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Four years of alliance rule

PROF. M. ANWAR
ON October 10, 2001, the BNP led 4-party alliance after winning two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election held on October 1, 2001, took oath and formed the government to run the country for five years. The government completed four years of its rule on October 10, and on this day the Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia addressed the nation over television and radio. The Prime Minister's address at this time is, no doubt, very significant in the context of the certain issues and problems that the country is confronting and that need immediate attention and interception by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister in her address covered a number of areas including some burning problems of the present day situation and indicated the measures the government has already taken and will continue to take to tackle the situation in the coming days The Prime Minister, however, admitted the failure of the administration and intelligence agencies in detecting in advance the bombers who tarnished the nation's image and struck at the peace and security of public life.
The Prime Minister mainly dwelt upon the performances of her government in the last four years for fulfilling the pledges made before and after assuming power, and claimed that the government is fulfilling election pledges one by one. The Prime Minister also highlighted the achievements her government made during the period, and pledged to complete the remaining tasks by the time when the government as per provision of the constitution will hand over power to the next caretaker government.
It is now, of course, the time for the people of Bangladesh to recall the election manifesto of BNP and the pledges made after the formation of the government. Some of the targets the
government committed to fulfill are: reduction of corruption and terrorism, attaining self sufficiency in food, control of price spiral, independence of judiciary, strengthening of parliamentary system, and above all, improving the welfare of the people in general through poverty alleviation, equity, and justice. In their election pledges, the BNP and its allies declared that their first and foremost task would be rooting out terrorism and corruption and keeping the price of essentials under control.
In the last four years, the government, of course, tried to fulfill some of its election pledges. The government's initiatives to ban polythene bags and to introduce CNG-run four-stroke autorickshaws to prevent environmental pollution, and recently its drive against adulterated food have been lauded and attracted public attention. But these achievements have been tarnished by some major failures. Unbridled corruption in all spheres have overshadowed these achievements.
It would not be unjust to say that the performance of the BNP-led government is very poor and not up to the satisfaction of the people, because its failures far outweigh its successes, and it finds itself in a difficult position to tackle the overall situation in near future.
In contrast to the government's commitment and pledges, in reality the situation has gone beyond control and rather worsened under the alliance rule. Most of the pledges remain unfulfilled, and the dream of the people has been smashed in the absence of good governance. The prices of essentials have skyrocketed beyond the common people's reach, causing alarming rise in living costs, and unemployment has forced people to live their lives in utter misery and distress. An unexpected rise of militancy has not only posed a great threat to people's life, but also threatened national security and caused
panic.
In matters of foreign policy , the country could not make any headway, rather the performance of the government is far from satisfactory. Many believe that because of some wrong steps the country has lost some good friends in the international community. Diplomatic relations with China and the European Union countries have become more strained. The government's recent refusal to the Tuesday Group's initiative to hold a seminar on election best practices has added fuel to the fire. The relationship with neighbouring countries, particularly with India, has also reached a record low in recent years.
Holding of free, fair, and neutral elections is considered to be the best indicator for good governance. But the elections held under the alliance rule in different local bodies and by-elections in several parliamentary seats surpassed all records of irregularity, and the influence of the ruling party has been widely criticised. The people still remember how the Dhaka-10 byelection was held last year, which broke all previous records of vote rigging.
In democracy, parliament happens to be sovereign, and is the only place to ensure people's right and government accountability. But unfortunately almost throughout the entire period of the last four years, the parliament remain more or less inactive. The main opposition Awami League continued to remain absent and the ruling party remain indifferent to the opposition's grievances. It should be kept in mind
that the ruling party has the responsibility to make the parliament functional by creating an environment so that all the MPs can join and participate in discussions on all national issues.
The people of Bangladesh have witnessed with great anguish and concern the killings and assassinations of some important personalities ,which have tarnished to a great extent the image of the government and the country, not only to the people, but to the outside world as well. Again, the
cowardly assassination attempt on the Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina on August 21, on the British High Commissioner Mr. Anwar Choudhury, and others, are a few examples of terrorism occurring during the present regime. And the worst side is that the government could not undertake full-fledged judicial inquiry for the incident to bring the real culprits to book even a year after the grenade attacks. Investigators are still in the dark about the identity of those responsible for
killing of former finance minister SAMS Kibria and others.
The country-wide series of bomb blasts on August 17 and bomb attack on courts in three districts on October 3 emerged as a big challenge for the government. Now the most pertinent question that arises is who will take the responsibility for these crimes against humanity. The government in no way can ignore these occurrences, and the ultimate responsibility is on the government to find out the culprits and give
exemplary punishment so that the country may be relieved from such occurrences in future.
The majority of the one hundred political commitments made in some thirty two areas have not been fulfilled, and the commitment to good governance has been shattered totally because of non-implementation of these pledges. And as such, the people are disheartened about the performance of the government, as manifested during the entire period of the present rule. The government claims that the law and order situation was very vulnerable at the time when they took over power from the previous government, and the economic condition of the country was very unstable at that time. The government, however, claims that it has been able to overcome the situation by improving law and order and setting the economy back on the right track by undertaking several remedial measures required for bringing economic order and discipline. But the people's feeling is that the rule of law and justice, economic progress, and stability remain far away from what has been claimed.
The government again and again took recourse to blaming others, particularly pointing to the main opposition parties, for all the failures and misdeeds happened during the period, and said that instead of extending cooperation, the opposition parties thwarted all the development efforts initiated by the government. The tactics of hiding one's own inability and failures were resorted to as well as highlighting only the achievements made in almost all sectors about which the people may have their doubts. The government seems to be very indifferent to people's will and desire, and prone to hide facts and obscure the real situation. Before making any statement, the government should think over and again about the message transmitting to people.
It will not be so easy to convince the
people about their claim, rather people have the conviction and belief that the government could not make any headway in matters of tangible progress on major issues. Through the courtesy of newspapers and electronic media of home and abroad, the people of Bangladesh have been able to know and be aware of what is happening and what has happened during the last four years. The whole nation has watched with great concern how and to what extent the government have been successful in handling major issues and also the role being played by the opposition.
The government should remember that the independence of Bangladesh is the outcome of nine months of fierce liberation war, and excepting a few collaborators, the majority of people of all walks of life participated and fought for independence. So the people of Bangladesh are aware of their responsibilities and conscious about their rights and privileges. The sooner the better, the government should understand the real facts of the present situation, and should take necessary measures on the basis of the hopes and aspirations of the nation.
The time is not yet out for the government to realise that the country is beset with some serious problems like price spiral, rise of militancy, rampant corruption and terrorist activities, and it is not possible for the government alone to tackle and solve all these problems. The government must take the opposition parties, particularly Awami League, into confidence, and should create an environment to sit together in the parliament or outside to talk and discuss all issues in order to come to an understanding on the major issues before the country.
Prof. M. Anwar is an economic analyst, planner, and political observer.