The interim government has many tasks before it, but it will not be easy to deal with them as the constitution has no provision for such a government. These are best left to an elected government
By
Col R Hariharan | Magazine |Column | India Legal
|September 2024
The swearing-in of an interim
government in Bangladesh on August 9, 2024, after the student-led protests
snowballed into a mass movement forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee,
has raised many questions about the future of the country.
After spending the better part
of my life as an intelligencer, happenings in Bangladesh from June to August
have proved to me that intelligence is a 24×7 business. It also showed that
even the best of intelligence forecasts can fail Alpha rulers like Hasina. It
also failed her father Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, when
he turned into an Alpha ruler after coming to power with overwhelming
support.
Once in power, both father and
daughter freely used the iron fist to suppress protests and opposition. That
probably made them deaf to cautions of growing distrust among the people from
intelligence sleuths. Mujib ignored India’s friendly intelligence warnings of
an impending plot against him. He paid the ultimate price when he was
slaughtered in 1975 with his wife and three sons in his home by a group of army
officers on his birthday on August 15.
Ironically, the same house—32
Dhanmondi, Dhaka—preserved as a Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, was set on fire on
August 5 this year by miscreants during the Non-Cooperation Protest Movement
(NCPM). When some people gathered at the ruined residence to pay their respects
on Mujib’s birthday, “miscreants” opened fire killing one person.
The swearing-in of an interim
government in Bangladesh on August 9, 2024, after the student-led protests
snowballed into a mass movement forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee,
has raised many questions about the future of the country. Even as the Museum was set on fire,
continuous telecasts showed jubilant mobs vandalising the statue of Bangabandhu
to bring it down. The scene was reminiscent of the destruction of Saddam
Hussain’s statue in Iraq when he was out of power. On that day, local media
estimated the crowds on the streets at four lakhs. The day before, as many as
98 people, including 14 police officers, were killed. It took the tally of
those killed since the protests began in July to at least 300.
Hasina is a great survivor,
having escaped 19 assassination attempts in her four-decade-long political
career. She was able to flee the country to safety in New Delhi on August 5,
after Bangladesh army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman withdrew support to her. She
resigned a day later after the army chief announced that the armed forces would
install an interim administration to run the government.
Army’s Choice
The day after Hasina fled, the
president dissolved the parliament. With that, the army chief probably
succeeded in carrying out a soft coup with the installation of an interim
government with Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus as chief adviser. The 84-year-old
Yunus is a member of the Nobel laureates club. He is well networked with the US
government. He is linked to the Clinton Foundation. He is also a recipient of
POTUS’ 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
More than all that, Yunus has
no love lost for Hasina. In 2007, Yunus came up with the idea of forming a
political party, Citizen’s Power, to combat corruption and polarisation of
power among a few leaders. Hasina saw him as a challenger to her quest for
political power. After coming to power in 2008, her government began a series
of investigations into Yunus’ activities. She criticised Grameen’s microlending
practices, accusing Yunus of taking credit for poverty reduction efforts of her
government that reduced poverty significantly over the last 15 years. Her
government’s prosecution of Yunus and 13 others on June 14 on charges of
embezzlement of Taka 252.2 million ($2 million) from the workers welfare fund
of Grameen Telecom drew adverse international attention.
One hundred Nobel Laureates,
including former POTUS Barack Obama, wrote an open letter to Hasina, urging an
end to what they described as “continuous judicial harassment”. The UN human
rights body raised concerns about the ongoing harassment and smear campaigns
from the “highest levels of government” which could jeopardise a fair trial. It
also probably influenced the World Bank’s decision to withdraw funding from the
Padma Bridge project, a major infrastructure project.
In this context, the US State
Department’s interest in the whole Yunus affair is interesting. On July 9,
spokesperson Mathew Miller said: “We continue to monitor closely developments
in the case against him. We have expressed for some time our concern that these
cases may represent a misuse of Bangladesh’s labour laws to harass and
intimidate Dr Yunus.” He cautioned that such “perceived misuse of labour and
anti-corruption laws could raise questions about rule of law and dissuade
future foreign direct investment”. In any case, since then, the Dhaka tribunal
has dismissed the case against Yunus and 13 others after the Anti-Corruption
Commission withdrew the charges in August.
Interim Government
The Bangladesh president’s
decision to install an interim government was taken after obtaining a legal
advisory from the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. This is because the Bangladesh
constitution does not have a provision for an interim government.
Tariq Ahmed, a foreign law
specialist in the Global Law Research Directorate writing on the subject in the
“Library of Congress” blog, says Article 123(3)(b) of the Constitution
“stipulates that if parliament is dissolved for any other reason before the end
of its term, general elections must be held within ninety days after such
dissolution”. Moreover, Articles 58(4) & 57(3) provide that the prime
minister [and existing ministers] continue to “hold office until his [or her]
successor has entered upon office” if he or she resigns or ceases to hold
office.
However, the president was
faced with a legal conundrum, as neither the Hasina government nor the
parliament existed. The president, through the Ministry of Law, Justice, and
Parliamentary Affairs, sought a legal advisory from the Supreme Court whether an
interim government could be formed under the unusual circumstances. A full
bench of the Appellate Division on the same day issued a ruling “in favour of
the formation of the interim government”, stating that “an interim government
can be formed with a chief adviser and a few other advisers in the absence of
parliament”. After receiving the advice, only then was the interim government
sworn in.
The interim government,
grappling with problems of restoring administration and law and order, may not
be able to conduct a general election within 90 days (i.e. first week of
November) of the dissolution of parliament as stipulated in the Constitution. In
such a case, the interim government may have to take recourse to the “Doctrine
of Necessity”.
The Doctrine is a legal
principle that permits administrative authorities to take extraordinary actions
in emergencies or when upholding constitutional principles. These actions are
considered lawful even if they violate established laws, norms or conventions.
Yunus’ Mission
Chief Adviser Yunus has been
speaking of his broad vision to establish good governance, democracy and human
rights in the country. Broadly, he wants to carry out institutional reforms by
forming six commissions to carry out systemic changes required for conducting
fair elections, tone up police administration, judiciary, eradicate corruption,
improve public administration and identify changes required in the Constitution
to implement them.
While Yunus’ national vision
building is laudable, it is beyond the scope of the mandate of the interim
government. Its mandate is limited to restoring public confidence in democratic
governance to conduct free and fair parliamentary elections before the first
week of November. An elected government will have both the legal mandate and
machinery to realise Yunus’ national vision in the long term.
Yunus and his team must get
into mission mode and evolve a plan to identify time-based goals and tasks to
achieve them. The first task will be to restore law and order so that the
administrative machinery can meet the needs of the people to resume their normal
life. This process seems to have already started. However, sustaining it will
require the creation of a safe environment for people to pursue their normal
avocations. This does not exist now.
Prothom Alo, a pro-interim
government newspaper, reported that 1,068 houses and businesses owned by Hindus
were attacked between August 5 and 20. Some 22 temples were also destroyed. The
government should not dismiss them as acts of miscreants, but take strict
action to curb such lawless activity by fringe elements of Jamaat and Islamic
parties. Yunus’ government needs to walk the talk on this aspect.
Safe Environment
The second task will be to
create a safe environment. The police and administrative machinery are alleged
to have been weakened by corruption and cronyism during the rule of the Hasina
government. It will require identifying and weeding out corrupt elements in the
government machinery. Several notable figures have been arrested mostly on
charges of corruption, embezzling of public funds and unlawful conduct. These
include former infrastructure minister Obaidul Quader, General Secretary of the
Awami League; former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan; former IG of Police
Shafiqul Islam and former Chief of Army Staff Lt General Aziz Ahmed. Several
other people, including around 150 journalists, have been arrested. While these
arrests are part of the crackdown on corruption, they should not end as a witch
hunt. Otherwise, it will be making a mockery of the rule of law.
Lastly, Bangladesh’s financial
crunch. As of July 2024, Bangladesh foreign exchange reserves stood at about
$25.8 billion. This is a significant decrease from the peak of $48 billion plus
in August 2021. In addition to the global economic downturn, deteriorating
trade conditions since June have affected the manufacturing and export sector.
In this environment, the government should not waste time in approaching the
IMF for a loan as it is a time-consuming process. It is best to leave it to the
elected government which will be the legitimate way of handling it.
Instead, the interim
government should focus on retaining the existing win-win relationship with
India, built during Hasina’s tenure. Both Sri Lanka and Maldives have veered
round to the economic wisdom of retaining friendly relations with India.
Bangladesh’s debt,
specifically owed to India, is approximately $3.5 billion. This debt is through
various lines of credit extended by India for infrastructure development,
energy projects and other bilateral cooperation initiatives. Indian private
investments in Bangladesh are around $11 billion. This includes around $9
billion in the energy sector with regard to power generation and transmission,
around $2 billion for infrastructure, some $500 million for the pharmaceutical
sector, $300 million in automobile manufacturing and assembly plants, $200
million in the FMCG sector and some $150 million in the edible oil sector.
These projects provide
livelihood for thousands of Bangladeshis. Leave it to the elected government to
investigate these investment agreements for corruption. The interim government
should not allow political posturing to satisfy wounded egos to take over
foreign policy decision making. This is more so when the government is facing a
financial crunch.
As political analyst Fareed
Zakaria said: “Foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.”
Yunus’ Cabinet
As chief adviser, Yunus has
appointed advisers from a pool of experienced civil servants, retired army
officers, academia, legal eagles and civil society activists, including three
student activist leaders. Among the 19 advisers, two are women and two are from
minority communities. Yunus is in-charge of the cabinet and the armed forces
divisions. He is being assisted by three special assistants with hands on
experience to manage the portfolios of the two divisions and also maintain
liaison with the student bodies.
- Former Cabinet Secretary Ali Imam Majumder (66)
will probably take care of the departments of Food and Civil
Administration. His experience as chairman of Bangla Biman, the national
airline, should help him in dealing with the civil aviation and tourism
departments. He is also a civil society activist, associated with
Transparency International Bangladesh since 2016. He is also an executive
member of Citizens for Good Governance. Majumder had been a vocal critic
of the aberrations in the functioning of Hasina’s government.
- Retired Lt General Abdul Hafiz, former
Chief of General Staff, is special
assistant to Yunus on matters related to defence and national integrity.
During his military career, he attended courses in China and the US. He is
a graduate of the Defence Intelligence College of France. He has served as
Force Commander of the UN Mission in Western Sahara and Ivory Coast.
- Special Assistant Mohammed Mahfuz
Alam is a student activist and coordinator of
the Anti-discrimination Students Movement (ADSM) and Non-Cooperation
Movement–2024. He will be providing Yunus direct link to the student
bodies spearheading the agitation.
—The writer is a retired military intelligence specialist on South Asia associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies
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