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POLITICS-BANGLADESH: Truth Commission Flawed Say Critics

Farid Ahmed

DHAKA, Aug 4 2008 (IPS) - As President Iajuddin Ahmed’s newly formed Truth and Accountability Commission became functional this week, it ran into criticism from experts as conceptually flawed.

The military-backed interim government announced the setting up of the commission on Wednesday, naming a retired Supreme Court judge Habibur Rahman Khan as its head and a former comptroller and auditor general and a retired army general as its members.

Ahmed’s government, which took power under emergency in January 2007 – following widespread street violence that prevented the conduct of scheduled general elections – had launched a nationwide anti-corruption campaign that netted hundreds of rich and influential people but slowed down the economy of this impoverished country.

"The government set up the truth commission in a bid to spur economic activities which slowed down after the crackdown on corruption suspects," one of the authors of the truth commission law, Anisul Huq, told IPS in an interview.

Huq, also a lawyer at the Supreme Court, said: "Corruption is everywhere in society and there are some people who were unwillingly involved in it. Moreover, the move (to set up the commission) will lessen the burden of the courts of law dealing with the corruption cases."

But Zaid Bakth, a widely-quoted economist with the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, was not optimistic about the success of the commission. "It may bring respite immediately, but it will not bring in any success in the long run," he told IPS in Dhaka.

"Corruption increases the cost of transaction and the government ultimately needs to curb corruption and ensure good governance for a sound economy," Bakth said.

"The truth commission is the consequence of contradictions in the policy of the present government. They apparently wanted to change the country without changing the policy framework. So, negotiations even with corrupt persons are a must," said Anu Muhammad, professor of economics at the Jahangirnagar University.

He pointed out that the commission would not be able to correct the policy flaws that hindered the growth of fair business, investment and employment.

The newly appointed chairman of the commission, Rehman, however, said, "There is nothing to be optimistic or pessimistic about it… will just try to do my job and the end results will show whether the commission succeeds."

Addressing the media Rehman said that following the series of arrests made by the caretaker government there has been some economic instability and that the investment climate has dimmed. "The truth and accountability commission has been created to avert economic disaster,’’ he said.

Under the Right to Voluntary Disclosure Ordinance 2008 persons willing to disclose voluntarily their ill-gotten wealth will be exempted from prosecution and imprisonment, subject to surrendering the property or depositing an amount of money commensurate with the property to the state exchequer.

The Commission, formed under the ordinance, may grant mercy to corruption suspects if they file petitions for voluntary disclosure.

According to the ordinance, no person already charged with or convicted in a graft case will, however, have the right to apply for voluntary disclosure. Persons disclosing their corruption will be barred from national or local elections for five years and from holding any public office, executive positions in any collective bargaining agents, associations or banks or financial institutions.

More than 200 high-profile suspects, mostly politicians from the country’s two main political parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, including their leaders and former prime ministers Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed respectively, were jailed.

Charges have already been framed against Sheikh Hasina in two corruption cases, while Khlaeda Zia is yet to be charged.

"There is scope for discrimination as the commission is formed from certain groups of people," Awami League leader Matia Chowdhury said. "The government has formed the commission to help its own people to escape punishment.’’

That Bangladesh badly needs reform has been attested to the Berlin-based global corruption watchdog Transparency International which regularly lists Bangladesh as among the most corrupt countries in the world. Economists say corruption has seriously eroded the country's GDP.

Under the Commission's scheme, business people who have been detained or who are on the run after being named as graft suspects would be pardoned if they confess to their crimes, Huq said.

The fact that the businesses of about 30 leading corporate houses, whose owners are either in jail on corruption charges or have gone underground to avoid the anti-corruption dragnet, have slumped, casting uncertainty over more than 300,000 jobs, the ‘New Age’ daily earlier reported.

The average production capacity of some of these business houses has decreased by between 20 and 50 percent over the past few months. Some units of these conglomerates have already announced layoffs in thousands, while workers and employees at others have not been paid wages for three to seven months.

The country's apex trade body, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has complained that the drive has caused a "climate of fear" that has dampened the national economy.

The Commission will, however, not pursue a ‘name-and-shame’ policy and the names of those making voluntary disclosures may be withheld from the public, Rehman said.