The coalition government today celebrates its three years in office that many say has left behind a dismal legacy of painful failures. Poor governance and crippling corruption have overshadowed a few successes of the BNP-led alli-

ance.

With most of its major election pledges unfulfilled, the government failed to ensure security to people, significantly cut down on poverty and unemployment and free the administration from gross politicisation. The country continued

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to be rated as the most corrupt state for the third straight year by Berlin-based Transparency International.

The first three years of the coalition government have witnessed severe lawlessness, bomb blasts and grenade attacks, killings and extortion reach a horrifying height.

Citing the upward trend in some economic indicators, the finance minister claims the economy is on a sound footing but people in the middleincome bracket are feeling the heat of higher inflation and cost of living as prices of essentials keep spiralling out of their easy reach.

The essential price index has gone up to 4.84 percent from 1.40 in 2001, according to latest statistics of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh.

It is true that foreign exchange reserves have reached a new high and remittance and export earnings are also on the rise. But it is also equally true that the country has lured no major foreign investment in the past three years.

The rate of jobless people, specially youths, continued shooting up on the closure of many old and big industries without creation of new employment. The shutdown rendered thousands of workers without job. There has been no instance of setting up any major industry, either.

Corruption, which had its roots grown during the Awami League (AL) regime, continues to pose the biggest barrier to attracting foreign investment. It has now taken on an allpervading proportion, as the coalition could not make things any better despite having seen graft leave its preceding regime bruised and battered.

For the first time, the country has seen a foreign ambassador directly raising corruption charges against a minister. More than three dozens of parliamentary sub-committees were constituted on corruption, but their reports were far from reflecting what was really going on.

And despite all the hullabaloo over constitution of an independent

anticorruption commission, it remains elusive as ever, although the law minister has been promising its institution for the last three years.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on coming to office declared a war against terrorism but her government's anticrime measures have done little to curb the rising crime and raging violence.

Ironically, the coalition saw its accession to office marred by countrywide grisly attacks on minority Hindus, accusing them of voting for the Awami League in the general elections. The swoop left many dead, wounded and ravaged and forced scores of others to flee across the border abandoning their property for fear of life.

Deadly grenade attacks have been a new addition to the long list of incidents of violence in a country dogged by unbridled crime, although the perpetrators remain out of the reach of the law-enforcers. The scenario is so bleak that even the investigators failed to find clues to the frequent bomb and grenade attacks.

Desperate to control the crime waves, the government introduced a number of well-trained crime-busting forces, formed speedy trial tribunals and enacted stringent laws, but the measures hardly succeeded to arrest the law and order downslide.

Worse, the government legalised custodial deaths of about 50 people during 'Operation Clean Heart' by indemnifying the joint forces that ran the special anticrime operations. The introduction of elite crime-busting forces such as Rapid Action Team, Rapid Action Battalion, Cobra and Cheetah have gone a long way to increasing incidents of such deaths.

The series of crackdown on criminals appear to have yielded no result. Moreover, deaths of suspects in 'heart attack' or 'crossfire' embarrassed the government and sent a chill through people.

Human rights remain another front where the four-party alliance has utterly failed to deliver. Instead, allegations of gross infringement of human rights galore. To this day, the government has not lived up to its promise to constitute an independent human-rights commission, which it blames on the difference of opinions among the policymakers. The foot-dragging has drawn broadsides from the civil society.

Perhaps, the most shocking example of lawlessness is Bangla Bhai, a self-styled operations commander of the government-backed outfit Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh. The government's so-called elite forces were surprisingly inactive when it came to bringing him to justice despite a prime ministerial directive for his arrest and the fact he took the law into his own hand and sentenced many to death in the southwest.

The BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government's first three years also witnessed increasing repression of opposition activists across the country. In its ploy to tame the opposition, the government launched a crackdown on opposition activists first in April this year and then in late last month and arrested thousands of innocent people, apart from opposition adherents, without charges.

The blanket arrests meant to foil opposition's political programmes forced the rights groups to move the High Court, which asked the government not to abuse relevant section of the DMP Ordinance in making arrests.

The government's promise to free the administration from political influence has turned out to be hollow, as all the appointments -- from those of judges of the High Court down to the chief of Gram Sarker -- are now decided on political grounds.

The appointment of a former MP of the ruling BNP and relatives of party high-ups as HC judges has appalled the public. Its axing 15 judges recruited during the AL regime also raised eyebrows.

Eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain while putting to words his frustration about the appointments said somebody who cannot write even one sentence correctly in English has been appointed judge. The appointments forced the HC lawyers to decide not to say "My Lord" in courts of those judges.

The government's excuses for the delay in separating the judiciary from the executive wing of the state at best induce laughter. "It is imminent" is the ready answer one gets from the law minister when asked about the status of the separation although the Office of

Attorney General quoting his ministry tells court "it is uncertain"!

The government's move to make the administration dynamic has fallen flat on its face after it created rancour among all the administrative tiers by attempting to free it from "Awami Leaguers".

It made no fewer than 300 officials OSDs (officers on special duty) and forced as many to retirement. Even rules were changed to appoint officers loyal to the ruling parties. More than three dozen secretaries were given an unprecedented extension to their contract.

Politicisation and irregularities have made their way to every sector including education and health. Teachers loyal to the ruling coalition are getting appointed as vicechancellors and syndicate members without scrutiny.

Question paper leaks have haunted the examinees of Bangladesh Civil Service examinations more than once and they now have little faith in the authorities' ability to hold the examinations in a fair manner.

Another key pledge of the government to make the Jatiya Sangsad the centre of all political activities and improve its relations with the main opposition has been left unfulfilled. And the result is an ineffective parliament, which the AL has boycotted most of the time.

The speaker has miserably failed to earn the trust of the opposition, thanks to his partisan role. The government conducted several parliamentary by-elections and local government polls, most of which raised questions about transparency and fairness of the authorities in conducting the ballots. Violence before and on the polling day, rigging and intimidation of minority voters only went to cause even more damage to public confidence in the electoral system.

On the foreign affairs front, even the vague pledges made in the election manifesto are yet to see significant progress. The 'Look East' policy was the only innovative and brave step the government took in the first two years.

The third year spelled disaster for the alliance government in terms of foreign relations, as the government got mired in the scandalous Taiwan consulate office affair that distanced Bangladesh from China. The ignominious failure of the yearlong campaign reportedly at a cost of Tk 20 crore to secure the secretary general's post of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) was another major foreign policy debacle.

The series of discussions on trade and cross-border issues, smuggling and allegations of insurgent camps have failed to ease relations with India. Rather, the ties between the two nextdoor neighbours have plunged to a new low in recent times.