Kuwait City: Bangladeshi statesman and president of Liberal Democratic Party Dr Oli Ahmad urges Kuwaiti authorities to show leniency towards his people.

Dr Ahmad, who is currently visiting the Gulf to touch base with voters from his constituency remarked that Bangladesh had excellent ties with the Kuwaiti government, “We have been standing by with them since the Gulf war. We sent our soldiers; I was a minister at the time. After the war, we had a lot of engineers here to clear the minefields. We always count on our friendship and we do our best to help them in all respects. I think we have 150,000 people in Kuwait working today or maybe more.”

He held the view that although involved in odd jobs, Bangladeshis are contributing to the development of Kuwait and so requests the Kuwaiti government to be more kind to the people. “I heard from my people that when they go out they are caught by the police and they don’t try to listen to the reasons that why they are here and what they are doing. But they are packed up and sent off. I request them because they are a rich country and Bangladesh is just a developing country. I request them to be kind to their brothers from Bangladesh.”

He, in turn, requested the Bangladeshi expatriate community in Kuwait to abide by the host’s rules, do nothing to destroy the image of the country. “Everyone who has come from Bangladesh is an ambassador of Bangladesh. Their behaviour will always affect our reputation. They should be honest and sincere and perform their duties for which they came with all dedication. This will bring a good name for us; whatever you do, you must be satisfied that you have done a good job.”

Dr Ahmad drew attention to the fact that Bangladesh rich in resources but shared his view that its politicians are corrupt and rigid. “Keeping the present day situation in view, we should be carrying out more reforms. We should scrap our constitution and make a new constitution befitting the present day world”, he noted.

The most pressing challenge is that political parties do not believe each other, there is a lot of disbelief and they are not accountable,” he said, sharing his view that every administration should be brought under accountability. “There are certain bodies like the judiciary, anti-corruption institutions, the Public Service Commission or Election Commission where there should be strong rules and regulations about employment. Anybody who is a member or affiliated to a political party should not be employed in these organisations.”

He pointed out that it is necessary to make the Anti-Corruption Bureau more powerful and accountable. “In the Public Service Commission we have the quota systems which should be abolished and replaced with competence based systems.”  The fact that anybody with money could enter politics was an alarming development; he highlighted that only capable and educated people should be allowed to govern the country.

 “If the minister is honest, the whole department will be honest. The minister should be free from corruption, capable and have feeling for the poor people, just and honest,” he added.

Commenting on the unfortunate garment factory collapse that killed more than 900 people earlier this year, he revealed that the government had formed a committee to inspect all factories asking them to modify or carry out massive repairs.

He blamed the government for the incident, “What happened in Bangladesh is the fault of the government, they knew that it was going to break down and one day before the incident could happen, somebody went and locked it up. But the owner of the building is the member of the presiding political party and he forced people to go inside and work. I think the whole blame should go to the government because they were not careful.”

When asked to comment on the recent war crime tribunal for atrocities committed during the 1971 War of Liberation from Pakistan, he shared, “I am neither an expert nor am I involved in this so I cannot comment on this. An American expert came and said it was alright except that they should carry out some amendments and make it more accountable. From the opposition, what we say is that if anybody commits any sort of crime, he should be tried by the law but it should be fair and the people who are also punishing them should also be accountable. We should have an open court where people can see and there is accountability.”

When asked about the pressing onslaught of global warming among other environmental issues that is causing rise of sea level to its low-lying deltaic plains, he remarked, “I don’t think there will be any problem. The West is creating a lot of hue and cry. They don’t believe in almighty, but we do and whatever the almighty decides, that is our fate.”

A recently published UN report urged Bangladesh to address the lack of protection for women from violence. Dr Ahmad commenting on the issue of women’s rights and safeguards said, “In our society, women enjoy freedom. Every religion including Islam has given women the highest position. Domestic violence is all over because you have films where they are half naked. These are influencing the younger generation. If women wear proper clothes, they will not be any violations.”

Outlining the other challenges facing the country, he stated that the economy is in shambles owing to excessive government borrowing. The funds in the State Bank of Bangladesh, he held were primarily made up of remittances from abroad and warned that that the country was not generating enough money internally. He also called for the restoration of law and order and political reforms.

Lastly, he stressed the necessity of the caretaker government to be reinstated, “We must vote for a caretaker government. The present government is trying to conduct the upcoming elections without a caretaker government but the caretaker government was the brainchild of the present government, they want to get rid of this but they cannot.”

The caretaker government is a form of government system in which the country is ruled by a selected government for an interim period during the transition from one elected government to another, after the completion of tenure of the former. As the outgoing government hands over its power, the caretaker government comes into place.

Top members of the caretaker government do not represent any political party; nor are they allowed to contest the elections. The main objective of the caretaker government is to create an environment in which an election can be held in a free and fair manner without political influence by the outgoing government. Dr Ahmad warned that if the Caretaker government was not brought back, the Liberal Democratic Party would boycott the elections.

Ends/AMA/05/06/13