Bangladesh News

Speakers at the 2nd expert group consultation meeting of the Nagorik Committee 2006, formed for preparing a vision paper for Bangladesh 2021, stressed the need for an efficient, accountable, transparent and decentralised government.
Free and fair election is pre-requisite for improving the quality of the governance and having more accountable administration, they said at the consultation chaired by former finance minister and joint convener of Nagorik Committee M Syeduzzaman at the Cirdap Auditorium yesterday.

They underscored the need for a powerful anti-corruption commission, independent judiciary, and ombudsmen in different sectors for achieving the goal.

“The entire administration would collapse, if the parliament is ineffective,” Suranjit Sengupta, a presidium member of the main opposition Awami League, said.

The country’s constitution has also become ineffective after so many amendments, he said.

“Everything is controlled from the prime minister’s office,” he said, adding that it is contrary to the spirit of parliamentary democracy.

He stressed the need for a free and fair election for ensuring accountability and good governance. He also demanded independence of the speaker and deputy speaker for an effective and lively parliament.

Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Mushfiqur Rahman MP was for giving recommendations that match with reality. He said the politicians have greater accountability as they have to answer to the people of constituencies concerned.

Stressing the need for bringing a change in the attitude of the bureaucrats, he said there is no guarantee that new laws would bring any change while many laws were never properly implemented.

He said although the parliamentary standing committee is very powerful it cannot become effective as the minister concerned often remains absent from the meeting.

Former secretary Al Hossainy proposed electing the upazila chairman as the member of parliament for that area to solve the problem of power clashes between the MPs and local government leaders.

However, this proposal drew criticism from other speakers who said it is against the spirit of true democracy. Hossainy also proposed cancellation of quota system in the government jobs.

The executive body should do the development work and parliament members should not be involved with it, QUMA Rahim, former secretary general of Saarc, said.

The policy-making system in Bangladesh has become sluggish, he said. He suggested inclusion of efficient and honest people in the administration.

The fundamental rights of the people can not be ensured without a democratic system in the country, M Syeduzzaman said, adding, “An accountable government is a pre-requisite for overall development initiative.”

Explaining the objective of the civil society initiative, the former finance minister said, “We could achieve much more development if we had good governance.”

Executive Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue Debapriya Bhattacharya, who is also the member secretary of the Nagorik Committee, presented an outline of the discussion for incorporation in the vision paper.

He said the vision paper would be composed of eight inter-related goals that include making Bangladesh a middle income country with mitigated poverty, having skilled and creative workforce, healthy population, a knowledge-based equitable society, sustainable environment and making the country a regional hub.

After the end of the expert group consultation in August, the vision paper will be finalised in mid-September, Bhattacharya said. The vision paper will be disseminated among the major political parties for inclusion in their election manifestos, he told the meeting.

Asif Nazrul of Dhaka University, former secretaries Golam Rahman, Quazi Shamsul Alam, Quazi Azhar Ali, former IGP Ismail Hossain, and advocate Shahdeen Malik also took part in the discussion.