Important developments
This morning we have heard and watched two important reports on Channel- i. These are regarding a) anti-corruption drive seminar b) Acquisition of 3 -crop agriculture lands in Munshiganj for EPZ. I think both the reports deserve close scrutiny.
The speakers in the ACC organised seminar included eminent citizens and the chairman of the ACC. The ACC chairman is seeking the support of the lawyers to sustain the drive against corruption. He is also critical about the effectiveness of the anti-corruption drive without emergency rules. A member of the Shusil Shomaj asked for initiating an effective anti- corruption drive against the investigative branch and the officials who are reputed to be corrupt. And a member of the lawyers community asked for provision of bail to ensure justice to the accused.
The people are already questioning the ultimate purpose of the anti-corruption drive of the government. The activities of the ACC are not above question. We think the ACC should depend on the law of the land to sustain their drive against high powered corruption. They perhaps need more institutional strength, rather than cover of an anti-human rights law - the state of emergency. They are required to be transparent in the trial phase so that nobody can question the modalities of judgment and procedural matters. The ACC should act independent of government pressure and political interference. This is how they can uplift their public image and perform well with the existing laws of the country. Any shortcut system in the judiciary will raise the credibility question about the trial and judgment.
The cover of the state of emergency cannot and should not be a permanent feature for the ACC to obtain their strength to sustain the drive. They need to strengthen the existing laws and timely application by giving legal advice to the government within the purview of the constitution safeguarding the rights and liberty of individual citizens. We are not engaged in a war but engaged in the anti-corruption drive which should be fought and sustained by existing laws of the country. If needed, upgrade the laws to deal with political or high powered corruption. The ACC needs to be updated in fighting corruption of high order, rather only dealing with cases which are 10-15 years old. The operation needs to be dynamic and moving forward with the current cases including the old ones in hand. We have so far not seen the ACC providing any legal framework to the government to smoothly run the anti-corruption drive.
I have a feeling that we need an "oversight institution" to provide a check and balance of at least three important institutions like the judiciary, the Election Commission and the ACC. But I fail to come up with concrete suggestion because I have serious problem in suggesting the human resources who would perform the actual oversight function. So far we have failed to identify a single individual to head the "Ombudsman", a constitutional obligation remaining unfulfilled for 38 years.
The second piece of news is alarming. When the country needs a policy to promote and strengthen agricultural growth, the government is reported to be planning to set up an EPZ on agriculture land. Is the country moving in the right direction under the present management? I am sure the government is aware of the incident of "Nandigram" in W. Bengal where agri-land was being acquired for an industrial project. Are we promoting that crisis in Bangladesh? I am not an economist. Therefore, I cannot claim whether my feeling about EPZ would be correct.
The outsourcing policy is currently raising a big question in the west in view of their growing unemployment. In our case, I can see that we are outsourcing our scare resources like land and energy. Should we do this? What should be our in-sourcing and outsourcing policy?
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