WE welcome the government's decision to have all the 122 ordinances, promulgated by tire erstwhile CTG, scrutinised by a special committee of tire parliament, notwithstanding an expert committee's recommendation in this regard to be selective about it. Not only should all these be scrutinised, they must be put up in the House for discussion before adoption or rejection, as deemed appropriate. That, we are certain, will cause the ownership of the laws passed to devolve on to the current parliament. And that is as it should be.

There are many ordinances on the list of 122 that are very important and consequential which should be passed. However, our special focus, naturally, is on the RTI (right to information act) which we strongly feel should be passed into law. There are compelling reasons why that should be so.

For one thing, RTI can be a very effective instrument in fighting the most debilitating malaise in our national life endemic corruption. It may be mentioned that nearly 100 countries, many among them developing, have adopted this act with excellent results. For example, in the case of India, the RTI provisions have helped improve efficiency of the government agencies, particularly in terms of service delivery and in its fight against corruption, by obligating the government servants at all levels of the administration to be accountable to the people.

We, in Bangladesh, are victims of maladministration, primarily because of the fact that government servants do not have any obligation to feel answerable to the people, something that the RTI will compel them to be. Lack of accountability leads inevitability to abuse of power, inefficiency and corruption. We need hardly remind the government that, of the pledges that the AL had made to the people before election, one is their promise to address these issues urgently. This is indeed an articulation of the hopes, enthusiasm and expectation of the people and RTI is indispensable for the AL, as indeed it is to any government, for these commitments to be fulfilled.

However, we cannot rule out some degree of resistance from the bureaucracy in this regard. We submit that the fear of the public servants is grossly misplaced. On the contrary, we feel that such a law will go a long way in not only enhancing their efficiency, it will also help protect their interest, too. We ask our bureaucrats to leam from the experiences of their counterparts in other countries that have adopted this law.

We congratulate the AL for including RTI in their manifesto. We have no doubt that it will fulfil its pledge.