When the entire world was busy in welcoming another new year, a small nation in South Asia, Bangladesh was busy in electing a new government, thus coming out of 2-year old rule by a military controlled interim government.
Bangladesh elects on national level a legislature with one house or chamber. The unicameral Jatiyo Sangshad, meaning national parliament, has 330 members of which 300 members are directly elected through a national election for a five year term in single-seat constituencies while 30 memberships are reserved for the women who are selected by the ruling party or coalition. The Prime Minister is the head of the government. The president who is the head of the state is elected by the National Parliament.
Bangladesh has an unofficial two-party system which has evolved over time since the election of 1991. It means that there are two dominant political parties or coalitions, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party in terms is single majority.
Commenting on the general election, which took place in Bangladesh on December 29 2008, Howard B. Schaeffer of the monitoring team said, "Bangladesh Election on December 29 was Free & Fair by Any International Standard."
Howard B. Schaeffer has spent much of his 36-year career dealing with U.S. relations with South Asia, including as an ambassador to Bangladesh.
He is one of the members of Washington based think tank group and he does exhaustive research on South Asian politics and diplomacy. Mr. Scheffer is now the Deputy Director at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. He recently observed the General Election held in Bangladesh on December 29.He was the leader of the NDI election monitoring team
In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla Service, Howard Schaeffer says that this election in Bangladesh was free and fair by all canons of International standard. He says that whether it was the list of voters, or the party manifestoes, or the role of the caretaker government in Bangladesh, all aspects of this general election in Bangladesh was very fair. He said unlike in other elections neither the religious minority nor the ethnic minorities came under any pressure from any quarters.
He also noted the fact that many young voters exercised their voting rights with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. He also said that with the historic victory that Sheikh Hasina got from people in Bangladesh she needs to fulfill the pledge she made and deliver what people are looking forward to.
Prestigious TIME magazine termed the election result as 'a secular victory in Bangladesh election.'
TIME magazine said, "A few months ago, Bangladeshis were worried that their fragile democracy was heading the way of Pakistan, where much of the political power resides with the military or the mullahs. By turning out in massive numbers on Dec. 29 to hand a decisive victory to the Awami League, which campaigned on its secular, reformist credentials, Bangladeshis hope they have steered their nation past those twin shoals.
"The results were overwhelming. The Awami League, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, won a staggering 230 of parliament's 299 seats. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party — led by another former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, who has often faced off against Sheikh Hasina over the years — was reduced to 27. With its allies, the Awami League will have a commanding 262-seat majority.
"The landslide reminded Awami League supporters of the party's huge win in the 1970 poll, another pivotal election. Bangladesh was still East Pakistan; when West Pakistan refused to accept the result a brutal military crackdown followed and, eventually, the 1971 war of independence. That isn't the case now. The military has accepted the voters' verdict, which was delivered as 200,000 local and international election observers looked on, although the opposition has raised objections to what it says are voting irregularities.
"But the 1971 war for Independence is nevertheless a big issue 37 years later. Bangladeshis are proud of their history, and like to remind visitors that it is not a "Muslim nation." Although almost 85% of its people follow Islam and despite regular intervals of authoritarian rule, Bangladeshis point out that the nation was born out of a popular movement of students and political activists who came together to fight for a secular democracy.
"That's why Khaleda Zia's strategic decision to campaign with an alliance of four Islamist parties, including the Jamaat-i-Islami, which includes some who collaborated with the Pakistani military against the freedom movement, proved to be a huge miscalculation. She repeatedly invoked religion, proclaiming that a vote for the BNP was a vote to "save Islam." She was also silent on the issue of prosecuting war crimes committed during the 1971 struggle. The symbolic low point came this fall, when several Islamist groups pulled down a memorial to the student movement near the airport — they called it "un-Islamic"— and threatened to tear down the Shahid Minar, a series of connected marble pillars that is Bangladesh's equivalent of the Statue of Liberty and the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. Jamaat contested in 39 parliamentary seats but won only 2, down from 17 in the last polls. "It is amazing," says Sreeradha Datta, a research fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis in New Delhi and longtime observer of Bangladesh. "Bangladeshis really voted the secular fabric back into place."
"Massive victory, of course, imposes massive responsibility, and expectations are high for Sheikh Hasina. The Awami League has promised not just a trial of suspected 1971 war criminals, but also relief from soaring inflation, expanded agricultural subsidies, equitable economic growth and — just for good measure — a check on jihadi groups. Despite the resounding defeat of Jamaat, militants operating in the border areas between India and Bangladesh are still a significant threat, says Ataur Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh Political Science Association. Sheikh Hasina will need the full cooperation of the military to control them, but it isn't yet clear how much leverage she will have over the Army and intelligence services, who have used the last two years of emergency rule to put their own people into key positions. "The military is going to be far more entrenched," says Datta.
"With such a large mandate, the biggest challenge that the Awami League now faces is hubris. Every time a Bangladeshi party has won an absolute majority, it has compromised that position by suppressing dissent and hoarding power, says Khan of the human rights group Odhikar. "We can only pray that this will be the exception."
rime Minister in her electoral manifesto titled 'Vision 2021' promised to give governance which would change the entire scenario of Bangladesh. But, things are not moving towards the direction as expected. As commented by Odhikar, this new government too, winning brute majority is compromising its position by suppressing dissent and hoarding power. Up to now, the ruling party is seen busy in not only pressing the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party into an extreme corner, but some of the heavyweights in the ruling party are moving ahead with the first and foremost agenda of trying the Generals of Bangladesh Army, who had been involved in military intervention of January 11 2007. And the man, who tops the list of such potential figures to be brought into trial, is surely the chief of Bangladesh Army, General Moeen U Ahmed.
eneral Moeen Uddin Ahmed is a Bangladeshi army officer and has been the Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army since 15 June 2005.
He formerly served as defense attache in Pakistan and in UNAMIR. Ahmed is the first to become the Army Chief from among the officers commissioned in independent Bangladesh. He is one of the only three army chiefs to become a 4 star general. General Moeen U Ahmed has so far been keen on helping the Bangladesh Caretaker Government in aid to civil power.Recently his period of service has been expanded for 1 year. General Moeen U Ahmed, ndc, psc has been promoted to the present rank and appointed as the Chief of Army Staff on 15 June 2005.
General Moeen U Ahmed, ndc, psc, the Chief of Army Staff of Bangladesh Army started his military career from January 1975. He was commissioned in the 2nd East Bengal Regiment, a battalion that was raised on 7 February, 1949. His service profile started as Distinguished "Chief of Army Staff's Cane" holder of the pioneer Short Service Course-1 from Bangladesh Military Academy. General Moeen has the experience of commanding all echelons and levels of command commensurate to his rank from the company commander to General Officer Commanding of Infantry Division.
His service profile is a combination of important command, staff and instructional appointments. He started his instructional career as Weapon Training Officer and then Platoon Commander in Bangladesh Military Academy. He then serve as Brigade Major of an Infantry Brigade.
Besides commanding two infantry battalions as Lieutenant Colonel, he also served as Grade One Staff Officer in Army Headquarters, Military Operations Directorate. As a Colonel, he served as Colonel Staff of an Infantry Division. A veteran Instructor, General Moeen has served in Defence Services Command and Staff College in three terms as Directing Staff in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Senior Instructor of Army Wing in the rank of Colonel and Chief Instructor in the rank of Brigadier General.
Moeen was the key force behind the declaration of emergency in the country on 11 January 2007 widely known as 1/11 phenomenon. He has been accused of playing a controversial role by helping the caretaker government of Bangladesh to retain power after constitution stipulated three months duration. Although never publicly admitted he has been identified as the main driving force behind the non-elected government but he has also been praised for not declaring martial law even though he had the opportunity to do so. He and the government has been accused domestically and globally to de-politicise the country. Hundreds of political figures including two ex-prime minsters (Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia), ministers, lawmakers and local government heads have been imprisoned by the regime accusing them of corruption. Although some of these figures were notoriously corrupt, most of them do not have any specific allegation against them. The regime's anti-corruption drive has been widely praised and criticised around the globe. Most interestingly, interim government although made public pledge of combating corruption, it remained some how ineffective in nabbing some of the worst corrupts in the country belong to Bangladesh Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party and of course Jatiyo Party.
Since the political change in Bangladesh after 1/11, most of the army officials, including General Moeen as well as some of the advicors in the interim government such as Major General (Retired) M.A. Matin, Barrister Moinul Hussain etc., were busy is slashing the politicians and categorically were speaking in favor of defeating such politicians, who were making luck only by using the instrument of being a politician. They were even alleging that, most of the politicians in Bangladesh were not having any valid source of income.
Certainly, General Moeen U Ahmed came into the fore front of media's coverage in Bangladesh with his repeated comments against the politicians. He although was always trying to pretend to be 'Mr. Clean' in the country, we have found some track record of this General, which surely does not show anything positive about his own back ground as well.
According to information, General Moeen U Ahmed borrowed 10 million Taka from the Trust Bank, where his own younger brother Iqbal U Ahmed is the Managing Director [Chief Executive], while Moeen is the chairman.
General Moeen and his brother, Iqbal U Ahmed, are both on the board of directors of Trust Bank. This appears to violate Bangladesh Bank regulations that state "not more than one member of a family will become director of a bank. For this purpose family members shall include spouse, parents, children, brothers and sisters of the director and other persons dependent on him/her."
General Moeen points out that his brother was already the Managing Director of the Bank when General Moeen became Chairman of Trust Bank. However, in November 2006, while General Moeen was Chairman, his brother was reappointed Managing Director of Trust Bank. This appears to violate the Bangladesh Bank regulations which state that the above "restriction shall apply to appointment/reappointment of the directors".
General Moeen and his brother, Iqbal, on Trust Bank's board of directors, they are borrowers of large sums of money from the bank. According to a prospectus filed by Trust Bank before its IPO, General Moeen had a loan with an outstanding balance of Tk. 9,969,215 at the end of 2005. By the end of 2006, the outstanding amount had been reduced to Tk. 3,315,323. His brother, the Managing Director, had an outstanding loan balance of Tk. 1,775,242 at the end of June 2006. At the end of 2005 General Moeen's loan amount was by far the largest loan given to any director or senior executive of Trust Bank.
The ownership of Trust Bank, before the IPO, consisted of 7,000,000 shares, with 6,999,920 shares held by Army Welfare Trust. Of the remaining shares, General Moeen owned 10 shares. His brother, Iqbal, owned no shares. Each share was valued at Tk. 100. Therefore General Moeen owned Tk. 1000 worth of shares. According to Bangladesh Bank regulations he was entitled, with the approval of the board of directors, to get a loan for an amount up to Tk. 500. In other words, at the end of 2005 General Moeen had a loan Tk. 9,968,715 in excess of the amount allowed by the law.
The reason the Bangladesh Bank regulations are in place is to guard against abuse of power by directors of private banks - that is to say, to prevent corruption.
This is just one example! There is also allegation against the Chairman of the Anti Corruption Commission; Lt. Gen (Retired) Hassan Mashhud Chowdhury. Owner of a leading vernacular daily, Mahmudur Rahman has lodged formal complaints against the chairman of Anti Corruption Commission, which, according to various sources are already under investigation.
Many of the heavyweights in the ruling party, like general secretary of Awami League Abdul Jalil, former minister and top bureaucrat Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, former minister and Sheikh Hasina's cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim etc are at the forefront of raising specific allegations of brutal treatment by the members of DGFI [Directorate General of Forces Intelligence] in Bangladesh when they were arrested on corruption charges after 1/11. Leader of BNP, Barrister Moudud Ahmed along with many others are also echoing the same complaint. It is even learnt that, some of the politicians were arrested and brought in to remand with court order and then they were forced to open account with Sonali Bank, Dhaka Cantonment Branch, where they had to place large amount of money, most of which had been badly misappropriated by the members of DGFI and army.
Bangladesh Army extracted more than few hundred million taka from the politicians and businessmen after their arrest. Heavy amount of ransom were collected from a number of business tycoon in the country in exchange of release from the prison. A television channel named R-TV, owned by Musaddeq Ali Falu, a former MP was virtually hijacked by the armed forces while he was in prison.
Editor of The New Age, Nurul Kabir had been one of the very few voices, who has the guts and courage to criticize the military controlled interim regime and their illegal actions, although the editor had to face numerous threats and various ways of intimidations.
On the other hand, some of the owners and editors of newspapers were heavily compensated by the armed forces and DGFI for according support to their deeds. According to information, one such editor, owning and editing a vernacular daily was amongst the most benefited person after 1/11. He (the editor) was even considered to be a close aide and advisor to General Moeen U Ahmed. It is learnt that, this editor managed to bring out another daily newspaper right during the interim government's rule and also been able to finalize the issue of getting a license to launch a private television channel.
Now, the ruling party will try the main perpetrators of 1/11, most of whom are Generals. On the other hand, the government is also set to try the war criminals. No doubt, both are extremely sensitive issues and it is only time which will tell us whether it was a good decision by the government to take both the sensitive steps at once or not. My own judgment says, by putting the army Generals into trial, Bangladesh Awami League may finally welcome another much unexpected army intervention in the country. And, surely, in that case, democracy in Bangladesh will once again enter the black hole, thus leaving a bad signal to the entire global family.
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