Our Sun itself is one of the million million million stars of the universe. Thousands of those stars we can see in the night sky without the help of a telescope. With a telescope thousands more can be seen; and the more powerful the telescope, the more stars we see. There seems to be no limit to their number.
If one looks at the sky at night, one will see that a part of it is so thickly scattered with stars that it is called 'The Milky Way'. Actually, our Sun is just a small star among all the million other sun-stars of the Milky Way. Astronomers call the Milky Way a 'galaxy', which means a collection of stars. They tell us that there are numberless galaxies in the universe, each containing perhaps millions of sun-stars as big as or much bigger than our Sun. From this one can have some idea of what a very small thing our globe, the Earth, is when compared with the vast universe.
But, though it is so small, our Earth seems to have a special importance of its own. Astronomers tell us that there are very few globes on which it is possible for living things to exist-or, perhaps we should say, things which have life of the same kind as the life on Earth. So far as we can tell, with the help of knowledge gained by scientists, there cannot be any life unless there are air, water, and sunlight, in which life can develop. Many of the other globes in the universe are much too hot for water and air to exist on them. Many are much too cold. In fact we know that, many millions of years ago, our own globe was too hot for life to exist upon it. But gradually it cooled, and then life began to develop on its surface. Scientists say that it is very unusual to have all the necessary conditions in which life can develop. In fact, they are not certain that such conditions exist on any other planet known to them. This means that, possibly, our Earth is the only globe-or one of the very few globes in the universe-on which life exists. If that is true, our Earth certainly is of unique importance-and so are we!
But, if our Earth has such unique importance because life has been able to develop on it, it is perhaps of even greater importance that Man-the highest form of living creature on the Earth (so far as we know)-should learns to live intelligently. The power of Man's brain, the power of thought, is the most wonderful thing that life has produced up to now so far as we know. It is so powerful that it has enabled Man to control the forces of Nature, the powers of fire, air, water and electricity. With their help Man can now make and do many wonderful things. But with their help he can also destroy not only things but even life on the Earth. The new danger of our present Age-the Atomic Age-is that Man now possess self-knowledge. Man can control many of the powers of Nature, but he cannot control his own nature, his selfish thoughts and desires. Until he learns how to do that, and does it, he is like a child playing with an electric generator : he may destroy himself through his imperfect knowledge. With he newly discovered atomic energy it is quite possible for Man to destroy all living things on the Earth and even the Earth itself.
It is important that this possibility should be seen and understood by every intelligent person. All of us who now enjoy life on the Earth-and every other living being-share this great responsibility. In olden times, kings made war on each other, and forced their subjects to kill each other. But nowadays we are no longer the slaves of kings. Wars are started nowadays because of national jealousy and fear. Nations are not living things apart from us. Nations are made up of living persons. Nations are ourselves. If we are peace-loving and non-violent in our thoughts, as well as in our words and actions, our nations and its governments will be peace-loving and non-violent. If we are selfish and greedy, our governments will be based on selfishness and greed. And our governments will not be able to change into better governments, based on love and truth, individual freedom, economic well-being and social justice unless we change. This is more true in our time than it was in ancient times; for, in ancient times, the power of government was usually in the hands of one man, the king. If he happened to be a kind and unselfish man, he could set up a just and good government for a few years, while he was alive. But such governments usually ended with the kings who set them up. In modern times, when governments are set up by the votes of the people, the government consists of the leaders chosen by the people-and they are neither better nor worse than the people who choose them. They make the systems of government and the systems of ownership that the people really want. If they do not do so, the people refuse to vote for them at the next election. Therefore, if we have a system of government in which there is a struggle for power among the leaders, it is because we ourselves have the same desire in our hearts, the desire to get power over others. If we have a system of ownership of property, based on greed and selfishness, it is because we ourselves have the desire for more possessions, even if others have to get less than their share in order that we may have more. So the system of government and the system of ownership of property are the result of what we are and what we desire. To change those systems, we must therefore begin with ourselves. When enough people are different, the systems will change; it will not be necessary to force them by violence and fear.
We had studied growth of Man, growth of Man's mind, Man's intelligence, and how he used it to discover better ways of living, and to build up orderly societies, which we call civilizations. Historians tell us that there have been more than twenty such civilizations during the period of about 7000 years since men first began to cultivate crops, instead of only hunting for food. But only about half those civilizations have left behind them results. In the course of our study of the growth and decline of civilizations, we had not only seen how men and women in various parts of the world have discovered things and done things which have been useful to their fellows and to us, but also tried to see and understand what mistakes they made, and the results of those mistakes.
We have traced the footprints of Man along the winding pathway of History, through the forests and the grasslands, the deserts and the plains. It is a long journey that has taken at least 1,000,000 years since human beings first stood upright on the Earth and began to behave differently from other animals. But it is only a short journey if we count from the time when Man first began to be civilized. The whole existence of civilization, from its very dawn until the present time, covers at the most a period of 20,000 years. 20,000 years is only 1/50th of 1,000,000 years out of a century. The period during which Man has been learning to be civilized is therefore equivalent to 2 years out of the life of a man who lives to be 100 years old. In civilization Man is now like a child less than two years old! Is it surprising that men make so many foolish mistakes and commit so many stupid cruelties? A baby less than two years old learns to walk only by trying to stand up, and by over and over falling down and getting up again. Sometimes the baby hurts himself and cries. We do not blame him. We know that he will learn at last, by trying and falling, and trying yet again. It is the same with Mankind learning to be civilized. We, in our time, have reached only the babyhood stage of civilization. There is no need to feel hopeless, even though the falls we have endured, and which are still to come, are often very painful.
A child of two years cannot learn except by experience; it would be a waste of time to give him a lecture on how to stand and walk properly. We are a little more fortunate in this. We are old enough to read History : and the history of mankind's mistake and successes can provide us with some very useful lessons. It can show us what has made Man tumble down in the past, and how he can get up again and do better. We have learned about brave, unselfish men and women of many countries who have done noble deeds which stand out in letters of gold on the pages of history. But we have also seen that foolish, cruel and selfish people have often undone much of the good that heroes and sages accomplished. Have we ever wondered at this, and asked ourselves why men are so destructive? Why cannot we have peace on the Earth, keeping ourselves busy doing only harmless things, making the world more beautiful to live in? Many wiser people than ourselves have been trying to find an answer to these questions ever since men first began to think about life and how it should be lived.
Let us ask ourselves what we are struggling to get from life, and what makes men fight one another in that struggle. First, it is clear that every one wants to have enough food for himself and his family, and also enough clothing and shelter from the weather because human beings have no natural protection like other animals. Men also desire to be free from the fear of want (not having enough) in time of sickness, unemployment, old age, and such other difficult times which come to most people. They want enough work to do, but also enough leisure-free time in which to do whatever they like, or to do nothing. They also want to be free from the fear of oppression by others : that is, they do not want to be forced to do what they believe to be wrong, or to be prevented from believing, saying or doing whatever thy believe to be right. All these 'wants' are included in what President Roosevelt called The Four Freedoms- (1) Freedom from Want (of food, etc.), (2) Freedom from Oppression, (3) Freedom of Religion (or belief), (4) Freedom of expression. There is also a fifth freedom which is more difficult to get-that is, (5) Freedom from selfishness.
When we begin to think how we can get and keep these Five Freedoms, we find ourselves faced by problems of several kinds. They are (a) Political Problems, (b) Economic Problems, and (c) Moral or cultural problems. We find that, for people to be free in all the five ways, when living together, they must arrange to have the following conditions:
(i) An economic arrangement: that is, a system of production and distribution by which everyone gets enough food, clothing, shelter, work, leisure, help in time of difficulty-but not more than a fair share of these for each person.
(ii) A political arrangement: that is, a system of government by which everyone is protected from oppression and injury, and under which everyone is compelled to do his share of work for the good of all (if he needs to be compelled) but is free to spend his spare time as he pleases, provided he does not injure others or prevent them from enjoying the same freedom.
(iii) A moral or cultural arrangement : that is, a system of education by which everyone is helped to develop all his qualities to the fullest advantage to himself and those around him, and to get rid of qualities which are harmful to himself and others.
Now let us consider in what ways men have up to now tried to make the above arrangements for getting and keeping the Five Fredoms, and what are the chances of our succeeding better in future.
(i) A just economic system: There have always been people in the world who are willing to work hard, and also people who are willing to take what others have earned, rather than work for themselves. Until everyone is willing to do a fair share of work without having to be compelled to do it, it is necessary to have a system by which lazy and greedy people can be compelled to do their share of work, and allowed to take only their proper share of the things produced. The problem is to find the best way of doing that.
People work better if they work for private profit, stimulated by competition, and that therefore private ownership of the means of production should be allowed, the Government only checking people from making too much profit, by means of taxation. This is a question which we should study more deeply, in order to arrive at a well-balanced opinion of our own, as a citizen of a democratic country.
(ii) An efficient political system : The only system, so far invented by Man, by means of which people can be protected from oppression, is the system called democracy. It is still far from perfect, and experiments are going on in many countries to improve it. The most important point about democratic government is that the people who are governed are able to control those who govern them, because the government itself consists of persons chosen by the people governed, usually by means of election by ballot (secret voting). Such a system can work well, however, only if the people who are voters are well educated and intelligent, capable of deciding how to vote after a careful study of all sides of the problems placed before them, and not as a result of personal feelings or of persuasion by bribery or fear. This system therefore depends for its dfficient working on the existence of good education. Therefore we must also have:
(iii) A good educational system : It is not easy to have this, because the educational system of nations is usually under the control of their government; and when men get power they like to keep it. The danger of government controlled education is therefore that those in power usually try to educate the people in such a way that they may believe only those things which are to the advantage of the rules that they should believe. Therefore state controlled education often educates people to support and obey the government, and not to seek information about all sides of important questions, which might lead people to oppose the government.
This problem has not yet been wholly solved in any country. In countries ruled by 'totalitarian' governments (where individuals were or are entirely subordinate to the State, as in Italy under Mussolini, Germany under Hitler, and Russia under Stalin, those who rule the country do not hesitate to take away Freedom. 1. In more fully democratic countries there is apt to be less efficiency because it is believed that Freedom 2, 3 and 4 are not less important than Freedom 1. It is difficult to discover a system which perfectly combines the advantages of having all the Freedoms, and also efficiency. Perhaps it can come into existence only when a larger number of men and women have achieved Freedom 5.
The world is at present divided into two powerful groups, with many people in the middle between them, At the one extreme are the people who have inherited or earned enough possessions to give them Freedom 1, and who usually do not want to change the economic system of private ownership, because they have enough and do not want to risk losing it, These are mostly the wealthy people of all countries. Such people are usually strongly opposed to the introduction of a new economic system. At the other extreme are those who think that a new system is necessary in order to give Freedom 1 to everybody, and to prevent selfish people from taking more than their share. These are the rules of a few other thoughtful people and many of the poorer but socio-economic conscious people of all countries.
Most People are between the two extremes. They would like to have Freedom 1, but they do not want to lose the other Freedoms, which they feel to be equally valuable. The extremists of both sides try to win over the people in the middle to their side, either by argument (in democratic countries), or by force and fear (in totalitarian states).
The most serious problem facing the world today is whether this struggle between the extremists can be settled without war. It is certain that war would be disastrous to all, for modern warfare is far more destructive than war was in ancient days. Another war, fought with the weapons which Science has now provided (including aero planes which fly faster than sound, and explosives so powerful that a single bomb can destroy a whole city) might end in the complete destruction of the present civilization, or even of mankind. So long as the extremists on both sides fear the destruction of war more than they fear each other, they will not start another war.
But it is possible that there may be another way of solving this terrible problem. The struggle is mainly over the question of how to give Freedom I to everyone in the world. At present, Man has not found out how to grow enough food for the rapidly increasing populations of countries such as China, Ceylon, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, or how to distribute the surplus products of other countries, such as the U.S.A., without causing unemployment. Science has made such rapid progress during the past fifty years that it seems possible that discoveries will very soon be made which may completely save the world form the danger of starvation. The 'splitting of the atom', achieved in the past few years, is already leading to the discovery of how to make good use of the inexhaustible energy locked up in every atom of matter in the universe. There are numberless ways in which such energy might be used for the benefit of the world. It might make possible, among other things, the generation of electricity on such an extensive scale, and so cheaply, that all problems of irrigation could be overcome wherever there exists any water to be lifted and distributed. Great areas of the earth’ surface, such as the Sahara and other deserts, which at present cannot be cultivated for want of water, would then be available for growing more food. Other possible new sources of power, which may also soon be put to use by Science, are the tides of the oceans and the heat of the Sun.
Another great discovery likely to be made within a few years is concerned with the green substance of vegetable matter (chlorophyll), which enables plants to obtain their nourishment. Scientists are trying to find out the secret of this, and if they succeed, it is possible that almost unlimited supplies of food may be made to grow both on land and in shallow water. Yet another possible source of food is the substance called plankton, which is found in normous quantities in seawater, and is the principal source of nourishment of the whale and of many fish.
If mankind can by any means be set free from the fear of not having sufficient food, it will go far to solve all other problems: for when men feel sure of Freedom I, they will be much less inclined to fight other men for the other freedoms, or to wish to take those Freedoms away from anyone. If there is plenty for everyone, the only food problem will be to make sure that is fairly distributed. But a danger of disputes about distribution will always remain while people are so selfish that they do not care if some have too little while others have more than they need. There will be much less danger of this when the world can provide more than enough for all; but still the danger will not wholly vanish until men become less selfish. Is it possible that men will ever have the Fifth Freedom-freedom from selfishness? Some people say, 'Human nature never changes'. Fortunately that is not true. If it had been true, Man could never have reached even the present stage of civilization. Human nature does change, though it seems to change with great difficulty. How can we change it?
Man has a wonderful brain, and he is learning to use it more and more wonderfully. But all the inventions and discoveries of Man's intelligence not made men happier and more peaceful. The people who lived in Egypt, Bangladesh and China thousands of years ago had to get on without many of the advantages we have today. They could not travel quickly from place to place; very few of them could read and write; there were very few books, and no cinema, radio and other entertainments of that kind. But those people of ancient times were not less happy then we are except for the discoveries that have helped to get rid of disease, most of Man's inventions seem to have made life more dangerous and more unhappy, not more peaceful and happier. Why is that so?
It is because the knowledge we have gained has given us more power, but not more wisdom to use that power for good. Many of the wonderful modern inventions are being used for war and destruction. Others are used to make things quickly and in large quantities, so that some men can become very rich, and other have no work to do. Men behave selfishly, thinking only of their own power and wealth, and safety for themselves and their families, not really caring much about the fate of others.
This is the greatest of all problems. It is the problem to which all the great religious teachers have tried to find the answer. Unless we can find the answer ourselves, we and each one of us, all the other problems of the world will continue unsolved, and the struggle of Man will go on. There will be wars as long as men want power over other men: there will be poverty as long as men want great wealth which gives them power. Even if scientists discover how to provide enough food and clothing for all, and even if a strong government gets things distributed fairly, as long as there are men and women who are greedy and want to rule others through the possession of more things or more knowledge, there will not be peace and happiness.
The World Problem is the Individual Problem. This means that unless there is a change in ourselves-in us and each one of us- the world will not change. So long as we have greed in our hearts, we are helping to make a greedy and cruel world. Blaming others and expecting them to change is of no use. Even blaming us, telling ourselves that greed is a horrible thing and that it is wicked to be greedy, will not put an end to greed. Then how can there be an end to it, and to all the other evils, which bring sufferings to mankind?
We can be free from greed and other such feelings only by watching fearlessly how they arise in our minds, and by understanding the mind, which creates them. It is the power of Man's mind that has discovered so many secrets of Nature of society. We have studied in this book many of those wonderful discoveries and inventions. But very few of us have discovered the secret of our own nature. The wise men of ancient Asia said that most important thing in the world is self-knowledge. 'Man, know thyself!' said the Greek oracle. We know many other things, but not that. Our mind makes us think that each one of us is a separate being, because we have bodies, which appear separate (though the matter of which they are made is constantly changing). Science is now finding out that there is only one Life in the universe. Things are only separate in appearance. Even men are not different in this, for we too are a part of the universe. But our minds cannot understand that the appearance of separateness is not a real thing. Therefore, our thoughts and actions are always based on this misunderstanding this false idea of separateness. 'What a man thinks, he becomes,' said Buddha. We think of ourselves as separate, and we become selfish, isolated. Then we want more for ourselves, not caring if others have less.
All quarrels and fights and unhappiness come from this. They can come to an end only when our minds see this truth clearly, for, when we see clearly, we cannot help thinking differently, and acting differently. The truth shall make us free. In that freedom the struggle of Man will cease, and his real life as a civilized being will begin.
"Transform Thyself before Transforming Society" has focussed our attention on certain principles of the liberal movement in Bangladesh. L P B has drawn the attention of the leadership to the decadence of the peoples movement of the country. According to a recent research by Institute of Liberal Democracy peoples movement is stagnating, perhaps in decline. The stagnation is not of recent origin but perhaps started about two-three decades ago. Prior to independence, a large section of our middle class youth joined our national liberation movement. Another large section accepted socialism as its guiding philosophy for social justice. Many of these young people came from well-to-do families and were brilliant students of colleges and universities. Joining the national and socialist movements meant hardship, imprisonment, and loss of lucrative careers, physical torture and sometime even gallows. Still these young people were not afraid. The national movements always had a good number of self-sacrificing workers. But the situation has completely changed today. Our middle class has gone more or less completely consumerist; it is not worried over the fact that a big section of the population continues to live much below the poverty line without education, without health facilities, etc. etc.
December 16, 1971 was the date on which we have attained independence. On this day, the seeds of development and realignment of social forces of our country were planted and during the last 30 years, these seeds have taken the form of what we see today. If during the pre-independence days, the middle class youth who flocked to the national movements, national identity and national self-respect could be given proper leadership and guidance for people oriented policies they would have been the driving force of such a trend. The main pillar of the nationalist movements was the middle class. Even now the social force for the movements is the middle class. With the attainment of independence, this class reaped considerable harvest next to the upper class. As the society advanced or rather the productive forces started to gain their natural momentum, the middle class gradually lost its radical character. On the whole, the class, which supplied maximum number of workers to the different parties, became a highly privileged one in the post-independent years. The youth belonging to this class are no longer interested in any social change; they are completely consumerists. Their movement as salaried persons is to draw maximum financial benefits from their employers, be it a government or quasi-government organisation, research institution, bank, insurance company, private organisation, primary school, college or university.
These sections are no longer interested in the welfare of others. Trade unionism for these people is to grab as much money and other benefits as possible. The Government and leaders and industrialists are also ready to oblige them to separate them from the teeming millions of poor countrymen and to provide a consumer market for goods imported or manufactured by multinationals or joint ventures. The parties with their base and leadership in the middle class cannot antagonize this class. But this class or members of this class now avoid the people oriented politics because they fear rough politics will not allow such politics to continue. Being frustrated they either join other parties or become apolitical. There is no need to shed tears for this; it is but natural. Their programme, and particularly activity, should be modified to serve the interests of these poorer sections.
The majority of our people has a quality of life not worth living and a good fraction of our people lives below the poverty line. There are unorganized workers and farmers, socially backward classes, tribal people and adeevasi (sons of the soil). These constitute the natural force of the present. Trade unions of middle class, salaried employees are at present tacit centers for corruption and support lack of work culture. White-collared workers, blue-collared workers, traders and others are not the natural force for social advancement today. The activity of the political workers should include fight against economic exploitation, spread of education, fight against superstitions, and to serve as watchdog for social justice and civil rights for all, particularly for the socially backward people. The present parliamentary system does not suit the social reality. The slogan of a coalition government or a Third Front indicates bankruptcy of present political parties and an opportunity for liberal philosophy.
From the 1970s onward, a new technological revolution (NTR) started to take shape. As a result of this revolution, the productive forces have undergone a change; productivity and surplus value per unit of labour has increased in an amazing way. The management can now part with more money as salary and other facilities to its salaried staff and workers. The NTR has changed the nature of most industries. A new type of organised working class is being generated. Advent of agriculture created a surplus value which led to the origin of a new class and a tertiary sector. After the Development in a few industrial sector, surplus value per unit labour increased and the tertiary sector got further strengthened. With the NTR there is still further increase in the surplus value per unit of labour; the tertiary sector received a further boost and expanded both quantitatively and qualitatively. All these have social implications.
The full significance of the NTR and its potential danger leading to the development of social strains require thorough analysis and assessment. On the basis of the productive forces and social relationships that are in existence the future of liberalism is bright. With the collapse of imperial powers after Second World War and the advent of the NTR, no worthwhile study has been made by the parties to work out a new strategy and tactics.
The New Technological Revolution has strengthened the capitalist world for the present. The capitalist world is no longer divided. In the shape of G-8, European Union, NATO, it has formed its own "International". The working people’s international is non existent. Before the Second World war, the capitalist world was divided into different imperialist powers with different spheres of influence in the form of colonies. Today the picture is totally reversed. In the name of globalisation, liberalisation, World Trade Organisation, common intellectual property rights and patent systems, free trade and free flow of capital market economy the world Libera has the whole developing world as its fertile ground. At one time, people of the colonies were united for the national liberation movement. Subsequently the NAM, anti-war movements, movement against nuclear warfare, campaign against global hegemony, and the interest of the national economy united the Third World. Today, the NAM and other such movements have either collapsed or are shadows of their earlier "selves". The liberal world is uniting the people of the developing world. But political parties are concerned only with day-to-day marginal problems and have failed to give any leadership for the generation of Liberalism for the welfare of all people in this region.
Globalism is an important pivot of the movement. At present political parties do not carry out any worthwhile probing discussions on the international happenings. The USA has taken the leadership of the capitalist world in the interest of world capital. China appears to be opening up to international border for development. Iraq, with the most progressive outlook in the Muslim world, is being choked economically and militarily. The Taliban-a force of Muslim youth control Afghanistan reversing the progressive measures introduced by Islamic theology. In India, there is no guarantee that in the near future Hindu fundamentalists will not gain absolute majority in Parliament, to reverse the progressive social measures and institutions introduced as a result of the national movements. Already, the process has started. Social revolution in the post-Second World War period requires continuous change and liberalism is consistent with the political requirement and economic advancement of the society. The leadership of the CPSU was incapable of understanding the people's aspirations and their extremely hostile attitude to the system on account of the lack of democracy, civil and minimum freedom in the USSR. Till Gorbachev came to power, the Soviet Union did not allow any freethinking and expression in any field, be it literature, science and technology or matters of people's interest. As a result, the system choked the development of productive forces and other creative work of art and literature. Gorbachev initiated step to change the system. He understood the disease but not the cure. under the slogans of glasnost and perestroika, Gorbachev wanted to make the socialist system of the USSR democratic and efficient. But the erstwhile USSR is now under jungle rule and more uncivilised and unproductive than the earlier regimes. The reactionary, not progressive, forces are in command. Taking advantage of the people's hostility to the system, a social counter-revolution was made successful.
Corruption has permeated the society both horizontally and vertically. From the level of politicians and ministers to the level of the under-class staff-most are involved. In the earlier days also it was there but now a quantitative change leading to a qualitative change has taken place. And this is bound to affect the efficiency of the productive forces and their expansion and help develop the reactionary forces. Many overlook this stating that it is a natural social phenomenon. Trade unions by their silence tacitly support corruption. But who benefits from corruption and who is the loser? Let the study be done in the total social context. Corruption has various ramifications and social implications.
There cannot be revolutionary practice without a revolutionary theory. Very true. The scientifc theory of Liberalism to change the society and class approach to charter the path of human development attracted the youth of the present era. These attracted a good section of our youth to Liberalism. At the advent of the twentefirst century, the liberals have everything to offer to the youth for its intellectual satisfaction and for social activity. The New Technological Revolution shows the strength of Liberalism.
CERTAINLY there are weaknesses in the present politics and economies of Bangladesh. Due to the eventual shrinkage of the market, the system will be under serious strain in due course. Indirect evidences are already there. At time people will flare up in blind rage but in the absence of a socially conscious party, ultimately nothing will happen except some cosmetic dressing. Herein lies the necessity of the world liberals to help build up a conscious leadership and a course of action. Liberalism has immense capacity to adjust when it is dictated by social strains. Only skillful steering is needed. But it may take time or happen quickly depending on the people's movement and leadership. In the national scenario, the role of middle class in the post-independent period, corruption and its socio-economic effect, the lack of emphasis on the poor and the unorganised sections of people and on culturally and economically backward people should agitate the liberals both national and world over to avait the opportunity and co-operate with each other for the opread of Liberalism. r
Politics In Bangladesh
The history of human civilization is the history of conflict and resolution. Human society in all ages advanced toward fulfillment through assertions and negations of their natural rights, which implies that individuals have widest possible scope to live their lives as they choose. John lock argued that right to vote is based on the existence of natural rights putting emphasis on a system of government by consent. This freedom of choice allows them to engage directly and continuously in shaping life of their community. Rousseau was a strenuous critic of participation in electing representatives through this system of voting. He held every individual entirely responsible for their economic, social and political circumstances, as it is "obedience to law as one prescribes for oneself." He said, "people believes itself to be free, it is gravely mistaken; it is only free when it elects its members of the parliament; as soon as they are elected, the people are enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of freedom, people makes such use of its freedom that deserves to loose it." Rousseau was cent percent right. When mobocracy in the form of democracy grabs the steering people are robbed of their right.
Politics is the 'master science', the activity through which human beings attempt to improve their lives and create good society. On broader sense, it is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live. Hence, as there are conflicting opinions, different wants, competing needs and opposing interests, so politics is a process of conflict resolutions in which rival views or competing interests are reconciled with one another. Politics, to some, is dirty word. It conjures up images of troubles, disruptions and violence, in the social arena; on the other hand deceit, manipulation and lies are the characteristics of the elected representatives. Politics is associated with power and authority. Power is the ability to achieve a desired outcome. Authority is legitimate power or right to exercise the power. Authority is based on acknowledged duty to obey rather than being under any form of coercion or manipulation. Authority is power to do the right. This extols the virtue of a political society in which each and every individual is able to achieve self development through the promotion of openness, accountability and decentralisation. By participating in political life people enhance their understanding, strengthen their sensibilities and achieve a higher level of personal development, It is an educational experience where nobody teaches anybody any lesson.
Parliamentary democracy essentially means responsible and representative government. Its main merit is that the representatives are by virtue of their education and opportunities that they have to deliberate and debate, supposedly better able than people themselves to define peoples best interests. The public interest consist of the general or collective interest of a community, that is, that which is good for a society as a whole. Rousseau stated that interests of the public are higher than or morally superior to those of the individual. The representatives have to think for themselves on behalf of their constituencies. Alexis de Tocquevelle, the famous political thinker said, "in politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendship." This is very much perfect as natural right to nurse and maintain jealousy and engage in a competition with colleague representatives as to who does how much for the wellbeing of the people. But it is very difficult to see how this any way restrict politicians once they are in power and possess authority.
It should not have been said so much unless this 56 thousand 1 hundred 26 sqmiles of land comprising Bangladesh would not have become the land where the innate ideals of liberalism being trampled under foot everyday. Millions of downtrodden men women and children are crying for emancipation and praying for the emergence of some one or a body to raise voice for them. The land for whose independence they fought, suffered innumerable losses of lives, honour and properties, the land of their dream where they thought they would live with honour, equality and justice has turned into a wasteland for them. It seems that the 'state of nature' where life was 'nasty, brutish and short' has established its absolute reign and demanding unquestioned loyalty under the threat of shameless brute force and naked cunnings. Under the veil of governance an open challenge is thrown, "you could not realise your ideals, now you must idealise my reals."
As the chariot of civilization moves fast forward the strategy of socio-economic, political, civil and cultural repression change and adopt some sort of sophistication. Barbarism is freely exercised under the pretension of governance. The external authority and the vested interest groups have formed between them an unholy alliance and strange relation to suck up the wealth, courage and honour of the mass people with a view to destroy their spirit. They very well know that if the spirit of humanism and natural rights are allowed to live their downfall will be a matter of time-the right moment to ignite the flame of original human nature that is asleep in the very heart of millions of oppressed people of Bangladesh. 'A sleeping lion is more dangerous than thousands of provocated bears' so goes the saying.
The centralising tendencies of the government have bedeviled the objectives of developing socio-political harmony and an overreaching national consciousness. The inability or unwillingness to accommodate social diversity and provide democratic space to a variety of groups has in turn returned and intensified centrifugal tendencies. The compulsion of the govt. to forge a nation-state in its thrall invariably involve the prominence of coercible strategies and gradual erosion of democratic right and freedom. The institutionalization of hegemony through the insistence of political party conformity and no less insidious practices of elevating the majority party to a foremost position have struck at the fundamental tenants of identity in a representative democracy. In Bangladesh such factions clearly characterise perception of discrimination and societal conflict. The failure of the present party in power to deliver its promises with regard to the good life of the people, and its tendencies to camouflage its limited capabilities with coercion and authoritarianism resulted in anti-establishment and anti-systematic governance that is corrupt, exclusive and bankrupt and economic development is denied democratic legitimacy.
Party in power in Bangladesh has adopted a policy where all power is jealously guarded at the center and concentrated in a class of party members and thus in the office of a single individual. Hence, the reasoning of those who believe that the system is not working, for them is to capture power through similar system and means. This is a course of action which serves only to replicate the problem. Authority and opportunity when stem from partisan affiliation the development of flourishing institutions of Press and Media and civil society that would serve as independent guardian of democratic right is weakend. The government has struck a severe blow and brought down individual freedom, basic human rights including the rights of women, children and the minorities, democratic politics, traditional socio-cultural values, moral and ethics, freedom of judiciary and media to their knees.
The world 'law' and 'order' have so frequently been misused as an excuse for oppression that the very phrase has become suspect. Law and order as expressed in official term has become in truth quiet-crouch-crush-flatten to the alert and progressive citizenry. There is no intrinsic virtue to law and order unless 'law' is equated with justice and 'order' with the discipline of a people satisfied that justice will be done. The true concept of law is based on righteousness, not on the power to impose harsh and inflexible rules on a defenseless people. The true measure of perfection of a system is the amount of protection it guarantees to the weakest. Here, numerous instances can be cited where attempts on the part of the judiciary and media to act independently, have been squashed by the capricious exercise of political power. Some media organs have functioned as champions of independent and democratic opinion whilst others have invariably succumbed to government control or patronage. Here, journalists have been victimized, arrested, abducted, harmed upon physically, even killed for their independence and nonconformity to the government party orders not to expose the real. In addition to the imposition of censorship from above, journalists themselves have had to practice self censorship to placate the government party led terrorists, as a life insurance policy.
Obsession with personalities, dynastic leadership, power politics accompanied by politics of 'all-or-nothing' and 'now-or-never', terrorism, insurgencies, wide-spread corruption, feudal attitude and rampant mistrust and suspicion are only a part of dominant features of Bangladesh political culture and reality as it exist to-day. It is as if "ends justify means" has become the motto and the end being power and retainment of it at any cost. Therefore, be it restoring to communal politics, evoking anti religious sentiment in the garb of secularism under the pretext of nationalism, all is justified as long as it seems the end objective of getting voters or driving away voters for staying in political seat. Another alarming feature in current politics is the growing nexus between criminals and politicians. Competitive formal democratic politics is now an expensive business. Election campaigns require large sums of money and since that much vast sums are not available through legitimate means, it is a question of getting funds from extortion, looting and plundering and occupation, hoblobbying with black money operators and being indebted to them. Here, all means are justified-money, corruption, religious sentiment, muscle and arms power with help of criminals and terrorists-for the ultimate aim is to secure or stay in power. By the time politicians play their power game, their terms normally get over (either by ballot or bullet) and issues which needed urgent addressing remain unresolved.
No one takes the people seriously. The politicians have lost credibility. Thus the growing erosion in the confidence of the people vis-à-vis the government is creating discontent and disillusionment. It's a dangerous trend and can at any time lead to the rending of the social fabric.
Human beings, being what they are, there is temptation to gain advantages and indeed the very basic ambition to gain power. The leaders in the party in power and the leaders in the opposition party have engaged themselves in hurling blames against each other. Whenever the oppositions speak against the misrule, corruption, sacrificing national interest only for personal benefit, spending national exchequer on unproductive purposes, forgoing agriculture and industrial development, doing nothing to move towards technological advancement by the party in power, they are being abused in the most barbarous method. Police harassment, abduction and secret killing and unleashing a reign of terror, victimization by false cases are most common methods to hush up the opposition. Even when they give constructive suggestions they are termed as agents of this or that country. The opposition parties have also blamed the party in power with equal energy and vocabulary. But none of them speaks for the welfare of the state and the nation. Not only that, they are employing their party men to launch vehement physical attacking operation against each other, sometimes with such fury that killing, looting, raping and occupation of house and property make news headline. What is more surprising is that for showing power, authority and supremacy they are killing their own men whom they think can gain a stature and challenge their authority and take over the chair. Just after the killing spree is over they throw full throated allegation against the opposition and start so called retaliation operation in which innocent opposition party men are killed. This is killing two birds with a single stone.
We wonder and find no place to hide our face in shame when the chief of the party in power orders her armed cadres to kill ten opposition men for one of her party men in for one of her partymen every hit to retaliate an incident where her men killed eight of their own men only to regain supremacy of that locality and that order came in broad daylight in a public meeting. Her men in the parliament, even in the cabinet order their armed cadres to mutilate the journalists who dare to report their crimes. Not only that, in the open public meeting order the policemen not to admit case entries or arrest the terrorist cadres. It is a fact that the opposition could not reach that height, but it is not because they are angels, rather in fear of more and more rude repressive measures to be adopted by the cadres of the party in power. Instead of taking the people into confidence the opposition parties are busy in power mongering within the party.
Doing some good for the people, providing the people with some relief from rampant corruption, terrorism, extortion, abducting young girls and raping and killing, being victim of cross firing between party cadres are nobody's business now. While the party in power is doing all their best, taking every measure to retain power, the opposition parties have employed all their efforts to regain power. Winning power, not people has become the goal, the target. To reach that target the parties are asking their student front to become active in political organizing but not in study; the bureaucrats are being ordered not to act according to government decision or to be indulgent in co-operation with the legitimate suggestions of the opposition but not to serve the public interest; the labour fronts are asked to take over the CBAs but not to increases production; law enforcing authorities are asked to hush up the opposition but not to curb crimes; the teachers are asked to co-operate with student wing of the parties but not to be regular in their profession, the civil societies are asked to propagate lies but not to speak for the people, the NGO leaders are asked to co-operate in fetching votes but not to serve the distressed, the industrialists are asked to pay large sums in party funds even if by levying it over the people or by non payment of bank loan but not to use money to get better technologies for the upliftment of his industry, the bank and financial institutions are ordered to issue huge amount of money as different types of loans to their party men but not to invest in small scale industries which will create employment and income generation, the youth forces are being provided with heroin, phensydiles and arms but not with books and education expenses and training.
Those are the persons whom the people elected to be their representatives, their guardians. It was supposed, that they will keep up to their promise and serve the interest of the people, the state and the nation; work relentlessly for a bright future; frame laws, rules and regulations, Acts that will provide the people with all their basic needs and ensure the implementation of individual human rights, ensure peace, prosperity and progress. All other South Asian nations even Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal Bhutan and Maldives who do not have that much human or natural resources are moving fast forward, so fast that even the developed countries are terming them as emerging economic tigers. And Bangladesh, who was even in the first half of nineties was supposed to be the emerging economic tiger has turned into a lame tortoise.
The main acusation that the chief of the party in power hurls against the opposition parties that they are being agents of Pakistan are disrupting the peace and stability of the Bangali nation and Bangladesh. A serious acusation : But what she hides most cautiously is that Pakistan, being one of the super powers and economically in a much more sound position thinks very little about us. The vast hostile Indian territory between the two countries makes it impossible; the valiant freedom fighters in the opposition camp, even at the cost of their lives, will not allow it, and the general people who knows very well what a sacrifice they had to make to see this Bangladesh free will never let it happen. The one and only reason behind such accusation is an ultraferior motive to arouse public sentiment against the oppositions parties. The lower grade leaders of the party in power loudly echoes the words of their chief in public meetings but in their respective localities maintain tight-lips as they themselves know that people are much conscious.
On the other hand the accusation of the chief of the main opposition party that the ruling party is selling Bangladesh to India is mistermed. The ruling party has already made Bangladesh an economic colony of India. The Indian industiralist, businessmen and even traders have swarmed Bangladesh markets with their goods sent through black marketeers ninety five percent of whom owe their allegience of the ruling party. In the agricultural sector they are pushing fertilizers and insecticides that kills the lands fertility and destroys the ecological as well as environmental balance, so that their remains no alternative in future but to depend on Indian products. Their cultural aggression is so well planned and ill motivated that it destroys the patriotic spirit of Bangladeshi youth force. In the international boder, the farm land in Bangladesh are cultivated by Bangladeshi farmers but the crop are reaped by the Indian farmers with active firepower help from the Indian Border Security Forces.
In propaganda campaign the chief of the ruling party is a titan whereas the chief of the opposition party is swarmed by her own bees with their stings open and out. Gentlemanship in politics, particularly in Bangladesh, does never pay.
When society faces intolerable crack and its stability is in danger only faith can serve no purpose. It requires socio-economic, political and cultural reformation. According to Roman philosopher, statesman Marcellus Cecero, "state is nothing but a community of law. It may not be possible to administer equal distribution of wealth or equalize the innate capabilities of all citizens, but is very much possible and the state should ensure persons right to equalize their individual right. True law is right reason in agreement in nature. Those who have right reason in common must have right in common. conception of justice and consciousness of love must go together. If the political society cannot establish a balance of righteousness with the mass people than the stability and discipline of a state is bound to collapse." Verily, this is the state of Bangladesh now.
"Quis custodiet custodes" (Who guards the guardians)? Thus the great Greek philosopher Aristotle expressed his anxiety and concern while responding to Plato's theory of philosopher king as guardian. Bangladesh, our dear motherland is being repeatedly cheated by her sons and daughters who were given the guardianship to form the government and the guardianship to impose check and balance but all of them became over mighty. Politics have become rough, people are terrified. Darkness reigns everywhere. This has become the place where guardians clash-----clash----and clash.
What's wrong with our political leaders? Did they forget we won freedom by fighting with one of the mighty military powers and that we have that much honour and dignity and mentality to take measures to solve our own problems? The tradition of the Bangladeshi people is a tradition of pride and performance. This is the very reason the neighboring countries as well as the foreign developed countries honour Bangladesh and on the other hand continuously keep themselves engaged in comparative efforts to weaken it politically, economically and culturally. They create and promote pockets of their influence in every rank and file, place and position in national life. The patriotic intelligentsia and the people who could understand the outcome of such indifference raised warnings but no-body cared to pay heed to those. The result, the onslaught of the internal mischievous trio with money and arms from the external hegemonist forces gradually gained strength and ultimately appeared with full power and velocity of a blood thirsty monster, vicious and mighty.
As the most powerful party with grassroots level work force hundred percent dedicated and loyal to their leader, Awami league started the culture of adoring foreign donors and influencing them not to co-operate with the ruling BNP. Emerging as undisputed leader of the internal discontent forces Awami league waged continuous strikes, hartals, disrupting normal affairs of the state along with adopting all monosterous activities that pleased the hegemonist neighbor and foreign forces. The culture of adoring the foreign emissaries and embassies continued. The destructive activities of the discontent forces under the leadership of Awami League inspired the foreigners to poke their nose into the internal affairs of Bangladesh. The consortium of donors, IMF, World Bank, WTO all began to impose conditions even interfered with independence. Nothing unnatural. When the internal powerful political forces beg the foreign power not to co-operate in the development of economies and social services, the foreign power get chancs to adopt measures to exploit the resources of the land and force unacceptable conditions in exchange for donations, grants and aids. What an impudence! Vieing for power by winning over the people was replaced by winning over the foreigners taking them as friends. Self-respect, honour, dignity and prestige of a nation thrown under the feet to foreign donors. It is a wonder, Awami League, while adoring the feet of the donors did not feel a little ashamed. Seeing the internal conflict the donors raised demands that no dignified nation will consider honorable and those were promptly swallowed. The aid consortium, in the nomenclature of aid began continuously imposing conditions to carry on this or that reforms economic and socio-political that they would not impose in their country for fear of public reprisal. Bangladesh being aided by the doner countries is, becoming poorer everyday. Her economy politics and social culture, morality, ethics are being dominated by their wishes. The bankruptcy of the political leaders leadership, ideological knowledge and patriotism has inspired the foreigners to such an extent that it seems they are delivering speeches that amounts to dictate national policies. In every sphere of national life, be it politics, economic development, socio-cultural heritage and tradition, their interferences have gone beyond the ethies of emissaries. On occasions their words are direct threats. Any government policy that does not suit their interest faces naked criticism from them. In sectors where international contract is concerned they compete with each other viciously and whenever one of them is dissapointed they show their real face, the face of a coyote. Openly they are terming the patriotic efforts of our politicians and bureaucrats as inefficient, corrupt and what not. The foreign donors in the camoufiage of friends are behaving as masters. Finding the ground fertile and infested by insect like politicians who have no idea that they themselves are eating up their own crop the foreignners have dug into the soil their tillers. Is that day far away that these friends will even dictate politics only to serve their interest? The present Awami League regim had invited these apparent friends to interfere in national politics and at present the BNP is following those footsteps. Are these parties so ignorant, so incapable to run the affairs of the state? Wherever they may be, either in power or in the opposition it is them, on whom the people of this land have placed their trust. It is the people, who shall be brought into confidence, not the foreign mischief makers. The Awami league is throwing allegation against the opposition that they are taking every steps to make the land Pakistan and the opposition is replying with equal force that Awami League is selling this land to India, and to refrain each other from realizing the alleged designs foreign coyotes are being cordially invited. They never think, even for a moment, that the people of this land possess a history not to cow down to anybody an earth.
No political party in Bangladesh now cares for people. They are vieing with each other to be in the good book of foreign masters in the camouflage of friends. These leaders are busy in acquiring wealth, cementing their power base with money, arms and sheer cunnings. Capitalizing on the poverty of the people and the exploiting design of the NGOs they are fattening their purses. They care for the basic right of terrorist criminal political leaders, but do not the people have any basic right? Who cares? They care only to satisfy the foreign hegemonists, who are supposed to be friends but in reality turning into masters, only because our politicians are provoking them to be. Thus backbiting each other, backward moves the nation.
At least, somebody should care. But who?
Culture Of Illegitimate Democracy
In every society there has to be some kind of authority. Democracy, in its essence, is a particular kind of attitude towards authority, an attitude that arises from certain conception of the human personality. The most fundamental requirement of every human being is the freedom to be oneself deeply and truly. Consequently, the integrity, dignity and fulfillment of the human personality demand freedom from irrational external authority and opportunity to pursue inner direction and authenticity. Democracy therefore, is a rejection of all irrational authority, authority that relies merely on faith or tradition or any other from of non-reason. It is an affirmation, too, that all authority must in some sense be one's own authority, and that therefore, for the sake of inner direction and authenticity, it must always be possible to communicate with authority, to interact with it, and eventually even to control it. These two conceptual components of democracy, the rejection and the affirmation each have certain definite implications. The rejection of irrational authority calls for religions morality ethics and humanism and the rule of law. The first because, religion when it enters the social domain is in fact the highest form of that rational authority which we seek to nurse, and the second because rationality is predictability and predictability requires objective rules. The affirmation that it must always be possible to communicate and interact with authority, and eventually even to control it, entails much more than choosing representatives for positions of power. It implies the supremacy of the people over those who exercise power, even when those who do so have been elected by the people for the purpose. It is therefore an emphatic rejection of parliamentary sovereignty, which is really an absurd and undemocratic idea. The truth is that democracy depends less on the sovereignty of Parliament than on the responsiveness of that body to public opinion, its acceptance in practice of numerous conventions and restrictions, and the influence exercised upon individual parliamentarians by an alert public.
Control over Power
Democracy is therefore three things :
i. the rule of consciously formulated laws.
ii. the regular opportunity for the people to give expression to their wishes in the choice of those who are to exercise power; and
iii. the capacity of the people to control those who exercise power, whether they are elected or not.
It is last of these that is usually totally forgotten in definitions of democracy but is in fact central to it. We have rid ourselves of traditional heriditary rules as a result of conscious democratic urge. But we can not do without authority altogether. A new problem therefore faces us: how to make authority legitimate. Elections provide a ready-made solution to that problem. This is the true reason for the popularity of elections in the contemporary world that they provide a convenient means for legitimizing authority. But to perceive this role of elections is at once also to see that these do not by themselves constitute democracy. There is something more. Something special that needs to be added to convert the process of elections Into democracy. And that something special is control over those who exercise power.
Power in Bangladesh
The reason why the element of control has not recieveds the central importance it deserves in discussions on democracy is that we have allowed ourselves to be guided by the West instead of looking at our problems with fresh eyes. In the West the question of control is not perceived as a special or independent problem, chiefly because an extensive democratization of society has occurred there and people in general readily react to events in terms of their own needs and constantly press their views upon those exercising power. Consequently, those in positions of authority are not artificially separated from the people but are enmeshed in a pretty dense medium of relatively alert intelligent and spirited individuals. In Bangladesh the situation is just the opposite. Here it is the common man who is enmeshed in networks of complex relationships, which press upon him from every side and severely restrict his choices. The man in power, on the other hand, lives in a rarefied environment, elevated far above the people whom he pretends to represent, holding in his grasp many of those network that control the life and destiny of the common man. It is this social reality, the utter absence of a democratic society and the consequent vanity of every person exercising even the pettiest of authority, that brings to view the central necessity of control.
Supremacy of the people
The idea of control though given little conscious conceptual importance in the contemporary West, is nevertheless intrinsic to democracy, which is an empty shell without it. The Greeks understood this at the very inception of democracy. The two main institutions of ancient Athens where democracy originated were : (i) the Assembly in which the entire citizenry met and legislated and, (ii) the peoples courts with their large popular juries. It might be reckoned absurd to ask which was the most powerful institution of Athenian democracy. For in a direct democracy what can be more powerful or important than the Assembly of the entire citizenry. But that was not actually the case, and that is why Athens was a true democracy and not a monocracy. The real and abiding power was located in the peoples courts, which were the keystone of the whole democratic system. The courts could vet or quash legislation issuing from the Assembly of the entire citizenry: and they also exercised control over the activities of politicians. The latter they achieved in three main ways. There was first, a power of examination before a candidate could take office, and it was open to the public to bring action against a given candidate on the ground that he was not a fit person to hold office and the court could disqualify him. Secondly a man in power could be made a subject at the conclusion of his term of office to a review all the acts performed and this review also took place before a court. Finally there was in every case a special auditing of accounts and a review of the handling of public money at the end of his term. The court so readily exercised such powers because it was a people's court with large popular juries and was conceived to be literally the Athenian people for the purpose in hand. Both the Assembly and the court were the people.
Emotional Expression and Rational Control
The conclusion that emerges from the above discussion is absolutely central to our understanding of democracy. It is clear that democracy is not merely expression, it is also control. In fact expression and control are the two modes in which the people declare themselves and a populace cannot be considered free if it is deprived of either. The people must indeed always be able to give expression to their will or their wishes, and this may be considered to be their predominantly emotional aspect. But they must also be able to exercise control over those to whom they have given power to implement their wishes and in this mode they are being predominantly rational. We cannot have democracy without either. For if we have only expression we risk subjection to waves of feeling and manipulation by demagogues. But if we only have control without expression, we lack legitimate criteria for control and also miss out on possibly the most exciting part of democracy, the open manifestation of the people's wishes. So we must have expression and control, both feeling and rationality; but these have to operate within a framework of law. For that is what holds the system together and prevents its becoming a plaything of demagogues and lapsing into mobocracy.
Alert Public Opinion
In the West today formal institutions of control have not been accorded much importance, and the theory, only partly justified by facts, is that an alert public opinion suffices. This theory lends itself to the interpretation that, where such alert public opinion does not exist, the society in question is simply not suitable for democracy. While it is true that the democratization of society is a most powerful sustainer of a democratic political system, we must never lose sight of the fact that in a highly pluralistic society like ours, governance would be impossible, even in the absence of an alert public, if it did not permit choice and openly rested on a narrow social base. Moreover we have seen that, in the absence of traditional hereditary rulers, a political system can only be legitimized through a process of elections that enables the people to exercise choice in the selection of rulers. So a system of choice is simply unavoidable. But if we do have half- democracy; and since we cannot go back to the old system of no-democracy, we have every reason to choose the alternative of full democracy. The argument of unsuitability is therefore arrogant and irrelevant. But if we are to have a fully democratic political system in a society not yet democratized, we must correctly understand both democracy and the weaknesses of such a society, and strive to institutionalize the essential element of control in the manner most suitable.
Democratic Decentralization
This discussion incidentally lays bare the real limitation of the theory of democratic decentralization that is routinely passed off as panacea for the ills of our democracy. The idea behind democratic decentralization is to give more power to local units and to have that power exercised by locally elected persons, who it is presumed will be closer to and more representatives of the people. It is argued that democracy will thereby be strengthened, especially as greater participation by the people may be expected. But it does not work out that way in a society not yet democratized. For locally elected persons are frequently locally powerful people. Their election may often be less a ‘representation’ of the people than an expression of the structure of social relations at the local level and of the representatives’ own special position of dominance in the area. The expectation that, in a small domain, people will rise up on their own to oppose malpractices and arbitrariness is totally unfounded and is based on ignorance and wishful thinking. The weak do not possess the spirit or capacity to even criticize the powerful, and those not weak prefer to maintain amicable relations with their powerful neighbors, the more so when such neighbors are permanent. Only a person with some long-standing feud against the 'representative' is at all likely to oppose him; but such opposition will often be just as arbitrary as the exercise of power itself, and it will entail slyly using others as pawns in the game. None of this is very helpful to democracy. Nor, on the same logic, can it lead to any special participation by the people. In practice, therefore, 'local empowerment' by itself does not work out much better than distant representation. The reason is that the institutions created in the name of democratic decentralization are simply extension of exiting ones to smaller areas. And while this may be desirable in itself for other reasons, it does not create anything new or different but merely replicates the very thing that it is supposed to correct. This has occurred in the name of reform because of an inadequate understanding of democracy and a corresponding failure to create new and appropriate institutions on behalf of the people. To really empower the people we need to set up suitable ‘institutions of control’ over those who exercise power, whether they have been elected locally or through distant representation and even for those who have not been elected at all, e.g. the bureaucracy, and constitutional authorities.
Unfettered
In order to develop and clarify this argument, let us visualize a country that calls itself a democracy but exercise no control over its elected representatives, and has a society that is not yet democratized. Now an undemocratic society is by definition a society in which a small minority is economically and socially power full and the large mass exists at levels not far from subsistence. It is natural to expect social oppression; for that is the mode in which the relationship of the strong to the weak is habitually expressed. In such a society those who exercise political power become strong and are thereby automatically lifted far above the people, regardless of their social origins or of the fact that they have been 'chosen' by the people. Their special status is further enhanced by the belief, frequently found in societies not yet democratized, that power is unfettered, i.e. the capacity to violate all rules, laws and norms. If a man is subject to these, he is not considered powerful at all. This belief, since it prevails among the people, prevails too among those elected by the people. The unforced special status of political power combined with the belief that power is unfettered imparts a particular dynamics to the entire political system, a tendency for those in power to move from relative to absolute unfettered.
Autonomous Institutions
HALF-DEMOCRACY, or democracy as we have hitherto understood it, is in principle capable of posing two problems for the unfettered. It can restrict and hedge in the powerful within a framework of laws and autonomous institutions, and it definitely makes power temporary because elective. As to the first problem, since autonomous institutions are a threat to unfettered, their destruction has been a leading task of our politics; and there has emerged in our country a form of political totalitarianism under which political considerations decide everything even such questions as merit in sports. this destruction of autonomy has proceeded all along the line and has affected every institution of state and society. But it is most visible in the bureaucracy and the police, because here the destruction has been total. These vital organs of state that ought to have minds of their own are today wholly subjugated to the personal whims and fancies of politicians. Officers are no longer officers of the state but have become 'men' of one politician or the other, and authority does not flow in accordance with the formal hierarchy established by law but through channels generated by political equations.
Electoral Process Subverted
As to the second problem, i.e. the temporary nature of power arising out of periodic elections, the answer has been found in successfully violating the sense and spirit of the rules governing the process, which legitimizes authority. Demo-cracy is misleadingly depicted as the supremacy of elected representative (Parliamentary sovereignty), and on this ground democratic rules and conventions are, with twisted logic, held to the unreasonable restrictions. On the other hand, the electoral process is effectively subverted in the search for perpetual power through the lavish use of money and muscle power. In these perversely creative ways democracy and omnipotence are sought to be reconciled, the substance of omnipotence being stubbornly persisted with behind the disfigured mask of democracy. But there is little need to dwell on these realities. For the conceptual point should by now be obvious: there can be no democracy without a system of control over those elected to exercise power. Indeed we would perhaps be giving a sounder emphasis to our understanding of democracy if we chose to redefine it as a system in which ordinary people posses the capacity to control those who exercise power.
Contemporary Bangladesh
Now, if for a moment we move away from this abstract discussion on democracy and turn to the specific historical experience of contemporary Bangladesh we will notice that the concept of democracy has a fundamental significance and may well represent a formulation of what we as a people are seeking. Historically speaking, it is universally agreed that Bangladesh is a civilization. Despite numerous contradictions this civilization still holds together and gave a certain sense of unity to a very large mass of humanity for millennia. This have become possible because of the religious ideologies that have completely overruled the illmotivated designs of the reactionary civil society. But it must acknowledge that civilization and society is undergoing a fundamental transformation: the civilization has to find expression in new institutions, and society has to work out a fresh basis of social unity. This is the historic task before the people to keep an eye on the reactionary civil society that is trying to perpetuate illegitimate half democracy.
For over three decades Bangladesh is apparently in the nightmare of political stalemate. Irrational and irreconcilable opposing views of the political parties made the people concerned of the situation arising out of the crisis. People oriented issues were not given due recognition. The number of associations and action groups in Bangladesh bear the witness to the scale of unscrupulous element’s involvement in public affairs, their initiatives and preparedness to take matters into their own hands. The social factors that are most relevant to the political culture have been neglect of core socio-economic issues, systematic discrimination against women and ascendancy of aggressive obscurantism. Violence is routinized and wholesale intimidation is applied as a deterent to free expression and electoral process has been brought under arbitrary will of the ruling party. Political confrontation has taken a vicious trend. The reign of terror has taken over the entire country in its grip. Peoples choice is economic growth with social justice, but the slightest effort to honour that choice is not on the horizon. The people being well aware of the muscle and arms power of the ruling party terrorists and hooligans consciously remains inactive towards political agitation. The strength of the opposition to transform political enthusiasm into institutional capacity is not in sight. The opposition has summed up the situation as expenses are certain but the result is uncertain. The first preoccupation of the electoral winner, i.e. ruling party is how to double her term in office, the first preoccupation of the electoral losers is how to topple the elected winner. Floor crossing is normal and frequent occurrence in legislature. Compromise and patience are dirty words. This is perhaps one reason why the constitution makers and political scientists have consciously bypassed recommending proportionate representation of legislators in parliament and fovoured instead the method of first past the post, which ensures one party obtaining an absolute majority despite having polled an overage of 30-35% of the total votes cast. No nation of the world forgets its history, but in Bangladesh the past is allowed to throw the present into turmoil. Since there is pain and humiliation in the past, politicians are anxious to enlist bitter memories in the cause of current advantage and can find a past to suit the requirement. Depending on the situation of the constituency to be mobilized, a politician can pick out suitable tales of outrage from the past. He can appeal on one occasion to the religious sentiment, on another to that of the war of independence and on a third regional feelings. Seldom rigidly fixed, identities within the same population can be changed, revised and manipulated. Yesterday's ally in one emotional past-related political stand may therefore become to-day's enemey in another political confrontation, exploiting another memory. The call is to fight yesterday's battles and reverse yesterday's results with victors and the vauquished exchanging places, the past must fill the future-this is the exhortation. This culture prefers the politics of sensationlism to the politics of substance. The emotions of humiliation, anger and revenge cannot evoke over socio-economic development. Suspicion is clearly the root of the tendency. The tragedy of Bangladesh is a spreading belief in parmanent enmity and a readiness to practise it as a way of life. Political culture, in Bangladesh is now dominated by the mischieous trio-the politicians, the bureaucracy and the fifth columnists in the cultural-literary fronts.
Politicians are persons and members of a group of people organized to gain formal representation, win government power and display some measure of ideological cohesion. They follow a political system i.e. a network of relationships through which government generates policies in response to demands or support from the general public. They exercise power and authority in public interest. Politics is seen as a particular means of resolving conflict by compromising, concileation and negotiation, rather than through force and naked power.
But in Bangladesh, dynastic leadership and personality clashes are two aspects fo political culture. The inadequacy, incompetence and corruption of politicians made them increasingly unpopular. People, though no longer willing to tolerate the torture and plundering, have to remain silent against the monosterous exercise of arms and muscle power as well as police harassment. The bitter political stalemate lasting for the last couple of years has not degenerated into political anarchy only because of the fear of the opposition parties of risking all out anihilation by widespread use of ruthless brute force by the ruling party. The last three decades bred a culture of command economies. Public sector units were run by not on commercial considerations but ostensibly by political considerations. Thus economic prosperity was drastically curtailed. The state-run units were always vulnerable to interferences by the politicians. Because they have the ultimate say in running the state owned units, politicians are able to exploit the units for giving patronage and favours, which ranged from jobs to contracts and extortion for the favoured ones. These acts were camouflaged as social justice, they must provide jobs and other benefits for the sake of the people. The trend towards over staffing continued unchecked. At the same time non-economic criteria for decision-making ensured very low returnes on massive investments. The politicians steadily aggrandised their role in economic activity. They squandered national resources often with impunty, for serving their private political goals. Their tall promises during election period made people to believe that there is inexhaustible source of funds. The fact that funds have to be generated through economic activities was difficult to convince the people. Spending large amounts in non-productive development paved the way for looting and thus worth of goods and services diminished in people's eyes. The party which was supposed to act as umbrella organization to give shelter to various social groups and had the ability to reconcile opposing disparate interests, failed miserably to take farsighted appropriate steps. The dominant rich corrupted class coutinued to rule over political formations, which paying lip service to the underclass dedicated political activists. With the political consciousness among the underclass uncreasing, lip service began to prove to be inadequate. Thus once dedicated underclass political activists had to give in to fear of extinction or favour for acquisitiveness.
The salient feature of the earlier polity was its unitary character where the writ of the rulers prevailed throughout the land with due regard where necessary for the local government. As an heir to such an illustrious heritage, Bangladesh can hardly be regarded as a novice to political culture. The issue is adapting this heritage to the requirements of political culture of functional democracy and not formal democracy with multipart regular election. The old values and ethos have been eroded due to long periods of exposure to foreign influences and institutions. The infrastructure of the society has been weakened and it has become necessary to revitalize the traditional values.
The corrollary of voter maturity is accountability to them and the adoptions of watchdeg institutions by them. This is the grey area where there is a conspicuous lack of both accountability and methods of bringing the politicians to book. The apalhy of the people to be silent engender insensitivity of the politicians who regard election as a licence to enjoy the fruit of power. What is needed is a net work of watchdog bodies in the shape of which will constitute a kind of genuine participatory democracy where those inpower will be oblige to watch their public and personal conduct. It is lack of such vigil on the conduct of politicians that explains the crisis of corruption that is plaguing Bangladesh socio-economic and political scene.
The belief that a good majority is essential for a government to fuction effectively is not always true. Of course a knife edge majority is not the answer and instead it should be a working majority accompanied by a strong and vigilant opposition. In combating corruption and maloratices the probity of the general public is also required because if they are prepared to connive for private aids they are palying into the hands of the politicians. The problem to-day is the performances of the politicians and the political parties in general and the strain this cause in the links between the government and the electorate. In performence of both in government and in opposition are worst. The question is why should electorates vote for such parties? There are normal discontent that resulted in protest vote which has became an important factor in politics partly because of an underlying development : that of political dealignment or the decline in loyality towards the ruling party. Attitudes towards politicians are certainly because more negative. There is a growing tendency to believe that electorates do not have a real say in what the government does : that political parties are only interested in votes and not in what people thinks; that politicians and political parties are not to be trusted; that politicians use power to line up their own pockets. Satisfaction 'with the way democracy works' is surprisingly low. A survey conducted by shows that more that 60% percent of the respondents taken from diffarent classes of the society have claimed that they are 'not very satisfied' or 'not at all satisfied'. This evidence of a growing credibility gap is indisputable and of course worrying.
Corrupt practices, irresponsible behaviour and political patronage on the part of the politicians are more prevalent today than that were three decades ago. Politicians have come to believe that their work is like any other profession and that it is a legitimate way of earning a living. Politicians in attempting to secure their income and grand lifestyle because obssessed with power money and re election. More often than not re-election depends upon one's standing within their party rather than performances in addressing citizens concerns. The politicians are thus a more party functionary than a peoples representative. Yet despite professionalisation of politics many politicians arguably do not have the professional qualifications, knowledge and wisedom one might consider desirable. A significant proportion of to days politicians started their careers as student activitists. They joined party politics at a very early age, with very little practical vocational experience outside the field of politics. Some are hardly accustomed to communicate with the electorates nor are they familier with the techniques used by the pressure groups. Looking at politicians, it is starling to see the paucity of trained economists businessman among them. Perhaps this is one of the under lying reasons for inefficient and wasteful government and bad business environment todays government has created. Power is a narcotic and many parties, all too eager to participate in government have diluted their image. The electorate finding it difficult more and more to distinguish between different political parties.
There is a political deadlock as a large number of opposition seats remain vacant. Despite the Jana Sanghati Samity in Chittagong most cunningly forced the government to push its head under the gallow of a peace treaty yet this peace package did not pave the way for a parmanent political solution but ignorantly paved the way for a long term war. The present trend by a faction of the once insurgent tribals already raised the bannar of revolt and Chittagong is not at all closer to peace.
The credibility gap is a problem, however, will not go away simply by improving politicians outer approach. Well educated active citizen not only loath cheap publicity stunts, they hate sophisticated ones as well. As opinion leader they are the mainstay of any democracy. Inproving citizens involvemant is the only solution. Are todays politicians prepared for the task and consequnces"
The Bureaucracy
In the field of politics, bureaucracy refers to the administrative machinery of the state, ie. the massed ranks of civil servents and public official who are charged with the execution of government business. But to many, the term bureaucracy suggests inefficiency, pointless and time consuming formalities : in short red tape. What cannot be doubted, however, is that, as government has grown and the breadth of its responsibilities expanded, bureaucracy has come to play an increasingly important role in political life. No longer can civil servants be dismissed on mere administration or policy implemention : instead they have userped as key figures in the policy making process and even running the country. A reality of 'rule by the officials' lie behind the façade of representation and democratic accountability. The organisation and control of bureaucratic power is one of the most pressing problems and that no political system has found it easy to solve.
The question of bureaucracy engenders deep political passion. These have invariably been negative. It lacks openness and accountability, it is condemned as an instrument of class subordination, as self serving and inherently inefficient. It's a mechanism through which upper class interest are upheld and oppressive system defended. Bureaucrats are motivated by career self interest and thus seek an expansion of the agency in which they work and a many fold increase in its dudget. Bureaucratic growth guarantee job security, expand promotion prospects improve salaries and brings top officals greater power, patronage and prestige. Despite their formal subordination and impartiality, bureaucrats exort considerable influence on the policy process and fulfil function like offering policy advice, carrying out administration, articulating and aggregating interest and maintaining political stability.
In carrying out administration, the image of the bureaucrats as mere functionaris who apply rules and carry out orders in misleading. They employ significant discretion in deciding how to implement policy as they enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy. The political significance of the bureaucrats largely stems from its role on chief source of policy information and advice. This role helps to distinct top level civil servants who have daily contact with politicians. There they make it impossible for the ignorant politicians to distinguish between making policy and eforcing policy advice. The bureaucrats effectively control the flow of information to compel the content of decision invariably structured by the advice offered. They conceal information or shape and reshape it to reflect their own interest. As responsibilities of government expand and policy become more complex, 'amateur' politicians invariably come to depend on their 'professional' bureaucrat advisers. Bureaucrats articulate and aggretate interests that coincide with those of the bureaucracy, a policy nexus develops that democratic politicians find impossible to break down. In regards to political stability, the trained bureaucrats provide only gurantee that government is conducted in an orderly and reliable fashion. This stability depends much on the status of bureaucrats as parmanant and professonal. while the ministers and politicians come to and go from the chair. In Bangladesh we have witnessed the bureaucrats taking active side with the opposition and made maximum contribution for the down fall of a ruling party and to bring into power a party that works with money, muscle and mastermindedness. At present, they are making another overturn. As they believe that they are more capable of defining common good or general will than the elected politicians they feel justified in resisting reformist political tendencies, seeing themselves as custodians of the public interest.
Unchecked bureaucratic power spells the demise of democratic and representative governmnet. For political democracy to be meaningful, bureaucrarts must in some way be accountable to politicians. Behind the facade of party competition and public accountability lies the entrenched power of bureaucrats who are responsible to no one. Gurantees against corruption, maladministration, arbitrary excrcise of government power, heinous design to exploit the politicians and at the opportune moment strike at the back shall be brought under control and make them only instrument to implement govt. politics.
A political culture is also a reflection of social change. A transition has been witnessed during the last three decades with bases of power shifting from a traditional landed proprietory class to an urban middle and a lower middle class encompassing the rural areas. This social transformation corresponds to a cultural education where the literary and intellengentsia are no longer products of western education and instead represant a new generation of those reared in the vernacular medium. This real effect of the social change has been that the lower middle classes and related sectors in the rural areas have become pace setters. These had been the neglected sections of community faced acute problems of poverty, unemployment and low living standards.
The difference between the pre independence and post independence intelligentsia is mainly related to their experiences under British India hindu dominance and the Pakistani colonial dominance. The hard earned independence of 1947 made the then intelligentsia realise the significance of sober Islamic culture and they were imbued with a high spirit of patriotism. The independene of 1971 gave birth to a class of intellegantsia whose firm belief is that India gave us freedom and it is their duty and obligation to uphold the Indian culture based on mythological obscenity and politics based on the horrifying idea that the independence of 1947 was wrongly done under the two nation theory. Hence these intellegentsia Owe their alligince to socalled mother India and are ready to do everything that promote the cause of reunification even if at the cost of giving away independence. In owing this alligiance they are highly rewarded with three ‘Ws’ from their Indian prompters. These intelligatsia never raise any voice against India even when its ministers, MPs, high officials and the lilerati-clutural stooges speak directly against independence of Bangladesh. Moreover, these intellegentsia raise their voice in a chorus echoing the sayings of their masters both internally and externally.
The ruling party, the bureaucrats and these intelligentsia front have formed an unholy alliance to change the cultural life in Bangladesh that is inherently Islamic in nature Liberal in culture. Politically Bangladesh has incompetent regim, economically it is a colony and culturally it is doomed. Bangladesh, the nation and the state has fallen into the grip of the mischievous trio. No body cares, nobody.
Members of Parliament themselves, puts up an almost insurmountable barrier to the free flow of communication between the Members and the electorate which has sent them to Parliament as their representatives. This realisation has begun to dawn upon many a responsible members. The Establishment itself claims before the world that the draconian curbs have been and are being relaxed. Public has a right to know in full what its representatives have been doing in the discharge of the pledges that they made at the time of their election. As for the possibility of abuse of this immunity by any section of the press, PC has ample powers at its disposal to guard against such abuse
This is an important step that needs to be taken by Parliament in defence of the democracy that it is expected to uphold. There are compelling reasons for it to be taken up. The Right as a spectre has today little reason to haunt the powers-that -be. For its focus is getting changed, and with this, inevitably, its target as well. In such a changed political scenario before the nation, it is for the Members of Parliament to remind themselves of their historic role. They have the right as well as the strength to assert their authority in defence of liberties long cherished and nurtured. In this respect, the responsibility rests heavily on the members of the treasury benches; for, they were most profuse in their promises at the time of the election and were entrusted by the people with the power to fulfil them. As part of the crusade for the rehabilitation of liberties, they have to ensure that the press is unfettered. r
HUMAN RIGHTS IN DEEPEST CRISIS
When the society faces intolerable crack and its stability is in danger only faith can serve no purpose. It requires socio- economic, political and cultural reformation . According to Roman philosopher Cecero, "State is nothing but a community of law. It may not be possible to administer equal distribution of wealth or equalize the innate capability of all citizens, but it is very much possible and the state should ensure persons right to equalize their individual right. True law is right reason in agreement with nature. Those who have right reason in common must have right in common. Conception of justice and the consciousness of love must go together . If the political society cannot establish a balance of righteousness with the mass then the stability and discipline of a state in bound to collapse"
Liberalism as a philosophy develop in eighteenth country premised on reason, virtue and common sense. Individual dignity, honor and right forms its core. But the amazing fact is that liberalism is nothing new in the south Eastern Asian Sub-continent. Ancient sub- continent was a rare combination of muzzled monarchy and social prestige divorced form both wealth and power, compared to the situation then prevailing elsewhere in the world. That Liberal society, save a couple of commandments, were not limited to superficial socio-political and economic absolutism, skepticism of not to harm others in any manner was the tenants of Islam, Vedantaism, Buddhism and even Christianity gave this subcontinent the kingdom of liberalism look. Religions held the material world to be Illusory and negated all claims of power and authority by state or other social institutions claiming divine rights, truth, righteousness, conscience and goodness, liberty equality and fraternity had to be exercised. Every individual charted his own norms in life led and guided by his inner urge. The divine command is that despite the illusory nature of all existence one must not renounce action but pursue with full devotions all worldly undertakings without any attachments. The tyranny of a ruler would have been inconceivable in the society . The wise men sought to increase their degrees of freedom through abstinence from pleasure rather than through generation of affluence. Then crept in conspiracy. Due to their conquering spree through western nations western influence of pomp and luster took over them and they succumbed to the inevitable disaster. Internal contradictions of rationality and animality gained strength and made them weak. The strength of idealism of liberty lost. Them came the foreign forces, killing and looting continued. They employed masters and grandmasters to exploit the people and hand over the booty to them . The negation of power , property and pleasure lost its appeal and was replaced by their persuasions . But the ideals of humanism was not totally lost. There were men who nursed it in their heart and at some opportune moments opened those to their disciples. Thus there were a number of socio-religious movement which argued that there is nothing wrong in leading a liberal life as envisaged in tradition. All it needed is going back to norm with a little modernization where necessary. Unity was forged through community activities. The oppressed people were generally farmers, artisans, self employed workers and petty businessmen. At the slightest sign of their finding themselves , the new rulers felt the breath of the coming cyclone and with active help from the middle class masters and grandmothers, subdued them again so mercilessly that they could not rise till hundred years passed.
Then came the third force. They were not liberals but feudal lords who were inspired to rule their land by themselves and for themselves. Their goal was achieved in 1947. But as the ideals of were not there the oppressed remained oppressed as before. The only achievement was the regaining of religion based national identity and a lessor degree of oppression, the leaders, who was given the power to evolve a program of peace and prosperity failed in chalking out a political social , economic and cultural program that would ensures individual rights. Even then the ideals of liberalism that had its roots firmly dug into the deepest part of this soil could not be pulled out altogether. The cravings for individual rights, a constructive economic advancement program , a society based on justice found its way out. Bangladesh came into existence in 1971. As there was a stark absence of experience, farsightedness, reason and resolution the new government escorted to violence, political killing shameless nepotism and favoritism. Self aggrandizement resulted in compromises with the anti- liberal forces within its own circle and had to give in to the rising demand to nationalize all basic industries. Looting and plundering continued . A reign of terror was unleashed over the people, thousands died . Result - a big zero. Change of government in 1975 did not give the liberal ideal a chance to prove its goodness. But there were a bit of relief . Due to the sheer negligence of the new rulers to forge unity with the people and enliven the liberal ideal the fifth columnists , the puppets of the hegemonist big brother gained strength and usurped power through conspiratic democratic election .This 56 thousand I hundred and 26 sqmile of land comprising Bangladesh have become the land where the innate ideals of human rights is being trampled under foot every day. Millions of down trodden men women and children are crying for emancipation and praying for the emergence of someone or a body to raise voice for them. The land for whose independence they have fought, suffered innumerable losses of lives, honour and properties, the land of their dream, where they thought they would live honour, justice and equality has turned into a wasteland for them. It seems that ' state of nature' where life was nasty, brutish and short, has established its absolute reign and demanding unquestioned loyalty under the threat of sheer shameless bruit force and naked cunning. Under the veil of governance an open challenge is thrown , " If you cannot realise the ideal than you must idealize the real"-Joseph Stalin.
As human rights are inseperable from politics. I have to repeat my earlier comments in this book. As the chariot of civilization moves fast forward the strategy of socio-economic and political repression changes and adopts some sophistication. Barbarism is freely exercised under the pretension of governance. The external authority and the vested interest groups have formed between them strange relationship to suck up the wealth, courage and honor of the mass people with a view to destroy their spirit. They very well know that if the spirit of liberalism humanism is allowed to live their downfall will become a matter of time. The right time to ignite the flame of liberalism that is a lying asleep in the heart of millions of oppressed mass people of Bangladesh. " A sleeping lion is more powerful than thousands of provocated bears"-so goes the saying.
Human beings what they are, there is a temptation to gain under advantage and indeed the very basic ambition to gain power. In Bangladesh governmental structure still bear the hall marks of colonial legacy, social relation bear those of colonial influence. Unlike the European experience of the symbiotic development of the state nation and the market, here the state has become the principal institutional agency in the creation of nation state through strategies of assimilation, integration and coercion. Development of market has lagged far behind. The centralizing tendencies of the state have bedeviled be objective of developing socio-political harmony and an overreaching national consciousness guided by the ideals of humans rights. The inability or unwillingness of the state to accommodate social diversity and provide democratic space to a variety of groups has in turn returned and intensified centrifugal tendencies.
The complains of the state to forge a nation in its thrall also invariably involve the prominence of coercible strategies and the gradual erosion of democratic rights and freedom. The institutionalization of hegemony through the insistence of party conformity and the less insidious practices of elevating the majority party to a foremost position have struck at the fundamental tenets of identity in a representative democracy. In Bangladesh such factions clearly characterize perception of discrimination and societal conflict. The failure of the state to deliver its promises with regard to the good life of the citizens, and its tendencies to camouflage its limited capabilities with coercion and authoritarianism resulted in antiestablishment and anti-systematic governance that is corrupt, exclusive and bankrupt and economic development is denied democratic legitimacy.
In a context, in which all power is jealously guarded at the centre and concentrated in a class, a community, a party and thus in the office of a single individual the reasoning of those who believe that the system is not working for them, is to capture the system itself through similar means. This is a course of action which serves only to replicate the problem, as it is by its nature a thoroughly statist response. When power, authority and opportunity stem from partisan affiliation the development of flourishing institution of civil society that would serve as independent guardian of democratic rights is stymied. The state enters the economy to control it. Consequently the modernizing effect of economic development in particular, as far as social marketing is concerned, is limited by the preponderant role of the state in controlling and distributing economic largesse under its political patronage and according to discrimination criteria. As economic desecration has been imposed through structural adjustment conditionally, the discrepancy between the educational alignment of the labor force and employment opportunity in the economy has widened further fuelling relative deprivation, alienation and anomie.
In such a situation minorities are doubly disadvantaged as citizens and as person. Some of them who have acquired material benefit and social advancement could gain so on the basis of political patronage and particular power configuration. Individuals have succeeded by virtue of social class. As a group though minorities are disproportionately vulnerable to the vicissitudes of politics. The constant denial of meaningful redress through political and economic accommodation by the state only reinforces the belief that the system works for only some and is not intended to work for others who form the vast majority. In this sense, post independence polities has entrenched the monolithic nation state bias of collective political organization without fostering the mediating attraction of meaningful constitutional and political experimentation to accommodate social diversity.
The rights of individual citizen and those of society, are inseparable aspects of human rights. One takes care of the civil and political rights and the other economic, social and cultural ones. The realisation of civil and political rights was no doubt considered as one objective within immediate reach while the economic, social and cultural rights were regarded as ideals for which the country was expected to strive. It should at once be made clear that clear- cut water- tight compartmentalization of civil and political rights on the one hand and economic, social and cultural rights is not possible. The fact, however, remains that there is a recognizable distance between the two classes of rights. This distinction exists both with respect to content as well as to modes of enforcement. Civil and political rights are expressed in terms of freedom and protection of such freedom against encroachment by the state and its apparatus. Economic and social rights are regarded as promotional and programmatic rights. One need not go into the niceties of that we are striving to promote are a complex amalgam. The state must strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effective as it may, a social order in which socio-politico-economic justice shall inform the institutions of national life. The state has to strive to minimize inequalities in income and endeavor to eliminate inequalities in state, facilities and opportunities not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations. The state is ordained to direct its polices towards securing for the citizens, men and women equally, the right to inadequate means of securing a livelihood for themselves. The ownership and control of material resources of the community are to be distributed in the best manner possible in order to serve the common good. The health and strength of workers, men and women and children, are prohibited from being abused. Children are ordained to be provided with opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and protection is afforded against moral and material abandonment. The directive principles seek to secure the operation of the legal system to promote justice on the basis of equal opportunity. In particular, It is expected to provide free legal aid to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic and other disabilities. These are some of the cardinal principles and they are enumerated here to highlight the manner in which socio- economic rights are sought to be protected under the scheme of the constitution. It is difficult to assert categorically that the country has been able to succeed in protecting human rights- despite the great success of democracy. Not all the methods used in tackling of problem of terrorism or fundamentalists or other extremists can be justified. Police excesses in torture could not be prevented. Deaths in jail, corrupt practices and atrocities against innocent ordinary citizens are still in the news. The fearful feature is that political killings and allied crimes against political opponents have been increased to a considerable degree. The murder of innocent, poor and helpless people at the hands of he law and order machinery still undoubtedly continues but few concrete cases have come to light. Undoubtedly Bangladesh still has to tread a long way in order to achieve the ideal of a human life free of all exploitation, social, political, economic and cultural. Armed terrorist group are engaged in killing innocent people indiscriminately in various parts in pursuit of certain political or other causes. The barbarous acts indulged in by such group have become a menace. Obviously, human life remains insecure in such conditions.
With the growth of industrial society, industrial pollution of the environment is becoming a serious problem. Ecological problems are becoming more acute every day and verily human rights cannot be conceived in the absence of a proper environment. International drug- trafficking is another serious threat to human rights . Students in schools and colleges are getting addicted to drugs in large numbers. Those who are engaged in this obnoxious trade have obviously no regard for human rights. There seems to be a powerful political force behind the international smugglers and this is a problem which requires to be tackled firmly in the interests of human rights. As observed earlier , human rights have to be viewed in the contest of the mooring of a particular society. It may not be possible to introduce and ideal structure within a short spell of time to a heterogeneous, poverty-stricken, illiterate, over- populated country. Yet every single effort towards that end is a milestone of success and satisfaction. But nobody takes any care out of fear to become a victim of power. It is against this background that the role of Liberal Party Bangladesh must be analyzed. It is well accepted that the judiciary should strive to maintain its fairness, independence and effectiveness whereas other organs of the state , the executive and the legislative bodies should also be committed to the ideals of human rights and the rule to law. The Supreme Court as a warden of human rights has formulated some far-reaching principles and at the same time shown adequate alertness and caution with respect to the enforcement of such rights. It is a pity that very few cases of human rights violation are brought before the court due to abject poverty, ignorance and illiteracy of the people. Delay in the delivery of justice and the formality of the courts have contributed to defeat the very purpose of justice. Strategies must be found with which to reform the administration of justice.
Minority Rights: Bangladesh, like other modern states, has assumed a national identity and to give that identity a legal shape unitary national institutions and solutions followed . It led to disregard for, or under estimation of the ethnic, cultural or religious diversities that exist within the boundaries of a nation state. Under of the towering personality state machinery misused legislation to impose such uniformity. SK Mujibar Rahman the leading figure in the freedom struggle of Bangladesh, out of his ignorance of the difference of nation-state and state-nation declared in unambiguous terms the all those living within the boundaries of Bangladesh will be know as "Bangali". Thus he totally ignored the identity of national and ethno-cultural minority and indigenous people. His preference to nation- state over state- nation was an intellectual as well as political blunder for which Bangladesh had to pay a very dear price for long three decades. The indigenous people of Chittagong- a district in the south eastern Bangladesh revolted. With active help from Indian government they started arms struggle that took a heavy toll. Thousands of Bagalees killed by the insurgents, thousands of Bangalee girls were dragged out of their houses and were molested and crores of takas were extorted by theses tribal insurgenty from the Bangalees with active support of Indian fire power. However a treaty was signed giving them near full autonomy and the struggle for a time stopped. The scope of autonomy is so vast that one tenth of the most prosperous land of the country went under the direct control of the insurgent minorities. But the insurgency did not stop. Still a good portion of insurgents ignored the treaty and still carrying on the struggle for total independence.
The national minorities, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists are enjoying every civil rights but democratic election could not ensure their right as per proportion to be elected in the national assembly and hence they have very little say in forming laws of the state. These national minorities are enjoying rights to participation in the decision making on national level could not be ensure by any government during these last three decades. The indigenous people in other areas are also neglected bening their economic cultural social rights. Development of their cultural, social, linguistic heritage and tradition, morality and ethics and propagating them were not given due importance. Rights to property and preservation of environment and habitat also remained unacknowledged. Their history and philosophy are also not given due recognition no steps were taken to preserve those. Freedom means diversity. Never was uniformity in human society achieved without coercion, not will it ever be possible without coercion.
This simple truth is nowhere more evident, and more relevant, than with the peoples and countries that constitutes today's world society. None of these is homogenous in ethnic, cultural or religious terms. All of them comprise minorities of various kinds, and the state of relation between majorities and minorities provides the yardstick by which the degree of freedom can and must be measured in every one of them. For this reason, the rights of minorities are of paramount importance to all who cherish human freedom. No society and no country can be termed a liberal democracy that does not acknowledge, implement and respect the right of minorities.
In defining what these rights should be, our declaration takes as its starting point the reality as we find it on the eve of the third millennium. World society is organized in states, the large majority of which conceive of themselves as nation states, which form the basic units and prime actors in the international system. They are, for all practical purposes, the sole source of all laws and regulations that govern. the relationship between majorities and minorities within their borders, and of those international covenants that have been, and hopefully will yet be, concluded for the world-wide implementation of minorities rights.
It is a common tendency of modern state to assume a "Nation" identity, culture, etc. and hence a "need" for unitary "national" institutions and solutions. Far too often this tendency leads to a disregard for or underestimation of the ethnic, cultural, or religious diversities that exist within the boundaries of a nation sate. Thus, nation states tend to be "nationalizing" states, assuming uniformity where it does not exist, and far too often misuse the coercive power of state machinery and legislation to impose such uniformity.
Liberal democracy, in contrast, emphasizes the rights and liberties of the individual citizen. It is because these include the right freely to associate with others that they have a group-related dimension as well. Belonging to a community based on common cultural, linguistic or religious heritage is an important factor of identity for most people. Where they can freely and voluntarily associate on this basis, on government and no state legislation and no majority, however large, may deny the right of such groups to be different within the limits of internationally accepted human rights.
It is obvious that the need to protect such rights corresponds directly with the degree to which governments interfere with civil society. The less interventionist, the less regulating, the more limited government is in a given case, the more room will there be for minorities to manage their own affairs. The principle of subsidiary, which stipulates that decisions should always be made at the most local level that is practically feasible, and preferably at the level of civil society, will always provide reliable guidance to safeguarding the legitimate interests of minorities and majorities alike. The classical liberal concept of limited and strictly subsidiary government can in itself be seen as a far from negligible element of minorities protection. It can ever be argued that in an ideally liberal society, characterized by a low level of government intervention, enforcing human rights and the rule of law would be almost all that is needed to protect minorities. It must be realized that existing reality is a far cry from this ideal almost everywhere. Modern states are thoroughly interventionist, with a high density of regulation, and thus inherently lop-sided towards uniformity. As long as this situation persists, specific measures to safeguard minority rights are indispensable.
Whenever such specific measures are discussed, it must be clearly understood that their function will always be a subsidiary one to the very basics of every free society: the rule of law and the classic individual human rights. Unless these are firmly and reliably established, every attempt at safeguarding minority rights will be futile.
In the sphere of values, we liberal hold individual supreme. Minority rights must always contribute to safeguarding individual liberty for the members of minorities and majority alike. To the extent that this requires rights and provisions related to groups rather than individuals, it must always be understood that such group rights must serve to support, enhance, and safeguard individual liberty and not to infringe it. Thus, minority group rights may never put individual rights at the disposal of the group, whatever the traditions of a particular community may be.
In the sphere of facts, we accept that different situations, conditions in which minorities find themselves call for different solutions. Therefore, we deal with minority rights under three different headings, not all of which are traditionally included in the notion of minorities:
First, ethnocultural minorities. These consist mainly in immigrants and refugees and their descendants who are living, on a more than merely transitional basis, in another country than that of their origin. In most of the current discussions on minority problems, these groups are included, i.e. they are not generally accepted as minorities in the classical sense. While we do not intend to engage in any disputes on legal or political definitions, we simply take note of the undeniable fact we live an age of large-scale migration, and that problems arising from this fact call for solution. While immigrants and refugees certainly cannot lay claim to all rights that "classical" minorities or indigenous peoples are entitled to, they do have rights, too, and it is one of the purpose to spell out what these rights should be. Also included in this category, but less controversial, are groups which are different from the majority in certain characteristics such as race or religion which quite often have their historical roots in migrations of the past.
Second, national minorities, i.e. historically settled communities which have a distinct language and/or culture of their own. Very often, they became minorities as a result of a re-drawing of international borders and their settlement area changing from the sovereignty of one country to another, or they are ethnic groups which, for a variety of reasons, did not achieve statehood of their own and instead form part of a larger country or several countries. Obviously, this is the "classical" minority situation with which most of the existing national and international instruments of minority protection deal.
Third, indigenous peoples. To them, all the characteristics of national minorities apply, but their additional and distinguishing characteristic consists in their having been settled in the land prior to the majority, and having become a minority by conquest and/ or colonization. Being the "first nations" of their countries and having much older claims to the land than those who have superseded and usually subjugated them, they are entitled to specific rights taking account of these facts.
While we find it useful to structure this according to these three basic categories of minorities, we are aware that reality is more varied and complex than any 'compartmentalization' can reflect. It must be borne in mind, therefore, that actual minority situation will not always fit neatly into one of these categories and that each must be judged and solved taking into account its own specific conditions. Irrespective of all differentiation, however, these are rights, duties and rules that apply to all or several kinds of minority situations; with these we deal first.
Wherever minorities exist, their being different, must be respected by the majority as part and parcel of their innate and inalienable right to be free. All measures proposed to protect this right - which implies the right to receive aid and other peaceful forms of assistance from abroad as well as an obligation of governments to refrain from all attempts at coerced assimilation and to protect minorities from other forms of coerced assimilation- are designed to promote harmony between the various communities within a country by ensuring that nobody is either privileged or discriminated against because he or she belongs to a certain community (be it minority or majority). This means that all group-specific rights postulated are designed to forestall discrimination, and in no case to establish privileges. Even where positive discrimination is deemed necessary (such as exemption from electoral threshold clauses, or above-average support for minorities), the aim can never be to create privileges, but exclusively to create substantial equality.
Equally, as a general rule, minority rights are not to interprete as exempting members of minorities from the normal responsibilities of citizenship. In some cases the question who belongs to a minority can become politically contentious. It is not the rule of governments to determine membership of minority groups. It is a matter to be decided between the individual and the minority as a group, with self- definition of the individual as the main guideline, subject to internationally recognized human rights standards. While the international community must be encouraged to set the standards of minority protection more vigorously than hitherto, the transformation of these standards into national practice and law is equally important, and this can reasonably be done only in consultation and cooperation between the majority and the minority.
The Rights Of Ethnocultural Minorities As the term indicates, there are at least two different (albeit potentially overlapping) types of minorities which are comprised under the heading "ethnocultural":
1. those who are different from the majority in ethnic terms without being national minorities, i.e. mainly immigrants(including refugees) and their descendents,
2. those who differ from the majority in their long standing traditional way of life, e.g. in terms of religion or in other ways such as language or cultural practices, without being national minorities. Immigrants and refugees usually stay in their host countries of origin or fully integrate into the society of the host country and become equal citizen.
The fundamental duty owed to all kinds of ethnocultural minorities is non-discrimination to the extent that members of such minorities are citizen of the country in which they live, they must enjoy the full and unrestricted right that go with citizenship. If they are not (yet) citizen, they are at least entailed to the protection by, and benefits of, all those civil and social right that are not intrinsically linked to citizenship. In general, host countries should accept an obligation to open up avenues of inclusion to ethnocultural minorities, among these not only assistance for cultural accommodation but also by granting a right to acquire citizenship after a reasonable period of permanent residency. Some flexibility in dealing with dual citizenship is recommended to all government .
The Rights Of National Minorities: In contrast to ethnocultural minorities, national minorities are historically settled communities; moreover, their inclusion in a country with a majority population different from themselves usually is the result of developments beyond their control. While people who immigrate into a country can reasonably be expected to adept, such expectation is justified regarding people who simply continue to live their ancestors lived. Their right to maintain what makes them different from the majority cannot reasonably be questioned, and consequently any attempt on the part of the majority at imposing uniformity, or any pressure towards assimilation, is illegitimate .
The way the right of national minorities can be organized and exercised depends to a large extent on the from of settlement they live in. In the case of compact settlement areas , with few or no members of the majority living there , territorial autonomy is the obvious answer; where minorities live dispersed among the majority, not forming a majority in any substantial area , other forms of institutionalizing these rights are called for, which may include non-territorial, functional variants of autonomy .
From the importance the from of settlement carries for the exercise of the right of a minority, it follows that there must be safeguards against manipulations in this respect. While the right of free movement and settlement within a country is so important for all citizen that it should not be restricted except in fervor of indigenous peoples in their hereditary lands, its misuse by deliberate resettlement policies aimed at subverting the position of minorities in their own areas is unacceptable, as is the manipulation of administrative borders aiming at the same end. Very often national minorities-particularly if their minority position in one country is the result of a redrawing of international borders-are connected by ethnic ,linguistic and/or cultural ties with the population of a neighboring country. No government has a right to interfere in any way with the cross-border contacts and intercourse which are natural in such a situation. There are two categories of right which constitute the absolute minimum of any fair deal for national minorities: cultural self-determination ,and full participation in the decision-making on central/national level. Where conditions permit, i.e. where minorities settle in geographically contiguous areas, further powers should be devolved to them: such as running their own administration, police institutions, etc.
The second essential field of cultural self- determination is education. Members of national minorities have a right to be educated in their own culture. The other two areas which are essential to cultural self- determination , i,e. cultural traditions and religion , normally only require non -intervention on the part of central government. To the extent, however, the cultural and religious institutions and activities of the majority are actively supported, non - discrimination is the obvious additional requirement .
Participation in decision- making at central level: Being full citizen of their country, members of national minorities have every right to participate fully in the politics of their country- politics which, after all, affects their lives as much as those of the majority. If they want to do so ,they obviously also have the right to practice such participation as a minority , i,e. as a group with distinct common interests vis-a-vis the majority, by, e,g., maintaining and voting of special minority parties. Factors specific to the minority situation, such as small numbers or disadvantageously dispersed settlement , but also such factors as regional and constituency boundaries or unfavorable electoral system, frequently tend to adversely affect their chances of participating on an equal footing with the majority. It is therefore the duty of the politics and legislation on the national level to remove, or mitigate the effect of obstacles.
Further autonomy rights in areas of contiguous settlement: Many of the rights of national minorities enumerated in the previous sections, especially those in the cultural field, imply a limited autonomy that is not necessarily defined in terms of a certain territory, but operates for a certain group of men and women irrespective of their place of settlement within a given country. While some autonomy rights are not dependent on any particular pattern of settlement, where minorities do settle in contiguous areas full-scale territorial autonomy is the standard solution.
In order to be an efficient and effective instrument of safeguarding minority rights, autonomy dispensations should meet the following requirements:
1. Along with historical, topographic and economic criteria, ethnicity should be accepted as a legitimate criterion when borders are drawn, so that minority populations can be the majority in the areas in which they settle.
2. Where members of the national majority population are living in an area of minority autonomy, this "minority within the minority" is entitled to precisely the same rights as the "minority of the first order" is within the country as a whole.
3. Areas of responsibility that next to cultural affairs particularly lend themselves to being exercised by autonomous institutions are policing, administrative organization, infrastructure, and a considerable part of social security provisions.
4. No regional autonomy is complete without a considerable degree of financial autonomy the power of taxation must, therefore, be an integral and indispensable part of any autonomy dispensation that deserves its name.
5. In no case should a government have the right to abolish or substantially infringe an agreed autonomy status of a national minority.
The Right Of Indigenous Peoples: People all over the world whom we now call "indigenous peoples" were deprived, at one stage of their history, of their control over their own destiny by conquest, colonization, and subjugation. They have a right to regain this control to the fullest degree that is (a) practically feasible and (b) compatible with the legitimate rights of the people with whom they now share their countries. This involves, in the first place, an inalienable and inviolable right to their historical and cultural identity. As a rule, this identity is inseparably tied to the land of the land of their ancestors. Land, and the right to define their relationship to it, is the dominant issue when it comes to defining the rights of indigenous peoples. Returning this land to them and establishing exclusive rights within such territories thus forms the core of making amends for injustices of the past under conditions prevailing today.
Wherever settlement patterns permit, the standard formula for indigenous peoples therefore is: reserved territories with a very high degree of autonomy. Indigenous peoples should have the right to participate in the formulation of their legal and constitutional status. Treaties are often a particularly appropriate vehicle for this. Wherever treaties were concluded in the past or will be concluded in future, between the dominant majorities and indigenous peoples, such treaties must be recognised, observed and enforced to the fullest extent possible.
Indigenous peoples' rights include, as a matter of course, all the rights stipulated in here for ethnocultural and national minorities. While the former, more general rights apply wherever members of indigenous peoples live in a given country, the latter, more specific rights are primarily applicable within the reserved territories. We deal with them under four headings:
1.Cultural identity and cultural heritage.
2.Land and the rights related to it.
3.Self-government institutions.
4.Economy, development, and environment.
Minority rights have, up to now, not been adequately defined within the context of human rights standards. They are supplementary to traditional human rights, designed to ensure that men and women who live in a specific minority situation can safely and fully enjoy their human rights. Without additional protection and fortification by minority rights, human rights are but a piece of paper - and sometimes not even that.
For this reason, the codification in binding international law and the implementation thereof is just as important with minority rights as it is with classical human rights. Therefore, all governments are called upon to accept, by domestic legislation and by internationally binding covenants, the principles specified here. Exactly as in the case of classical human rights, national sovereignty is in no way acceptable as an excuse for denying these principles, even in the absence of binding international instruments.
Indispensable though legal norms are, attitudes adopted by governments and majority populations are at least of equal importance. They are called upon to regard the existence of minorities not as an irritation or abnormality, but as a perfectly normal expression of the natural diversity that characteristics our world. Governments must understand that loyalty cannot be won by controlling minorities as tightly as possible, but only by giving them a chance to determine their own destiny to the highest possible degree. Trusting the people, which is at the heart of liberal democracy, must not be allowed to stop where the people are different from oneself in one aspect or another. Only if this diversity is perceived as an enrichment and not as a threat, will different peoples or different groups be able to live peacefully and harmoniously within one country.
Liberal Party Bangladesh shas taken the cause of the minorities very seriously to ensure that the national and ethnocultural minorities and the indigenous people get their due political and economic rights as well as social rights and demand for proportionate representation of the minorities in the Natioonal Parliament through separate electorate.
Women's Rights : It must be acknowledge that women are still treated as inferior to men. Even the development countries are no exception. At home and in office or in work place even in play ground women are subjected to harassment's. Beating, rape, abduction of women are common features of society. The last quarters of twentieth century made remarkable progress in checking this tendency. Women's liberation movement could bring a little oppression consciousness in the women folk as the movement is affluent class centered and among higher middle class at the utmost and so it could not gain success in the grass root level. Rural women folk are still in dark about their rights. As providers of food, fuel, water and basic health care in most of the developing world, they constitute a minority in the corridors of power and decision making. 77 % of them are illiterate. Poor over worked, illiterate and denied of basic health care and even proportionate share of food- this is the profile of most adult rurl women in the majority of developing countries including Bangladesh. Liberal Party Bangladesh has formed "Womens' Rights Commission" to realise womens social, civil, cultural, economic & political rights.
Liberal Party Bangladesh put special emphasis that improvement in the situation will positively contribute towards the major global concerns like human rights, economic and social development. Liberal Party Bangladesh will give full thrust in vital issuse like education, political participation economic equality and basic health care. Abuse of women in any from will not be condoned. Reproductive health will be given special care as thousands die each year during childbirth and other reproductive complications due to mainly malnutrition, over work and ignorance of personal hygiene and community sanitation.
NEED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Each individual works day night only to finance the welfare state and to guarantee all the social transfers. This means constraints on a persons freedom and leaving them with a feeling of insecurity because the state takes on pseudo responsibility i. e it makes promises it cannot keep. A sound social policy cannot guarantee help for all but must concentrate on the genuinely needy. Distributive policy which includes both rich and poor is not only antisocial but also leads to further dependence.
A growing number of citizens have fallen prey to the illusion of security. They allowed rules and regulations to take over their rights. Either because it was easy, or because they were afraid, they gave themselves up to the state. However they are far from comfortable and secure in this situation. The state fans the fear of freedom and the fear of taking on responsibility. The left denounces the call for greater freedom as introducing greater freedom fuels the fear the freedom of the individual can only lead to chaos. Both of them present freedom as a danger though with different intentions. The bad habit of using politics to something one cannot obtain from the market is not only the main reason for the miserable conditions prevalent today. This practices is above all, so dangerous and difficult to fight because politicians have or never been able to resist the temptation to use it as an appropriate means of buying votes and voters and have always welcomed it.
We in Liberal Party Bangladesh are convinced that there is only one solution : a radical change to the politics of freedom, a change to an open citizen's society. Hence our initiative demands first and foremost a fundamental re- education. In this way we hope to campaign for freedom. The citizens must win back their responsibility for themselves. A large part of this responsibility has been delegated to the state or the people has been taken away from them by politics. All the tasks of the state including the complete scope of social politics must be subjected to be very critical supervision. The criterion here must be a rigorously applied principle of subsidies that starts with the individual citizen. Only what the individual cannot achieve on his or her own, be it alone or in voluntary cooperation with others, may be realized by politics and by the state.
The social safety net must be made so secure by a policy of social order that it can support the genuinely disadvantaged . Social policy must help those who cannot help themselves and are helped neither by their fellow citizens nor by the society. In the future only a requirement for a basic provision against the risks and vagaries in a person's life should be laid down by law. Anything beyond that, is the responsibility of the individual. One can summarize the goal of our campaign as follows:
We believe that all people are different. They are equal only in front of the law. This is why we don't want to regulate everything but want to protect only what is essential- freedom and the law. If we want to save the social state in the long term, we must prevent it form collapsing under the ruins of the welfare state. They must perceive the future as an opportunity, not as a threat and they must fight for the citizens society.
Present human rights situation in Bangladesh is in deepest crisis. To sum up, Government continued to use national security legislation such as the Special Power Act 1974 and Public Safety Act 2000 to detain citizens, and in maximum cases political opponents, without formal charges. There were credible reports of abuse and death in custody, and those responsible generally went unpunished. Violence against women is a serious problem, but much of it is not reported and goes unpunished. Personal security in Bangladesh is under constant threat. There has been a general deterioration of law and order over the past years. With respect to violence on university campuses political parties have been in part responsible for this state of affairs. The years of Awami League rule has tightened government control over the radio and television. With respect to the press, although relevant special provisions are no longer in force whenever a newspaper tries to publish reports on bad governance, corruption and anti- people policies, government reacts with with-holding government advertisements. A number of cases in which criminal cases hold major portion are filed against journalists, warrants are issued for their arrest, advertising revenue is used as an instrument to suppress criticism of a the government and newspaper offices are attacked by Government sponsored terrorists has increased dramatically.
Obsession with personalities, dynastic leadership, power polities accompanied by politics of all-or- nothing and now- or- never, terrorism, insurgencies, widespread corruption, feudal attitudes and remnant mistrust and suspicion are some of the dominant features of Bangladesh political culture and reality as it exists today. It is as if " ends justify means" has become the motto of Bangladesh. the end being power and retainment of it at any cost ! Therefore, be it resorting to communal politics, evoking religious sentiments in the garb of secularism, resorting to terrorism under the pretence of nationalism, all is justified as long as it serves the end objective of getting voters for staying in the political seat.
Politics today smacks of opportunism. The populist measures adopted by different parties vary from time to time depending upon the disposition of the electorate, So it could be religion at one point of time, poverty eradication at another or ethnicity and class at yet another. Floor creasing in legislatures has also become normal practice for staying in power. Another alarming feature in current South Asian politics is the growing nexus between criminals and politicians. In the meantime, competitive democratic politics became a rather expensive business. Election campaigns require large sums of money and since vast sums were not available through legitimate activities, to begin with, it was only a question of getting funds form black money operators and being indebted to them. But over a period of time, some of these operators acquired political ambitions of their own. By the nineties, the criminal- politician nexus was a matter of household knowledge. In other words, all means are justified- money, corruption, religious and class sentiments and if these do not succeeded then muscle power with the help of criminals and terrorists for the ultimate aim of securing and staying in power. Justice by and large is beyond the reach of the ordinary citizens. In any case the grievance redress system is expensive, cumbersome and highly time consuming. No one takes the citizen seriously. It is therefore, no wonder that mass poverty, illiteracy, poor health and low rates of economic growth still characterize most South Asian countries. By the time the politicians playing the power game, their term normally gets over (either by the ballot or the bullet !) and issues which needed urgent addressing still remain unresolved.
Today, all over Bangladesh strains in the democratic functioning of society are visible. Politicians have lost credibility. Their games, inadequacies and corruption are becoming more transparent with the growth in mass media and the spreads of information technology. There is thus, growing erosion in the confidence levels of the citizens vis- a- vis the government and dangerous trend and could lead to the rending of the social fabric.
If democracy means governance based on popular will, then citizens should be able to influence government on and ongoing basis. A citizen's role cannot be restricted to that of a mere vote bank. Today the entire system of governance needs re-examining. If politics has become business, it is time that some right constructive role should be there in the running of affairs. Deepening political participation, radical decentralization of the government and encouragement of private initiative are some of the liberal measures that can be adopted in promoting functional democratization. People of Bangladesh are slowly losing faith in respective government that they will do any thinkg to relieve them of their miseries. Liberal Party Bangladesh at this juncture seem to signal only hope of salvation.
We have strong faith on our ideal, i.e., Liberalism and on our friends in the liberal world and on our oppression conscious people.
And miles to go before I sleep" - Robert Frost.
The Night Watchmen
Press & Media & Civil Society
In a country which was peopled by politicians, who are criminals, corrupt and communal 'a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours', is there any one who would brave hostile forces and stood upright and presented with objectivity and penetrating intelligence, hold views on public affairs from a level of lofty probity and sublime statesmanship that would often reminded of that rarest of rare human beings... Shakespeare, in Hamlet, had in mind in his Reflections on Man:
‘What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable!
A liberal journalist must be a political thinker, a socially sensitive humanist in perpetual locomotion, mentally, morally and physically communicative and must rise above religions and riches to reach a spiritual elevation far taller than physical dimension. Compassionate, courageous, universal, whose activities would reveal a humanist manifesto and social justice agenda. He would himself be a Manifesto of the person, the declaration of our sovereign right to self-discovery who would be too great for his profession, too good for his political comrades and too sensitive for the coarse, corrupt social syndrome to cure which he would strove to the last day.
OPERATION Liberal Conscientisation is an urgent and ubiquitous desideratum if humanity or the world community is to be restored to civilised survival from the current chaos in the cosmos. One must be patriot in the noblest sense, a global citizen with his heart slanting towards the underclass and hostile to the proprietariat. would keep ones humane aliveness buring till his last breath. A wonder of energy and integrity for all of us. Economism and greed and ‘each according to his ability to grab', 'the devil take the hindmost' is the dominant motif of our market hungry world. In material life's rat race, it is hard to find so simple a soul rejecting rich opportunities to rise to the apex in the political sphere. Too profound, too self-less, too committed to those millions whose life is but blood, sweat, toil and tears with malice towards none and goodwill towards all.
History is humanity in conclusive locomotion, progressively gathering itself for the next leap. There are roaring person who mix politics and poison and acid in their ink and print. Journalists are soldiers of informations who blend information with knowledge, wisdom and life itself.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? (Eliot)
They are perennial spring of quiet patriotic passion and ever fresh communicator, free and fearless. There are many 'a' poor player that struts and frets his hour up on the stage and then he is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot 'full of sound and fury signifying nothing'. Oblivion is their fate with odium super-added some cases.
Media power is a functional marvel of democracy today, with the technological wonder which has the capacity to transform the social order, mould the mores of communities and manufacture human minds to value designs. The fortunes of world fellowship, the culture of human rights, the elimination or aggravation of intra and international tensions, the domination of economic imperialism and recolonisation and a host of other potential perils and pleasing blessings are within the realm of realities attainable by the management of the media beyond the wildest dreams of Goebbels. Those forces, social and economic, political or religious, are powers controlling the commanding heights of communication instruments and can manipulate collective opinion worldwide for good or ill. Communication is at the heart of social intercourse, mental-moral conditioning and psychic triggering of mass or mob opinion and action. He who masters the manipulation of information sources and channels has a V weapon and Victory in his hands. News and views, if manipulated strategically can manacle or manumit the minds of people. Today the speed at which the information highway helps media move with magic speed makes the planet a victim of information imperialism or liberator of informational colonialism.
Mass communication using the sattelite can shape events, minds, economics, political processes and systems of philosophy, materialist or spiritual. The media is also a power for good with a whole range of possibilities for promoting education, culture, knowledge and know-how. The wisdom of the world and happenings anywhere reach the doorsteps of every people, thus broadening their outlook and accelerating international comity or hostility. The best for the future or the worst, can be shaped by the mass media.
They will be realised only if the temptaion to enlist the mass media in the service of narrow sectarian interests and to turn them into new instruments of power, justifying assaults on human dignity and aggravating the inequalities which already exist between nations and within individual nations themselves particularly Bangladesh is resisted. And, also, only if everything possible is done to prevent tendencies towards a concentration of the mass media from progressively curtailing the scope of inter-personal communication and from ultimately destroying the multiplicity of channels, whether, they be traditional or modern, by which individuals can exercise their right to freedom of expression.
The noble objective of the undertaking was set out thus :
‘It is essential that all men and women, in all social and cultural environments, should be given the opportunity of joining in the process of collective thinking thus initiated, for new ideas must be developed and more positive measures must be taken to shake off the prevailing inertia. With the coming of a new world communication order, each people must be able to learn from the others, while at the same time conveying to them its own understanding of its own condition and its own view of world affairs. Mankind will then have made a decisive step forward on the path to freedom, democracy and fellowship.’ (Many voices, one world by sean Mecbride)
We live at a time when human history becomes more and more a race between communication and catastrophe and the people of the Third World are already facing its evil effects.
It is interesting and impressive to notice that as early as 1934 C.E.M. Joad had anticipated the terrible consequences on people's minds, given access through the new instruments which science had forged for the control of men's minds - a kid of dictatorship of thought and opinion hindering creativity, diversity and democracy in its many dimensions.
“Just as the advance of science has concentrated effective military power into fewer hands rendering mere numbers impotent against the tank, the bomber, and the machine gun, so its has concentrated the power of opinion in the hands of those who control the wireless, the Press, and the cinema. When Herr Hitler, in March 1934, announced his scheme for the expenditure of seventy seven million pounds on public works to reduce unemployment in Germany, his speech was relayed over the wireless to 19,500 meetings of the unemployed. It is estimated that at these meetings not less than three million people heard the "Leader".” Not the least disquieting feature of the wireless is that those who are exposed to its propaganda are unable to answer back. It is difficult to estimate how much of the power of the pulpit over men's mind, how much of its delightfulness to its occupant, were due to the fact that the preacher alone was entitled to speak. But the modern wireless audience is muzzled far more effectively than any congregation. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this new power, or of the menace which it constitutes to freedom of thought. The dictators of the modern world are adepts at the exploitation of the resources of science, and have largely built up their position by appeals to the mass emotions of loylty and patriotism, hatred and fear with their control of the Press, the wireless, and the cinema has enabled them to make to millions of men and women. ‘ (Liberty Today by C. E. M. Joad)
The survival of democracy depends largely on the independence of the press which, unfortunately, is afflicted by the syndrome of surrender to Party and Power.
‘Presidents and policy-makers, like other people, can be what they chose to be. They can serve the nation or they can serve themselves. For many men in public life the mere possession of power is an end in itself. For them the struggle to the top is expensive, both in dollars and a more precious currency- human integrity. The values of even the most honourable are under constant assault, like boulders on an ocean beach. Erosion seems inevitable.’ (The Anderson papers by Jack Anderson)
Be it is Washington or Delhi or Bangladesh or, Islamabad or Beijing, power is the driving force which controls societies. The seekers of power often have no scruples. ‘Honest men will lie and decent men will cheat for power. Few reach the political pinnacles without selling what they do not own and promising what is not theirs to give. In the great gruelling quest for power it is easy to forget that power belongs not to those who possess it for the moment but to the nation and its people. (ibid)
The truth, however, is that surrogates are elected by those who finance election campaigns and thus special interest groups which finance elections are subversive of common people's rights and welfare. Campaign cash is a power which reaches the press too, especially because elective posts, through corrupt processes, help make large money and use clout for amassing through shady deals. The victors are the villains the haves are corporate cannibals who can buy up anyone anywhere. Very few can resist the temptation offered by them. The powerful everywhere are surrounded by fawning servants, obedient aides, and the symbols of success. In the most powerful nation, those who reach the mountaintop are so pampered and so insulated by the trappings of power they can easily forget they are servants not masters, of the nation.
The great journalists, totally committed to the people, rely on the motto: Know ye the truth and the truth shall make you free. But many reporters in 'soft' states abound in the Third World who are amenable to purchase. The unusual respect’ emoluments and other bonanza which journalists may gain could turn the head of a saint and no small wonder the lesser mortals of the media walk into the trap rendering democracy vulnerable. Diffusion of membership is desirable but it is difficult to achieve. News corporate condition the presentation of facts and the Third World will hardly get news space or may get distorted depiction.
FREEDOM of the Press is a mirage so long as the media is indentured to the Power Barons in politics who, in turn, do bonded labour to national and international Big Business, using deceptively democratic double-speak and confusing disinformation. The Third World leaders who, through the python process, distrupts and destroys national industrial and agricultural development and inducts, by manipulation of imports and uncomplaining pollution of every value, a new Plutocratic World Order as the goal. The Press occasionally barks, never bites, sometimes watchdogs, often lapdogs with one to battle for Humanity and its human right to survive
The media diverts our attention on factional trivia, Indo-Pak-Bangla estrangements and local price spiral but does not furiously focus on the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient economic-military-market-grab corporate giantism. The macro-media power of Bangladesh should have carried on a Grand Inquest of the WTO and Fund-Bank short falls to make Bangladesh sovereign democracy viable. Independent media, engaged in independent investigation, is nearly as important as independent police investigation and independent judicial justice. If powerful MNCs corner influence and interfere with Press freedom, our economic sovereignty will slip into the hands of foreign companies.
Inexorably, over any substantial period of time, economic power translates into political power. The process fattens on itself, increasing its mass as it gains momentum. Once the process is underway, once it builds ownership of communications media, of banking, and of the means of production is concentrated in a few corporate hands, democratic institutions cannot flourish and, indeed, are undermined.
"Without criticism and reliable and intelligible reporting, the government cannot govern," Walter Lippmann once said. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting. The government intelligence service is an insufficient provider of the knowledge which the government must have in order to legislate well and to administer public affairs. But Lippmann as we understand him, was thinking exclusively in terms of conventional national and foreign issues. There must be, in addition, reliable and intelligible reporting about the subgovernments of business and about the media's own faults and errors. These, as the Commission on Freedom of the Press Liberal and Media said more than two decades ago, "have ceased to be private vagaries and have become public dangers." The opinions created by newspapers carry content and comment favourable to the owners of Industries who control large circulation papers. The grave danger here, is that consumers of their information and comment are unaware of the special interests for which the mass media plead. Under these circumstances how can we evaluate the news and editorial content of a newspaper or broadcasting station when events under discussion affect the financial well being of the owners.
The tremendous changes in Communication Technology have a bearing on media power and role in the social order. The developments have social, political, economic, cultural and spiritual consequences. Informational imperialism and a ‘new slavery' to the dominant nations ‘interests’ are the hard realities in a world of competing conquests of people's ethical and moral life, taming the mind, training the psyche and indoctrination as of animals in circuses’.
Superpower achievements, capture of Third World minds, ethos and appetites, and laying a trade trap to with markets and developing contempt for indigenous products and processes are potential and actual threats to the sovereignty and independence of colonial countries liberated formally but remaining as 'kept' mistresses of enterprises of the North. Here is the great peril to the soul of developing nations with sturdy nationalism and indomitable will to fight back and expose xenophilic journalism are now needed because misinterpreted globalisation, temptations and fifth-column collaborations have access to the cultural womb of the Third World and opportunity to inseminate it with the ideation of the ills of North, making the middle class, the backbone of countries, willing victims. We have tremendous talent, great minds, proud heritage and large markets of our own in and around. Yet propaganda goes round that we must be dollar-mendicants, technology beggars and military genuflectors!
These fundamentals lead to the need for strenthening independence of news coverage and resistance to being made to look like monkeys of technology, commodities and cultures as a necessary liberation. All individuals and people collectively have an inalienable right to a better life which, howsoever conceived, must ensure a social minimum, nationally and globally. This calls for the strengthening of capacities and the elimination of gross inequalities, such defects may threaten social harmony and even international peace. There must be a measured movement from disadvantage and dependence to self-reliance and the creation of more equal opportunities. Since communication is interwoven with every aspect of life, it is clearly of the utmust importance that the existing "communication gap" be rapidly narrowed and eventually eliminated.
Our Freedom is in peril and so every columinist and reporter must wake up to conquer the communication gap widening with each passing day. Developing countries take specific measures to establish or develop essential elements of their communication systems: print media, broadcasting and telecommunications along with the related training and production facilities. Strong national news agencies are vital for improving each country's national and international reporting.
The basic duty to fulfill people's wants, hunger and aspirations should be high on the agenda. Alas, foreign news agencies, in every home and media, beg, borrow and steal. Our very philosophy of Development (a human right) has been so successfully eliticised that 'West is best' rules and 'Small is Beautiful' is rejected. Commercialisation of news reporting and journalistic imitations is almost areality.
For the jounrnalist, freedom and responsibility are indivisible. Freedom without responsibility invites distortion and other abuses. But in the absence of freedom there can be no exercise of responsibility. The concept of freedom with responsibility necessary includes a concern for professional ethics, demanding an equitable approach to events, situations or processes with due attention to their diverse aspects. This is not always the case today. Such values as truthfulness, accuracy and respect for human rights are not universally applied at present. Higher profesional standards and responsibility cannot be imposed by decree, nor do they depend solely on the goodwill of individual journalists, who are employed by institutions which can improve or handicap their professional performance. The self-respect of journalists, their integrity and inner drive to turn out work of high quality are of paramount importance. It is this level of professional dedication, making for responsibility, that should be fostered.
A self-imposed code of ethics, a passion for national aspirations in the broader dimensions and a drive to reach the truth and fearlessly teach the people the unvarnished truth is the watchdog obligation of the pressmen.
Constitutional rights, in their elemental form, cover freedom of expression, which includes the right to communicate. Thus we see the integrality of democracy and the press in action. The democratisation of the communication system, if neglected, may pose a threat to the autonomy and sovereignty of developing societies. We have much in common and our value system is allergic to the vulgar, violent pressures and distortions of the materially advanced North. Today, the media, conditioned by foreign corporate power, works like 'assassins' of Third World interests with such success that the survival, spread and effectiveness of indigenous development have a bleak future. Our language papers are anaemic or simian and the Anglo-American journals feed the world with unveracious five-star disinformation and misinformation.
The global media, borderless in its operation and penetrating into every nation, is composed largely of international conglomerates. The tragedy of the Third World is that the national media and the politicians in power are becoming missionaries of deregulation and advocate open sesame for corporate giants from the West without taking into account their own possiblities and prospects. The global media lords march to the beat of commercialism, autocracy and market controlled economic authoritarianism. To democratise communications is to priorities the importance of people's sovereignty. A flashback to the saga of freedom of the press will fortify the dynamic role expected of the print media today. The first battle for the cause of freedom of the press should start by dissenters, dreamers and visionaries who begged to differ from the established guardians of society. They may face stern penalties. Information and communication, concentration in private or government command paves the way to mind control and spells the end of free societies.
"What is deeply ironic, is that, having thrown off one yoke, the press should now be failling under another, in the form of a tiny and evercontracting band of businessmen-proprietor. Instead of developing as a diverse social institution, serving the needs of democratic society, the press, and now the media, have become or are becoming the property of a few, governed by whatever social political and cultural values the few think tolerable. It seems grotesque, that the press, or rather the media, should be allowed to abuse its social role fatally by rushing on down the road to monopoly ownership. That is a nagation of press freedom.
By falling silent, journalists and politicians both negate history; for the struggle for a free press was always part of the long journey towards universal suffrage and democratic government. It was a fight for opposing voices to be heard when those in authority considered themselves the custodians of truth: an enduring delusion.” (Hidden Agenda by John Pilger)
To be silent, when speech is the need, is a slur on the journalist profession and a betrayal of its basic obligation. Publication of half-truths and total lies wrapped in flossy deception is treachery and turpitudinous, exploitation of people's credulity. Jornalists ought not to stand outside the closed doors of the powerful waiting to be lied to. They are not functionaries. Their job is not to stand idly by, but to speak for the true witnesses, those in full possession of the terrible truth. At the least they ought to be the natural enemies of the authoritarianism. We must demand a Right to search freely, enter freely and publish freely, without inhibitive partliamentary privileges and peevish, hubristic contempt of court provisions, if Press expression is to play a decisive role in democracy. Ninety percent of all world news and current affairs now comes to us from fewer and richer and more powerful sources. Their newsrooms have become centres of the 'free market' crusade.
One of the most elopquent dissenters of the social scientists 'Vandana Shiva, who has long attacked a Western-imposed 'monoculture of the mind' and called for an 'insurrrection of subjugated knowledge of liberalism' against the 'dominant knowledge of capitalism’. This dominant knowledge leaves out a plurality of paths to knowing nature and the univers,' she wrote. 'Ninety percent of it could be stopped without any risk of human deprivation.'
Once the Press becomes the private estate of a few in alliance with the giant global corporations in industry, the mind of Third World middle class can be controlled, conditioned and, eventually, conquered by dissemination of news-views capsules plus plus, masterfully presented using the spell of enchanting misinformation. The systematic impoverishment of a quarter of the population is routinely filed under 'underclass', an American term describing a corrupting, anti-social group outside society but in reality the deprived and eppressed glass in the society. The solution to poverty, which is the return of vast wealth taken from the poor by the rich, is seldom given a public airing. The Gulf War in 1991 was reported as a technological wonder, an event of bloodless science in which, rejoiced one editorial writer, there were 'miraculously few casualties'. It was one of the most covered wars in history, yet few journalists reported the truth, still widely unknown, that a quarter of a million Iraqis were wantonly slaughtered or died unnecessary deaths.
Since that bloodfest, the fate of the children of Iraq has been the slowest of news. Who knows that at least half a million children have died as a direct result of the economic sanctions imposed by the Western powers? Who understands that the sanctions are aimed not at bringing down Saddam Hussein, or deterring him from building some mythical nuclear bomb, but at preventing the 'market' competition of Iraqui oil from forcing down the price of oil produced by Saudi Arabia, the West's most important Middle Eastern proxy, next to Israel and biggest arms customer?
The Unpeople of the world are no news. Half a million children according to UNICEF, die out of poverty, one Filipino child dies every hour because the resources are diverted to payment of interest to Fund-Bank loans? Bangladesh figures are equally ghastly but no Press unearths the hideous secrets beneath our government budgets. Unpeople in Bangladesh are adivasis, bonded labour, children under torture and a hundred other disabled people whose right to life, to work, to fresh water, fresh air, good health are in jeopardy. Custodial deaths, forced suicides, non-access to food and shelter, of life sustaning goods, high prices and social injustice galore are not news in Bangladesh while arrivals of glittering cars and shining consumer services are part of publicity-philia.
The have-nots are homeless, hungry and Political Parties have no time for them, being seriously worried over the circuses of Coalitions and Power tournaments and seats in Houses, weakening human solidarity and thereby helping foreign Big Business indirectly.
It have become convinced that it is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers, without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it. High on the list is the myth that we now live in 'information age'-when, in fact, we live in a media age, in which the available information is repetitive, 'safe' and limited by invisible boundaries. In the day-to-day media, much of this is the propaganda of Western powers, whose narcissism, dissembling language and omissions often prevent us from understanding the meaning of contemporary events. Unsecrutinised or imterpuled 'Globalisation' is a prime example.
Journalists rarely doubt their own objectivity even as they faithfully echo the established political vocabularies and the prevailing politico-economic orthodoxy. Since they do not cross any forbidden lines, they are not reined in. So they are likely to have no awarness they are on an ideological leash. Thus, the true nature of power is not revealed, its changing contours are seldom explored, its goals and targets seldom identified. This is countrerfeit journalism because the surface of events is not disturbed. It is ironic that, while corruption among the system's managers and subalterns is at times brilliantly exposed by a small group of exceptional journalists, the wider corruption is unseen and unreported.
This allerigies and addictions of the upper classes dominate the Press today; the moving belt of images and talks are tellingly contrived and the pages, reams of them are printed skilfully with a view to enslave people's souls what is supplied is 'infortainment', which low seamlessly into commercial processes, the end being the buying up of mass minds, juvenile psyche and business success. In the media's village, underclasses do not exist unless they are useful to 'us'-that is the media motto and operation. Noises and wranglings and fretting and strutting are not news but local farce and fun. Our media are cybernetically at the mercy of the top media. Our minds and cerebral processes, our world view are no longer ours but borrowed trappings.
Bangladesh is glamourised by mirage 'development'. More prestigious hedonism, five-star hotels, sky-high buildings, Kentucky chicken, fast foods, fashionable dress and the disease of affuenza are the craze. And hunger, homelessness, right to minimal wants and treatment in hospitals or educational facilities aywhere do not move the pen or print or tele-media.
Journalists have a sacred duty and the press a sublime obligation. Our freedom depends on knowing the truth by 130 million Bangladeshis, the least and the last included. But today it is an honest, though sardonic comment, writ in acid ink that the riches particularly TNCs MNCs, shakes and shapes national policy notwithstanding the chatterbox parties and customary claptraps and political babels. The struggle against them and reactionary civil societies and NGOs is hard, but must be fought by the Press functionally. We want soldiers of journalism, sappers and miners, echelons and cadres. This process involves risky investigation’ courting Court contempt, provoking wrath, and parlimentary umbrage. There is a big hidden agenda of commodifying humanity in the gold rush of Corporations. The international integration of markets for goods, services and speculative business is pressing societies to alter their traditional practices, so much that, the broad segments of these societies are not able to put up a fight against their ills and shotfalls and claim that the right of the developing country are incorporated into.
LPB be must fight to its breath for a noble cause- the liberation of people and advocate a new drove of purposeful, liberative, intelligent journalists with integrity and perception to see the real danger that faces the future and uphold the flag of Liberalism i.e. individual freedom and functional democratic norm in national and international organisations including TNCs, MNC, IMF, WTO, world Bank and stand firm against IPR and TRIP etc.
Press Council
The Press council as an institution suffers from two handicaps wherever it is in existence-ignorance about its jurisdiction and functioning, and misunderstanding of its role. It is, therefore, first necessary to understand clearly the genesis of the very concept of the press council.
Ever since the press came on the scene in Europe in the seventeenth century it attracted restrictions from the authorities, since its first appearance itself, though in the form of leaflets, among other thing, exposed the wrong-doing of the monarchy, the aristocracy and the clergy. The leaflets-the ancestors of the present newspapers-became popular as they contained malicious matter about the high and the mighty. This brought pre-censorship, imprisonment of publishers and writers, confiscation of printed material and also of the printing presses. This period was followed by the era of liberalism and individualism-of the Renaissance in Europe. The individual was placed at the center of the stage and freedom of the individual became the new religion. It is this gospel which led to the concept of the free press for the first time. The Blackstonian theory of no precensorship leaving the individual to face the risk of post publication trial by the court for his wrong action, if any, prevailed and rightly so. For, instead of a bureaucrat applying his unilateral and arbitrary scissors to the material, even before it saw the light of the day, the material could be examined in court and the court could arrive at its decision after hearing arguments from both sides.
But the libertarianism which was promoted by this theory of individualism did not take much time to degenerate into licentiousness. Blackmailing, sensationalisation of events, yellow journalism become rampant. This gave rise to the theory of social responsibility. If the freedom was to be employed by the press, since it performed a social service, it had also to discharge its responsibility towards the society in turn. The responsible section of the society as well as in the press felt that some kind of mechanism was necessary to enforce the social responsibility. But having had the earlier experience of the repressive and suppressive mechanism of the state, there was a legitimate aversion to the restrictions and repressive apparatus of the state. The search for a suitable machinery to enforce the social responsibility led to the eventual emergence of press council. The philosophy behind the establishment of the press council is that it should be a self-regulating internal mechanism ordinarily of the peers in the profession with the representatives of the public. The readers also having a say in the matter, since freedom of the press in essentially the freedom of the people to be informed adequately and accurately on matters having a bearing on public interest.
The object of our Press council should be to preserve and promote freedom of the press and to maintain and improve the standards of the newspapers and news agencies. To implement this object, certain functions should have been entrusted to the council. They include, (a) to help newspapers and news agencies to maintain their independence; (b) the raising of the standards of the newspapers and inculcating in the persons connected with the press a sense of duty and responsibility as citizens. For this purpose to prepare a code of professional ethics; (c) to monitor any development wich may prevent or obstruct the free flow of information; (d) to monitor developments which may lead to the concentration of the ownership of newspapers; (e) to monitor foreign funding of newspapers; (f) to promote a proper functional relationship between different classes of persons engaged in the production and publication of the newspapers or in news agencies; (g) to give advisory opinion to the government on any media related matter which may be referred to it by the government; and (h) to discharge any other function in furtherance of the objectives of the council.
It is entrusted with the task of adjudicating complaints against the press for violation of ethics and so also by the press against authorities for encroachment on the freedom of the press. These complaints are heard publicly, and parties are permitted to appear through their lawyers or representatives, Against the newspapers and journalists, the council is empowered to award punishment ranging from disapproval to censure and to require the newspapers to publish the adjudication. Against the authorities, the council can make strong observations which also includes giving the necessary directions.
It is often forgotten by many that the mechanism of the press council should serve a dual constitutional purpose. It protects the freedom of the press and independence of the newspapers and news agencies not only from the government authorities but also from the other external and internal forces. Secondly, the existence of such mechanism prevents legal restrictions being placed by the government on the press. For, in the absence of such mechanism, the people will be justified in demanding a law to check the malpractice's by the press. The preservation, promotion and strengthening of the press council is, therefore, in the interests of everybody-the press, the owners of the press, the journalists and the society at large. Above all, it is in the interest of democracy itself. A free but responsible press is a sine qua non of a liberal democratic society. The press council tries to ensure both freedom and responsibility of the press.
As stated earlier, the Act gives powers to the council to disapprove the conduct of, warn, admonish and censure the newspapers and even journalists in appropriate cases, for violation of journalistic ethics but not to make observations against the authorities for its encroachment on the freedom of the press. The power to make observations has not been interpreted and rightly so, to give suitable directions as well Further, the Act also gives power to direct the newspaper which is so punished, to publish the relevant gist of the council's adjudication.
If the newspapers and the broadcasting and telecasting comply with the directions given-namely, if the newspapers publish the adjudication as directed-that is, within the given time and at the given place, the purpose may be served. So also if the authorities comply with the directions such as giving protections to the journalists and the newspaper establishments, restoring advertisements, issuing accreditation cards etc, the power given will be effective.
The problem arises in two cases as far as the press is concerned. When the concerned newspaper does not publish the adjudication at all or as directed, and secondly, in spite of punishment for the same kind of violation several times, it persists in violatins of ethics. The Act does not give any power to the council if the newspaper concerned does not comply with the direction. That renders the whole exercise futile. In fact, the purpose of establishing the press council itself is frustrated.
Democracy, as we know, is a government of, by and for the people here means well informed people and not media-manipulated people. Democracy is also a government by debate and discussion and not by the arbitrary decisions of a few individuals. The debate and discussion presumes availability of diverse information from plural sources and not form one source only. Restricting information to one source is nothing short of regimentalisation of information as in a dictatorship or an authoritarian regime. It is no democracy. That is why in a democracy, plurality in the sources of information has to be encouraged, the plurality of sources does not mean plural outlets of information owned by the same individual or group of individuals or by the same individual or group of individuals or by the same category of owners who, for protecting their common vested interests, may conspire with one another. The ownership pattern has also therefore to be different to ensure free flow of information which is in public interest. That is why the need for plurality both in number and nature of the media establishment to ensure real democracy. The press council has to act in the interest of all categories of owners and all functionaries of the press.
The institution is meant for the people and to preserve and promote their right, to receive full and truthful information on all matters of public interest. It is not meant for promoting the interests of any particular constituent of the press and the authorities that try to encroach the Freedom of The Press Media.
Civil Society
At the onset of the new century, partnership is high on the agenda of all social actors engaged in the development enterprise. Governments, civil society, the private sector and the grass root-level representatives must all improve their understanding of how to structure and sustain productive partnerships. In today's integrated and volatile world, complex problems increasingly demand rapid solutions based on the knowledge and resources of a multiplicity of sectors and institutions. In this context, CSO’s +private sector + govt. partnerships that solve real problems are becoming especially valuable.
One source of practical experience with the potential and challenges of partnership is the long and rich history of relations. Joined by their common values of equity, justice and solidarity, and obliged by the uncertainty of their funding base and the breadth of the development issues they seek to address, CSOs have often generated innovative vehicles for collective action.
Civil Society Organizations are working hard to adapt themselves and their alliances to the world that they are engaged with today. As the power of markets continues to rise, of oppressed people continues to decline, as the gap between rich and poor grows larger across and within countries, as regional human disasters erupt unpredictably from ethnic conflict, disease or climate change, and as trade and investment regimes become even more integrated, CSOs are restructuring, reskilling and renewing in order to meet the challenges of this new world.
In this context, CSOs are also regaining a new appreciation of partnerships. It is true that, too often off hand-oppressed relationships have taken one characteristics, driven by the donor-recipient dynamic, under trickle down policy, asymmetries in power, money and information; accountability; and mutual distrust that undermine partnership. For the most part, such partnerships have not-involved joint ventures or coalitions of intellectuals, artisans, academician, and have generally remained within the reactianary the sphere of civil society.
NGOs continue to explore new roles in relation to the state and the private sector, as well. With governments, NGOs have often sought to play several roles at the same time: oppositional political force, policy critic and formulator, program grantee, and program-delivery contractor.
Many NGOs are longtime critics of corporations, and their cultures are deeply anti-corporate. Others have moved more easily toward business seeking grants, strategic alliances and even board involvement from business leaders. In addition, may NGOs participate in policy-oriented roundtables and task forces involving the private sector and the state. There is growing recognition that both NGOs and business need new skills and processes in order to interact productively. However, their relationships must also recognize and protect the differences of the respective stakeholders.
The challenge now before all people oriented development institutions and organizations-and civil-society organizations in particular-is to enable the formation and sustenance of effective and efficient, results-oriented, multi-stakeholder structures and processes. These new partnership vehicles are essential in solving the problems-not through rhetoric from on high but through hard work on the ground. At the same time, such vehicles must also allow all the parties to maintain their critical perspective and stance, and the freedom to oppose one another on issues where there is not agreement. The world is complex; so is the nature of partnership. And, in the final analysis, partnerships must deliver concrete results for all of the participants; overall, the benefits must out weigh the time and money spent by participants on these relationships.
All social actors would be well advised to follow these developments closely. Civil-society organizations must build new and complex relations with the state and with the private sector and teach multilateral and bilateral donor agencies much about how they themselves can become involved in multi-stakeholder partnerships, and what a new division of labour among the various social actors might look like in the near future. It may be that multilateral, in particular-given their people orientation, deplomatic agility, and regional and sectoral expertise-could play a strategic role in convening multi-stake-holder processes and in animating the various parties to achieve concrete results where they matter most.
Among the obstacles to partnership that are identified were lack of funds for travel and exchange, and lack of time to nurture and build the partnership. Declining markets or funding, lack of communication, asymmetry in the contributions of each of the parties, personality conflicts, and diverging goals were other obstacles. Still other obstacles include entrenched vested interests, over-reliance on particular funding, political factors influencing funding, lack of adaptability of one or more of the partners, and lack of a negotiated exit plan.
In response to what they regard as a common threat from economic policies, civil-society actors in the hemisphere have begun to develop a "common agenda" in response to the drive by government and business for greater economic integration and free trade. Several aspects are interesting from the point of view of Rich-Poor partnerships in civil society. First, the coalition decides not only to oppose what they view as wrong with the CSOs, but also to develop their own proposal for integration. This has involved research, discussion and debated in order to come up with principles and alternatives that are equally valid for Rich and Poor. While financial sustainability remains a long-term goal for civil-society organizations, most struggle to maintain a modicum of financial viability. This situation has led to new efforts to accelerate market-based income-generating paths and to increase the volume of local fund raising from individuals without educating them of their rights and duties in a functional democracy. They are politicised to oppose those who might not promote their intergty on loan.
To facilitate the fund raising agenda, a much more favourable enabling environment crafted. On one hand, this means encouraging national governments to make available tax incentives for donations. On the other it requires local voluntary sectors to clarify and publicize their status as charitable institutions as well as build fund raising programs.
Multilateral organizations, and donor agencies play important roles play in this new era, despite changing economic and political conditions and constraints on aid spending. Both multi-laterals and bilaterals, as well as major foundations, focus their support on corporate accountability, public governance and CSO strengthening. And they devote serious attention to removing the self-prescribed obstacles and incentives that prevent them from coordinating effectively with one another within and across sectors.
The World Bank recently introduced a new concept called the Comprehensive Development Framework, a multisectoral, multidisciplinary approach to development involving the state, civil society and the private sector. While this idea is being debated and tested, there is little question that resources and strategies from all the key social actors must, in fact, be brought to bear on the process of economic, social and political transformation in the people. How national sovereignty, the profit orientation of business, and the social-justice concerns people orianted CSOs can be balanced and resolved within the context of this concept is not clear.
Globalization has generated a host of critical issues where there are deep divide among the social actors, but also new opportunities for common understanding and joint action. And all must work hard to achieve a rapid, flexible and responsive relationship to multi-stakeholder partnerships; there is no place here for ponderous bureaucracy. Each of the specialized agencies has impressive sectoral expertise and knowledge to bring to bear on the problems and on negotiations among social actors.
However, in terms of their governance, these institutions must achieve a feasible balance of representation, perspectives and values across civil society, governments and corporations, if they are to be of optimum use. And "talkfests" are not enough. Real agreements, with rules, standards and procedures of mutual accountability, must emerge from multi-stakeholder dialogues animated by the multilaterals. Real interestsas expressed by money and power-are at stake and must be negotiated with sophisticated calibration in order that such agreements may materialize and be sustained. The stakes are high and the price of failure is great. But the price of not trying is much higher still.
In a volatile and globalized world, the nature of international cooperation demands knowledge-intensive and integrated solutions, and requires the mobilization of significant private funding. How civil-society organizations are redefining and operationalizing anew the concept of partnerships is worthy of the attention of all social actors. Knowledge intensity is crucial in solving today's complex problems. Shared ownership and decision-making in the relationship are paramount. Ways must be found to deal in labour and business, to the practical advantage of each of those social sectors. All actors in the development enterprise must learn their way forward-separately and together.
Since the collapse of state socialism as a realistic alternative for social organization, civil society and the private sector have been finding common ground in their commitment to democracy and the importance of market-driven economic development. On one hand, civil-society organizations are becoming more tolerant of the market and the need for more private sector involvement in the delivery of what used to be government controlled social services. Business, on the other hand, has shown a growing awareness of the problems of inequality and the need for a greater commitment to social investment. Civil-society organizations play an important role as the institutional link between business and grass-root organizations, as the latter exercise their right to participate as legitimate partners in the delivery of public social services.
As liberals we hold view that the state is expected to provide what economic literature refers to as an "enabling environment". Among other actions, this calls for the privatization and liquidation of public-sector activities that compete unfairly with the private sector, the removal of restrictions on competition, the elimination of controlling and licensing functions, and the dismantling of public agencies that perform those functions. It also means providing a level playing field for the private sector.
The marked shifts in public-and private-sector relationships have been influenced by changes in the socio-economic and political environments. The growth in public-sector deficit, particularly in Bangladesh which is saddled with massive foreign debt, has reduced the state's capacity to attend to the social investment needs of their citizens. This has resulted in growing reliance on the private sector to extend financial, technical and management assistance to government in meeting certain basic social needs. Not only has business viewed the development as an opportunity, but also it has made the private sector aware that its best interest is to fill the gap for the sake of fostering social harmony and promoting a conducive social and political environment for doing business.
The broadening of the so-called democratic space, particularly in countries like Bangladesh which is going through a transition from authoritarianism to democracy, has also abetted the mobilization of civil society groups, supported by the emergence of a more active and vigilant mass media. By the early 1990s sustainable development had emerged as the new development paradigm. What distinguishes sustainable development from previous development paradigms that failed is civil society's role in defending, promoting and advancing societal interests and promoting civic values and good governance practice.
There a substantive change in the concept of corporate governance and social responsibility. The ultimate goal of corporate governance is maximizing shareholder value and ensuring a fair return on invested capital. In recent years, however, the concept has gone through a gradual transformation and now embodies as well what Robert Putnum calls "social capital" recognition among government, business and civil society that they can accomplish their individual social and economic goals more effectively together than alone, and that the values of trust, tolerance and cooperation should be at the core of their interaction.
Business in general has come to realize that engagement with community organizations is a win-win proposition. It is an important vehicle through which corporation can practice their citizenship and responsibilities while benefiting from the relationships. The emerging world view takes on a much broader quality that goes beyond the traditional bounds of corporate philanthropy into the more encompassing concept of strategic social investment. According to a leading practitioner in the field considering the resource base, mobility, and technical and managerial expertise that companies represent, engaging them in efforts to improve the quality of life in communities, is strategic both for the beneficiaries and the companies themselves.
There is no denying the fact that the globalisation of finance has surpassed the globalisation of production. With a daily turnover of 1.2 trillion dollars in 1995, the global currency trading has gained a life of its own, and much of its is hardly related to the real economy. The deregulation and globalisation of financial markets-as twin elements of the Washington Consensus-in developing countries coupled with lower intrest rates and institutionalisation of savings in developed countries, are the main factors behind the rapid transborder capital mobility.
However, increased global capital mobility has been accompanied by an increased frequency of financial crises in both the developed and developing countries. The fact that there is a positive correlation with international financial liberalisation and financial crises in both the developed and developing countries. The fact that there is apositive correlation with international financial liberalisation and financial crises has been well established. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has admitted this fact. In a recent study, which looked into the empirical relationship between banking crises and financial liberalisation in 53 countries during the 1980-95 peiod, the IMF also came to the conclusion that banking crises are more likely to occur in liberalised financial systems.
As recent financial crises are the outcome of international financial liberalisation, there is a growing concern to restructure the present international financial architecture. Surprisingly, the need for effective and meaningful regulations is not only expressed by Leftist economists or radical groups, even the true belivers of liberalisation and globalisation are also advocating the relevance of capital controls and regulatory mechanisms. Critics had never anticipated that the tide agaist free-market financial system would turn so quickly. Perhaps, certain recent events, particularly the contagion effects of the South-East Asian currency crises seem to have contributed to the sudden change of mindset. Increasingly, it is being admitted that if the international financial system is not regulated, no country can remain immune from the impact of the financial crisis.
In recent months, restructuring of the global financial architecture has become the key theme in the ongoing international debates, as witnessed during the just concluded annual meeting of the World Bank-IMF. However, peoples' movements, NGOs, and labour organisations, in both the developing and developed countries, have yet to respond effectively and critically to the issues emerging from the globalisation of financial markets.
There could be two important reasons behind this. Firstly, financial markets are a new subject for peoples' movements, which have largely been dealing with either foreign direct investment (FDI) or official capital flows multilateral (for example, World Bank, IMF) or bilateral. Second and perhaps more importantly, there has been a lack of information and understanding on issues related to global finance. No doubt, financial matters are very complex and require a considerable amount of expertise and experience, which, unfortunately, many groups do not possess. Therefore, a well-thought-out and coordinated action programme by the social movements at various levels is yet to emerge.
At the political level except for a few issues such as liberalisation of bank and insurance sector, there seems to be a growing consensus among mainstream political parties in Bangladesh for financial liberalisation. This is reflected by the continuation of the "reform" process of the financial sector by last three governments. On the other hand, social movements, CSOs, and labour groups, operating at the non-party political space, have yet to critically respond to these issues.
Like others, the Bangladeshi CSO groups also lack the expertise on global financial issues. Although research institutes working on financial matters exist in the country, most of them serve the information requests of the corporate sector. The reports and journals published by these institutes are very few and the activists and movements are unable to afford these. Furthermore, to keep in tuned with the changing economic and political scenario, many institutes have radically changed their perspectives and as a result, have become greater votaries of financial liberalisation in recent years.
Thus, the task of providing regular information to the movements has been left to a handful of research groups and socially committed intellectuals. With their limited resources, efforts are being made to provide information and campaign tools to activists and groups in the country. In recent months, efforts have been made to demystify the complex issues related to globalization of finance in order to democratize the debates. Such efforts need to be further supplemented by preparation and publication of educational materials for the masses.
The term civil society is meant a political community distinguished from the state. Institutions that are private in that they are independent from government and organized by individual in pursuit of welfare of the people. Civil society therefore refers to a realm of autonomous group and association; a private sphere independent of public authority and aims to influence the policies and action of the government. They differ from political parties in that they seek to exert influence from outside. The problem with so called and self proclaimed civil society in Bangladesh is that they hate the truth. The are afraid of truth and so they hate those who speak the truth. There is also a calculated and systematic conspiracy of silence. These are the reactionaries who want to push the country back to pre 1971 era but camouflaged as staunchest supporter of independence 1971. These are jugglers and mind manipulators. Palace magicians they are. Their poverty of thinking is so much that these so called intellectuals being permanently beneficiaries of money corruption, loud their voice against it. This crazy drive unleashed by them is to hide their own money corruption and other more serious corruption like (ii) moral corruption (iii) class corruption and intellectual corruption. These civil society intellectuals are legitimizing all forms of corruption and throwing fictitious charges on the shoulder of people oriented intellectuals with malafide intention to keep them cornered and feeble.
The problem with these people oriented intellectuals is that they are silent. But there is nothing like a silent intellectual as his dump intellect does no good for the people and the nations. An intellectual must speak out the truth, even at the cost of his popularity and honour. Now the fraud civil society, pretending to be innocent are thumping the ground causing the nation to tremble. The real pro independence forces are their subjects of cruel attack. In the garb of sole agents of independents they kiss the ground and stay's alert to materialize their ill conceived designs to keep the people hallucinated for ever.
A people oriented civil society is the need of the hour. The main problem suffered by the present camouflaged civil society is their antireligious campaign. The submit to religious rituals only after death because then they would not feel ashamed. But history tells us the different story. No people oriented struggle succeeded without the moral support of religion and spirituality. All political revolution in the human history were preceded by religious and social revolution. The present so called civil society are not interested in integrated liberation and total emancipation. They are interested only in political gain.
We cannot expect careerist civil society to be the agents of social resurgence because they have neglected completely the constructive work of education and organizing. The careerists are interested only in advancing their own careers. The rural or urban dwelling illiterate, Ill fed and ill treated masses are ignored. It is not that the people does not realize the potential of civil society movement but the fact is that they are conspiratically kept out of it. This is the present state of the reactionary civil society who are most consciously helping the illegitimate democracy to gather strength.
No conscious literate society can allow this to continue and perpetuate. The time is right enough to act and act now.
Agenda of Social Movements
Given the present geo-political conjuncture, one cannot expect any major structural changes in the global financial system to take place without mass mobilization and empowerment of people in both the developed and developing countries a cross.
But, the earlier successful methods and strategies of campaigning and lobbying with official capital flows (World Bank, IMF) are unlikely to work in the case of finance capital. While the World Bank and other institutions (multilateral and bilateral) are "public" institutions, have a mandate for poverty alleviation and sustainable development although one may dispute the seriousness of intent and differ with their approach towards it, on the other hand, private finance capital is only looking for profits, has no developmental agenda, and is only accountable to its shareholders-with no responsibility for public participation and disclosure of information.
Furthermore, it is relatively easier to target campaigns and monitor the funding by the World Bank, IMF WTO and ADB, while much of global finance capital is liquid and footloose in nature, moving from one country to another within seconds, thereby making it extremely difficult for CSOs, social movements and others to monitor it. Similarly, the earlier strategies of campaigning for example, labour, legal or environmental action on private capital flows that were largely in the form of FDI may not work in the case of footloose finance capital. There is no doubt that the cost of FDI is also high as capital can move out through royalty payment, dividend, imports as well as other illegal and legal means.
At the national level, the CSO groups and movements should advocate for greater regulations with regulatory bodies. Efforts should be made by CSO activists and groups to put strict capital controls on the inflows of speculative funds in order to prevent the emergence of a crisis-like situation. In this context, it will be worthwhile to examine the efforts by Chile and Malaysia to put controls on inflows in order to restrict "hot money" flows. Similarly, other policy mechanisms (for example, capital gains tax) could also be explored to deal with such flows.
The recent experience in the recipient countries suggests that policy-makers and regulatory bodies, very often tend to overlook the problems during the boom periods when massive capital flows move in. However, their response is quicker during the bust periods. The policy-makers cannot remain blind to the fact that those people usually the upper middle class and rich who are the main beneficiaries during the boom periods are not the real losers during the bust periods. While vast sections of society consisting of the poor and lower middle class do not gain during the boom period, as their purchasing power is very limited or negligible - they are the worst sufferers during the bust phase, which is accompanied by job losses, fall in real wages, high inflation, high taxes, and reduced public expenditure.
Although with globalisation, the power of the nation-state to pursue independent economic policy-making has weakened, still the nation-state can restore relative autonomy in the management of its economy, as withnessed recently in Malaysia. Despite globalisation, the nation-state is not going to wither away. CSO activists and groups should make efforts to make IMF WTO and World Bank accountable and democratic.
In source countries, any campaign against global finance capital is unlikely to succeed without the support of middle class investors who invest their savings in the mutual funds, pension funds, bonds and other financial instruments. Since the size of this community is very large, running into millions, the capital collectively contributed by them is in trillions of dollars. In the US alone, the proportion of investment of households/individuals in mutual funds account for over 35 percent. The American mutual fund industry with assets of $4 trillion, account for over half of the world's mutual fund assets. After all, a substantial amount of capital-which the international fund managers move across the border- belongs to this community.
In recent years, a few attempts have been made by CSOs in the US and other Western countries to sensitise the investor community about the wider implications of their investment. Similarly, a number of funds popularly known as socially and environmentally sound projects have lately come up. However, recent experience shows that some socially responsible funds do not behave differently from any other profit-seeking fund. These funds also have a tendency to overreact on "herd instinct". To illustrate this point from a perspective of a recipient country, an example of Thailand is cited here. When the speculative attack on the Thai baht was launched in early July 1997, all kinds of funds, including socially responsible funds, quickly moved out from the region, thereby precipitating the crisis. Thus, from a perspective of the recipient country, they are not much different from any other fund. The NGOs and groups, particularly in the source countries, will have to keep this larger picture in mind while supporting such funds.
While working at the national level both recipient and source countries, peoples' movements and CSO groups will also have to address the issues at the international level. The need to work at the international level is necessitated by the fact that financial globalisation can also cause serious damage to world financial markets and the real economy. The growing trend towards mega-mergers and acquisitions in the banking and financial sectors further calls for international action in terms of regulation and supervision. Some of the proposals to deal with the financial issues at the international shall have be discussed in a democratic war.
At this stage, it is unlikely that such an institution will be created, given the hostility of global financial institutions, particularly the IMF and fund managers, to have a supranational body to oversee their operations, However the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, one of the titans of the G-8 nations, has recently supported the need for such an institution.
The groups will have to closely monitor the developments related to the creation of a World Financial Authority. They will have to ensure that this authority should function under the UN system; besides it should have a wider developmental agenda with an opn and democratic process.
Finally, peoples' movements need new tools of analysis and advocacy to deal with the globalisation of finance. It is high time that CSO activists and groups start understanding the language, procedures and working of finance capital in order to effectively deal with it. Perhaps, activists need to heed the advice of Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth, "CSOs need a quantum leap.
Women in Politics & Government
Women in politics and government is a burning issue around the world and it has gained momentum during the last quarter of 2000 AD. It has taken the topmost position in the socio-political agenda. Women in politics and government has a long historic tradition in South Asia particularly during the reign of Muslim reign in India.
Modern world has witnessed at least 30 women head of the government and distinguished themselves as able politicians who have rendered valuable services for their nation and state. The question generally raised by the civil society in this South Asian subcontinent particutarly in Bangladesh is how to judge the issue of women in politics and government, on gender equality or on proportionate number of population. In the western countries women acclaimed for themselves top places in politics and position in the government on the basis of gender equality. In most cases these great women have not only proved themselves worthy of their post and position but also brought in qualitative change in socio-economic reforms.
The role women can play in politics and government, in this South Asian subcontinent particularly in Bangladesh rests on the goodwill of political parties. Though in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India women in politics and government have exhibited extraordinary bright performances and have raised the honour and prestige of their respective state and nation in the United Nation Organization, yet number and position of women in political parties and in the respective national assemblies are too insigificant to mention. Those who gained position and place in the forefront of the party and in top of government could do so by dint of their family back ground. Either as widow or as descendents of political titans. This is the very reason that they could not secure gender equality or proportionate equitability of women in politics. In Iran western educated, reformist President Khatami has appointed an women as vice president and another women as governor of a provice. He brought the gender equality issue in the fore front saying that women are no inferior to men in politics and government and that women should be brought in the forefront of politics and government so that the nation is not deprived of intelligent services of the women folk.
An acid test of political parties in Bangladesh derives a dismal picture of political position of women. All political parties though having no political ideology other than occupying state power of retaining of occupied power by any means including money and muscle did not give due recognition to women participation in their party manifesto. Woman are regarded only as marginal community or beneficiaries. Though these parties have women fronts they are taken as mere decorative trinklets and never was given any serious consideration in active participation in the party. In their manifesto they speak against gender discerimiution, backwardness of women folk in both socio-economic section and but never assure woman empowerment political human rights and equal participation apprised in party or National politics.
Women, being two fifth of the entire work force, are kept deprived most consciously in every aspect including employment and wages, health and average longevity of life, sexual harassment, violence against, socio-economic self reliance, socio political position even in highly deserving cases, women leadership or even active participation is being discouraged vigorously so that they find no scope even to speak out among themselves. The women associations are city centred and comprises the affluent educated modern and egoistic class that they can not build up a sound base in the grass root level. They are the women part of the reactionary so called civil socity engaged in financial gratification from the major three political parties. Some of them as NGO leaders are pocketing large amount of foreign donation meant for ameliorating the fate of the distressed women and children without accountability. Those women political leaders, being widow or descendents of male political titans are not familiar with the political or socio economic problems as they did not rise to that height through political processes. And the grass root level women political workers are either house wives or college students who do not have free access to move from far away place to place and organize the women folk and being trained or pass through a political processes and then to achieve greater position in the party so that their voices are given much weight in the formation of party politics. Why?
A survey conducted by the Inter parliamentary union shows a very dismal picture of women in politics. In an average only 10.5 percent of the parliamentary seats are occupied by women, share as only as 6.1 percent in the government as members of the cabinet. To influence the state policy it is thought that at least upto 50 percent of the parliamentary seats in the cabinet should be reserved for women and every political party should nominate upto 40 percent of their candidates in the national elections. But the political parties, due to their male ego most consciously bypass this and are reluctant to nominate women as their candidate in the national election.
But if the political parties would noninate their women members women would get a fair opportunity of winning the election either by this or that party. Consequently the political and Socio economic awarness, motivation, conciousness, paticipation and training of womefolk would largly change to advancement of people oriented politics.
The most amazing fact is that the people of Bangladesh, though being religiously devoted have never shown their reluctance in accepting women leadership, rather they welcomed them as much more beneficial leaders than their male counterparts. The people of Bangladesh have a general idea that at least woman members of the parliament would not be crooks. They would listen to the problems of their electorates and try their best to solve their problems even if they have to fight with their male fellow members in the party. Unlike the male members of the parliament who lend their ears to the electorates also keeping an eye on the next election, the women members do so as they possess images of mother, sister or daughters. The women candidates of the locality can never forget that these are the people who adore cared and even nursed them when they were tiny tots or teenagers, and these innocent, distressed, half fed people are more like their fathers or brothers. The people know very well that women members are much more caring to them than the male members of the parliament.
The political parties hold quite the opposite view regarding nominating woman candidates. They think that woman candidates, after winging the election would turn to be hard headed, uncompromising and too hard to manage and would never allow the party or the government to adopt anti people state policies, and thus would push the party in power or even opposition and the bureaucratic in embarrassing position and that these women member of the parliament would become bone of contention.
Not only become the women folk constitute 40 precert of voting population, but also as they are the real upholder of people oriented politics and there are a lot of women in the constituencies who hold the ability to run the parliament and the government, constitutional rules should be formed to (I) compel every political parties to nominate women in at least 40 percent of their candidate. Otherwise women against men or men against women candidates would not serve the purpose of the framed rule. This rule is already in force in Nepal, Argentina and in Sudan, a state that strictly follows the so-called rigid Islamic Sharia as guardian of every law, rules and regulations that run the affairs of the state.
Recently Liberal Women Commission has raised demand that nominating 30 women members in the parliament be given up and be replaced with direct election. The other women associations countered it with different propositions such as 64 (sixty four) on the basies of 64 sixty four districls or 100 seats out of three hundred and each comprosing three constituencies or 150 seats each comprising 2 constituesncies. These 64/100/150 seats are in addition to 300 existing parliamentary seats. The Liberal Women Commission proposal is far more pragmatic and realistic as it says that every political party must nominate up to 40 percent of its member in the parliament seats. Thus there will be no necessary to increase the parliament seats. The men and women ratio will be 180:120. According to the proposition of other women association the ratio will be maximum 300 : 150, moreover there will arise a necessity to refix constituencies for women. Moreover, ever if constituted thus, the size of the constituencies will be in different cases double, triple and pentaple, which is absolutely impossible for any women candidate to take care of or to cover the entire area during election.
The government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is herself an women is opposing it tooth and nail and the reactionary male egoist civil society is giving her full support saying that at first the women associations must get united otherwise disention among women associations will not bring in the desired result. But in reality, this pretxt is a cunning way to avoid or shun off the demand. No unanimous decision from the women association is not recessary as those are propositions, so say the women associations. The government, if that much willing to accept direct women participation can take up any of the propositions placed by the women associations. The trouble is with the political parties including the government party. They will not allow the Liberal Women Comission proposal or have any conslideration to it,though in the acid test, it is the most suitable, pragmatic and realistic one as the constituencies are already fixed and no extra expenditure will be incurred.
As said earlier, the problem is with the political parties all of which are driven by male ego. In case of women direct election the political parties will be compelled to bring in more and more women in party fore front. The women folk will be more conscious of their rights and duties towards nation, will be more politically trained and will be more devout to detect the cases where their male counterparts take anti national, anti-state and anti-people stand. The women folk of this country are so loving to the people of their areas and they too love their people that even the slightest deviation from pro people activities of politics will not be toterated by them. The male parliamutary members of even their own parties will not be able to do as they please and play with the lots of the people for their personal benefit and that would be a great loss for them and if the women representation in parliament as proposed by Liberal Women Commission is accepted and enacted in the constitution this loss will be a parmanent loss. What a shame, during the last several years, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Law Minister, Women and Children Minister, Members of the Parliament from different parties, political leaders and the reactionary so called civil society, in many meetings, seminars, round table conference, spoke for women repesentation in parliament through direct election. But when the hour to maerialise it comes they just sneak away.
Liberal Woman Commission in several meetings and seminars pointed out that key issues like population control, foreign exchange earning through garments sector, success in micro-credit are direct contribution of the women folk of this country. In local election women folk came out with great success. Having slightest confusion that whether women members of the parliament will be able to discharge their duties due to biological factors is but a conspiration, foolishness or cunning. The women in Bangladesh have become, within the advent of 21st century, far more better equipped intellectually, morally and consciously, than their male counterparts to serve the nation with honesty, capacity and capability.
Liberal Women Commission gurantees, more women members in the Parliament will bring in more prospect more peace more prosperity, more peace, more happiness and above all more transparency in political activities.
Are these the men fear most? Women of Bangladesh, daughters of the soil should take care, move fast, be resolute to dig the grave of the stooges who dare to snatch their right, to decept and perpetu ate their ill design, to decive the people and to throw the independence hard earned at the cost of women’s honour at the cost of their dearest sons and daughers at the cost of their near and dear ones.
Economy In Shambles
The countrys economy is on the verge of collapse consequent upon the goverment's credit crunch and the banks' liquidity crisis mounted by the pursuance of wrong policies, subservient economic diplomacy.
The floodgate for Indian goods has been opened as a result of the government's fulfillment of political obligations to India causing untold woes and sufferings to the people and the downtrend national economy. While fatal free trade has been allowed and market economy introduced without any checks and balance, undue concessions to Indian goods and imposition of VAT on industrial inputs, raw materials and spare parts of cottage industries have done much damage to the economy. As against that, India is pursuing a policy of subsidized and duty-free trade in respect of the items having popular demand here. As a result, our industrial goods like textiles, sugar, etc. are rapidly losing markets and the industries are being closed down rendering millions of workers unemployed.
The garments sector has been in jeopardy due to wanton cancellation of the GSP (generalized system of preference) certificates by the Commerce and Industries Ministry at a time when the importers in the European Union markets were considering our case for revision as because a marked improvement in the industrial units was in the offing. This abrupt and perfidious decision of the government has virtually crippled the garments sector, which is the highest forex earner for the country.
Moreover, the government is far from taking steps to revitalise the already identified sick industrial unit and abetting in making rest of the units vulnerable to losing ones with a view to turning the country into importers/users of Indian goods as if this country is a vassal state of India. The sick industries are being sold at throw-away prices and donors' aid is being sought by the government for new industrial units shouldering long-term liabilities conspicuously to serve the interest of the mentor.
The industries of the country were hamstringed by the post liberation Awami League government through nationalisation without channelising the entrepreneurial and management acumen and, also, through posting Awami stooges as the Managing Directors and Administrators of the nationalised industrial units making them dens of corruption ultimately losing concerns within a few months of the take-over.
The government borrowing from banks, excess money supply, credit crunch and slow pace in the implementation of the development projects are leading the country's economy to the brink of collapse. The government is going on borrowing from the natinalised commercial banks (NCBs) to defray its expenditure including the salary of the employees.
The loss of production, debacle in the export earnings, smuggling in of foreign goods and the excess money supply are accentuating the menace of inflation in the country. The rate of inflation was hardly 3 per cent during the 5-year rule of last government but during 15-month rule of the Awami League government the rate of inflation has exceeded 5 percent and it is speculated that the rate of inflation will now rise at a galloping speed due to the wrong policies and inapt handling of the economic affairs of the Republic.
The prices of essential commodities including rice, vegetables and cereals have already shot up in the markets. The propaganda of wage-hike of the officers and employees in exacerbating the malady. The repercussions of all these deterrent trends and issues are exerting tremendous pressure on the peoples' nerves. Too much money will now chase too few goods amidst massive loss of production, unemployment, under-employment and disguised unemployment prevailing in every nook and corner of the country.
The Banking sector is not much different from the capital markets in Bangladesh. After what has happened to UCBL due to poor and inept handling by the government and the Bangladesh Bank, there has been an erosion in the common people's faith in the local banks. They feel their money is no longer safe with them. The banking sector is now witnessing an abnormal growth in the private sector which the economy of the country does not justify by any stretch of imagination. This is not normal either. If there is a crash in the banking sector as there was one in the stock market which have ruined thousands of innocent investors, there will be a catastrophe. It will hurt the economy of the country lot more than the debacle in the stock trade. The government in this case will not be able to absolve itself of the responsibility as it did in the stock market bungling. Almost all the banks, about eight in numbers, that have been floated or are waiting to be floated are by people close to the ruling Awami league, with the idea that they will be of substantial help during the rainy days of the party. That the private sector banks will run into serious difficulties in some point of time in future is not just a conjecture. This conclusion can be deduced from the present state of the health of the state-owned banks. Detection of the private sector banks engaged in illegal hundi business is a glaring example. Some private sector banks in order to survive have resorted to hundi, euphemism for money laundering.
When the bourses were bubbling, ordinary people used their small savings, sold their homesteads and ornaments to invest in the stock market in the hope of making a quick return. There was no warning from the government, about what was happening in the capital market. It said it could not intervene in the stock market. It forgot that after all, the government was both morally and legally obliged to protect the interest of the investors and to prevent fraud. The boom in the capital market was clearly abnormal and it was the duty of the government to have a close look into what was happening. It failed miserably to do so. Hundreds and thousands families were turned into street beggers by the government sponsored speculators.
The government-owned banks have a clear edge over the private sector banks. It is mandatory for all government agencies to have accounts with the state-owned banks. Only minimal part goes to the private sector banks. This is of course a safeguard against bungling of government money. If the government agencies were allowed to have accounts with the private sector banks there would a mad rush for obtaining government funds for which huge sum of money would have changed hands. Obviously the highest bidders would be favoured with government money. If the government sectors banks, with solid support from the administration, are tottering, there is very little scope for the private sector banks to flourish with paucity of funds as may be available to them outside the government accounts. The depositors whose money is used by others to build their fortunes, have always been the worst sufferers, The value of depositors' money continue to shrink due to devaluation. The creditors are the beneficiaries. The creditors who thrive on depositors' fund do not make up the losses of the latter suffered due to inflation.
Donors' plea: Meanwhile, the message being received from the donor countries does not bode well for the country. At the mid-term review meeting of the donors in Dhaka earlier in September, the World Bank's (WB) country director Fred Temple clearly hinted that there was a real danger that Dhaka's access to concessional IDA resources could be reduced if the pace of reform did not pick up. The representatives of other donor countries were also concerned about this and said that unless sufficient progress was not made "in the coming months", It might be difficult to justify existing levels of IDA assistance.
IDA is the soft-term loan agency of the World Bank and its resources are raised from the developed countries under special programmes. Bangladesh being one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) qualifies to receive all WB assistance from IDA which levies only one percent service charge and is required to repay over 40 years, including a 10-year grace period. On average, Dhaka receives about US$400-500 million annually from this fund. Mr. Fred Temple had informed the government sometime ago that the WB Board was favourably disposed off toward this country and was willing to provide larger amount of loans provided Bangladesh "sticks to its commitments to accelerate reforms.
IMF's Dhaka Representative Ronald Hicks had also expressed his annoyance publicly in September by saying that that country's level of foreign exchange reserves was "uncomfortably low" overall external position was "vulnerable" and the economic recovery was "fragile". He had expressed his concern over the current trend in the economy and feared that macro-economic policies might turn out to be over expansionary Revenue shortfall, together with expenditure overruns raised the budget deficit to more than five per cent of GDP in FY 1998-99, he pointed out.
The economy's principal challenge was that stagnation is gradually setting in. Revenue collection has fallen short of target by over 12 per cent during the first half of FY 2000 and required special measures to gear up the economy. Even normal investment was not taking place and therefore, additional investment in the private sector was most unlikely to meet the demand of replenishing the capital assets lost during the floods which was necessary for generating growth.
Successful Strategies
Why do strategies fail? Is it planning? Is it leadership or is it just fate. Most strategic failures are avoidable. Yet, strategists seem to fall into the same traps over and over again. There are two theories. First strategies are about the future and most strategists are by nature optimists and pay little attention to what might go wrong later. Second, even when strategists acknowledge the possibility of failure they tend to see every situation as having no equal. The best of strategies, poorly implemented, is of little value. A flawed strategy no matter how brilliant the leadership, no matter how effective the implementation, is doomed to fail. A sound strategy, implemented without errors wins every time.
There is a common misconception that to succeed one has to be number one always. Strategy needs not be brilliant as long as it is sound, is well conceived and avoids the most obvious strategic errors. It does not need the greatest leader to succeed in implementation, just one who can successfully steer clear of really stupid mistakes. Most important, it is not that hard to avoid the most common strategic traps, if one knows what to look for. Failing to recognise and understand events and changing conditions, founding strategies in a flawed set of assumptions, pursuing a one-dimensional strategy fails to create or sustain a long term competitive advantages.
Diversifying for all the wrong reasons creating negative synergy, failing to structure and implement mechanism to ensure coordination and integration of processes like research, quality assurance and other key functions across organisationnal boundaries spoils all efforts. Setting arbitrary and inflexible goars and implementing a system of control that fails to achieve a balance slows growth and complexity intensifies, country wide. Failing to provide the leadership essential to the successful implementation of strategic change such as instead of empowering, firing the managers who are considered to be the best and replacing those with 'yes' man, with eventual darkening of communication with the top management mars the possibility of success.
Leadership is crucial. But effective leadership does not necessarily involve high profile charisma or risky innovation. Rather effective leadership is more about maintaining a steady hand on the tiller, ensuring that the orgamsation is doing the right thing and avoiding the common strategic error.
Globalization : Whose Benefit?
During the last few years, the catchword and the true significance of Globalization, as the development of a global economy is fast becoming synonymous to loss of control over the fate of cultures, economies, nations and individual’s lives. Globalization connotes free trade world wide. Open market nondiscrimination and global competition in international trade are the main attributes of globalization and are claimed to bring in higher growth and welfare. It is a process that increases the opportunities for better service and consumption and economic growth through interaction between people all around the world. To integrate their economies into the world market countries have to liberalize their economic regulations. These will increase international trade and cross border investment. Globalization entails more than the worldwide exchange of goods, services, capital and informations. The growing economic and commercial liberalization holds the possibility for citizens to improve their lives by their own initiatives.
Globalization as a political phenomenon : In the Roman Empire, Islamic Empire, alliance of Russian Tsar, Astor-Hungarian and Prussian were examples of quasi-global united political organizations. Attempts at political globalization, ie. globalism are hardly new. The emergence of modern nation states and state-nations in the nineteenth century has brought the peoples of the globe to political affrontation that caused two world wars. At the latest in an effort to prevent another world war, the emergence of UNO with its various agencies is seen as another political tempt of peaceful global ordening. The fight against poverty, malnutrition, illness and diseases, equal treatment of women, children's rights, protection of environment and human rights and such is the UNO.
But UNO failed to globalize peace. It has been less successful in its peace keeping and peace making operations. Lack of military and other means, narrowness of mission statements, insufficient consensus on the goals to be achieved, reluctance of member states to contribute effectively to the operation are the main causes of recent failures. The another major cause of these failures is the reluctance of western states, particularly Anglo-American, who consider themselves as global players to relinquish any real power to an international organization, unless they themselves exercise final command, and that decision is not motivated by the gravity of the actuation requiring peace keeping or peace making, but is determined by the interest of the concerned states.
Globalization as economic phenomenon : The process of globalization is triggered on the one hand by technological evolution which stimulates the mobility of persons, good, services, capital and information. It has persuaded most states and societies to embrace the free market ideology and to effectively open up their markets. This ideology is based upon the recognition that the end result of free initiatives of the many is superior to the plans devised by a few and as a free market base upon unhindered exchanges between equals. As economic globalization progresses, the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, the World Trade Organization and to a lesser degree, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the G-8 are playing increasingly important role in the economic affairs. Their decision affect the states and citizens, sometimes in a most decisive manner as is the case in South East Asia, These institutions operate largely behind closed doors and are accountable only to the industrially, technologically, economically developed countries that fund them. The underdeveloped countries are looked upon as beggars and every measure is taken to exploit their resources for the good of the developed countries. This state of affairs confronts us with a major challenge to the democratic principles we hold so dear.
It was supposed that the underdeveloped countries would gain from specialization. Companies can get their inputs from new sources at cheaper prices, get access to latest technology at lower costs raising volume and quality of products and cutting down prices. The consumer gets quality products from a much wider selection, the labor gets satisfactory wages and the producer gets better profit. A globalized capital market provides opportunity for capital starved countries larger share of capital than could be provided by the domestic capital market-at lower interest rate. More investment, more production, wide range of selection and more consumption contribute to faster economic growth.
But there are a host of challenges. As poor countries cannot afford high cost technology and vast capital, they may not be able to produce quality goods and services internationally acceptable and they might be displaced by international competetion. Distortion in international Competition can cause cheap import creating social dumping. As a result industries or agriculture of the poor countries might be thrown out of production, as there will be no demand because of imported cheap and quality products. Unemployment becomes inevitable. Free trade has come to mean, to much discomfort of the developing countries, the vastly expanded freedom and powers for capital surplus economies and transnational corporations to undertake trade and investment in labor surplus countries with little potential threat from new competitors whose possibilities of technological development are curbed by Intellectual Property Provisions. The developed countries with surplus economies ensure outflow of their vast capital into the underdeveloped countries for cheap labor but does not allow inflow of labour into their countries. According to Jacques Diouf, DG of FAO, 'to our shame we live in a world where food rots and people starve’. While most underdeveloped or developing countries might benefit a little from globalization, developed countries will benefit much more.
Globalization as Cultural Phenomenon : The constantly increasing flow of data and information, the apparent universality of television seemingly brings the world in our homes. The total time devoted to foreign news has constantly declined and more time is taken for fictions dominated by violence and obscenity. Internet and related development created a global village, and that is western village. They are forcing their films, their music and their values, which do not coincide with nature, down the throats of the world population, destroying its cultural variety and effectively robbing the peoples of the world of their identity dignity, pride. Not only that, the western culture, most conspiratically, compelling the peoples to forget their rich past history, heritage, moral and ethics arguing that no culture, neither values nor traditions can ever justify violations of human rights.
Globalization as humane phenomenon : An important factor for development under globalization and reducing poverty needs investment in human capital. Technological education is the need of the day. It is also essential to be mindful of the fact that the rapid technology transfers, which are considered an overwhelming feature of globalization for resource poor countries are not marred by restrictive impositions. Besides, some extremely debatable ethical and moral issues associated with human life particularly one of Southeast Asian is of much concern.
In a knowledge intensive global economy access to technology and capital on fair terms determine whether the poor countries can take advantage of the opportunities of globalization. A free market economy base on fair competition to flourish, in the developing countries, in setting up small or big industries for goods and services it is necessary to ensure equality of opportunity for all. Globalization offers opportunities for optimum utilization of resources, availability of technology, capital and financing and maximization of consumer welfare. There is every doubt that the western developed countries will share their present prosperity with the poor countries to be more prosperous in future. Globalization, the idea itself, is the as is thought is the offspring of the western developed world. But it is not a fact. Globalisation is a much older concept pradised all over the world. As a modern representation they know the design better. Before plunging into it utmost care should be taken. We are poor, but belong to the ancient civilization and have rich cultural heritage. It is hard to subdue us if we are 'not willing. It is better to’ look before we leap.'
One of the ways to achieve maximisation of profits is to introduce labour-saving techniques both in production and management. This has already engendered constantly growing unemployment and underemployment. So far the only real remedy has been the creation of new working places, that is, to stimulate increased production for increased per capita consumption: to run along the same vicious circle.
The current process of globalisation, and primarily of economic and political integration on regional levels, considerably facilitate inter-state migration of manpower, which has not only positive, but also negative consequences of socio-economic, socio-cultural and political nature. In the framework of the current formats of global economic and socio-political development the problem of idle manpower will become increasingly acute. These challenges of the twenty-first century have been widely recognised both on governmental levels, and the first measures have been undertaken to prevent global ecological catastrophes. But at the same time the main roots of the basic constraints which humankind will undergo in the not-so-remote a future have not been even touched: over-consumption and overpopulation. This negligence can be evaluated as a natural byproduct of the main currents in the world's economics and politics.
The world is changing. The mainstream of this change is globalisation fast growing interconnection, intertwining and integration of economies, politics and cultures of the nation-states. This process goes on in two quite different directions.
The mainstream line-further strengthening of economic, political, military and even cultural dominance of the developed countries over the world, that is, of their economic and political elites. This dominant group of nation-states controls the world capital market and with the help of such international institutions like the IMF and World Bank, and can manipulate the finances of many less developed countries. Their global economic policy has three main goals: (I) to ensure constant inflow of resources for their producers; (ii) to ensure sustainable expansion of markets for their producers; (iii) to upkeep eternal indebtedness of all other countries to themselves.
The other countries, which constitute the semi peripheral world, develop their economic potentials, modernise all spheres of life, have started eradication of poverty. Their main goal is to increase the per capita production and per capita consumption and to climb up nearer to the living standards of the developed countries. In a majority of cases the positive results are at hand, though the gap between levels of living in the North and the South, as well as inside Asian, African, Latin American and ex-socialist countries, continues to widen. That is the second mainstream line of the globalisation process.
These two trends in their interactions create rather contradictory phenomena. Driven by the maximising profits principle big business of the developed world invest part of their surplus capital in the countries with cheaper manpower and cheaper raw materials. In that way they strengthen the economies of the investee countries simultaneously creating new instrumental links which are being used to restrict the freedom of economic manoeuvres by the latter, which compete around every dollar of foreign investments.
The economic offensive by the developed world, comprising less than one-fifth of the world population, is supported by political pressures and the inundation of Western mass culture, designed to blur the national cultural identities all over the world and to take the younger generation away from their conscious participation in politics into the illusory, so-called "virtual world".
The countries of the South are factually torn between the necessity to strengthen their self-identities and the necessity to continue further integration into the modern world system. The bargaining is mainly around terms to trade and terms of capital investments and tech transfar. If globalisation continues in the same way as now, one can predict that in the next century the world will enter a period of growing struggle for resources and living pace.
The bloodshed in Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Rawanda, Zaire, Congo, Sudan), where land cultivation continues to be the main or even single source of survival of the mass of the population, marked the beginning of struggle for living space. Forcible colonisation by the Chinese of Tibet and north-west China, China-Vietnam clashes, Israel-Arab conflict, and so on are mainly the result of the same quest for living space. The bell already tolls.
The inevitable globalisation of the information process of which the Internet is the first example creates a situation in which demonstration effect might become the determining factor in the evolution of mass social psychology. And in the background of widening differences between the levels of living on intra-national and international scale, social unrest will inevitably spread and grow. To suppress mass protests and strengthen the nation-states' positions is the coming struggle for survival-Against whom do countries of the world continue to arm themselves? The swing from democracy to totalitarianism will be unavoidable.
For Bangladesh the main challenges are of internal nature: Overpopulation and appalling poverty of 70-80 per cent of the total population. Without solving this problem the country has no future at all. An amicable settlement of differences with the border states is the second major task. The third task is the preservation of national cultural identities and propagation of moral and intellectual values. For Bangladesh, in order to ensure proper entry into the next century the main task for the time being is to stop the process of sliding down to the position of the raw-materials low cost labour appendage of the West and to trigger the process of economic recovery through export oriented FDI. In both cases basic changes in the economic and socio-political organisation of society are the prerequisites of solving the principal national problems. Egocentrism and social irresponsibility of the super-rich and upper middle class, continuing their conspicous consumption, are to be checked. And as recent history has shown, to attain national goals need mutual trust, collaboration and help.
A totally new society based on the optimal correlation of different forms of property and economic organisation, but with a dominant role given to individual ownership by primary producers; on political, ideological and cultural pluralism; on the decisive role of the individuals, enlightened CSOs in all spheres of life, but efficiently controlled by grassroot functional democracy; on intellectual values prevailing over immediate material gains; on the morals which will incorporate the legacy of all civilisations has to be created.
Fortunately, elements of such a society are looming on the horizon. And Bangladesh, where the overwhelming majority of the population are now up against the prevailing political intrigue, will again play the role of the pioneer in the building of a New Society under LPB inbred with the ideals of Liberalism. In fact that would be Liberalism in which will be embodied the dreams of all fighters for social justice. And to trigger off the process of the big change, all Liberal forces on local, national, regional and global levels must start a free and constructive dialogue. The Liberal International, European Liberal and Democratic Reformers and The Council of Asian Liberal and Democrats must come to lend a supportive hand to the Liberal Party Bangladesh to achieve success.
There is less reason to feel hopeful about the future. Our world risks both explosion and implosion. (Hobsbawm, 1994, pp. 584-85).
There is, of course, cause for worry. The primary reasons for Hobsbawm taking a pessimistic view could perhaps be condensed as arising from, first, the relentless population explosion around the world associated with increasingly improvident and unsustainable use of the limited exhaustible resources of this planet, and secondly, the increasing cupidity among the most intelligent - and therefore the most powerful - sections of homo sapiens, leading to devastating concentration of resource use by an increasingly smaller proportion of humanity.
Coming to think of it, it is a little odd that the genesis of increasing cupidity has come to have an underpinning of great philosophic thoughts. ts genesis can be traced to - and it was propelled by - the revolutionary Renaissance movement, by the spirit of scientific and rational explanation of events and of developments, in the so-called Age of Enlightenment, by the diffusion of the liberal ideas and ideals of the likes of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, David Hume and James Mill, who elaborated the philosophy of 'utilitarianism' and of 'individualism'- epitomised in Adam Smith's famous dictum of the 'enlightened self-interest' of every individual making for an optimal system of production and distribution. These principles have doubtless stimulated enormous material progress in the world over the past two and a half centuries. Yet, this new philosophy also marked a departure from traditional social formations where community interest either took precedence over individual interest, or at least moderated them, in the ordering of both production and distribution. Let us see the economic fallout of the social customs and principles of traditional societies:
The discovery of 'stone-age' affluence reminds us that even the most primitive economies can acquire a surplus above that needed for immediate consumption. Why should traditional Sardinian pastoral communities have periodically organised collective festivals systematically wasting a large part of their modest surplus at the expense of their capacity to save and invest? The socio-economic function of such festivals is actually to disperse and redistribute accumulated surpluses in order to prevent the development of excessive economic inequality. They are one of the techniques for maintaining the system of mutual exchange between notionally equal units, which guarantees the permanence of the community. Nor would a rational-individual-choice analysis explain the difference between this pattern of consumption and the one now developing in the Sardinian hinterland as the affluent consumer society penetrates it.
Historical analysis gives one a rare perspective on an essential aspect of recent developments, in regard to the supremacy of the latter-day concept of the maximisation of "individual welfare'. over the maximisation of 'social welfare'. Thereinlies the supremacy of the 'market' as the sole arbiter of all decisions regarding production and the distribution of the social output.
Pessimistic view of the future can be counteracted, but that calls for certain hypotheses. With the extant technologies of production, it should not be beyond human capability to provide a decent standard of living to every human being, provided that we can find a way to organise a better distribution of world output across nations, and across all families in every nation. The growth of world population would, in fact get automatically stemmed thereby. The history of developed countries - indeed, a carefull sifting of demographic data even in developing countries - indicates that rich and educationally advanced countries/families have little or no population growth. Indeed, some countries have even faced the problem of a declining population, which creates an asymmetry in the proportion of able bodied workers, a problem aggravated by the increasing longevity of human beings. In theory at least, it should be possible to organise 'sustainable development' on the earth.
The only difference between, say, the Dark Ages of history and the twentieth century is the present intensity of resource use. Perhaps one can go further. Perhaps there is a cyclical pattern in human progress, in human behaviour, in even the control over resource use by a few. Many primitive societies were, by and large, egalitarian. Primitive Liberalism exists even to this day in some of the remote areas of North-Eastern Bangladesh among the indegenous people, though the inroads of modern civilisation have lately eroded such lifestyles, generally that factor of egalitarian distribution of land alone ensures an egalitarian lifestyle in many communities.
But, let us go back to Europe, where the Renaissance movement started. In the Middle Ages, the life of all but the nobles and barons was one of endless drudgery, merely for bare subsistence under living conditions unimaginable today. For the Western countries which, following the Industrial Revolution, modernised production processes, however, there was a long period of improvement in living standards of even the ordinary workers; but that was made possible essentially through Imperial conquest of and control over the resources of the colonies, at the expense of the colonial populations. Though wide differneces in living standards in the metropolitan countries existed, they became tolarable for the masses through colonial exploitation; and the ''national ego''and jingoism were deliberately fostered by the ruling elite. But, even that was a fact of life for a brief two centuries or thereabouts, until the mid-sixties of this century. After the Second World War, there was a dramatic change in the scenario. On the one hand, there was rapid economic development- and more importantly, rapid improvement in what has lately come to be known as the Human Development Index- in countries which adopted a new system of economic organisation of production, at different points of time and in different modes.
Keynesian economics made it possible for the system to move on smoothly from an uncontrolled market system to one wherein State intervention became an itegral part of the system of capitalist production. The 'Welfare State' concept followed increased democratisation of the polity, and of the triumph of 'liberal democratic' principles. Suffice it to emphasise here that the conjuncture of circumstances and global geopolitics helped to bring about a significant redistribution of 'growth' around the world, leading to a much better distribution of world income. Even though this theme is a digression, and is unrelated to the subject under discussion, for the non-economist it may be useful to sum up, very briefly, the story of economic development in East and South-East Asia after the Second War. The essential point of relevance is that the so-called 'East Asia Miracle' was essentially a product of the geo-politics.
One must add the US aid was essentially an enabling factor; there were several other factors at work. The enforced redistribution of land in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan - under the orders of US Occupation Forcess led by General Douglas MacArthur - was a major factor in both a better distribution of output and the economic growth which followed, in these economies. MacArthur's motivation was to democratise' the politics of the Occupied Territories.
East Asian countries eventual