|
Hon'ble
Speaker, Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad, and Chair,
Distinguished Participants in the Conference on
Parliamentary Committee Systems, Excellencies, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Assalamu
Alaikam.
I
am deeply honoured to be here today to inaugurate the
First Conference of the Institute of Parliamentary
Studies. I believe that the activities of the Institute
will benefit our Members of Parliament and the
interested persons in democratic institutional
development. I, therefore, look forward to seeing many
more initiatives by the Institute. I believe that
representing the people in a democratic political system
is the most honourable and important position an
individual can hold. I would like to recall what
Montesquieu said in his classic work "The Spirit of
the Laws": "In a free state, every man,
considered to have a free soul, should be governed by
himself, the people as a body should have legislative
power; but, as this is impossible in large states, the
people must have their representatives do all that they
themselves cannot do".
Parliament
is a representative institution. It begins to be such
when the people are truly represented in it, having the
right to vote freely, and when every person with one
equal vote decide who should have the majority in the
House and who should, accordingly, form the government.
The government must be formed through voting. The
people's sharing of power would be ensured only through
franchise. According to the Article 7 of our
Constitution, people are the owner of the republic. So,
people cannot enjoy the constitutional rights without
true representation. Our people were deprived of their
right for a long time. The change of power happened
through bullet- not through ballot or vote. It happened
through coup, killing and conspiracy-through
promulgation of martial law.
This
process continued since the martyrdom of Father of the
Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August
1975. The military rulers captured power through this
undemocratic and unconstitutional means. It is also
contrary to Army act and rules. Military ruler General
Ziaur Rahman captured power in this process and General
Ershad followed him. General Zia held referendum on 30
May 1977 and General Ershad on 21 March 1985. Then they
started adopting unfair means in voting to give it a
constitutional coverage. They started formation of
political party overnight, collecting two-third majority
in the Parliament through farcical polls, and giving
legal coverage to the illegal power through amendment of
Constitution. The parliament elections held without
voters on 3 March 1988 and 15 February 1996 are
disgraceful chapters in the history of democracy. We
started movement for creating awareness among the people
against this process, for right of franchise and for
establishing democratic process.
"I
will cast my vote according to my choice"-we raised
this slogan. The people massively responded. The
government of Ershad had to resign in 1990. But the
Parliament formed through the election in 1991 under
Caretaker Government was totally ineffective and
powerless. The Leader of the House or the Prime Minister
had no power. All powers vested on the President. Even
from the opposition I raised my voice for establishing
parliamentary system and increasing power of the
parliament and making it effective. I created public
opinion in favour of parliamentary system of government.
We tabled an unofficial bill in the parliament and
mounted pressure on the BNP government. At one stage the
government had to agree. A special committee was formed
with both treasury bench and opposition MPs and the
government tabled the bill for the parliamentary system
of government. We voted for the bill and the Prime
Minister of BNP government was endowed with power.
But
it is a matter of pity that democracy could not attain
an institutional shape despite our all-out cooperation.
All the more pitiful thing is that the people's right of
franchise-the main power of democracy, was denied. The
rulers started various irregularities including vote
decoity and announcing the results through media,
bypassing the Election Commission. The terrorists and
the accused of killings were released from the jail for
engaging them in irregularities, capturing of polling
booths, stamping of ballot papers and stuffing of ballot
boxes. The voters were intimidated and prevented from
going to polling centres. The same things happened in
many elections including Magura by-poll. The government
failed to ensure good governance and was engaged in
corruption. So, the people became frustrated and
agitated. We started movement to press home our demand
of holding elections under a non-party caretaker
government to ensure people's right of franchise so that
they can enjoy the benefits of democracy. In this
context Begum Khaleda Zia tried to remain in power
through a farcical election of 15 February 1996. But she
was not successful. Begum Zia had to resign on 30
March1996, non-party caretaker government was formed and
elections were held on 12 June, 996. The main success of
our movement is spontaneous participation of the people
in the elections. We took measures to make the
parliament effective and powerful, we ensured
accountability and transparency. We tried to create
people's interest in the Parliament.
I
am a Member of Parliament. I was elected MP thrice. In
the third and fifth parliaments, I had the
responsibility of leading the Opposition, and since our
last elections, I have been performing my constitutional
duty of leading the House. I had criticized the
government and scrutinized policies as part of my duties
as the Opposition Leader. I have formed a government
backed by the majority of the Parliament as the Leader
of the House. I made speeches on various issues of
public importance and discussed many things. I expressed
my opinion on rejection, amendment or acceptance of
bills tabled in the parliament. All these principles are
the pillars of a representative democracy, as we
understand it in Bangladesh and elsewhere in this part
of the world. These principles were the commitment of
the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman and they are my personal commitments today. The
social system of Bangladesh has provisions for rule of
law, parliamentary democracy and accountable government.
Our democracy must be our own, appropriate to our own
conditions, culture and values, and judged by our own
standards.
It
is undoubtedly a commendable initiative of the Institute
of Parliamentary Studies to focus on the Parliamentary
Committee System. Democracy means participation. The
great and solemn participation first begins when people
vote. The daily participation relates to the work of the
representatives of the people, both in their
constituencies and in Parliament. Committees are
essential tools of this participation. They allow
Parliament to work properly and timely. They provide a
forum where debates can take place on the basis of
rationale rather than passion, a forum with less space
for demagogy, and a forum with more chances for reaching
consensus. If Committees work, so does the House. You
will see how the most powerful and effective Parliaments
have also, accordingly, the strongest committee systems.
A serious effort made at the committee stage can only
lead to more agreement and less confrontation in
Parliament.
In
the recent past, we have initiated a number of
improvements through amendments to the Rules of
Procedure. Firstly, the Standing Committees on
Ministries have been reconstituted to make a Member of
Parliament, who is not a Minister, the Chair of the
Committee. It has enhanced both transparency and
accountability. Secondly, Prime Minister's Question Time
has been introduced. This might pose a heavy
parliamentary workload for the Head of the Executive
power. But this too has made the executive branch of the
government more accountable to Parliament. This system
has been introduced in Bangladesh, for the first time in
this region. Thirdly, in the first session of the 7th
Parliament, a decision has been made to refer all Bills
introduced in Parliament by the government to Standing
Committees, so that these could be thoroughly examined
and scrutinized before enactment. We have indeed started
strengthening our committee system. Lastly, the question
hour of each session is telecast live and the entire
proceedings of a session are broadcast. The people have
an opportunity now to get to know what is happening in
Parliament and to form their opinion directly.
Parliament
is the centre of all activities. We believe all national
problems could be solved through discussion in the
Parliament. In the 7th Parliament there were 12 sessions
and 70 Bills were passed through parliamentary process
and without promulgation of ordinance. Various issues
including electricity, law and order, Chittagong Hill
Tracts Peace Accord, Ganges Water Sharing Treaty etc.
were discussed in the Parliament. I am sorry to state
that the leader of the Opposition attended only 29 days
out of 230 working days of the 7th Parliament. She never
asked any question to me during the question hour. I
call upon her to discuss any issue in the Parliament and
find out the solution to make the Parliament lively and
meaningful.
I
now ask you, Hon'ble Members of the Bangladesh
Parliament, Chairpersons of its Committees, foreign
parliamentarians and experts, to help us further. We
must think what the needs of the Jatiya Sangsad will be
in the immediate future. And saying so, I am hoping you
will be able to propose ways and means of meeting the
requirements of democracy in Bangladesh for the next
decade. We must aim at making Parliament the very nerve-centre
of all national activities.
Allow
me to quote Erika Jong, to say that we, in Bangladesh,
have no “Fear
of Flying”. We
want to fly as high as a respectful sense of freedom
allows us to. This respectful sense of freedom means
that our liberties have no other limit than the liberty
of someone else. This respect is also part of the
democratic life, that I wish long and lasting for
Bangladesh and all Nations of the world.
With
these few words, I hereby declare the First Conference
of the Institute of Parliamentary Studies on Committee
Systems open and wish it all success.
Joi
Bangla, Joi Bangabandhu
May
Bangladesh live forever!
Khoda Hafez
|
