The preparation of such manifestoes is a serious business not to be done off the cuff but with diligent research and deliberations with different walks of life.

This requires our political parties to invite experts of ideological affinity with them in the various concerned fields for intensive research and deliberations, and the ordinary people should also be involved, when the law permits, in grassroots sessions to get their brains, experience and ideas and also to assess/enlist their preliminary support toward a party's manifesto.

While thus being a matter for expert-cum-people deliberations that each party may wish to initiate, I am giving below an illustrative list to drive the point home as to the type of questions that a party may wish to address in order to clarify its ideology and design its manifesto:

Economic/developmental

• Operationalization of the fundamental principle of economic and social justice in the nation's constitution in terms of imposing a ceiling on the range of economic disparity in the society (vide also editorial of February 21 in this paper "Recalling Ekushey" referring to the principle of egalitarianism for which the nation fought its liberation war).
• Agrarian reform, as the South Asian "miracle" countries did to get on a higher growth turnpike with greater equity. In our context, this may mean ceiling to land ownership; abolishing of absentee ownership; encouraging and supporting cooperative farming;
• Encourage and support "rakhi business" of producers' own marketing cooperatives to keep their surplus themselves.
• Stopping NGOs doing middlemen's business with products of our primary producers thus themselves exploiting these producers, and asking them instead to assist in promoting "rakhi business" of primary producers' own cooperatives, cooperative consumer stores of the income-poor villagers to eliminate middlemen's profit, cooperative paddy-banks for farmers to store paddy when price is low after harvest and to sell when high.
• Invite, encourage and support industrial entrepreneurship by low-income people and actively help them become efficient entrepreneurs, with (a) technical know-how; (b) infant industry protection if needed in initial phases to help them mature and thereafter withdraw protection to face world competition, also like policies taken in South Asian countries, instead of submitting blindly to "free market fundamentalism" which no 'developed' country of today had followed in their own days of 'developing'; (c) strict quality control.
• Launch a "shwadeshi movement" to promote home consumption of products of our struggling highly skilled weavers with a sense of pride, and also ask our foreign offices to actively work to promote sales of their products abroad, using the services of our creative "development ambassadors" like Bibi Russel.
• Identify communities and groups in the country trapped in "chronic poverty" whom even a high growth momentum in the country may not touch (as analyzed in the Report 2004-2005 of the "Chronic Poverty Research Centre"), and design special programs to address their poverty and development problem.
• Promotion of "people-to-people development cooperation" through exchanges between people's groups who are moving forward with creative initiatives and others lagging behind.
• Restrict ostentatious consumption by way of luxury cars, glamorous imported household goods, lavish public feasts etc.
• National convention of "untouchable" communities for the nation to be acquainted with the depth of the inhuman social treatment being suffered by them, and formulation of policies for eliminating this shameful culture from the society.
• Develop economic growth centers in and around mufussil towns for geographical spread of urbanization, growth and its benefits.
• Strict policy of not encroaching upon property of indigenous communities, and assisting them in their self-development preserving their own culture and traditions to the extent that they so want.

Educational

• Educational reform, considering the neglected report of the "Students' Education Commission" of 1974, asking student representatives to review for possible modification in the light of present-day needs.
• National literacy campaign for full literacy in 2 years, inviting students to join in the campaign.
• Promotion of "gonogobeshona" and seminars and workshops of underprivileged people throughout the country, to help them formulate their own development policies and take action accordingly with state support as needed.
• Encourage and support educational, and cultural activities of urban "tokais" and national rehabilitation program for beggars.

Women's rights

• Propagation of women's constitutional and human rights and devising of policies for promotion of these rights in consultation with women rights organizations.

Health and recreation

• Promotion of community health insurance schemes with subsidies for specially distressed communities.
• A program of public acquisition of land for use as recreation space, in particular for the nation's children and youth, to halt the use-up of open spaces to raise residential and commercial buildings leaving the nation's children to practice football and cricket on motor-roads to bid for the world cups.

To repeat, the above are illustrative thoughts only for consideration in the manifesto of a party. No doubt the parties will formulate their own manifestoes with their own ideologies and assessments of the problems. But it should be on the basis of clear ideologies and programs rather than rhetoric that the nation should be invited to choose its leadership.

And sooner rather than later, the parties will do well, both for their own preparation as well as to instill public confidence in their intentions as well as in their abilities and preparation, to form "shadow cabinets" to start translating their professed manifestoes into concrete action plans. This will also stand them in good stead by providing them with well-deliberated ammunitions for healthy debates on the concerned issues in the parliament whether a party is in power or in the opposition. And it will also be a confidence-builder for voters of like-minded ideologies to know who the experts in a party's shadow cabinet are.

Finally, I understand that there is pondering within the CTG as to whether there may be some way of making it mandatory for a Party to implement its manifesto if it is voted into power.

To set the ball further rolling in thinking in this direction, I wonder if a provision can be laid down that after two years of rule by a party in power any citizen can appeal to the Supreme Court to the effect that the party seems not to be taking important elements of its own manifesto seriously.

Upon such petition the Supreme Court may ask the party to show cause why a fresh election should not be convened. In the case that there will be coalition of two or more parties to form the government, there may be a provision that the coalition upon assuming power will announce to the nation its joint manifesto which they will follow to govern and lead the country.

Dr. Md. Anisur Rahman is an ex-Professor, Dhaka University and ex-Member, First Planning Commission.