Prof. Anu Muhammad speaks to DOT :
The Awami League manifesto contains much erroneous information. One of these is that it has done many things in the last decade to advance democracy and human rights.
The level of desecration of human rights, democratic ideals and freedom of speech that occurred during this government’s tenure was extraordinarily unprecedented. Such terror in society was never seen nor experienced. Crossfires began during the reign of the four-party government. Even though the current administration pledged a change in policy, crossfires did not stop, instead, such controversial and extrajudicial practices increased in frequency.
The government has given unchecked power to the police and RAB. There has been no reason given for the countless disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Freedom Fighters never freed this nation for this kind of lack of accountability.
Not only in the case of freedom of speech, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has also lied about the country’s development as well. She said, if voted to power again, there will be zero-tolerance policy towards corruption. But every current development project in the country is corrupted at an unbelievable level. The cost for every project is highest in the world. Record money is being spent for bridges, roads or even different buildings – a record in corruption! This is the trend the government is pledging to uphold. This is very alarming, in my opinion.
Sheikh Hasina has promised to reinforce the environmental harm and economic pressure that comes with her development projects. This is very unfortunate for Bangladesh. If there was foresight in human rights and development projects, if they admitted to having committed mistakes and pledged to mend them, then perhaps we could have been assured even a little bit.
Turning villages into cities, rivers into lakes – these are expressions of sowing confusion. All of our great cities are uninhabitable. One of the world’s most polluted cities is our capital Dhaka. If cities mean unbreathable, uninhabitable and congested, there is no doubt the kind of danger that awaits us all. The Rampal project that will destroy the Sundarbans is not a project to be proud of. It is nothing but a way to strangle us as a nation. There should be dialogue to abolish these. Then we’d have believed that, even for a second, the government is worrying for our welfare.
Prof. Dr. Anu Muhammad is an economist
Interview by Khairul Alam
Translated by Arafat Hasan