Upholding the rule of law: Khaleda vs Hasina

From a titular president he was made an imperial president, and Iajuddin has now become an absolute dictator by deploying the army and violating all precedents in the process of governing the interim administration based on the advice and consent of the CTG advisers.

Since usurping the post of chief of the CTG, Iajuddin came close to deploying the army twice, but each time he backtracked when faced with "cris de Coeur" from the advisers. How did he dare to deploy the army at a time when there was no casus belli? It's not a Gordian knot that it can't be untied.

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While addressing the non-government school, college and madrasha teachers at the BIAM auditorium on November 27, Khaleda Zia urged them to work for BNP to protect the country's independence and sovereignty. She didn't, however, clarify who they ought to be afraid of losing the country's "independence and sovereignty" to.

Such statements have the same tone that the Pakistani military rulers used against Bangladeshi politicians to perpetuate their power. Khaleda's parroting of the Pakistani military rulers' "independence and sovereignty" campaign is simply too old-fashioned. Like the Pakistani military rulers, she takes refuge under such statements; possibly because she was influenced by the military environment for the nearly 45 years that she spent in military barracks, including her last 15 years in politics.

It is hard to assess how much of her indifference, or tolerance of the violations of human rights and the rule of law, is attributable to her living in the military barracks. There is no area in which her administration's violations of the rule of law and the rights of some groups or individuals didn't adversely affect someone. It is an inexplicable folly if Khaleda engineered the deployment of the army to circumscribe the political rights of her opponents. But will the army take sides?

The dislike of, and frustration with, Khaleda run as deep at home as abroad. This was felt when I met many distinguished Bangladeshis on December 2 at a conference on "Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh" held in Toronto, Canada. My presentation, "Saviour of democracy: Khaleda vs Hasina," argued why democracy will be further maligned if Khaleda Zia returns to power. Today's article covers another topic: why rule of law will further worsen if BNP again regains the majority. Since democracy and human rights are inseparable, I wouldn't trust Khaleda with human rights either.

Democracy, human rights, freedom of media, and the rule of law are all intertwined. During Khaleda's rule all four rights were violated on an unmatched scale. No wonder the Economic Intelligence Unit categorized Bangladesh as a "Flawed Democracy." For a glimpse of the extent of violations of human rights under Khaleda's administration watch the following video link:

(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1210025978229776205).

It was disappointing that only a small fraction of the 30,000 plus Bangladeshi-born residents in Toronto showed up at the conference. Paper presenters came from Boston, Chicago, and Michigan, in addition to local human rights activists.

In response to comments from an audience (who blamed the low attendance on aggravation with the interminable political tangles back home) Dr Mozammel Hossain Khan, convenor of the conference (and a columnist of The Daily Star), concluded the session by quoting Tagore's poem: "Jodi tor dak shune keu na ashe, tobe aekla cholo re."

Everyone in the conference was deeply abhorrent of the extent of politicization of the country's judiciary, the EC, the police, and even the defense forces. Most people, however, thought that the CTG advisers are committed to a free and fair election, and are working against the election rigging machinations of the BNP-Jamaat alliance.

The CTG advisers' recent success in retiring BNP supporting civil servants who were on extended contract and transferring other incompetent BNP lackeys to less important departments is commendable. More importantly, promoting officers who were the victims of BNP's dirty politicization was an act that uplifted human spirit. Their rights were violated; they were humiliated and they should bring law-suits against Khaleda and her administration. This recourse will deter future politicians in power from violating the rights and privileges of dedicated public servants.

Freedom House's annual Legal System and Property Rights (LSPR) report shows that the rule of law in Bangladesh has been deteriorating over the last 5 years. The index is based on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best). In recent years, the LSPR index went down from 5.0 in 1995 to 3.2, judicial independence decreased from 3.7 in 2001 to 3.2; impartial courts index dropped from 4.2 in 2000 to 2.8; integrity of the legal system index declined from 7.0 in 1995 to 3.3. Don't forget the number one corruption ranking of her administration for five consecutive years. This deterioration in overall governance started within a year after Hasina handed over power to Khaleda in 2001.

Her administration has been castigated for political killings estimated to be in many thousands. Extra-judicial killings by Rab cross-fire numbered about 1037 until October. Besides, there were numerous killings of political protestors and workers agitated by unfair labour practices, price spiral, energy shortage, and so on.

Khaleda's administration has failed to arrest the killers of former finance minister Kibria, and also those who made the unprovoked grenade attack on Awami League rally on August 21, 2005 in which several people were killed, and Hasina escaped death.

There are countless instances of her party people unleashing terror by beating people and burning houses and properties of the opponents in many parts of the country (DS: June 23, 2005). Persecution of journalists during the last five years epitomized BNP's intolerance of the free media and drew world-wide condemnation (DS: June 16, 2006).

Repression of minorities (Ahmadiyya, Hindu and indigenous people) rose to unprecedented levels during her tenure (DS: June 29, 2005). One example of ethnic repression in which about 65 families, consisting mostly of Hindu and indigenous communities, were evicted from government land in Mostafapur union in Parbatipur upazila under the pretext of a rehabilitation project for the landless, which was certainly a state sponsored act of lawlessness and violation of human rights (DS: June 25, 2005). The evictees themselves were homeless and landless.

My everyday frustrations and sleeplessness are not as much for the political impasse in the country as they are for the degradation of the rule of law, and violations of basic human rights.

My friends often tease me that I should've pursued a career in politics. Instead of studying physics, nuclear engineering, and then economics, possibly I could have become a finance minister by studying "accounting," a health minister by studying "geology," an education minister by studying "agricultural economics," or president of the country by studying "soil science." Obviously, I couldn't have become the prime minister because of my education and gender.

Dr Abdullah A Dewan is Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University.