DHAKA THIS WEEK

Mahbub Husain Khan

The priorities of the present government are, first the holding of free and fair elections and then tackling corruption in the society and thirdly ensuring good governance. As of today since the takeover by the present caretaker government, 30 or so corrupt and quick-rich personalitie--- all of them bigwig politicians belonging to both BNP and Awami League --- have been arrested. Many others who have benefited through political opportunism and manipulation of corrupt bureaucrats are now on the run. Some of them have attempted to leave the country and failed, as their names are with the immigration authorities. Others are in hiding within the country. Another sensational move by the law-and-order agencies have been the arrest of the OC of Fatulla PS and his two colleagues caught red-handed by Army officers, while accepting Tk 15 lakh as bribe for release of rotten wheat and food grains being transported by Abul Khair Co. These persons, 1ike those arrested this week, including Giasuddin Mamun who are also much-talked about and reported in the media, are only the tip of the iceberg of corruption. Others who are less visible but also quite rich through corrupt means are parading about in society and their identities are not apparently known to the public and the law-and-order agencies.
   
   Corruption and adulteration
   Now that the Chairman and the members of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) have resigned, it has to be activated with if necessary, new officials at the top and mid-levels, who have the reputation of being honest, efficient and with no political bias towards any party or political personality. As a matter of fact the departing Chairman of the ACC, told the media on 2nd February, that it would form a special detective squad to track down the corrupt politicians businessmen and officials in the country. To make a beginning of the process, documentary evidence showing positive proof of corruption and amassing of riches though corrupt means and political influence. Suspected persons have to be thoroughly investigated and their poor of wealth, whether genuinely acquired or though corrupt means, collected by the ACC officers, and scrutinised.
   This process will, in time, weed out the innocent and provide irrefutable evidence against the guilty. Whoever he or she may be --- politician businessman public official- should face the scrutiny of the ACC and the law-enforcing agencies. The procedure has to be strictly enforced and supervised by the top-level officials of the ACC and the law-enforcing agencies so that the innocent may not face harassment as has happened in some cases before. We are aware that the CG is seized with the problem of holding free and fair elections and ensuring corruption-free polls.
   At the same time the complimentary issues of arresting corruption in society and the corrupt people, and thus ensuring good governance for public welfare have to he tackled. The ACC has to undertake an unrelenting drive against corruption, so that in the future our society is free of this hydra-headed monster and our image in the community of nations is bright. Among the most heinous crimes against society that can be committed by the producers and purveyors of food is adulteration. This endangers the lives and health of pregnant mothers, infants, youth adults, and the aged alike.
   We observed with a sense of great relief that since the final months of the BNP and Alliance government, the drive against and adulterated food stuff, drugs, medical supplies such as blood for transfusion, and sub-standard industrial products, was mounted. This continued during the tenure of the first Caretaker Government, and has now reached the apogee under the present government. Only yesterday at Dhaka Chittagong and the rest of the country over 1200 crores worth of foodstuffs, essential items like fertilizer and chemicals have been seized and the stockists and producers fined.
   The drive against adulterated food stuff detected and seized from shops, restaurants and warehouses, has been strengthened with the aid of the armed forces personnel, aiding the police and the magistrates. ln fact in a recent incident rotten wheat and food grains stocked by Abul Khair Company was seized by the armed forces and the three police officials and personnel of the company arrested as bribes of lakhs of Takas were being negotiated between the police and the company personnel for release of the confiscated goods. And on Sunday at a shop at Baridhara date-expired and inedible baby food was being sold, and the goods were seized and the shopkeeper fined.
   It is now essential that the drive mounted against food adulteration should be intensified and the perpetrators of such heinous crimes be he producer, supplier or stockholder- be meted out severe punishment. We are observing a concentrated drive being undertaken by the present CG against criminals in society and none have been spared however high and mighty they may have been. And sever punishment awaits them, if found guilty. Similarly producers, and purveyors of adulterated and rotten food items whether they are owners of posh stores influential industrialists five star-hotels, and down roadside shops and eateries must be apprehended in the drive. Some quarters in our society have even asked for the death penalty for the offenders, as they say, such crimes are equivalent to willful violence and murder, by supplying such items to the trusting consumers who may fall ill or die.
   The general public has been relieved by many of the measures taken by the present CG. We now hope that the laws to punish the food adulterers be strictly applied to imprison the perpetrators rather than imposing fines and confiscation of the goods. We feel that appropriate modifications of the existing laws, through ordinances may have to be promulgated to tackle the situation and punish the guilty.
   
   Stage celebrity Benu
   When I handed in my last week's column, I did not know that Shamsuzzman Khan Benu had died (on the day of Ashura). Benu was a stage and TV celebrity-playwright, actor, director and producer-and also a culinary connoisseur. Whenever I mentioned Benu and my other friends who were theatrical personalities, my daughters (by my second marriage) thought I was being boastful. But, everybody who are friends of Benu and myself, know that I was his close friend as well as his cousin. My elder daughter had come to Dhaka from Toronto just before Eid-ul-Fitr (October, 2006), and I had promised her that I would take her and her son to Dastarkhan, the restaurant owned by Benu, which has established his reputation as a culinary connoisseur. Because of my daughter's busy schedule-as is natural for Bangladeshi residents abroad coming to Dhaka for a holiday- this could not be arranged. For all of his life, Benu believed that true evenhandedness meant that those in need always were allowed more. He was a person who regarded life as one long attempt to provide a happy moment or so for another person. And TV viewers and his friends know that he used to make us laugh, keep us amused by his shows, which could make us overcome the sorrows of life. And now he is gone and plunged us into sorrow. As was said of other aristocrats such as this one: 'Earth received an honoured guest.'
   Within days of the takeover by the present Caretaker Government, discipline has been achieved in the social milieu. But how and when will the political scenario be brought under discipline, so that the pre-requisite for every 'good society' -- a functioning and continuing democratic polity will exist? In a front page commentary in The News Today, the editor of the paper Reazuddin Ahmed, has appealed to the CG to 'cleanse politics, now or never' Much has been said by political commentators about the need for a political structure where the parties in power would be subject to checks and balances as in the USA, France and some other democracies. In fact, in 1991, the unique concept of a 'caretaker government' to oversee elections and transfer of power was evolved to meet the challenges of those days and the needs of a 'born again' democracy as we came out of the clutches of the authoritarian regime of H M Ershad.
   It was the system in Sri Lanka, that if one politician is nominated from a party for the elections, his or her family members and near relatives cannot be nominated for the same polls. In Japan the leader of any political party can hold office as party leader for two consecutive terms and at the end of that, a new leader has to be elected by that party, whether or not the existing leader could become Prime Minister. In Fiji, any political party securing more than 10 per cent of the total votes cast is entitled to participate in the government and political parties securing less than two per cent of the total votes will be de-registered. Whatever be the system adopted, we need one that would introduce checks and balances in the political structure, and democratic practices within political parties. And we need to innovate and to implement such a system here and now. Some commentators are speculating that the total agenda to put politics back on track after fifteen years of corruption by an anarchy let loose by the politicians may take a year or two to organise and implement.
   
   Green crusade
   The 'green crusade' that is now currently taking place in Kolkata has some reverberations in our metropolis also. Our parks and playgrounds within the Dhaka city occupy no more than three per cent of the city area. Our road space is no more than 10 per cent of the city area, while the world's metropolises average around 20 per cent. Vehicular traffic in our city is 650-700 vehicles per square kilometre, where the world metros average is 400-450 vehicles. The suspended particulate matter (SPM) in commercial areas like Motijheel and Kawran Bazaar exceeds 1000 micrograms per cubic metre, where the norm is 100 micrograms in commercial areas. We cannot now substantially increase the proportion of road and playground space in the city. But we can attempt at decreasing the concentration of vehicular traffic by banning bus and trucks which are twenty-five years old, and also decrease the SPM in the atmosphere of the city by banning such vehicles and making it compulsory for public and private transports to convert to CNG.
   
   Catch-22
   After the takeover of the present caretaker government, with a majority of the Council of Advsiers belonging to the civil, police and army bureaucracy, the government officers have grown eminent again. The character of the corridors of power have therefore changed, and now the powers in these corridors are the personal officers (POs) and the peons of the high officials. I went to meet one of the Additional Commissioners of the Dhaka Division early this week. I had rung him up earlier after his boss -- who had once served under me as a probationer, during my government service career -- had rung him up. The Additional Commissioner requested me to meet him any day around 10 after he came to the office. Owing to the wishes of that great controller of events, the Dhaka traffic, I arrived around 11, instead of 10. I half-expected to be told that the Additional Commissioner had gone away for an important meeting after waiting impatiently for me. But no! He had just arrived a few minutes before me. I gave the P.O. my card which listed my various past and present ambulatory professions, including the fact that I was a columnist.
   The P.O. toyed with the card, and then said: "Sir has just arrived and is looking at some urgent files. Please wait a few minutes." I sat in a chair in the P.O.'s room. Thankfully he had not banished me to the corridor, probably because of my many career achievements as printed in my card.
   After about 20 minutes the P0 casually called the peon and handed him my card. The peon promptly put it in his pocket and went hack to the corridor, walking up and down and conversing with the other peons on the same corridor. After another quarter-of-an-hour. I went out and asked the peon what he had done with the card. He plucked it out of his pocket, pretended to read it and then said: "Sir is still busy" "Please place it in front of him. He will call me. I rang him up to meet him." "Sir is talking on the phone."
   Apparently the laws of the corridor forbid the personal peon of the officer to enter if he is on the phone. I lounged a bit in the corridor, and when the peon was out of sight down the corridor, I quickly entered the office of the Additional Commissioner. He looked up in a querying mode and then motioned me to sit down. I made my supplication. He was polite, but not effusive which I had wrongly assumed he would be on seeing his older senior colleague. He dismissed me with the assurance that he would look into my problem with dispatch.
   In the novel Catch-22, Joseph Heller writes: "From now on" the Major said to his orderly "I don't want anyone to come in to see me while I'm here. Is that clear? "Yes sir, what shall I say to the people who do come to see you while you are here? "Tell them I'm in and ask them to wait."
   "Yes sir. For how long?"
    "Until I've left".

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