POLITICAL CRISIS OF BANGLADESH :
Part Three : ANALYZING THE REASONS TO FIND OUT
THE FRAMEWORK OF SOLUTIONS
Prof. Bijon B. Sarma
COMBATING THE SITUATION :
After knowing the background issues relating to History and its
implications in Economics, we can go for analyzing the reasons. The
principle reasons revealed above are : (01) Foreign interference, (02)
Entry of non-standard people and (03) Excessive cost of the party. Now
we shall discus these problems with a view to find out the solution.
(01) FOREIGN INTERFERENCE : In the recent decades foreign funding has
been associated with business, most of which go in their favor and
against Bangladesh. There is practically no way to stop such funding.
The only way in which it can be stopped is to :
(a) Alert people about the ill-effects of such funding and to request
them to reject the parties which accepts foreign fund,
(b) Formulate such rules that the proof of a party accepting such fund
would lead to the cancellation of its registration for minimum five
years etc.
(02) ENTRY OF NON-STANDARD PEOPLE : The situations narrated above
clearly indicates why good people do not feel like entering in
politics. At present the game of election has turned to a game of
money. One has to give money for getting nomination and once elected
he has to contribute fat amount to the party. In indicates, only the
rich and money hungry men would like to step in this arena. There
exists no statistics to proof that "only the rich men are intelligent
and good". On the other hand evidences show that intelligent students
go for higher education in Science, while mediocre students with a
degree in 'easy' subject enter in business. The only qualification of
a rich man may be, his father could earn profuse wealth in clean or
dirty ways. Most of the rich men are found to indulge in business.
Even the businessmen do not disagree that in order to become a
successful businessman in the present polluted social environment they
have to sacrifice many of their good qualities.
Excepting rare cases the good, intelligent, educated and prudent men
are not rich enough to meet the demand of the political parties. Also
men capable of spending that amount may not be interested to enter in
a profession in which he would have to earn and pay tremendous sum
from unknown sources.
So, the task here is to discourage the non-standard rich men from
entering politics and to create scope and amicable situations for the
good ones to enter. This can be ensured in the following ways :
(01). The expenditure of the party shall be kept at minimum.
(02). There shall be an honorable means for collecting fund for the
party.
(03). A situation shall be created in which the candidate would not
finance the party, but the party would finance for the suitable
candidate.
It is encouraging to learn that the caretaker government has already
initiated some programs to achieve this goal. For example, they have
already punished a number of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and
confiscated their illegally-acquired wealth. Now it is time to
formulate rules to the effect that "Anybody found to have illegally-
acquired wealth will be punished and all such wealth will be
confiscated. This rule will be implemented more vigorously in case of
the elected people's representatives".
Declaration of wealth before accepting a post and immediately after
leaving the same should be made compulsory for the government servants
and people's representatives. However, this system may not always
reveal the illegal earning of the dishonest politicians. For example,
say, while in power a politician earns huge money and spends the same
for the party. This man's satisfactory record of declaration would not
mean that he was honest. In other words, an extremely dishonest
politician may not be proved wrong through the statements of wealth in
case he spends the illegally collected money for the party. Hence,
reduction of the expenditure of the party and arranging honorific way
for their fund collection are the best options.
(03) EXCESSIVE COST OF THE PARTY : Most of the items to be discussed
under this head have been discussed earlier. There is no possibility
of improving our political environment without reducing the cost of
the party. In USA the political parties collect fund from the big
capitalists. The item like 'hand-sake dinner', 'fund-raising venture'
etc. are in fact eye wash for what they do behind the scene. Since the
party collects money from the capitalists, most of whom are in
manufacturing business, after being elected they have to create market
for their products. In order to make good use of the manufactured war-
weapons, creation of war-like situation or wars later enters into the
government's program. That may be our bitter experience of what
happens if the political parties are allowed to collect fund from
organizations with vested interest.
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY
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