Chairman of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), Dr Mizanur Rahman, underscored the need for a participatory democracy for ensuring good governance, and poverty alleviation in the country. “There is no need to invent any new mechanism because all provisions for a participatory democracy are already there in our Constitution,” he said, while addressing a round table discussion as chief guest at Beximco conference centre, at BEL Tower in the city, on Saturday.

The round table on “Governance and poverty alleviation” was organised by Governance and Rights Centre (GRC), in collaboration with The Independent and Association of Bankers, Bangladesh Ltd, at the conference room of The Independent, at Dhanmondi in the city, on Saturday. Moderated by Dr Zahurul Alam, president of GRC, the programme was addressed, among others, by Shahinoor Wahid, managing editor of The Independent, Mohammad Abubakar, former general manager of Bangladesh Sonali Bank, Abdul Momen, senior adviser of Democracy International, Nusha Yamin Chowdhury, head, vulnerability analysis and mapping, World Food Programme (WFP), Masum Billah, programme manager, BRAC Education Programme, Afroza Khanom, Supreme Court advocate, Maksudur Rahman, retired social activist and freelance journalist, Jerome Sayre, chief of party, Strengthening Democratic Local Governance at Tetra Tech ARD, and Dr Tanvir Ahmed Khan. Prof. Dr Shantana Maria of GRC gave a presentation.
Mizanur Rahman pointed out that there could not be any alternative to democratic governance.
He held confrontational politics and the politicisation of administration responsible for all the problems of the country. Rahman regretted that the country was yet to get a pro-people bureaucracy.
The HRC chairman urged the donors to invest more in the education sector, to resolve social problems. "Once educated, they will be able to fight corruption and all other social injustices," he pointed out.
Rahman also underscored the need for reducing the gap between madrassa education and modern secular education. Blaming the policy-makers for not
paying attention to madrassa education, he said, “Madrassa-educated people created havoc in the city recently in the name of Hefazat-e-Islam.”
Participating in the open discussion, the speakers put stress on the decentralisation of administration and wealth for reducing poverty. They also pointed out that poverty should not be assessed based only income because there were different forms of poverty.
Prof. Dr Shah Alam spoke as a special guest while Prof. Shanta Maria presented a key note paper on governance and poverty alleviation.
The HRC chairman claimed that a lot of development work took place in various sectors over the years. He specifically mentioned sending labourers to Malaysia, at a cost of only
Tk. 35,000 against spending
several lakh takas for this
purpose, earlier.
The issue had never been highlighted, because it was for the poor, he said, adding that there were 32 such social
safety net programmes in the country.
The HRC chairman also urged people to fight the problem of drugs, which, he said, was becoming a major challenge for the very survival of the society.
“It has become a national challenge. We have to resolve it immediately and there is no time to waste,” he said.
Focusing on the current mismatch in the implementation of law regarding vested property act, he expressed concern that it would not be very far when the country would be free of any minorities. “I won’t be surprised if there is no minority left in our country after 20 years.”
He said there were only two alternatives for the people—struggle for establishing a modern, secular society or follow the politics and culture of medieval society.
Prof. Dr Shah Alam pointed out that the population was not a problem, but rather an asset for the country. He said the governance issue had not improved much in the recent years. He saw political leadership as the main problem. “With poor leadership, we cannot eradicate poverty from the country,” he said.
Alam observed that there was no lack of rules and regulations in the country, but there was hardly any implementation of these laws. He underscored the need for a law to ensure food security. Shah Alam also said that bureaucracy and corruption were the main roadblocks to the well-being of the people.
HM Nazrul Islam, programme analyst, local governance cluster, United Nations Development Programme, said the right to information (RTI) could play a significant role in local government bodies to ensure service delivery and reduce corruption.
However, he added that the people did not know how to utilise this right.
He also recommended new initiatives to reduce dependency on central government through the mobilisation of local resources.
Though the union parishads and pourasabhas were supposed to provide services to the people, common people were being deprived of these services due to lack of knowledge.
Masum Billah said that only administrative decentralisation could reduce corruption in Bangladesh.
He alleged that the local government bodies lack accountability and honesty.
“Ensuring accountability is a pressing need, but the question is who will do it,” he added.
Jerome Sayre said that the laws and policies were favourable for establishing good governance in Bangladesh. But there was a great lack in terms of application at the field level.
He emphasised the role of NGOs in strengthening local government bodies.
Shahinoor Wahid expressed concern over good governance and its role in Bangladesh, due to lack of expert planners.
“We don’t have expert urban planners, nor do we have the knowledge about the optimum utilisation of resources,” he observed.
Mohammad Abubakar said the government should keep in mind the people at grassroots level, during project planning.
“Common people are not addressed during the implementation of development projects. Only through the participation of the local people in the development activities can good governance be ensured,” he noted.
Service delivery at the local government level should be easy and have to ensure access of the low-income people, he added.
Abdul Momen said that the government did not address the poor, due to corruption and mismanagement.
The process of the service delivery in Bangladesh was corrupt and unfair, he said, adding “Partisanship and nepotism in local government bodies leave the target group deprived.”
He also said that the people should not depend on the central government for everything.
The people should be aware of the responsibilities of the union parishads or pourasovas, he said.
Nusha Yamin Chowdhury said the government undertook projects from economic perspective, without considering social and environmental issues.
She recommended including poverty reduction terms in all development projects when undertaking new projects.
Nusha Yamin also blamed the system of bureaucracy for project implementation.
“Owing to the over-centralised government system, bureaucrats delay the implementation of projects,” she added.
About the people’s participation in the development process, she said the grassroots people should have participation in the planning and decision-making.
“Most of the time, the gender issue is not considered during project planning, which is a vital aspect of good governance and balanced development.”