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Governance left in disarray

Govt failed to take proper steps to curb graft, prevent party men from wrongdoings

Shakhawat Liton
The way the Awami League-led grand alliance government has dealt with some major incidents and run the country in last four years demonstrates poor governance.
Its failure to take decisive actions against plunderers who embezzled thousands of crores of public money from the stock market and through the Sonali Bank-Hall-Mark loan scam also reduced public confidence in it.
Besides, detection of large-scale financial scams in some multilevel marketing companies, particularly the Destiny 2000 Ltd, has exposed a very weak financial sys-
tem in the country.
However, the government's actions against the Destiny 2000 Ltd deserve some kudos as the financial irregularities have been taking place for quite a long time.
But the way the government had sought to amend the company act empowering itself with sweeping authority to appoint an administrator to a private company drew huge flak.
It, however, retreated from the move to avert further criticism and protests from the business community and trade bodies.
Beginning of the trial ofwar criminals by the government was lauded by people. But the government cannot deliver properly on people's high expectations for a smooth ending.
In its last election promises, the AL had given an impression of taking tough actions to stand by the rule of law. Even after assuming office, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on several occasions issued warnings against all sorts of wrongdoings.
But the government's indifference to translate the warnings into action encouraged the ruling party men,
especially the pro-ALstudent organisation Bangladesh Chhatra League, to continue with unruly and violent activities, extortion and tendermanipulation.
Similarly, controversial activities of many AL lawmakers went unpunished thanks to the poor governance.
Moreover, wholesale withdrawal of 'politically motivated' cases and granting record number of presidential clemency to ruling party men appeared as a direct assault on the principle of rule of law.
On the other side, the government has become harsh on several occasions on the opposition leaders and activists to foil their efforts to gear up street agitations.
In doing so, it has used the law-enforcement agencies. Similarly, the govern-ment could not depoliticise the civil administration as per its electoral pledges to promote good governance.
If good governance means absence of corruption, then vigorous presence of corruption has buried that prospect.
The government also could not go tough on corruption as per its electoral manifesto that promised of taking multi-pronged measures to fight graft. It could not put up a fight as per its pledges to eliminate bribe, extortion, and against those having undisclosed and black money, and loan defaulters.
Arrest of former railway minister's assistant personal secretary in midnight with a sack full of money appeared as another example how huge amount of money has been transacted as bribe for railway jobs. The public impression is that former railway minister was involved in the scandal.
But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ignored public impression and kept the former railway minister in her cabinet as "a minister without portfolio" although he had resigned from her cabinet after the scandal.
By dropping former
communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain and former state minister Abul Hasan Chowdhury from the case of 'conspiracy of corruption' in the Padma bridge project, the AntiCorruption Commission has also proved it is unable to function independently.
Finally, the Padma bridge has become a glaring example of how corruption impedes the country's infrastructure development.
The AL-led government has yet to move to appoint an Ombudsman to promote good governance by fighting corruption.
It also did not ensure disclosure of wealth statements and sources of income of the prime minister, ministers, lawmakers and their family members every year as per the electoral pledge to establish good governance.
Bangladesh, however, got the result of poor gov-ernance which has restricted its access to funding initiatives such as the Millennium Challenge Account, which is disbursed in countries with a predefined level of good governance.
One of the root causes of poor governance lies in the political parties' very functioning process. The political parties are rarely transparent both in terms of their sources of income and funds.
In the wake of growing demands for bringing transparency in the political parties' fund, some electoral reforms were brought before the last parliamentary polls. The AL in its electoral manifesto promised to continue with reforms, but the last four years did not see any progress in that regard.
The politics has meanwhile become more confrontational thanks to the ruling AL's indifference to its electoral promises to help develop tolerance and courtesy in politics. The AL also did not take any move to formulate a consensual and unanimous charter of political behaviour as per its electoral pledges.
Moreover, cancellation of the caretaker government system in June 2011 by the government widened the gap between the ruling and opposition camps, triggering fears of political crisis and uncertainty over participation of all major parties in the next polls.
And the current Jatiya Sangsad has been one of the worst victims of the confrontational culture in politics. Parliament, as the central institution of democracy, was supposed to hold the execu-
tive accountable to it and help improve governance through oversightfunctions.
But unfortunately, the government did not allow parliament to perform its functions properly, although the ruling AL had pledged to take all measures to make the House effective.
Similarly, the judiciary could not contribute to the expected extent to improving governance as controversial appointments made by the ruling alliance undermined its independence.
And what are the results of those? It has now been a surprise to many as to how a government armed with more than three-fourths majority in parliament looked weak whenever it required taking strong measures to stand by the rule of law and improve the governance.