Editorial
Restructuring intelligence bodies
They must be professional and non-partisan
We believe Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's decision to restructure the nation's intelligence bodies and ensure better and effective coordination among them is a right and necessary step considering the many happenings which have regularly left these bodies under a cloud. Indeed, since August 1975, when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and nearly his entire family were wiped out in a bloody coup, the failure of the many intelligence organisations to detect or put the finger on conspiracies in the making has been glaring. And dearly has the country paid for such lapses on the part of bodies whose professionalism should have averted the many tragic incidents we have seen happen in our lifetime. The failure to spot the August 15 conspiracy was followed, in embarrassing manner, by the inability of the intelligence bodies to apprehend the plot to murder President Ziaur Rahman in May 1981. And only recently, in February this year, the absolute failure of these bodies to understand that conspiracy was afoot among the rank and file of the Bangladesh Rifles led to the murder of seventy people, fifty-seven of them military officers of various ranks.
In light of such poor performance on the part of these bodies -- National Security Intelligence, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Special Branch -- it is of the gravest importance that a wholesale overhauling of intelligence organisations be undertaken. We cannot say for certain that the BDR incident has made these agencies alert to the dangers lurking around us. But what we do know is that with the threat of religious extremism still around and with important personalities like the prime minister being a potential target of assassination, a swift and meaningful restructuring of intelligence bodies is of immediate public concern. But such restructuring must be carried out on the fundamental premise of professionalism if the agencies are really to prove themselves equal to their calling. In the past, the use of the agencies in the promotion of the political agenda of those in power badly undermined the professional abilities of the intelligence bodies. The nation has had the bitter experience of seeing the military regimes of General Zia and General Ershad use the DGFI to form political parties as well as lure politicians away from established political parties. The repercussions were predictably unhealthy in that even elected civilian governments, in their turn, did not hesitate to use the intelligence bodies to undermine and harass the opposition.
This damaging culture must now come to an end. The planned restructuring of the intelligence agencies must ensure that they go back to doing the job they were originally supposed to do, irrespective of which party holds political authority in the state. Their job is to secure the state from enemies within and without, in an absolutely non-partisan manner. Most importantly, provisions must be in place to make certain that all intelligence organisations operate under the unquestioned command and authority of elected civilian governments.
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