Police reform
Photo: AFP
I read with interest Nurul Huda's 14th March editorial: Pilloried police and pompous platitudes in responding positively to an earlier piece on the subject by Badrul Ahsan in your daily. Huda concludes the piece appropriately that Police has to be organisationally accountable, operationally autonomous and free and functionally responsive. This conclusion has almost universal acceptance in society and was supported by all leading studies including the first systematic work on police in an UNDP research on Human Security in Bangladesh in1997 in which Huda participated under my guidance. Recently, a Police Reform proposal based on last few years of intensive UNDP research work and other public opinion surveys has been finalized and was expected to be implemented. I read in the news that the proposal has been sent to field police officials for vetting, which is interpreted by some quarters as delaying tactics by senior bureaucracy not friendly to the reforms. If this interpretation is correct, this will be unfortunate for the country and society. Any significant reform requires bold actions and it is highly unusual to seek the opinions of district officials to bring about changes in a highly centralized organisation. The field officials have already been extensively involved in the research and survey process as well as in the development of reform proposal during the last one year. Anyway, we strongly recommend that the current reform -minded government will take immediate action in implementing the police reform proposal at the earliest opportunity. It is high time that talks must stop to open the door for action to follow. Otherwise, we the Bangladeshis like many other people will continue to be condemned with the unenviable characterization of being too long on talk and too short on action.
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