I met Prof. Yunus when he visited Lund University sometime in early nineties. Then I met him again briefly in 1996 at Dhaka airport while I was flying to Bangkok and he was on his way to Manila. I understand Prof. Yunus is an honest and very capable man and I don’t have any credential to suggest anything to him for resolving political problems in Bangladesh. Yet, I dare to say that the prescription Prof. Yunus has given for resolution of political conflict in Bangladesh is not workable and bound to fail if it is taken seriously by anybody. For dangerous life threatening cancer one needs strong and appropriate chemotherapy, not only blessings of a famous ‘Pir’. What I would like to suggest here is the following:

Immediate Military Intervention

It is not that I love military but the time is ripe and the military needs to intervene to save the country from utter destruction. The intervention shall be limited and only to initiate some social and political process by partially abrogating the constitution and allowing in it the following provisions:

a. Change in Election System

The next election of Bangladesh shall be by PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION system and Not by Majority voting system as it is now. Every political party must have a political manifesto and a list of candidates to the National assembly and Union Parisad before any party expresses any willingness to participate in the election. Proportional Representation system guarantees and attracts decent people in politics, money and muscle power is not very effective in this system and it is by far the fairest election system that prevail in most of the developed countries except, however, USA and UK. Anybody interested to know how the system works and how beneficial the system can be, may consult someone who has studied a little political science.

b. For Law and Order

Street demonstration, Blockade, Wild Strike and other disturbing activities shall be banned in Bangladesh by any group or political party/parties without prior permission from the existing authority. If and when such an activity is allowed, the political party/parties shall be fully responsible for maintaining law and order and public safety must be guaranteed by them. No loss of life or destruction of public or private property shall be allowed and if any such accident happens during any allowed demonstration the political party / parties /group who took permission for such a demonstration shall be fully responsible and obliged to compensate for loss of life and destruction of private or public property.

c. Student Politics

Student politics shall be banned within the educational institutions, politics by school or university teachers shall be forbidden and anybody violating of such a provision shall be punished not only by dismissal of the offender but by putting him or her in jail for minimum 5 years or more. In a free independent country there should not be nasty student politics and no student shall work as a “gunda” of any political party. Loss of life and disturbances in the educational institutions by student or profession students must be severely dealt with and such anti-student activities must stop immediately.

d. Political gathering

Shall be allowed, by law, only at certain places by permission in every city or town and again political party /parties shall be responsible for maintaining law and order in such a gathering or face serious consequences such as fine and jail sentences for any destruction of private or public property and loss of life.

e. Power to Local Government

District and Thana level administrations should be dismantled and the Union Parisad to be organized with an administrator as the present DC to head it. To avoid confusion he may be named Union Parisad Secretary (UPS). The UPS shall be the neutral executive head, to run and execute day-to-day activities of the Union Parisad and, most importantly, directly responsible to its Chairman. Every Union Parisad shall have a medical centre fully equipped with emergency and simple medical care and a small police force to maintain law and order. Primary, Secondary and all educational institutions, Medical Centre and the Police Force shall be under the Union Parisad and at its direct supervision. All the elected members of the Union Parisad shall have a salary while in office like the UPS, his office staff, the police force and medical centre staff. Simple but comfortable housing shall be provided for all these elected representatives, employed officials and their staff.

By doing so, life in the villages shall become a little colourful and interesting. Having some educated people in the countryside will have a very strong demonstration effect on every citizen’s life; shops and bazaars will be established automatically to cater these officials and other Union Parisad employees and new ideas and new entrepreneurial activities will be evolved. The Union Parisad can be entrusted to look after the law and order situation in the union.

In a small area, everybody knows everybody and as such, a powerful Union Parisad, managed and manned by efficient officials and civil body, can find out criminals and lawbreakers, which is otherwise, impossible to detect as it is now. Every town of city can be broken into pieces as parts of a few Union Parisads.

Good management brings wealth and welfare whereas bad management causes misery and poverty. Again, as the essence of democracy is self-rule, establishing self-rule at Union Parisad level would be the only way to establish true democracy in the country. Democracy at local level also means democracy at grass-root level. In fact, every well-developed country has a powerful, strong and well functioning local level administration. Therefore, it is only through strong, effective and functional Union Parisad, central government can implement its decisions.

Development of the country is almost impossible when these local administrations cannot feel responsible or can not take nation-building tasks wholeheartedly. After all, majority of the population in our country live in villages and the Union Parisad must be given full responsibilities to uplift the lot of the people they represent.

Giving power to local government means giving responsibility to grass-root level. It is also the best training ground for local people to learn about government and governing process. Another important point to remember, nobody does a job better than the persons to whom the job is beneficial. To get the best of an administration, the people need to be involved and made fully responsible in all administrative activities. Otherwise, no good management is possible and no improvement in law and order situation is achievable.

Finally, I have suggested military intervention, the suggestion itself is disgraceful but what is graceful when the very existence of the country is in jeopardy? Thus, the military intervention should be immediate and within a month the military must established a provisional government with a civil administration to run the day to day activities of the government. The military, again, shall organize the national election within 6 months with the help of the civil government.

The military shall guarantee that a free and fair election is conducted within the specified time and no loophole occurs in their activities so that anybody can point any finger blaming the military for any wrong doing. This is the only hope for Bangladesh and let our civil society and the intellectual ponder for a while of the simple suggestion made in this write-up.

Tayeb Husain, Lund, Sweden
e-mail: th12sw@yahoo.com
**********************************