Impact of democracy on development

Dr. Gazi Mahabubul Alam

It is argued that economic development to improve people's welfare needs a certain level of stability. There is no question that democracy is the best form of government, because it can change governments peacefully through elections, legally and constitutionally. For that it should help bring about a humane society, social justice and other good things to build a prosperous nation. It should not only be an instrument or means to express the will of the people, but should also have content, values and objectives. These values are becoming more important for any modern society to strive for, and for democracy to be sustainable in the long term.
   More important for developing nations is the question of whether democracy could be an instrument for achieving welfare and prosperity. China has made great strides. The theory in East Asia is that economic development must be given priority before political development. This is so because it is assumed that certain pre-conditions have to exist before democracy can take root. These include a minimum level of education. These will bring about economic development that enables free choices to be made so as to balance state power and to create political space for the people.
   It should also be recognised that democratic space should be expanded as soon as possible. Then it should slowly but consciously be built until a certain level of democratic consolidation is achieved. This should include the firm establishment of the rule of law and human rights. Here is where the government and leadership come in.
   Democratisation is taking place in a number of East Asian countries - South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. While democracy has spread in Southern Asia, it should not be seen only as a political instrument.
   A true democracy must fulfill certain criteria: supremacy of law, equality before the law, and the ability to change governments in an orderly fashion. However, the human factor, namely leadership and socio-cultural values of a society also plays an important role in the development and sustainability of democracy.
   Democracies in South Asia are still immature, because institutions are still weak - as in Bangladesh, Pakistan or India - or a feudal system is still in place that entrenches the power of the oligarchy - as in Nepal. Therefore, setbacks could still happen in the region, because not all of the criteria have been fulfilled.
   It is also important to recognise that economic development alone will never be adequate for modernising societies; it should always match political development.
   In the case of China and Malaysia, the leadership appears to have come to some understanding now about the need for political space and development, but how can this be made compatible with their system is still the big question. Their challenge is whether the leadership will be united and courageous enough to adopt change as socio-political pressures are building up due to successful economic development. With 9-10 percent economic growth annually for the last 25 years, those pressures are definitely present, as has been shown in the last three years. The leadership is trying out the concept of democracy by introducing local elections in villages to provide some political space.
   Singapore has always been presented as the case where limited democracy produced sustained economic development that transformed a former colony into a first world country. But Singapore is the exception to the rule, because it is only a city state, where control and social engineering have been successful largely because of the rule of law and good governance that ensure an incorruptible government and bureaucracy, while the issue of social welfare is taken seriously. Even so, Singapore too has to become more open politically, if it wants to advance in high tech and services, where HRD and creativity are the most important factors.
   In contrast, countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are the large countries with a diverse society, and the economic crisis was a major setback for economic growth and employment.
   The only way to overcome the deep impact of Suharto's highly corrupt authoritarian rule is to build a democratic system that ensures the real and effective participation of the people, including a greater role for the autonomous regions. Now, eight years after the fall of Suharto, the pendulum has begun to swing back to the middle, and from now the process of democratic consolidation may be possible. Despite the challenges, we have gone a long way towards stability, and now we can be assured that unity can be maintained. Only two years ago, this was still a close call.
   Democracy can be messy because compromise and consensus must be reached through deliberations. And it is also slow. In contrast, authoritarian rule can be quick and resolute, but the system can not be maintained in the long-term. There is great potential for upheaval because the repressed demand for change will eventually come to surface.
   We are not yet out of the woods, and the national leadership has to understand that time may be running out.

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New law being introduced to rehabilitate addicts

Jiang Xiaolei

China is going to release a new regulation soon to give detail to the rules for forced-and-isolated rehab treatment, a new measure replacing forced drug treatment through labour, according to an official with the China Narcotics Control Foundation (CNCF).
   Chen Xingyou, Secretary General of the CNCF, said recently in Guangzhou that the new regulation is to become effective from June 1
   According to China's Law on Narcotics Control, which was adopted in December 2007 and has taken effect from June 1, the country is to end forced labour as a means of reforming drug addicts.
   Statistics from the police show the number of drug users grew 35 percent in the five years since 2000, reaching 1.16 million in early 2005, according to Xinhua News Agency. The police estimate that China has more than 700,000 heroin addicts, 69 percent of whom are under the age of 35.
   China has adopted various measures to rehabilitate addicts, taking compulsory measures as the main principle. All addicts are sent to compulsory rehabilitation centres established by the government at all 1evels. Those who resume taking drugs after receiving compulsory treatment are sent to re-education-through-labour centres administered by judicial departments, where they are forced to undergo treatment side by side with re-education through physical labour.
   The abolishment of re-education through labour is part of a change toward treating instead of punishing drug addicts, according to Teng Wei, Deputy Director of the Criminal Law Office under the National People' s Congress' Legislative Affairs Committee.
   "The previous labour-forced re-education placed too much emphasis on punishment. The Law on Narcotics Control is more focused on treatment, which has brought about a softer rehab policy," Teng said.
   According to the Law on Narcotics Control, drug addicts are allowed to recover in their communities during a limited period of three years, rather than being confined to rehabilitation centres as the current drug control regulation so long required. The law also says that drug-addicted minors under 16, pregnant women and women breast-feeding babies less than one year old are not appropriate for compulsory isolated drug rehabilitation.
   Addicts who are unsuitable for receiving treatment in compulsory rehabilitation centres are ordered to give up within a definite time period under the guardianship of their family members and the education and administration of the local public security stations.
   "If the drug addition is not so serious, we consider community rehab first, in which the addicts undergo discontinuation at home with the help of their families, community and medical institutions," said Teng. "But if it is a case of serious drug addiction, forced and isolated rehabilitation is the best way to help."
   "It's really a good practice for the Central Government to abandon labour-featured re-education for drug rehabilitation," said Hu Xingdou, a sociologist at Beijing Institute of Technology, who is also an activist for the abolishment of the re-education-through-labour system.
   The abolishment of forced labour in drug rehabilitation does not have direct connections with the country's re-education-through-labour system, the reform of which is still under consideration, according to Teng.
   But the introduction of forced and isolated rehabilitation will bring significant changes to the re-education-through-labour system, a re-education-through-labour camp warden who requested anonymity in Guangdong Province said.
   Courtesy: Beijing Review

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Md. Masum Billah

Mass arrests under different governments go on to quell hartal and other political programmes of the opposition, but the government in power terms it as part of its effort to maintain law and order. Many innocent people not related with politics are arrested and their families face untold miseries and sufferings Yes, the government orders the police not to arrest any innocent people but the government does not have any mechanism to check whether police is following it or not. As a result, police exercise their brutal power without giving even a little consideration to the miseries of the arrested persons. This has been continuing year after year.
   An autocratic government does so just to uphold its own interest. A military government does it to create panic and to exercise its own power. The caretaker government has also shown no exception in this regard. It has also started on mass arrest since it came to power and still it continues with some special emphasis on corrupt people.
   Mass arrest is a brutal and inhuman way of detaining innocent people by police without assigning any reason whatsoever. How terrible the ordeal is can be evident from my personal experience. During the Ershad regime I was arrested by police while I was coming from my friend's house who now works at the Bangla Academy with another friend of mine. Police detained me because the next day BNP called hartal. I revealed my identity to the police. I was then a lecturer of a government college, but did not listen to it. Moreover, they continued arresting people wherever and in whatever situation they were found. Later I came to learn that the performance of the OCs depends on how many people they could arrest. However, a case was filed against me and it stated that I threw stones at a police van. I was astonished to see what blatant lie police can record and present to the court of law. The whole night I along with others were packed in the thana custody. It is better not to say anything about the behaviour of the police. This should not happen in an independent country where criminals will go scot-free or have nexus with the police ( I do not mean all the police) and honest citizens will remain behind the bar. Modernise police really, not verbally and invigorate them with the ideals of honesty and patriotism. On mass recruitment and recruitment on the basis of dishonest means must be stopped for ever.
   
   Untold sufferings
   Does anybody think of the arrested person who is the only earning member of a family? The whole family depends on his income. He is in the custody of police but he does not know why he has been arrested. This phenomenon is very common in any arrest.
   The democratic, autocratic, military or caretaker government shows no consideration whether any innocent individual has been affected or not. The police utilise the opportunity enthusiastically. No mechanism or management has yet been established to monitor or oversee what actually the police do when they are ordered to arrest the criminals. This is why police, particularly dishonest members of this force, use this opportunity as business season and the ordinary people become the victims.
   Arresting any citizen without any specific allegation is quite unlawful and violation of fundamental human rights. This indiscriminate arrest may happen and can be taken as usual happening in an undemocratic or unreasonable situation of the state. But why under a non-party caretaker government common people should be harassed every now and then? No reason can be placed to satisfy the argument behind this indiscriminate arrest of common people until and unless another force to oversee the unlawful activities of the police is created.
   As there is no system to police the police, such kind of indiscriminate arrest by police cannot be acceptable. Time has come to show honour to citizens. We have been seeing ordinary and innocent peoples' sufferings and miseries. Still the repetition of the same thing is happening. So what difference they have they made? The bottom line is: mass arrest and undermining citizens should be stopped once and for all.
   Muhammad Nurul Haque , the ex-IGP of police, has rightly said, "The pernicious culture has become an anathema to democracy because in such an environment tolerance, compassion, sympathy, respect for different views, all essential tenets of a lawful society, take leave of us." Actually its negative impact will vitiate every tier of the society. We cannot afford to do it. He further says, "In a democratic set up, the members of police must be made to realise that they are not above the law but subject to it like all other citizens and all their actions have to be supported on grounds of legality when challenged before a court of law."
   We believe there are talented and patriotic officers in the police department. How can this illegal and unreasonable thing occur again and again in this country?
   We have passed a pretty long time since we achieved independence. Still the colonial attitude of the British and Pakistani police remains the democracy and independence polluted. Real honest officials hardly bow down their heads before dishonest politicians. Time has come for the police to show real courage, heroism and honesty to the nation and its citizens. Only following the unlawful orders must not be the philosophy of police. Rather they should show their honesty, patriotism and guts before the nation. This country is ours. It is our solemn duty to uphold the prestige of it. Let us work together. Its fruit will reach all sorts of people. Police is not a separate entity of the sate rather they are our friends to establish a real democratic and peaceful society.

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