Every MP wants to become a Union Parishad chairman

Dr Ainun Nishat, Emeritus Professor, is a water resources and climate change expert and a former Vice-Chancellor of BRAC University. He has worked on various research related to Bangladesh’s water resource management and climate change, and his books have been well-received both domestically and internationally. He has also presented numerous research papers at various conferences. Recently, he spoke with Views Bangladesh about the interim government's reform commission, environmental pollution in Dhaka, environmental and ecological issues, and river problems. The first part of his interview is being published today. The interview was conducted by Views Bangladesh’s Associate Editor, Girish Goiric.

Views Bangladesh: What are your observations on the six reform commissions of the interim government? What kind of reforms are being proposed, and what kind of reforms are taking place? How are these impacting our politics, economy, and social systems?

Ainun Nishat: A country should function based on the opinions of its people, and its governance should work for the benefit of the public. There are rules that must be followed for this. For the state to operate, taxes, etc., are required. Now, the situation in our country had become such that there was no real application of law. Laws existed, but their enforcement was absent. Those who were supposed to enforce the laws were violating them. This indicates that the governance system and the management structure of the country have flaws, and these need to be changed.

For instance, let me give an example: in court, a witness may close their eyes and tell lies. Nothing happens to them. We inherited the system of presenting evidence in court from British rule. But in Britain, no one would go to court and lie. The same is true in America. The reason is that they swear to tell the truth with their hand on their sacred books. If you are Muslim, it’s the Quran, if Christian, it’s the Bible, and if Hindu, it’s the Gita—this is the first point.

The second point is, if a witness lies, and this is later proven, or even during the trial, if it becomes evident that the witness lied earlier, the trial should be stopped, and the individual should be held accountable. The lawyers who are conducting the case—if either of them teaches someone to lie, or tries to establish falsehoods, their life should be over as soon as they are caught. Here, unfortunately, in our country, lawyers have become tools for teaching lies. Providing testimony means lying, and falsifying documents—right? This is why justice is not served here.

On the other hand, when a person is educated, they can express themselves clearly and think independently. Our education system doesn't promote this. We see that only a few students engage in curricular activities, debates while at school. In a class of 40 students with two sections, 5-6 students may engage in activities, but what about the rest? They are memorizing things, which they then write on exam papers. They have no original thoughts of their own. Even in English composition classes, students are memorizing the exact sentences the teacher has written. They remain ignorant. When my children were young, they used to ask me questions like, "Dad, I can't understand this math problem." As an engineer, I had done well in math. So, I explained the problem to them. The next day, they came back and said, "Dad, your solution was not right." I asked why. They replied, "The teacher did it this way. If I don’t do it the same way as the teacher, it won’t work." So, the connection between education and life—where education should improve one's life and help one think independently—is missing. This needs reform as well.

Thirdly, we need to look at our social behavior. We don’t follow queues or lines easily. We’re behaving recklessly. This is not right. There are social norms that we need to respect and follow.

Let me give another example. What do our MPs do? In countries like England, America, Germany, and France, the national parliament runs the state. They create and amend laws. Below them, at the division and district levels, there are elected persons who work on the management and development of these areas. There are elections at the district, upazila (sub-district), and union levels as well. So, the work of each union should be confined to the union itself, such as disaster management, fertilizer distribution, etc. The Union Parishad (Union Council) or its chairman will handle these tasks. A union has about nine wards, meaning a unit of 4-5 hundred people. Not all unions do the same things. The union will perform the duties that the law permits it to do. The upazila (sub-district) can manage larger tasks, the district council can handle even bigger tasks, and the national parliament will create laws for the entire country, much like an international legislature does.

Each of our MPs wants to be the chairman of the Union Parishad. Every MP fights with the Upazila chairman because various goods are distributed at the Upazila level. Why should there be any representative of a state level MP at the local level? The one who is elected by the people should be accountable to the people. So why should the Union Parishad chairman be accountable to the MP? The MP can have an opinion about the Upazila, but why should they control everything? As long as these things are not changed, no matter how much the government reforms, nothing will happen. Where is the governance, responsibility, and authority? If 300 MPs of the state control this authority, it will just lead to more corruption. Why should those who are in charge of running the state interfere at the local level? Local people will then become subservient to them. This problem exists in every sector. So, if these reforms are not made, nothing will happen. The authority must be clarified. Without clarifying this, holding elections means replacing one corrupt person with another. That’s what they want. That means, those who do politics here, they don’t even know why they do politics.

I saw it 30-40 years ago when election campaigns used to say, "Give us the opportunity to serve." And many politicians had nothing. In fact, they would distribute whatever little money they received. If you want to become a rich person, do business, but why would you do this misdeed if you are a representative of the people? I think this change in thinking should be the goal of reform. After this reform, we will see what happens. But I fear that our country and the decision-makers, the ones who make the decisions, do not want this reform. Since they don’t want it, they are saying elections should be held. Those who changed the government through movements were not given a mandate to say this. So, strange and absurd things are being said. I am a citizen of this country. No change will come in this country. We will continue to live in the same dark age we used to live in.

Views Bangladesh: But to change the state structure, one must amend the constitution; does an interim government have the power to amend the constitution?

Ainun Nishat: Those who want to bring about change can simply do it through a referendum. Where did those who created the constitution come from? They won the 1970 elections in Pakistan and gained power based on the Pakistani constitution. In 1972, those who were elected made a decision to form a Constituent Assembly. The decisions made in the Constituent Assembly were approved, and they continued as MPs. This process can be questioned. The constitution could have been denied the day the previous Prime Minister left the country. Yes, it could be changed if it requires altering the entire structure, but that would need a referendum.

Views Bangladesh: The interim government has largely failed to fulfill the expectations of the people who brought about the mass uprising. What is your opinion on this?

Ainun Nishat: I am confused about this. The interim government came into power, but they didn't come from a single group. The manifesto for this wasn’t created for this purpose. Later, students are saying that a declaration should be made to clarify on what basis they will proceed. And regarding the experience needed to govern, are experienced people being appointed to the government? Most of the people in this government are from civil society or NGOs. The activities of NGOs are one thing, but a government is not an NGO, it is a governmental organization. So, there are definitely some issues here. The bigger issue is that the people who used to run the country alongside the previous government are still in place. According to the constitution, the power to run the state lies with the secretaries, not the ministers. The ministers don’t have the power. The responsibility for financial reporting lies with the secretaries. These secretaries are confused. Some loyalists from the previous government were among the secretaries. Suddenly, I noticed that senior secretaries who retired seven or eight years ago were reassigned. The problem is, these secretaries don’t know the ones who have risen to the top in the past seven years. Running a government requires teamwork, and here, a captain has been appointed who doesn’t know the players. Therefore, we can understand that this government took power in a somewhat unprepared state. Do they talk among themselves? I don’t know what happens among them!

Let me give an example: the other day, I read in the newspaper that the government issued an order to quickly unload potatoes imported from India at the land ports between Bangladesh and India. On the same day, the newspaper also mentioned that potatoes are being exported from Bangladesh to Nepal. What happened here? On one hand, we are exporting, while on the other hand, we are importing. It’s the same ministry handling both. I believe that to control market prices, both imports and exports are necessary. I’m happy that potatoes are being exported. A couple of years ago, we used to see that when potatoes were harvested in Munshiganj or Manikganj, the price would fall to 5-6 taka per kilogram. I saw it myself; potatoes were stacked in the fields because farmers weren’t taking them in. The cost of transportation would not be covered. This year, the prices are better. So, the price shouldn’t go up by two or three hundred taka. It should be regulated. When imports started, the new crop was already arriving – don’t those in the agriculture ministry understand this? Do agricultural advisors, commerce advisors, economic advisors, and planning advisors not understand this?

I would blame the bureaucrats running these ministries more than the advisors, because the power is still in their hands. So, the current government, with all its honest people, is a good thing. They are knowledgeable and learned people. But just having knowledge is not enough. In addition to that, there’s a need for something extra to run a state, and they don’t have that.

(To be continued)

Transcription: Shahadat Hossen Towhid