The New Nation - Internet Edition

REMAINING successful in business or winning more market shares, essentially involves reducing the costs of doing business. The economy of a country should aim to become more and more competitive to flourish internally and specially to promote its external trade. Bangladesh has many things to do for making its economy more and more competitive. Among them, a main requirement would be much improving, expanding and upgrading its transportation infrastructures and addressing the related ills. Recently reports appeared in the press, quoting a study sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), that the Bangladesh economy can gain significantly from rise in its total economic output and foreign trade by 20 per cent if the different modes of transportation only in the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor are made more efficient. The study also significantly revealed that the informal payments and other inefficiencies add up to 40 per cent to transport related costs for imports in the country.

Not only in this particular corridor, similar transportation related improvements and efficiencies need to be achieved throughout the country to give a spur to all kinds of economic activities leading to greater output. The same will call for adding to the number of transportation infrastructures, their maintenance and various supportive functions including also the elimination of the extortions and other man-made abuses. Transportation is counted as a major cost of business. The countries that have developed or are noted for moving up in the economic ladder, owe a lot to successful transport planning. Transport planning involves many things from building shortest roads, rail or waterways for the dispatch of cargoes to identifying and promoting the cheapest medium of transport and integrating them to the needs of various users. Different categories of users can use different mediums of transport suitable to them but each of these mediums need to discharge their utility efficiently for the optimum benefits of businesses. Thus, the challenge is adding to capacities of the different transportation mediums and making them function with utmost efficiency.

The ADB study recommended improvement in port operations and the establishment of more inland container depots (ICDs). Undoubtedly, the ICDs would reduce pressure on the Chittagong port and also ease the movement of traffic on the vital Dhaka-Chittagong corridor. There is also a proposal to build a four-lane highway that would further add to speed of movement of commercial cargoes in this corridor as well as facilitating the movement of greater volumes of such cargoes. Similarly, railway's transportation capacities in this corridor can be increased and improved by double-tracking the existing single-line tracks and improving railway management. The waterways-with ICDs of their own-need to be similarly developed. All of these measures will need to be taken in line with projections of present and potential uses of the transportation mediums.

ACCORDING to a recent media report, increased procurement of cotton and equipment for local textiles and apparel units are pushing up Bangladesh's imports from the United States of America, helping the world's biggest economy reduce trade gap. Textile and garment factories are buying more captive electricity generators, sewing machines and other machinery from the US in recent times than in the past. The volume of the cotton import from USA still remains low compared to Bangladesh's total import of cotton, but it is growing steadily. Bangladesh could grow as a significant market for US cotton suppliers if the American authorities offer some incentives to Bangladeshi spinners. Official sources reportedly said that in nine months by September, US exports to Bangladesh stood at $322 million. Bangladesh's annual imports from the USA amounted to $333 million in 2006 and $319 million in 2005.

Increase of imports is helping the United States to reduce trade gap with this South Asian country to some extent in the current year as observed by the people involved in the trade. In 2006 textile industry's procurement bills from US suppliers crossed $110 million which was more than one third of Bangladesh's total imports from the USA. Spinners of Bangladesh, on the other hand, imported American raw cotton worth $38 million, textile and sewing machinery $24 million and fine fabrics $10 million. Procurement values for generators and textile machinery increased by around 50 per cent over the year. The US suppliers, in fact, are finding now a big market in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh is the world's second largest cotton importer, the market share of US suppliers had so far been limited. Higher price, longer shipment time and technical preferences for CIS and Indian cotton had kept cotton supply from the United States limited as pointed out.

Garment exporters, on the other hand, earned $9.2 billion or 76 per cent of Bangladesh's entire export proceeds in the last fiscal year ending in June, with USA alone accounting for $3 billion. There are, however, suggestions from spinners at this end that the US should guarantee American cotton suppliers delayed payments (after-use payments) for cotton sold to Bangladeshi spinners. 'Such government-government arrangement could protect local spinners from high charges on cotton import financing and lure them to procure US cotton. American cotton traders can sell more to Bangladesh by supporting Bangladeshi exporters to market more products in USA. The US government may arrange preferential market access for Bangladeshi garments made with American cotton. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) recently urged the government to pursue the US administration and American Congressmen to pass the proposed New Partnership Development Act-2007 that will be tabled between end of January and February for providing preferential market access in USA. The government and the BGMEA should join efforts to secure this for the benefit of the industry.

Razzak Raza

In Bangladesh the Police cannot choose their own fate. The vehicles they use in operation, the garments they wear as uniform, the weapons they use and all sorts of expenditures are controlled by the ministry which is dominated by non-police authority. The police in existing management cannot think of their good and bad. The serious type of proposal or an ordinary sort of correspondent by the IGP to the government could be scrutinised by an assistant or a senior assistant secretary. But it is not desirable that the chief of the Police Force with more than 120 thousand members cannot communicate with the government directly. This sort of time consuming red tape tradition is obsolete in the modern bureaucracy. So the status of the IGP or the chief of police should be raised up to a full fledge secretary so that he can communicate to the government at the quickest possible time.

The world is changing quickly and the police are to cope with every change. Police work is always of emergency nature and an emergency department must be freed from red tapism. So it is desirable that the police bosses must have the full management, administrative and financial powers.

The present police act made the police a subordinate service to the whole administration. As the police force of the colonial Bengal were raised only to meet the ends of revenue collection, and the Deputy Collectors or the District Commissioners were responsible for revenue collecting, the police force needed to be subordinate to them. But the situation has been changed; we are now an independent nation. Revenue collection is not our only goal.

As a welfare state we should spend our entire energy to promote the sense of security, guarantee the fundamental rights and freedom to our citizens. We must shake off the colonial legacy from our administration. The bureaucracy of 21st century must not allow any cadre of the civil service to be subordinate to the other. Individuals, as well as the whole of a particular service, should be responsible of their own works. Sub-ordination decreases the sense of responsibility. So, let the police be answerable to their conscience for their own doings. The police of an independent country must be allowed to discharge their duties independently. It is the laws of the land that alone will bridle the enforcement.

Some people wrongly construe the independence of police work to exercise the power of a judicial magistrate. But they should know that many duties of executive nature that a magistrate in Bangladesh does is done by the police officers in the western countries, especially in the United Kingdom. But they are not the judicial officers. The police must not perform the job of a judicial magistrate. They will do the job of a police officer. But discretional power must be conferred on the police officers, especially, on the senior police ranks.

By the Criminal Procedure Code, the government may confer a police officer of and above the rank of an Assistant Superintendent with the power of a magistrate. The objective of this conferring is to preserve the peace, prevent crime and to detect, apprehend and to detain offender in order to their being brought before a Magistrate, and to perform by the officer of any other duties imposed upon him by any law [Section 14(4), Cr.PC]. The section is self explanatory. That the power of a police officer is not judicial, one can easily understand from this section. Even under the existing Police Act-1861(section -5), the IGP possesses the power of a Magistrate First Class, but this power is not unfettered. He shall exercise those powers subject to such limitation as may, from time to time, be imposed by the Government.

The Metropolitan Police System terminates the role of the District Magistrate from its jurisdiction (section 4 of the DMP Ordinance). The Police Commissioners exercise some of the powers of a District Magistrate in their jurisdictions.

Magistrates may necessarily not be the judicial officers. The first ever Metropolitan Police Act passed by the British parliament in 1829 termed Police Commissioners as magistrates. Colonel Rowland and Robert Maine was the first Police Commissioner in the history of Metropolitan Police. They were magistrates Styled as Police Commissioners and hence were called the 'Police Magistrate.' Until the 1970s, the Commissioners of London Metropolitan Police were also the 'Justices of the Peace.'

In Bangladesh, the six metropolitan police (including the new SMP and BMP) forces are working well. Metropolitan Police are the modern form of police organisations. The core idea in the metropolitan police is to make police moveable up to the maximum. It is not desirable for the police functionary to be dependent upon the other executive organs of the government for small matters like controlling a mob or banning a procession for the greater benefit of the people.

According to the existing police act if the police think that a proposed public meeting or a procession should not be allowed to stage without imposing conditions by issuing a license, the police, then, will advice the organisers of such public meeting or procession to seek a license from the District Magistrate. If the promulgation of 144 in the district jurisdiction seems necessary, the police need to collect a notice from the District Magistrate that 'in view of the District Magistrate' public peace would be disturbed and thus gathering would be banned. Here, police are the first hand problem finder and the lone problem solver. But the order of 144 is promulgated by the District Magistrate. This is somewhat time-killing and becoming dependant on some one else who is not related to the police work.

The term 'general control and direction of such Magistrate' that is the discretion of the District Magistrate in police administration is super authoritative. For, without the direction of the District Magistrate the police can solve the problems concerning the law and order situations.

It is argued that the direction and authority of the District Magistrate is needed to maintain a cheek and balance of the police work. For, by virtue, the law imposes wide range of powers on the police. Let alone the Officer-in-Charge of a police station, the constable----- the lowest rank at the police hierarchy, can arrest a citizen without warrant. So, it is desirable that some one outside the police should do something to hold on the horses. But experiences and statistics tell us the different stories. The order of detention under the section 4(2) of the Special Power Act-1974 comes from the District Magistrate. But the proposal with necessary grounds is initiated by the Officer-in-Charge of the police station. It is the police who have to adduce the evidence and maintain the criminal records of the subject. The District Magistrate applies a little discretion except the passing the order. The discretion of the police is approved by the District Magistrate in to-to. The role of the District Magistrate is considered to be judicious. But the irony of fate is that in the rare cases the detention orders of the District Magistrate was declared legal by the Honorable High Court Division. Analysing the recent news papers' reports on how the detention orders are being declared null and void by the higher courts one can easily conclude that the orders of the District Magistrate were not so judicious as it is expected. That is, the District Magistrate will prove right if the police prove so. To avoid this legal complicacy, in the metropolitan police jurisdictions this authority is vested upon the commissioners and it is working far better.

The requisitioning of private vehicles is another non criminal police function. Police have to collect vehicles from the public on important occasions as well as for their day-to-day operations. This is not only that police use these vehicles for themselves. The police, rather, need to execute the requisition law for other people or for government agencies. But police have to face much non cooperation or super authoritative behaviour from the Deputy Commissioner's (DC) office. According to the requisition law, District Superintendent of Police cannot requisition a vehicle. It is the Deputy Commissioner who has the legal authority to do it. But, as the DC has no practical mechanism to implement it, the job, by default, falls on the police. Requisitioning of a vehicle is the nastiest part of a police sergeant's job. He is sure to be blamed for demanding bribe, misconduct and violation of human rights while performing this job. People at the prey of requisition process bother not to know the actual thing. They do not know that police is only carrying out an order in dire necessity. However, the Commissioner of Police of a metropolitan police is authorised to requisition of vehicles for a period not exceeding seven days under the Metropolitan Police Acts [Section 103 a (1) of DMP Ordinance].

A Police force of an independent country should not and must not be controlled by the law framed for the imperial colony. The master-servant relation is still at the root of the existing police act. Dependency on other organs of the government to perform the day-to day operations makes Bangladesh police sluggish and unmoved to human sufferings. The general expectation of the civil society is that the police should be accountable to the public, to the government though their own channels and to the court.

The central mechanism of controlling the police work should be whether the police are working in accordance with the law or not. There is no reason to believe that the police are above the law. On the contrary, the powerful police officers are subject to the same laws, as they are employed to enforce.

Dr. Rafiqur Rahman

We have done it again and one can be certain that this will not be the last unless something is done to bring fundamental amendments to the 1973 Dhaka University Order, which brought the colour (blue, white, pink etc.) politics that are practiced by many distinguished colleagues in the Public Universities of the country today. We behaved utterly irresponsibly in the wake of last August's unfortunate incident at the Dhaka University playground. The authority apologised and agreed to take out the army outpost from the University arena, which tantamounts to near capitulation on the part of the Care-taker Government. The students gladly accepted the apologies of the Government and rejoiced. The civil society heaved a sigh of relief, because they thought rightly that a major disaster had been averted. Wait a minute, apologies, expression of sorrow, etc. might have been enough for everybody, however, it was not enough for a section of the teachers of the University. The consequences did not help anybody, the teachers, the students and the country.

The students have lost over two months of class and examination schedules. Are we going to make any extra effort such as cancellation of our Summer vacation, taking examinations on Fridays, etc. to make up this tremendous loss? Of course not. Everything is guaranteed: our salary, festival bonus, and other benefits no matter how many lost class hours, scheduled examinations and consequent session jam there is .I am sure many of us feel very bad and sad about this massive session jam. But what have we been able to do about this jam in the last twenty five years. Not a great deal. All our vacations have always been intact. Sometimes for spurious reasons we get some bonus vacations. But never the other way round, that is we have never cancelled our vacations, to take classes and examinations lost for reasons, which were sometimes beyond our control. At this very moment I would have felt a lot better if I could have recalled a single example in the last twenty years to say that yes, we have worked during the chartered vacation to make up for lost time. But sad to say that I cannot recall that kind of happy and joyful occasion. I have no doubt in my mind that this has happened because we are not accountable. Everybody is 'scared' of us, the students, the guardians., the Governments, otherwise how is it possible to get such a free ride. Nobody dares to put us to task. It is fair to say that nobody will in the near future..

The Parliament has enacted the 1973 Order, it is the appropriate body to bring any meaningful amendments to the Order. Unfortunately it has not acted so far, and it is hard to believe that it will. The current Caretaker Government has done a great deal in many important areas of administration, which includes both autonomous and semiautonomous bodies. It has already taken significant steps in the matters of Private and some Public Universities. I am pleased to note here that it is my belief the CG wants to bring changes in the matters of the remaining Public Universities as well. It has to find the appropriate time and the appropriate modus operandi to bring amendments to the 1973 order that are very much required to save the Public Universities. For such fundamental changes opinions both within and outside the Public Universities are overwhelming. More than a decade ago the Dhaka University Teachers Association voted to bring amendments to the historic Order. Subsequently the Association asked and got written suggestions from the Teaching Community on the nature and the type of amendments to the historic Order. This was in 1994. The suggestions that were received were nicely compiled by the then DUTA General Secretary. Unfortunately, the vested interests did not want to proceed further with regard to amendments and put those suggestions in the pandora's box. The gist of those suggestions put forward by the Teaching Community was to do away with the many elections that are practiced at the present time, rather the Community would prefer selections through search or any other appropriate Committees/Bodies. The elections have polarised the teaching community and has brought irrepairable damage to the academic atmosphere of the University. A significant segment of the teaching community is much too politicised. The result is a disastrous deterioration in all aspects of the University. One of the fall-outs of this deterioration is the session jam.

The terrorist attack on the life of Prof. Humayun Azad was tragic, sad and unfortunate. However, making an issue out of that and go on strike by DUTA was not at all acceptable. It was purely a political move to harass, embarrass and destabilise the BNP led Government by the then Awami League leaning DUTA leadership. I would say that not more than a dozen teachers of either the Blue Party or the White Party do actively promote such immoral and unethical political activity which has brought a great deal of shame and dishonour to the great and famed University we serve or have served. On this tragic and unfortunate incident the academic activities were shunned for very vital twenty three days to the severe detriment of the students. During those twenty three days the students underwent a period of incredible frustration and helplessness. What could they say and to whom? Who to complain to if the teachers do not think for the good of the students. The guardians were also helpless and prayed to Almighty Allah so that He brings sanity and good sense to the teachers of the premier University of the country.

I asked then and I am asking again now to my distinguished colleagues, what did you achieve by your abstinence from your academic activities for as long as twenty three days other than causing a great deal of harm to the students and to their parents? Isn't it morally repugnant and repulsive for University teachers to refrain from due academic activities and draw full salary and other benefits? The whole country looks upon us to provide moral and intellectual leadership to the country. Do we think, pause, for a moment and ask ourselves, is this the leadership we should provide? One cannot be a teacher and a politician at the same time. Politics is for politicians, not for us. Of course, we can have views on a variety of social and political issues. Let us air them in the newspapers, periodicals, etc. To the best of my knowledge no where in our region and beyond, University teachers get involved in politics as some of us do in the Public Universities of our country.

Do the students approve and admire our engagement in politics? They certainly do not. It is important, very important, that they look up to the activities we engage ourselves in. Because, we are not only their class room teachers, we are also their moral and intellectual guides. It is very important how they perceive us. If we expect the students to follow our instructions, guidance, etc. which we do, it is important the kind of perceptions the students hold about us, as individuals. Are we someone they can trust, follow and admire? Are we men and women of courage, character and commitment?

It is my considered judgement that the unfortunate incident at Shamsunnahar Hall would not have occurred if the teaching community would not have been as polarised as they were. The then Vice-Chancellor and the Provost of the Shamsunnahar Hall belonged to the two different colour political parties of the University and what was worse that they had allegiance to the two highly polarised political parties of the country. The Vice-Chancellor had allegiance to BNP and the Provost was a staunch supporter of Awami League. There were rumours that there were conflicts rather than cooperation between the Hall administration and the University administration. Was it just a plain lapse on the part of the Provost to leave the Hall at the very moment when it was most essential on her part to stay within the premise of the Hall and stop the entry of police force inside the Hall and prevent assault of the students? That is hard to imagine. It was lack of communication and cooperation between the Provost and the Vice-Chancellor that precipitated the disaster which was unprecedented in the history of the University. The University had to be shut down. The Vice-Chancellor, who was at all not skillful in his actions and speeches was fired. A significant segment of my respected colleagues might have rejoiced at the untimely and the manner in which the Vice-Chancellor had to depart. Yes, there might have been some jubilant moments, but at what price? At a terrible price to the students.

The subsequent suspension of the academic activities of the University for more than two months brought a great deal of damage to the students. The question that comes naturally, are we as teachers sensitive to the damage that was done to the students? That was a significant setback for the students in this extremely competitive world. We might have been sensitive, however, not sufficiently enough since we did not do anything about it. We did not take any extra class nor did we hold examinations, let us say, on university holidays to make up for the lost class , for the lost examinations. If the teaching community which is at the heart of almost everything that the great Institution stands for, remains insensitive, inactive towards the loss of due lectures and other academic and extra-academic activities of the students, there is absolutely no way that this University which once used to be a great Institution can rise again. As many of you may have already surmised, once the pride of the Subcontinent, the great Institution, that is, the University of Dhaka is sinking and has been doing so for a considerable period of time. The 1973 Order is largely responsible for this sad decline.

Well, can we save the great Institution? This reminds me of a memorable saying by an American marine in the Vietnam war. When challenged by a fellow marine in the midst of fierce fighting in a South Vietnamese village whether they would be able to save the village, the young marine blurted out that historic saying " Yes, we can save the village, but we have to destroy it to save it".