Good dwarfs bad

Shakhawat Liton

It is more of a success than a failure that defines the first year of Awami League in power.

Economic stability amid global recession, trial of Bangabandhu killers and efforts to curb militancy shine bright in its track-record.

But the picture is not so bright in fighting pervasive corruption and changing a political culture, largely negative.

Extrajudicial killings by law enforcers struck a blow to the rule of law promised by the ruling party in its "charter for change." The withdrawal of politically-motivated cases against the ruling alliance men is another dark spot.

The AL-led alliance government began its journey on January 6 amid a laudable success in preventing post-poll violence that tainted BNP-Jamaat alliance's assumption of power through the October 2001 election.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seemed to have opted for a change by including fresh faces in the council of ministers and giving them important portfolios much to the frustration of many AL veterans.

When most things were going in the right direction, violence broke out in several educational institutions due to rifts in the ruling party-backed student organisation.

The new parliament started its journey on January 25 with the participation of main opposition BNP, offering a ray of hope for a change in the country's negative political culture.

But none could imagine that the newly-formed government would have to face a catastrophe like a mutiny in the border force. The killings at the Pilkhana BDR headquarters in February had shaken to the core its very existence.

The premier's bold leadership and timely steps helped resolve the crisis and saved the nation from another possible disaster.

The government then moved forward with its "charter for change" that promised to "put an end to persecution, deprivation, inequity and bad governance."

For the time, it succeeded in keeping the prices of essentials stable and holding the political godfathers at bay. It also introduced national service for youths and reopened over 8,000 community clinics across the country.

The prices of some essentials however went up suddenly towards the middle of last year.

Besides, the government has almost completed preparation for trying the 1971 war criminals and started reinvestigating sensational cases like the August 21 grenade attack and 10-truck arms haul cases.

The government has made major plans and a promise of improvement in sectors like power and communication.

It has moved with mega plans like construction of Padma Bridge, upgrading the Dhaka-Chittagong highway into a four-lane route, and construction of expressway and metro rail to ease traffic jam in the capital.

In an effort to ease nagging power crisis, the government moves ahead with a mega plan to generate 4,000 megawatt of electricity by December 2010. It also has a master plan to dredge the country's major rivers to restore navigability of many waterways.

At the end of the year, Bangladesh successfully projected its needs at the international climate change conference to deal with the possible impacts of climate change and had drawn attention of world leaders to the country's vulnerability to a possible disaster.

But lack of efforts was observed on the part of the ruling party in fulfilling crucial electoral pledges of establishing good governance and fighting corruption.

Wealth statement and sources of income of the prime minister, ministers, lawmakers and their family members are yet to be made public, although the ruling party promised to do it.

The governments did not ensure submission of annual wealth statements of "powerful people" in line with its electoral pledge.

The current state of the Anti-Corruption Commission, seemingly ineffective, does not conform to the AL's "charter for change" promising measures including strengthening of the ACC to fight pervasive corruption.

No visible step was taken to allow lawmakers to express differing opinions, except for those related to state security, despite the ruling party's promise.

The post of deputy speaker was not offered to the main opposition in line with the ruling party chief's announcement.

Although AL promised to have a "consensual code of political behaviour," no move was made to implement the pledge.

By this time, gap between the ruling and the opposition party has widened, reducing the possibility of a consensus on political issue.

"The charter for change" also promised steps to establish democratic practices in political parties and transparency in their funding.

Unwillingness to shun the negative political culture led to a political turmoil over transfer of power to a caretaker government at the end of 2006. It resulted in the declaration of state of emergency on January 11, 2007.

From the way the two major political parties held national councils and elected party leadership, the hope of seeing democratic practices and financial transparency within the parties seems to be a far cry.

The culture of parliament boycott continues with the main opposition lawmakers boycotting the ninth parliament since the second session in June as the two major parties failed to reach an understanding.

The opposition's boycott of the House has dampened successes like formation of all parliamentary committees in the first session with opposition lawmakers getting three chairs on the committees.

The ruling AL promised to take all necessary steps to make the parliament effective, but nothing substantial has been done to bring back the opposition to parliament.

The government could not rise above controversy over promotion and posting of civil servants despite its promise of having an administration free from political influence.

Besides, the government did not appoint an Ombudsman in line with its electoral pledge while it could do so by just issuing a notification. Apart from inclusion of some new provisions in the Human Rights Commission Act, no step has been taken to complete formation of a human rights body as per the new provisions.

The home ministry's sluggishness in taking actions against Bangladesh Chhatra League activists for spreading violence in educational institutions tainted the government's image.

The ruling party drew widespread criticism for not allowing upazila parishad to function independently by making lawmakers advisers to the parishad and not stopping tender manipulation and extortion by AL men.

The government also failed to stop illegal felling of trees in many regions although the prime minister talked tough on the issue.