The New Nation - Internet Edition

Atiur Rahman

It is heartening to note that election manifestoes have generated sufficient public interests. Earlier preparation of election manifestoes used to be only rituals. People mostly ignored these manifestoes and political parties, even if voted to power, hardly bothered to implement these promises. But this time both media and concerned citizens have taken greater interests in the manifestoes. Some of our stalwarts of civil society misunderstood election manifestoes as final policy documents by raising issues of implementation and financing. This is a bit of an unfortunate perception. Election manifestoes are normally policy promises for which they tend to be dream statements. Not all these dreams can be realised in the short or medium terms. Yet, political parties are supposed to post promises around for which concrete strategy of implementation and financing will have to be derived. So the debate on implementation and financing has alerted the politicians to think about costing of the programmes and subsequent budgetary constraints. I am sure whichever party is elected to power will set up committees to translate most of these promises into doable actions. I have seen both the manifestoes. Apparently the manifesto of Awami League is well researched with a long term vision and some well-laid out programmes. On the other hand, the manifesto of BNP has no long term vision and appears to be quick responses to immediate problems. There is also not much concrete prioritisation of the programmes. Yet both parties have highlighted some of the pressing problems (e.g. inflation and electricity) in their manifestoes. Below a comparative review of the issues covered by both the parties in a prioritised manner has been made. The top issues covered are inflation, law and order including policies regarding militancy, energy security, local government, remittance etc.

Inflation: The reduction of inflation received top priority in the Awami League's manifesto. The party promises that measures will be taken to reduce the unbearable burden of price hikes and keep it within acceptable limits, takeing the people's purchasing power into consideration. To achieve this, Awami League will assign the highest priority to the production of domestic commodities. The manifesto also vows to make arrangements for timely imports to ensure food security. A multi-pronged drive will be undertaken to control prices along with monitoring the market. Hoarding and profiteering syndicates will be eliminated. Awami League also promises to set up an institution for commodity price control and consumer protection.

BNP promises to take actions to prevent price hikes and reduce quickly. To bring the price level of the basic necessities within the purchasing power of the general public, they will increase food production and provide subsidies to reduce the production cost of agricultural commodities if necessary. To reduce unemployment, they will restart inactive or closed down factories, inspire local and foreign businessmen and companies to invest in new industries and initiate large-scale development activities. Their promises even go as far as to include the nationwide free distribution of daily necessities to the poor, helpless, old and unemployed people. To deal with natural disasters, BNP promises to build up food reserves and if necessary they will take steps to import food items through the private sector or by the government itself. Employment will be provided to at least one person of every family.

Law and Order situation and policy regarding militancy: Awami League has taken a strong stance against terrorism and religious extremism. They have promised to control these with an iron hand. The manifesto vows to form a South Asian Task Force for fighting the challenge of terrorism and militancy. It also promises to stop the use of religion for politics.

BNP has taken a commitment to enhance the law and order situation as their very first goal and will put all their efforts to fight militancy if they can form the government. For the future, they have vowed to reform existing laws to ensure the security of lives and assets as well as to ensure peace and order. Domestic law enforcement agencies will be given training, modern arms and other necessary facilities to become more capable of maintaining law and order. Any attempt to commit terrorism in the name of religion will be halted from the very beginning.

Governance: Awami League pledges to take multi-pronged measures to fight corruption. The manifesto states that strict measures will be taken to eliminate bribery, extortion, rent-seeking and corruption. They will adopt a strong stance against those having questionably earned black money as well as loan defaulters, tender manipulators, and users of muscle power at every level of goverment and society. The manifesto also promises to enhance peoples' right through forming citizens' charters in every department. Also, widespread computerisation will be undertaken to minimise opportunities for corruption.

BNP has made commitments to undertake strict measures to terminate and block various sources of corruption. They have also committed to take efforts to bring transparency and accountability in the transactions carried out by government and state owned enterprises, help the Anti-Corruption Commission to act freely and take efforts to help media and local government to increase public awareness on corruption. Each MP will have to disclose their assets by giving a statement within 30 days after taking oath, according to the manifesto.

Energy Security: Awami League promises to take a comprehensive long-term policy on electricity and energy.

The manifesto pledges to ensure economic utilisation of oil, gas, coal, hydro power, wind power and solar energy. Establishment of large and small power generation stations, coal extraction, and oil and gas exploration has received great emphasis in the manifesto.

The party plans to undertake a crash programme for quick implementation of ongoing and proposed power generation stations, import of electricity from neighboring countries, arranging 100/150 megawatt gas turbine projects on an urgent basis, and the reactivation of past Awami League initiatives for constructing 10, 20 and 30 megawatt power stations. A schedule for the repair, maintenance and overhauling or salvaging of old power stations will be planned to increase and stabilise power production. The manifesto pledges to give priority to exploration and exploitation of new oil and gas fields and to formulate a coal policy. BNP manifesto includes a commitment to produce and supply electricity according to a transparent and effective policy. To achieve this, they will execute public sector projects and encourage establishment of private small plants. They will also examine possibilities for wind, water and solar energies and take initiatives to set up a nuclear plant. Local Government: Awami League has promised reforms of local government institutions in their manifesto. It states that Union, Upazilla and District Councils will be strengthened through decentralization of power. District Councils will be transformed into centres for implementation of programmes on education and health and all other development plans, as well as programmes for maintenance of law and order. Every union will be made into headquarters of development and administration of the area and developed as a planned rural township. It also plans to develop every Upazilla headquarter as an industrial growth centre and a planned township.

BNP promises to decentralise administrative system for the overall development of the country. The party pledges to strengthen the capacity of the elected members of the local government institutions.

Remittance: Awami League's manifesto promises to take special initiatives to attract expatriate's remittances in productive investment. It plans to develop a consultancy network to use expatriate's talents more productively. BNP promises to stop the harassment of expatriates both abroad and domestically. The responsibility of ensuring that fair wages are given to Bangladeshi workers abroad will be assigned to the embassies in the respective countries, according to the manifesto. They also promise to develop initiatives to give returning expatriates productive avenues for investment and employment. Other issues: Under Awami League initiatives for parliamentary reform, the parliament's effectiveness would be strengthened and the public administration would be made free from political and partisan influence. 33 percent of parliamentary seats for direct election would be reserved for women. Other initiatives include the prohivition of child labour, pledges to implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord in full etc. Awami League announced a series of economic development initiatives.

AL envisions a rise in industry's share in GDP from 25 percent to 45 percent, a fall in the service sector's from 50 percent to 45 percent, and of agriculture's from 22 percent to 15 percent.

These changes are natural if an economy has to graduate to a more modern, industrialised status. According to AL's vision, a 'Digital Bangladesh' would be built, and unemployment would be cut down to 15 percent from the current 40 percent while employment would be increased from 4.2 crore to 9 crore by 2021. It promises to build a deep seaport and modernise Chittagong and Mongla seaports along with all land ports, while connecting the country with the Asian Highway and Asian Railway. Agriculture and rural development would be given the highest priority as a policy instrument for eradicating poverty, and food security would be ensured for the ultra-poor.

Other socio-economic initiatives include an expanded safety net programme such as rationing and free education up to the undergraduate level. In addition, steps would be taken to deal with global warming effectively and to ensure freedom of the mass media. BNP intends to focus making parliament effective and functional by taking some pragmatic steps. The speaker and deputy speaker will have to resign from their party posts after nomination and the next deputy speaker will be nominated from the opposition.

The BNP manifesto further suggests that parliamentary standing committees will be formed by the second session of parliament and the chairmen of important committees will be picked from the opposition bench. The BNP remains committed to forming an all-party parliamentary committee to ensure transparency in the Anti-Corruption Commission. They will also establish for the judiciary a separate secretariat under the Supreme Court. With regards to science and technology, they pledge to set up a high-tech city for development of information technology. Translation of the Promises into actions: The major challenge for any party forming government will really be translation of the above promises into actions.

The new government will have to examin the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and revise it to incorporate the promises it made in the election manifesto. The new government will also have to flag some actions against inflation, particularly food inflation and the electricity to make the voters understand that they care for their pressing needs.

There has to be pruning of the budget as well as mobilisation of resources and allocations to address the priority actions indicated in the election manifesto. Finally, each ministry will have to be alerted by the Prime Minister-elect to take into cognizance the relevant promises made in the manifesto.

In other words, there has to be a policy advisory group to work on election manifesto and monitor how far those promises are being realised. Voters' expectations from the new government are indeed sky-high this time. The new government will have to be much more cautious in managing these expectations.

(The writer is Professor, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka and Chairman, Unnayan Shamannay)