Bangladesh government seems to fumble in carrying forward its missions

Tag : pressed bars
BANGLADESHS Battling Begums, behind bars and suspected to beheading towards the end of their careers just a few months ago, areback with a vengeance at the helm of the countrys politics asDecember elections approach.

That fact has analysts worried that changes needed to rid thecountry of corruption and put its politics on a more stable andless violent course are not going to come anytime soon. The pair,Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia, were heirs to politicaldynasties and alternated as prime ministers in the 15 years through2006.

But after they jointly ousted a military ruler in 1990, they seldomeven spoke to each other as they vied for power, gaining theBattling Begums nickname. The two leaders squabbling and lack oftrust in one another was blamed by many analysts for unrest andviolence that brought a takeover by a military-backed government onJanuary 11, 2007, which postponed the election scheduled for thatmonth.

Had the major political parties and their allies not been involvedin ... political mayhem, the country probably would not have gonethrough the changes of 1/11, Ferdous Ahmed Qureshi, chairman ofthe Progressive Democratic Party, told reporters. But they (theinterim authority) failed to live up to their promises and nowpushed the country back to Square One, he said.

The interim government of the impoverished Indian Ocean nationinitially hit hard at the two women, detaining them on charges ofcorruption and abuse of power. Until mid-2008 it looked like theymight spend most or all of their remaining lives in jail as theyfaced dozens of charges, which they said were false and politicallymotivated.

But their respective political parties - Hasinas Awami League andKhaledas Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) - held firm behindtheir long-time leaders, while the general public lost much of itsinitial enthusiasm for the interim government because of risingfood and other commodity prices.

Fools paradise: Jamiruddin Sircar, speaker of parliament duringKhaledas government, said the interim government was living in afools paradise hoping to restore democracy sans the former primeministers and to oust them from politics. They probably hadforgotten that the soil of Bangladesh is slippery, he told anewspaper on Wednesday, referring to perceived governmentbacksliding in dealing with corruption.

Political analysts say the interim authority now looks more intenton finding an honourable exit for itself than forcing reform on thetop political parties. The interim government burdened itself with too many tasks beyond its capacity to implement within a limitedspan of time, and then it tried to remove the two ex-premiers frompolitics, goals that were too ambitious, Akbar Ali Khan, a retiredtop bureaucrat and former interim government adviser, told Reuters.

To many Bangladeshis, the sudden rebound in the historicallydominant parties was too much, too soon. People away frommainstream politics said the powerful armed forces were taking toolow key a role. They were so eloquent and supportive when thecaretaker government took over, said a senior government officialwho asked not to be identified. Now as the government seems tofumble in carrying forward its missions, they are somewhat silent,he said.

Credibility: The government, headed by former central bank chiefFakhruddin Ahmed, has long pledged to hold free, fair and credibleelections by the end of this year, and recently set theparliamentary election date for December 18, followed by ruralupazilla (sub-district) polls on December 24 and 28.

Independent groups and some foreign governments said the interimauthorities would be hard-pressed to claim the new elections werelegitimate if the womens parties boycotted the polls because ofthe detentions. In the context of those developments, Hasina andKhaleda found themselves out of jail.

Hasina was paroled in June to go abroad on health grounds whileKhaleda was released on bail early this month. They were bothwarmly greeted back at the tops of their respective parties. Thoughthe cases against the women are still being pursued, some politicalanalysts doubt they will be concluded before the Decemberelections, and say if the women are elected to parliament chancesof further prosecution would be slim to none.

With the release of the ex-premiers and dozens of relatives andcolleagues also detained on corruption charges, the BNP and AwamiLeague look set to be the main contenders in December. That maymake the election credible, analysts say, but does little for hopethe authoritarian and personality-oriented nature of the mainpolitical parties might change, or that leaders might emergeuntainted by allegations of graft or abuse of power. reuters
Home | Foreign