The New Nation - Internet Edition

Financial powers of Ministries

The prevailing practices of the government on the use of budget allocations have been reviewed by Advisers' Committee on Government. Purchases. The committee noted the dilatory process through which relevant government agencies obtain actual release of fund for purchase of inputs for development works. The concerned Ministries can release a sum of twenty-five crore Taka from the budgeted amount without referring to the Ministry of Finance. Any further deal of purchase is to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance for clearance.

So long the Ministry of Finance used to review the proposals for allocation of money from development budget and give clearance for the same. The time needed for release of fund turned quite long, during which the prices of inputs including building materials went up. Some development projects could not be completed on time due to this. The decision of the Advisers' Committee to raise the limit of authority of concerned Ministries and Departments plus subordinate offices, from Taka twenty-five crore to Taka fifty crore sounds pragmatic. Due to the implementation of projects on time, even the use of local and foreign consultants may be rationalised.

The ultimate upturn in the cost of inputs for development projects plus the payment of fees for local and foreign consultants usually affect the process of implementation on time. The Finance Adviser of the incumbent Caretaker government who presided over the Advissrs' Committee meeting referred to the increase in the limit of allocation and urged all official agencies to implement development projects on time. The prevailing procedures, including the delays in the release of fund for implementation of development projects, may hopefully be removed in the coming months.

Understanding of the situation

A team from Germany visited Bangladesh recently as part of a fact finding mission to ascertain the overall conditions in this country. The visit would have been counted helpful if it was limited to only tying to know what conditions are really prevailing in this country. The surprising thing was that the team members blurted out their observations even before their trip ended. They commented even before hearing all sides; they looked like reaching conclusions not from what they were told by everybody or what they could see for themselves.

Thus, well before leaving Bangladesh, the German team made some hurried statements that sound like prejudicial. For example, they said that the German government would unhesitatingly take a stand against the present government of Bangladesh if elections are not held by the end of 2008. They also expressed their concern for the human rights abuses, specially in the prisons. International laws and practices are against such interventionism. External concern about a country’s domestic situation can only be based on a correct evaluation of conditions in it and only to the extent of the perceived wrongs.

The incumbent government is seen as preparing to hold elections. But are the political parties playing their part? The people are all for not only holding an election to hand over power to whosoever but they want political stability beyond the election, good governance by the winners of the election and retention of the good works done so far. The fulfilment of such aspirations remains largely uncertain. The German team members were probably not aware of these aspects. If they were, then they would probably have chosen their words carefully. The responsibility of having a good understanding of the situation rests on the visitors. Yet the government also needs to better clarify the issues.

Remembering Justice Syed Mahbub Murshed

Justice KM Subhan

Rabindranath has said that it is possible to find a person worthy of seeing, but it is not easy to find a worthy place to see him. I realised the truth of it at a wedding in 1938. I was then a student of class ten. I saw the groom, turbaned and donned in a light cream sherwani under a 'choga' embroidered with real silver work. Tall and erect, bright eyes and slightly tanned complexion that was the first sight I had of Barrister Syed Mahbub Murshed. I saw him in the worthy place. I had then such an age when in the rich juvenile imagination. I was trying to find his resemblance with those who always flashed. The first that came was Indranath of 'Srikanta' but Indranath had a few marks on his face. He had a perfect unblemished face. I got it-it was Shibnath of 'Shesh Prasna'. Yes, Shibnath has donned the groom's dress or may be, it is Othello-tall, dark and handsome, but his eyes lacked the hardness of a soldier. His eyes were electrified.

After about four decades, in remembering him, I am asking myself why it is so important to talk so much about his looks? It is probably necessary because unknown to myself I accepted him as my hero, who later became my idol in my professional life. I was and still am enveloped with his profound influence. To imitate him would be an audacity because he was inimitable. About two decades after I saw him first I accepted him as the only person in my professional existence.

In 1943, when I was a student of Calcutta University Law College, I was lucky to be present in the courtroom where a murder trial was on and the counsel for the accused was cross examining the prosecution witness. Those days little did I understand the pointing questions. A few other barristers young and old were sitting in the courtroom one of whom said, "the questions indeed are worthy of a barrister". The prosecution witnesses were tumbling. The judgement was delivered. The accused got a clean acquittal. I saw him after this in a few other cases. His questions were equally pointing. The witnesses dared not look at him straight still then I was not very sure if I would take up legal profession-but the more I saw him the more I was any worthy profession it was to become a barrister. I till then saw him from a distance.

August 1946- In the great Calcutta killings I had my first chance of getting a little close to him. He was then one of the leading barristers of Calcutta High Court a terribly busy practitioner. A relief committee was organised which was located on the ground floor of the Congress Exhibition Road residence of Khan Bahadur Ataur Rahman Khan in park Circus. The drawing room of the late Ismail, reputed industrialist, was used as the office. Syed Mahbub Murshed used to reside then in a flat on the second floor. Within a few days, legal complications cropped up concerning those who were arrested during the riots and concerning property and families of these persons. I was entrusted to contact Syed Mahbub Murshed as I was the only one in the committee who had something to do with legal affairs. I was then a Law student waiting to take the Law final examination which was postponed because of the riots. After much hesitation, I picked up courage to meet the legal luminary in his flat, but before I could finish, he came down with me to the office. The other members, late Mr. Ismail, late Mr Sayedul Hasan, Poet Culam Quldus and few others who were present were puzzled over the situation and were eager to know the proper procedure to be followed in the matter. Very briefly and within a short time he clarified the situation and told us what to do. I saw him that day frankly discussing with us the problems and he gave us much time as needed although he could hardly spare that he helped us voluntarily and ungrudgingly. I witnessed his concern for the affected people-his sympathy and help for the people who lost everything during the riots. In a short time he became a respectable leader in the matter. His success went beyond the legal matters. We found his deep concern for the suffering humanity. Later I saw him as Judge of the Dhaka High Court. In every case it was wonderful to see how he applied legal principles to facts. His way of looking at facts and the application of law stood out from other honourable judges. He could fathom even a difficult case in the shortest possible time. His interpretation and application of legal principles were subjects of envy. The subordinate staff found a father figure in him when he became the Chief Justice of East Pakistan.

The fist blow was struck at the autocratic regime of Ayub Khan by the Dhaka High Court and Chief Justice Murshed was the author. He excelled himself in analysing and setting the constitutional issues that were raised before him. His rich language intermingled with the interpretation of law. It was like the admixture of the Padma and the Jamuna. His superior power of interpretation of legal principles and fearless dispositions of constitutional matters once promoted Ayub to say, "Pakistan was rightly proud of two things-the cricket team and the judiciary". I wonder if knowing Syed Mahbub Murshed, Ayub echoed with Shylock, "A Daniel come to judgement. Yea, a Daniel! 'He was the author of most of the constitutional cases that settled the rights of the citizens, the human rights and established the supremacy of the rule of law. In his area he was uncompromising, unique and fearless in his confrontation with the tyrannical and autocratic regime of Ayub Khan. He was both architect in upholding the rights of the citizens and a terror to the ruling clique. He had thus created a few conspirators who like the creatures of darkness fought against the light of the day who like the devils of deception fought against the messenger of truth.

He preferred to resign his high office rather than to bow before the authoritarian regime. The loss was entirely that of the nation of the people and of the judiciary. The blow was to the public conscience from which the nation has not yet recovered. One gets overwhelmed with emotion in writing about him. The country is deprived of his unrivalled personality; his scholarship was confined not only to jurisprudence but encompassed world literature, music and socio-political philosophy and economics. Whenever he broached a topic, he appeared to know more than the others as he finished talking. He was free with any subject of conversation. His genius lighted up anything he touched.

I pay him my homage with deep sense of gratitude and respect and close it with the words of the poet Nirmalendu Goon. "With these reminiscences come the melancholy clew drops on the pages".

New Delhi eyes a Burmese seaport

Nava Thakuria

Come April 4 and New Delhi will unfold the red carpet for the 'second man in command' of the Burmese junta, Maung Aye, who is supposed to arrive in India for finalising many business deals, primarily the Kaladan project. The project includes the development of Sittwe port in the Bay of Bengal and then connects it with the landlocked Northeast India through the Kaladan river and road transport. The connected Indian state will be Mizoram, which is adjacent to Chin province of Burma (also known as Myanmar). Vice Senior General Maung Aye, the deputy commander-in-chief of Defence Services, is expected to arrive in New Delhi for signing the much discussed Kaladan Multi-Model Project. It will be an important visit of a Burmese high profile leader to New Delhi after Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the State Peace and Development Council (as the present brand of Generals is known) paid a visit four years back. The project includes the up-gradation of the seaport in Sittwe, widening and deepening of the Kaladan river and development of a road to connect Aizwal. "The Kaladan project will include shipping, riverine and road transport," said Jairam Ramesh, the Minister of State for Commerce. Talking to media persons during one of his recent visits to the Northeast, Mr Ramesh also added, "New Delhi wants to connect the Northeast with the commercial sea routes. Moreover, with the development of Sittwe port and the Kaladan river as a navigation efficient, the region is expected to have another viable access to the South East Asian countries." India has decided to spend nearly $ 100 million for the project. The junta, though assured free land for the project, had shown reluctance to invest money in the project, which finally compels New Delhi to extend a soft loan of $ 10 million to the SPDC leaders. The Kaladan project is anticipated to be completed within four years and the project will be executed by the public sector Rail India Technical Economic Services organisation. But the signing of the deal will not be out of repercussion, as the international communities have been raising voices against the military junta for its continued repressive policies on the pro-democracy activists including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and, of course, its poor human rights record in Burma. The public memory remained fresh for the political observers worldwide, where thousands of agitating monks in the streets of Rangoon, the former capital of Burma, were subjected to torture during last September. The junta controlled the movement with strong hands killing hundreds. The Burmese exiles irrespective of their organisations, have come out heavily against New Delhi for initiating for a business deal. The supporters of pro-democracy movement in Burma have raised a single point that India should not invest money at this moment in Burma as the money will not reach the common people, but the pockets of the Generals. They unanimously point out that it is not the suitable time to invest in Burma, even if one does not endorse the pro-democracy movement led by the Nobel laureate Suu Kyi. "This is not a right time to build long-term relationship with the Burmese rulers," argued M. Kim, the coordinator of Shwe Gas Pipeline Campaign Committee (India). Talking to this Correspondent, Kim added, "India must not bury alive its extraordinary democratic values and inspiration of promotion of peace and human rights by dealing in business and building relations with this barbaric Burmese military junta which recently not only killed, tortured and imprisoned its own innocent people and monks but also violated religious rights by sealing off monasteries and restricting basic rights of prayers at pagodas." Regarding the Kaladan project, he revealed that the practice of forced labour is still rampant in Arakan state of western Burma. Some villagers have been forced to do such things as digging and damming up fishery and prawn ponds for the interest of the authorities. The only thing they receive from the authorities is mistreatment. "It is inevitable that if the project (Kaladan) is carried out under the present regime, gross human rights violations will follow. No developmental project will be done without committing human rights abuses, so India must hold off on the Kaladan Project until the military dictatorship is replaced by a democratic regime, and local communities have a say in how their natural resources are used," Kim emphasised. Even a public meeting at Aizwal during January resolved to appeal to New Delhi to snap all ties with the military junta as 'the economic cooperation with them would never benefit the people unless democracy was restored in Burma'. Organised jointly by the Mizoram Committee for Democracy in Burma and the Campaign for Democratic Movement in Burma, the meeting also resolved that New Delhi should work with the UN to find amicable solution to the Burmese imbroglio. Dr Tint Swe, a leader of National League for Democracy led by Suu Kyi, who is living in exile in India, was also present at the meeting and argued that dealing with Burma 'would only have a meaning after restoration of democracy' there. Tayza Thuria, a Burmese exile based in London, debates that 'India's doing business with Burma and engaging with Burma's de-facto military government is not wrong in itself'. But the Indian government needs to be careful to maintain a balanced and ethical approach towards Burma; i.e., while engaging with Burmese government in business and security affairs, New Delhi must also try to persuade, advise and guide the junta to make the systematic democratic reforms in due course of time. Kyaw Than, the leader of All Burma Students' League (ABSL), a conglomeration of Burmese students' organisations in exile, asserted that it is not the suitable time to do business with Burma. He rather claimed, "It is high time for the international communities, more precisely India and China, to come clean on Burma policies. Otherwise, they will be criticised in future that both New Delhi and Beijing had continued business for good reasons but sadly with wrong people."

(The writer is a Senior Journalist based in Gowahati, Assam, India)

A horrendously discriminatory privilege

Tayeb Husain

I read with utmost sorrow the news item in Bangladeshi media that duel citizenship will be offered only to Bangladesh origin British passport holders only. The announcement has been made by none but the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed during his recent London visit in which he is reported to have said that "from now on, British passport-holder Bangladeshis would automatically retain their Bangladeshi citizenships".

Personally I am against offering such a privilege to Bangladeshi origin foreign citizen, whether one is a British or a Nepalese passport holder, but I strongly believe that if and when government offers any such privilege to the expatriate children it must be to all Bangladeshi origin foreign citizens and not to any particular group only. I consider this "extra privilege offered" to British citizens only is horrendously discriminatory, unfair, unjust, unwise and totally silly. I condemn it clearly and loudly.

Those of us settled in Europe and North America often faces discrimination in job market, in social and cultural life in our adopted countries and we know how painful it is to be discriminated. Now our mother land applies the same discriminatory law while treating us with a privilege. Once again I strongly condemn this discriminatory law and urge the Bangladesh government to withdraw this offer or if the offer must be evoked, let it be available to all Bangladesh origin foreign citizens.

Here I explain why I oppose duel citizenship, voting right and other privileges to Bangladesh origin foreign citizen. I strongly oppose expatriates' voting rights on principles and practical reasons even though it is against my personal interest. I sincerely believe that none should have divided allegiance and one should be fully loyal to the country one lives, earns a living and finally becomes a citizen. This is the basic principle I am talking about.

Voting Rights, Duel Citizenship and Owning property in Bangladesh

Offering voting right to an expatriate is wrong. Bangladesh and many other countries allow/offer double citizenship to immigrants with full rights and responsibilities of a normal resident. Rich western countries do it for certain reasons. For example, many US citizens have Israeli citizenship where they work and help the Israeli nation. They are mostly American Jews. The British and the French also allow dual citizenship and traditionally it has been so due to unholy colonial interest of the colonialist powers but the practice still continues.

Bangladesh is a poor country and it was very generous of her to offer an immigrant from Bangladesh double citizenship and even a Bangladeshi passport knowing it well that the immigrant is a foreign citizen now and has a passport from his/her adopted country. This generosity of Bangladesh has offered good and bad opportunities to many people. To a good person it gives a sense of nostalgia and he/she always fondly remembers his country of origin with deep gratitude and love. Such a decent person returns this generosity of his/her motherland doing good things in return when an opportunity comes. However, these types of people are very few and often very rare. An individual is always after his/her personal interest and there are many who would go to any extent to gain a little extra profit whenever he/she gets an opportunity to do so. There are also certain criminals who use this opportunity to maximise benefits of their many horrendous crimes. Often the generous rules and regulations of the criminals' adopted countries offer these criminals safe haven and the countries of origin of the criminals cannot take any action against them for their crimes committed in his/her country of origin. Many criminals from Arab countries moved to the UK on the pretext of political persecution in their home countries and the same pretext were used by many people from former communist countries to get a safe sanctuary in Western Europe. Some expatriates/immigrants from underdeveloped countries can be classified as political touts and basically, ordinary criminals. Sometimes they are politically connected with political touts at home and very often co-operate with corrupt politicians of their home countries to share their ill earned money or social or political advantages. Some well-established expatriates also go back to their countries of origin to take part in direct politics and hold ministerial posts by offering money to political organisations or directly to party bosses. These people are basically corrupt and live high life in Bangladesh mostly by corruption at the cost of poor Bangladesh.

Now, what can be done or what rights and privileges to be offered to a Bangladeshi immigrant/expatriate? Recently, someone has even proposed in Bangladesh media that two seats of the national parliament should be reserved for the expatriates. I consider it unfair and dangerous for Bangladesh. I shall suggest that except 'No visa requirement' seal at a reasonable fee on the foreign passport of an expatriate no other right or privilege should be offered to anybody as long as he/she carries a foreign passport. The double citizenship business should be cancelled and every expatriate/immigrant should declare his/her assets in Bangladesh if he/she stays in the country more than three months at any given time. No immigrant should be allowed to own agricultural land in Bangladesh if he/she does not cultivate and properly use it for agriculture or farming purpose. Sometime ago I read in the media about an expatriate living in USA asking the government to intervene because a criminal in Bangladesh had grabbed his land. While I do not support any land-grabbing by anybody, I strongly oppose any foreign citizen owning any land in Bangladesh under any circumstances. Bangladesh is a very small country, land per capita in Bangladesh is lowest in the world and under such circumstances no expatriate should be allowed to own agricultural or commercial land in Bangladesh if he/she does not return home and live in Bangladesh permanently.

Regarding jobs in Bangladesh, anybody with foreign passport/citizenship should not be allowed to seek any job in Bangladesh except those foreign experts whom Bangladesh may need for certain special jobs.

Again, anybody who is a Bangladeshi citizen with a Bangladeshi passport but did not live in Bangladesh continuously over a year or so (except those who are abroad on government duty or studying in a foreign country) should not be allowed to vote or to take part in any election or seek any government office. Any one in service with the Bangladesh government with foreign citizenship should be found out, dismissed and in case where any one who has hidden his/her foreign connection while serving the government should be sent out of the country after checking properly his/her assets and foreign links.

By adopting such a strong measure against the expatriates Bangladesh may prove itself very unkind or even hostile towards its 'lost' children but these measures are very necessary to safeguard the interest of Bangladeshi people and to curb the ill activities of a great number of criminals who are Bangladeshi expatriates/immigrants and foreign citizens.