Staff Reporter :
While taking part at a discussion event in Bangla Vision Television Thursday night on democracy and the forthcoming National Election Barrister Mainul Hosein said with regrets that after twenty years of struggle for democracy, nine months of Liberation War and more than forty years since independence, our people are not still sure of the most fundamental thing that we should have free and fair election.
Our criminal justice system has also not changed for emphasising the need of protecting fundamental rights of a person arrested, he added.
In reply to a question he expressed the view that a jointly agreed coalition
“Strong and effective institutional mechanism, involving all stakeholders including public representatives, civil society members and development partners can effectively help the government to achieve SDGs,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), a private sector think tank.
A. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) also opined that Bangladesh has been able to do a good job in areas where the central government, the local government, the civil society, the NGO, the private sector and the public at large worked in a team.
“Without real and effective collaboration between the government and the private sector, the SDGs cannot be achieved as seven of the 17 SDGs are directly linked with trade, business and investment,” he said.
“Alongside a collaborated efforts, Bangladesh has to figure out how much funds it would take to implement the SDGs and how much of the funds it would arrange itself and how much it would require from outside.”
“The achievement of SDGs implementation cannot be measured if the communities are not involved in the process.”
However, Hamidul Huq, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh disagrees with the opinion to involve NGOs into monitoring and assessing the activities of the targeted progress of SDG saying they (NGOs) cannot play the role of the civil society as many of them have come under the government regulations because of their microcredit operations.
He also urged the government for collection and allocation of more fund to the sectors those directly contributes to the achievement of SDGs of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, at the Sustainable Development Summit on September 25, 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The sustainable development goals, otherwise known as the Global Goals, build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015.
The MDGs, adopted in 2000, aimed at an array of issues that included slashing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation. Enormous progress has been made on the MDGs, showing the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by goals and targets.
Despite the enormous progress made on the MDGs, the indignity of poverty has not been ended for all.
government could be a solution for a credible election. But that is not to happen.
Another discussant Prof Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque also suggested the role of President Abdul Hamid to try a coalition government.
Nobody among the participants agreed that the next national election can be held like it was last time (in 2014).
Prof Dr. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, VC, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur and Shyamol Dutta, Editor, Daily Bhorer Kagoj were also among discussants. The talk-show was moderated by journalist Mostafa Feroz.
Barrister Mainul was very critical that the fundamental right of liberty or the judicial principle that nobody is guilty until so found by a court is not getting due consideration for granting bail. Criminal Procedure Code of British days is still held high, we are not free if fundamental rights are not meaningful in our lives.
He finds it most disappointing that a police FIR is all that is necessary for condemning a person to suffer imprisonment. If he is to be considered innocent why he should be in jail before trial, that question does occur to many. His Lordship a former Chief Justice most unkindly observed in a reported case that a person named in FIR is a criminal and to be treated as such.
Now, arresting people and locking them up in jail is too easy for the free police.
He explained that the definition of corruption as given by Transparency International is that it has to be about abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Its objective is to make the government corruption free for the need of good governance. But in practice the Anti-Corruption Commission officials are less active about corruption in high places of the government, rather they are more busy with offences which cannot be called corruption. The law has given them too wide powers for easy abuse.
Barrister Mainul Hosein was emphatic that blaming the Election Commission will not make the election free and fair. Mere free election, if any at all, will not solve the crisis of democracy. Or it will ensure good governance. We have to follow the Constitution every way.
While taking part at a discussion event in Bangla Vision Television Thursday night on democracy and the forthcoming National Election Barrister Mainul Hosein said with regrets that after twenty years of struggle for democracy, nine months of Liberation War and more than forty years since independence, our people are not still sure of the most fundamental thing that we should have free and fair election.
Our criminal justice system has also not changed for emphasising the need of protecting fundamental rights of a person arrested, he added.
In reply to a question he expressed the view that a jointly agreed coalition
“Strong and effective institutional mechanism, involving all stakeholders including public representatives, civil society members and development partners can effectively help the government to achieve SDGs,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), a private sector think tank.
A. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) also opined that Bangladesh has been able to do a good job in areas where the central government, the local government, the civil society, the NGO, the private sector and the public at large worked in a team.
“Without real and effective collaboration between the government and the private sector, the SDGs cannot be achieved as seven of the 17 SDGs are directly linked with trade, business and investment,” he said.
“Alongside a collaborated efforts, Bangladesh has to figure out how much funds it would take to implement the SDGs and how much of the funds it would arrange itself and how much it would require from outside.”
“The achievement of SDGs implementation cannot be measured if the communities are not involved in the process.”
However, Hamidul Huq, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh disagrees with the opinion to involve NGOs into monitoring and assessing the activities of the targeted progress of SDG saying they (NGOs) cannot play the role of the civil society as many of them have come under the government regulations because of their microcredit operations.
He also urged the government for collection and allocation of more fund to the sectors those directly contributes to the achievement of SDGs of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, at the Sustainable Development Summit on September 25, 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The sustainable development goals, otherwise known as the Global Goals, build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015.
The MDGs, adopted in 2000, aimed at an array of issues that included slashing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation. Enormous progress has been made on the MDGs, showing the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by goals and targets.
Despite the enormous progress made on the MDGs, the indignity of poverty has not been ended for all.
government could be a solution for a credible election. But that is not to happen.
Another discussant Prof Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque also suggested the role of President Abdul Hamid to try a coalition government.
Nobody among the participants agreed that the next national election can be held like it was last time (in 2014).
Prof Dr. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, VC, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur and Shyamol Dutta, Editor, Daily Bhorer Kagoj were also among discussants. The talk-show was moderated by journalist Mostafa Feroz.
Barrister Mainul was very critical that the fundamental right of liberty or the judicial principle that nobody is guilty until so found by a court is not getting due consideration for granting bail. Criminal Procedure Code of British days is still held high, we are not free if fundamental rights are not meaningful in our lives.
He finds it most disappointing that a police FIR is all that is necessary for condemning a person to suffer imprisonment. If he is to be considered innocent why he should be in jail before trial, that question does occur to many. His Lordship a former Chief Justice most unkindly observed in a reported case that a person named in FIR is a criminal and to be treated as such.
Now, arresting people and locking them up in jail is too easy for the free police.
He explained that the definition of corruption as given by Transparency International is that it has to be about abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Its objective is to make the government corruption free for the need of good governance. But in practice the Anti-Corruption Commission officials are less active about corruption in high places of the government, rather they are more busy with offences which cannot be called corruption. The law has given them too wide powers for easy abuse.
Barrister Mainul Hosein was emphatic that blaming the Election Commission will not make the election free and fair. Mere free election, if any at all, will not solve the crisis of democracy. Or it will ensure good governance. We have to follow the Constitution every way.
