Editorial
Truth and Accountability Commission
It is losing credibility and should be wrapped up
THE Truth and Accountability Commission is now considering extending the deadline, for the second time, for individuals to voluntarily declare their ill-gotten wealth. If that says anything about the results obtained so far in its operations by the Tac, there is the more intriguing tale of how high officials, politicians and businessmen suspected of corruption have shrewdly stayed away from the body. What has happened, in the words of none other than the chairman of the commission, is that only lower ranking employees have been trekking to the commission and coming up with confessions. Obviously, that is not quite the kind of results the government had anticipated when the Tac was set up.
Which now takes one to the very important question of why the Truth and Accountability Commission was set up in the first place, given that the entire machinery of the government since January last year had been engaged in identifying corruption at various levels of society and bringing the bad elements to book. It is unbelievable but true nevertheless that no logical, credible rationale was offered to explain the formation of the Tac. There was absolutely no acceptable model upon which it was fashioned. Of course, it was given out by some of the votaries of the idea that the Tac was patterned on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was established in South Africa following the end of apartheid there. The reality about the South African body is that it was based on clear terms of reference and was underpinned by compelling moral reasons. In South Africa, the issue was one of turning a new page after decades of morally wrong politics based on racial discrimination. In Bangladesh, it has been a clear case of financial malfeasance that needed to be handled firmly.
What has been made obvious in the last few months is that the Truth and Accountability Commission has been petering out as a body. That was only to be expected, given the reasons cited above as also the large-scale cynicism that has regularly greeted its working, or an absence of it.
The Tac has been practically a non-starter. It has a tenure of six months, of which two months have already gone by. We now suggest that it deal swiftly with the cases it has in hand and then be wrapped up as early as possible, that indeed the law be permitted to take its course where dealing with corruption is concerned.
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