary form of government. Needless to mention, perhaps, that the country at that time was under a presidential form of government which BNP manifesto stood for and any deviation from that needed necessary constitutional amendments. The claim to stage a return to parliamentary form was mostly an opposition-driven proposal. By conceding to that proposal BNP. in fact, accepted a majority claim and thus apparently bagged support and sympathy from the people at large.
However, in the course of its Journey during the last five years BNP is alleged to have miserably failed to live up to the spirit of a parliamentary form of government where more often than not. the leader of the house marked her absence frequently. where the opposl-
tion's viewpoints were hardly respected and where parliamentary bodies have not been allowed to work well. Uke-wise. the majority party In the parliament (BNP) gladly accepted to table bills like the separation of Judiciary from executive, local government bills but, again, sordidly failed to give them a clean and clear go.
Among the cabinet members of the BNP government, more than a dozen are reported to be valiant freedom fighters in the war of libera Uon and among its supporters. excepting a few. most are said to be pro-liberatton forces. Unfortunately, to form a government. BNP had to beg support from Jamaat-e-Islami. tne party that not only opposed tne creation of Bangladesh but also, allegedly. continues to be hostile to the spirit of the liberation war To please Jamaat e Islami. BNP had to surrender a part of it* political corridors to it. and also had to Rrovide various "incentive*" lereto. The most disconcerting and heartbreaking event is that this party of freedom fighters stood vehemently against Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee and sued Jahanara Imam and other patriots as anti-state. The pro-liberation Image of BNP was thus dashed to the ground — a loss that might take a lot of BNP's toll to regain in future.
It is true that the freedom that the press today enjoys owes its homecoming to Justice Sahabuddin* government Nevertheless, unlike past regimes. BNP is re-Brted to have poked very tie of Its no*e there. This abeyances should duly be valued in the backdrop that most of the newspapers carry stories and news Items that are not soothing for a government. But what about public sector owned news media? Quite unexpectedly and
opposed to the *plrit of the movement against autocratic regime. BNP captured those media as household times and. allegedly, used them in
Bown interest During the it five years people could hardly feel a difference in the role of TV and Radio between the current regime and the regime that it replaced.
The most precarious failure* that the BNP displayed during the last five years of |t* tenure relate to campus violence and deteriorating
law and order situation in the country People's expectation from the BNP government on these heightened in view of the "uncompromising title that Its leader PM Khaleda Zia was adorned with by her party followers. Untortu natery. its student organization is alleged to have been the principal actors behind most of the campus violences. Another student or ganisation that cramped campuses is the wing of BNP* political ally. Jamaal e-lslaml. The PM. no doubt, expressed her determination to free the campuses of vto lence but a free violence reigned the campuses rather than there being violence free campuses.
Moving on to the economic front, BNP could possibly be credited with a number of policy change*. The thrust on liberalizing the economy, the introduction of VAT. modest attempt* at financial *ector reform* etc seemed to have paid some dividend*. The first three years of BNP rule witnessed a
record low Inflation rate tn the economy, a record high FOREX reserves surge In exports, revenue generation, agricultural growth and above all. an enviable macro stability that a regime can duly be proud of owning. Progress was also made In terms of domestic resource mobilization, more allocation to social sectors and other •ides. The various policy •hifts also succeeded in bolstering Bangladesh's Image to outside world especially to
outside investors But what BNP failed to do Is to Introduce these economic policy changes to wtder public through discussions in the Parliament. As such, people of this country still continue to believe that these reforms, although necessary, were brutally imposed by the donors. Not only that. BNP government also seems to nave failed to mop up substantial support* from its members behind the economic reforms.
However, at the last lap of Its tenure. Inflationary spiral, a sudden draw down of Forex reserves etc were poised to upset macro economic stability One of the reasons for such a U" turn could be the political unrest and uncertainty that continue to grip the nation. It should have been in the goodness of things that the government attempted to win over opposition's heart* and thus bring them to support Its economic agenda. In the first three years the government seemed to have apparently
placed economics first and politics second, while during the last two years, the table was totally turned about with political considerations outpacing the economic priori ties.
The BNP government succeeded in facing the chai lenges posed by few natural calamities that visited the country during Its tenure of office. There was no report of any hard-hit generated by those calamities. However, the government miserably failed to tackle the manmade fertilizer crisis that shook the country during the last boro season. The "politicisation" of the distri button system, the alleged rampant corruption by some of its people through fertilisers business and lastly, the killing of farmers seemingly greyed its "pfo-people" image Eminent economist Amartya Sen once argued that the beauty of a democratic government Is that famine can hardly exist under a democratic government mainly for two reasons : first, tremendous public pressure keeps such governments on their toes and second, the possibility of facing elections also keeps it alert. Both of these two factors negate thd chance of the occurrence of famine. It is yet not clear how an elected government under a parliamentary umbrella and a government that has to seek people * vote* could let that crisis — a crisis with no less pain* than that of famine to happen.
BNP. at it* disposal, had the golden opportunities to strengthen the institutions most friendly to the development of democracy. However. no evidence of that could be in sight so far. Especially, local government institutions were not allowed to function properly and a centralised system of governance prevailed during the last five years of BNPs tenure
of office In the whole devel opment process initiated during the last five years, a top down mechanism was nurtured with little sympathy for a bottom up planning. It. however, needs to be mentioned here that of late a bottom-up planning format was presented to the nation by the Planning Ministry which, despite its limitations, should deserve appreciation.
The rise of fundamentalism should be earmarked as an important event that downsized the image of the present government. Unfortunately the government failed to take fundamentalists to task. In the realm of foreign policy, the government failed to slice out a reasonable share of water from the Ganges.
And the failure that seemingly crushed the democratic image of the government lay in its total failure to bring the Opposition into the upcoming election fray. It is very unfortunate to see that a government that entered into power through an election under a neutral caretaker government had so much indignation towards it.
The constitutional argument seems to be very important but also appears overplayed in the face of two thirds of people not going for polls. If the constitutional continuity tends to invite a holocaust, in terms of los* of lives and property then the obvious choice snould have been to choose another route. It is unbelievable to see that only the Election Commission and the ruling BNP are the lone defender* of the constitutional continuity while other*, allegedly, are not.
By and large, the present BNP government is leaving with same plus points, mostly arising during the first three years of its rule, and some negative point*. Whether its pluses could outweigh the minuses could only be judged by a people's verdict. But surely not by the kind of verdict that the nation awaits on the 15th February.