The New Nation - Internet Edition

Let parliament mirror the people

M. Mizanur Rahman

Parliament is the mirror of the people. This mirror reflects weal and woe of the people through it (the Parliament) by the strong voice of their representatives. When elected representatives of the people put their stubborn voice here ensuring the rights and the demands of the people to be fulfilled by its government the entire countrymen look at them and listen to them through television and other medias. These representatives of the people are said to be the members of the Parliament. They are also the members of their respective political parties voted by the people to assume power for governance of the country on people's behalf. The political party that won majority seats in overall constituencies is to lead the government and run the country. This party in the Parliament occupies treasury bench while the party that fails to earn majority seats remains in opposition to serve the nation. It becomes a shadow government that justifies its existence showing the wrongs, if any, of the party in the treasury bench for the right cause of the nation. In time of national emergency both the parties remain united heart and soul in order to face the national causes or crises jointly towards serving the nation.

A member of the Parliament assumes heavy duties and responsibilities. H/she is equally the executive as well as legislative member.

Every action of the member of the Parliament must have its transparency and accountability to the people who voted him/her to power. Each Parliamentarian must be cautious about the power vested in him/her by the people which should not under any circumstances be misused. In all cases liability of transgression invites serious troubles for every member of the Parliament.

None of them can escape heavy criticism of wrongdoings, if any, from the medias or public. That may culminate in legal action. In this case one should be very careful to guard his/her moral conscience not to be trapped by any means of corruption or temptation to be corrupt remembering the famous saying of Lord Acton, "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely".

'Honesty is the best policy' would be the safeguard for each member now who could be mirrored through the Parliament within no time.

As the lawmaker each member of the Parliament must abide by the Constitution being well conversant of it for people's interests.

After the separation of judiciary being an independent entity the executive has no power to exert its influence on judicial actions against any lawbreaker.

Henceforth this is to be remembered by each and everyone. But there shall be close cooperation and coordination between the two, that is the executive and the judiciary, for the sake of proper administration in the country, paving the way towards good governance. Here again, the question of high morale and honesty in the sense of patriotism arises for those who work in the rank and file of the executive and the judiciary as magistrate, police and Judge, Justice or other judicial officials.

The member of the Parliament as the lawmaker must have power and authority to look on them within his/her jurisdiction without interfering in the official business or legal proceedings of the officials concerned.

Thus Parliamentary government system through transparency and accountability can do well to maintain democratic norm throughout the country. This will help people to understand its authority of being in the government that no official of the Republic can assume mastery over the people in any way. Here another question of electing educated or uneducated person in the Parliament arises.

Generally at least a graduate person should be given to become qualified as the member of the Parliament to have nomination for election through the independent election commission.

So the concerned person can be apt to take training in the course of lawmaking institution in the interest of the people. For, under no circumstances, money or muscle power should be considered for electing a person as the member of the Parliament.

Let us see the mirror of our people reflect the true image of our heroic nation emerged out of the cost of three million people's supreme sacrifice.

Shame of Guantanamo Bay

Aijaz Zaka Syed

My youngest one is as old as the young son of Sami Al Hajj, the Al Jazeera cameraman who was carried home to freedom on a stretcher this week, after seven years in the Guantanamo Bay.

Watching a shockingly emaciated Hajj shower kisses on his son at a Khartoum hospital, where he has been admitted after freedom from the high security prison in Cuba, I couldn't help think about my own kids.

I put myself in Hajj's shoes and wonder how I would fare if I ended up in Bush's gulag. What would happen to my own children and loved ones? And what chance would I have at freedom, if I got picked up by America's friends and allies and ended up in the Bay, just as Hajj had been?

You might think I don't have to end up in the Bay. I am not a terrorist. And I haven't done anything except hold a mirror to the US and other big powers once in a while. But then Hajj is not a terrorist either. He did not fly any planes into the symbols of America's might. He did not try to blow himself up near the White House or Pentagon. The only crime he ever committed was work for Al Jazeera, the television channel the Americans seem to think is run by Osama Bin Laden.

Hajj was on his way to Afghanistan to report for Al Jazeera when he was picked up by the authorities in Pakistan in 2001 and handed over to the US. Despite holding a valid visa to work as a journalist in Afghanistan, he was bundled off as an 'enemy combatant' to Gitmo.

Today, reunited with his family in Khartoum, Hajj is understandably emotional. Articulating his happiness at finding himself among his loved ones and sense of outrage at what he has been through at the same time is almost overwhelming for him. And more than the relief at his freedom, it is the thought of those left behind that torments him.

Watching the homecoming of Hajj, shown live on Al Jazeera for hours and watched by an outraged Arab world, a senior colleague comments: "I find it hard to believe this can happen in our age and time. And that too by the world's greatest democracy and champion of human rights! I mean, how could you lock up a guy for years without a trial and charges and get away with it!"

Exactly. How could they do this to an individual in this age? Especially doing this to a journalist, working for a prominent media organisation as Al Jazeera, is a little hard to stomach. Yet that's precisely what happened to Hajj. Repeated appeals and campaigning by human rights agencies and media groups failed to persuade the US authorities to let Al Jazeera man go.

If they are capable of doing this to a renowned journalist backed by a big organisation, I shudder to think what ordinary and nameless individuals picked up from around the world could go through at Gitmo. And there are hundreds of ordinary and nameless individuals languishing in the hellhole called Guantanamo Bay.

This is what Sami Al Hajj was trying to point out after his release. Fearing for those left behind, Hajj repeatedly appealed to the world's conscience-if there's such a thing as the world's conscience - calling for justice and urgent efforts by the international community for freeing those still held at the Bay in most horrific conditions, without a trial, without a charge and without the so-called due process.

I don't know how many people paid attention to what this distraught man was saying. But this is something that no human being with any belief in humanity and human dignity can ignore.

"Conditions in Guantanamo are very, very bad and they get worse by the day," Hajj told the media from his hospital bed. "Our human dignity was violated and the US administration went beyond all human values, moral values, religious values. There are people from more than 50 countries who are completely deprived of all rights and privileges. They will not give them the rights that they give their animals."

Strong words! And a damning indictment of the US and all that it stands for. But there's no reason to doubt Hajj's claim. The journalist himself is a walking proof of all that is wrong with the Gitmo. The Al Jazeera man was in his early 30s when he was captured. Today he's in his late 30s but looks like a man in 80s. So much so his own brother Asim couldn't recognise him when he was brought out of the aircraft.

It's believed that by targeting Hajj, the US was trying to punish Al Jazeera for trying to show the alternate reality of the war on terror that the US media can't or dare not. Al Jazeera, with its refreshingly bold approach and daredevil team of reporters, offers you the perspective you won't find on CNN.

David Remes, a lawyer fighting for the Bay detainees, says there was also an element of racism in the way Hajj was treated and abused at the Bay. "The Europeans would never receive this sort of treatment," Remes points out. As a result, Hajj is today "psychologically damaged" and might never recover from the trauma he underwent over the past seven years.

You would think those responsible for this would at least be repentant, if not offer a sincere apology to Hajj and his family. But as if responding to the outrage in the Muslim world over Hajj episode, a US spokesperson says Al Jazeera man was PRETENDING to be ill when the aircraft carrying him landed in Khartoum. The official told ABC News Hajj was a 'manipulator and a propagandist' and was "faking illness" on his homecoming.

Hajj was in such a bad shape that the Sudanese and US officials accompanying him were alarmed. Sudanese minister Kamal Obeid says that "Hajj was exhausted, with very slow heart beats and low blood pressure". Only after he was drip-fed that the journalist was able to regain strength.

And there are still hundreds of Sami al Hajjs out there languishing in the biggest gulag of our time, waiting for their turn and waiting for freedom and justice.

Contrary to the US claims, most of those individuals are innocent people who happened to be at the wrong place at a wrong time. Except for an odd militant or two, most of them are ordinary men like you and me.

This has been repeatedly argued by rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and several courageous lawyers and activists in the US. The Washington Post ran a whole series proving why most of the Bay detainees are innocent people picked up by booty hunters in Afghanistan and Pakistan who were turned over as 'terrorists' to the US for a cash price.

And the world has forgotten these innocent men. After all, it has enough of its own existing problems, from shooting oil prices to worsening food crisis. Who cares for nearly 300 faceless individuals, especially if they happen to be Arab or Muslim? There's not a greater sin than being a Muslim in the time of terror war.

When will the US and the world wake up to the shame of Guantanamo Bay? Because this gulag and all that goes on in there fly in the face of all that America and the civilized world believe in. Freedom, justice, democracy, the rule of law and human rights; everything is at stake in the Guantanamo Bay.

Nicolas D Kristof of New York Times says, "it would take an exceptional enemy to damage America's image and interests as much as Bush and Cheney already have with Guantanamo."

They certainly have. The Guantanamo Bay violates everything that the US once celebrated and epitomised. And it's not the terrorists and so-called enemy combatants who are incarcerated there. It's America's ideals that are imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay. Free them, Mr Bush!

(Aijaz Zaka Syed is a Dubai-based journalist and commentator.)

Opinion: Justice must be served

GM Solaiman

In Bangladesh constitution, it is said that every one is equal in the eyes of the law. Two democratically elected women have ruled Bangladesh for last 15 years. However, both of the former prime ministers have accused the other one for serious corruption. In every meeting they addressed, in every press conference they attended, both of them have said that the other one took billions of dollars in corruption. They also have said that if they were elected, they would prosecute the other one. Well, both Hasina and Khaleda got their chances. But they never kept their promises to either prosecute the other one or stop accusing the other. Meanwhile Bangladesh had been named as the most corrupt nation in the world on their watch. Apparently, all these talks were for one goal in mind. It was to get more votes, to get to the power, and to do more corruption.

The ACC pressed charges against detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and 10 others for abuse of power and graft in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko. It has also framed formal charges against another former Prime Minister Sheik Hasina.

In Bangladesh constitution, it is also said to uphold basic human rights. We would like to believe that every one is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. The case now under proceeding by Bangladesh courts. The due process will revel if they are indeed guilty or not. As a bystander, I am also eagerly waiting for the decision. This would also tell me if they have been telling us the truth when they accused other one to be corrupt. Like any other thing in life, you can use your glass half full or glass half empty scenario here. I believe Hasina should be happy to know that finally charges had been pressed against Khaleda. Can you imagine, for all these years, she have been telling us that Khaleda is corrupt and must be punished. Now it is beginning to happen. Similarly, Khaleda was also telling us that Hasina is corrupt and must be punished. So, here we go, both of them have been charged. Both of them must be very happy.

Let us see what is happening in the ground. Newspaper headline says "Release Hasina soon for polls". This is a demand made by her party leaders. No need to do the court proceeding. No need for justice, just release her. We will take her guilty or not. Same goes for Khaleda's party. They demanded Khaleda's release. Otherwise, they say, they will boycott the upcoming election. They neither have time nor have appetite for any justice what so ever. Just release them! Give the election and hand over the power to one of them. I am not saying they are criminals, at least not before the court rules as so. But how could a major political party demands unconditional release of an accused person? Don't they have any respect for justice? Don't they have any respect for the constitution? Why don't they demand the same unconditional release for every one held behind the bar? Why don't they demand to dissolve the courts and justice system in the country? Why don't they demand to dissolve the constitution? Wait, if they do, why do we need an election again?

I don't see this type of demand in any other democratic country. Can you imagine this in United States? Say trial is going on in federal courts, but Democratic Party or Republican Party is demanding the immediate release of that person.

I believe governor Spitzer of New York must have made a big mistake. He should not have resigned. His party could have always demand that no action should be taken by court. That´s all. Wait, this is united states and it is not the most corrupt country of the world.

Democracy does not mean an election only. It is not a means of getting into power regardless of guilty or not. In a democratic world, people elect their representative to be the lawmakers. Elected lawmakers make laws, but what for? So that the law is executed, isn't it? We must execute the law to find and punished the wrong doers. That is the whole point of election. Every political party has to understand and upheld this. If the political party leaders don't obey the law and do not have respect for the law and constitution, why would we need to elect them? What would they do after getting elected?

Justice must be served for these two former prime ministers along with others who are accused. If the court ruled that they are innocents, by all means, they should be free. If the court ruled that they are guilty, they must serve prison time like every body else. We must see that law has been followed. We must see that justice has been served. Only then we need to elect more lawmakers to make yet more laws. If we do not need any law, we do not need any lawmakers either.