Govt committed to presenting outline of democratic Bangladesh: CA

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Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus today

said his government is committed to presenting an outline of democratic

Bangladesh for the future generation.

“We are committed to formulating an outline of a democratic Bangladesh for

our children so that we don’t fall into the hands of any dictatorship and we

can say we live in a democratic country…so that we all can claim that this

country is ours – we’re working towards this goal,” he told the televised

address before the nation this afternoon.

Urging all not to take the law into their own hands, Prof Yunus warned that

if anyone takes the law into his or her own hands and creates a chaotic

situation in the society, he or she will definitely be brought to justice.

“We (Bangladesh) are a nation of communal harmony. No one shall do any act

that destroys religious harmony,” he said.

At the onset of his speech, the chief adviser recalled the martyrs and the

victims who participated in the student-people revolution against the fascist

force.

He reit
erated that the families of all the martyrs would be rehabilitated

while the government will bear the entire expenditures for the treatment of

all injured students, workers and commoners.

A complete list of martyrs and injured has been prepared for the long-term

and costly treatment for the injured and looking after the families of the

martyrs, he said, adding that updates of this list will be made.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate said the government took an initiative to

establish a foundation named ‘July Ganahattya Smriti Foundation’ to preserve

the memory of the martyrs of the mass uprising.

“Now this foundation has been established. This foundation is taking full

responsibility of all martyrs’ families and families of victims along with

providing best treatment to injured ones. We urge all people of the country

and Bangladeshis living abroad to donate to this foundation,” he said.

About law and order situation, Prof Yunus said his government is sincerely

working to improve the law and order in
the country.

Many people, he said, have been staging rallies and demonstrations to express

their pains they suffered in the last 16 years and seeking its remedy, which

created impediment to the movement of people.

“I promise you that I will not forget your righteous plea. We are committed

to giving remedy to all wrongs. We will try best to resolve all problems as

much as possible within our responsibility. I again request you to refrain

from disrupting your movement. The nation will be grateful to you,” he said.

Referring to the allegations of workers in RMG and medicine industries, the

chief adviser said the institutional structure is almost destroyed, while

foreign exchange reserves have hit rock bottom.

“We are trying to bring life into this economy. We are also getting response

to our initiative. If our industrial plants are closed down and get non-

operational at this time, the country’s economy will be hit hard. That cannot

be expected in anyway,” he said.

The chief adviser asked the fact
ory owners to resolve their problems in

consultation with workers and keep their factories operational, resulting in

making the poor economy healthy.

Prof Yunus said all should work together to build a society based on

justice, while the criminal cases, except murder cases, filed from July 1 to

August 5 to suppress the mass movement have been withdrawn and all

those arrested in these cases have been released.

He said the interim government has embarked on major reforms in

judiciary since taking of its office.

Appointment of the most qualified person as the Chief Justice has

instilled new hope in people’s minds, he said, adding that appointment

of Judges of Appellate Division, Attorney General and many important

appointments have all been completed.

The false cases filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Digital/Cyber

Security Act to harass people are being withdrawn, the chief adviser said.

He said there are many black laws including the Cyber Security Act in

Bangladesh and those black laws
will be repealed and amended soon.

Prof Yunus said assistance is being provided for the investigation into

and trial of the five much-talked-about murders, including the killing of

journalist Sagar-Rony, on a priority basis and for settlement these cases

at the earliest time.

The government, he said, recently signed an international convention to

protect people from enforced disappearance and ‘as a result, we are

committed internationally to ending the ‘the culture of disappearance’

established by dictatorship’.

‘We are also forming a separate commission to investigate every case of

enforced disappearance during the 15 years of fascist rule,’ he said.

Aynaghor (Mirror house) has been closed and at the same time the story

of the suffering and pain of families of the people disappeared by the

fascist Hasina government is coming out, the chief adviser said.

‘We have our full eye on the education system to ensure a bright future

for our young generation,’ he said.

‘Already, the present flawed curr
iculum from class I to class XII has been

changed. The work of correcting and revising the textbooks is at final

stage. This reform work will continue,’ he added.

In the first month, Prof Yunus said, the government started the process

of appointing Vice-Chancellors and Pro Vice-Chancellors, who are

acceptable to all, in every university.

As a result, an environment has been created to start work with new

enthusiasm in all public and private universities, he said.

Claiming that the full freedom of press and expression has already been

ensured, the chief adviser said the government is considering formation

of a Media Commission so that the media can do their work smoothly.

He said to indentify the fake freedom fighters and skip the names of

freedom fighters with age of less than 12.5 years during the liberation

war from the list of freedom fighters, the government has taken an

initiative to summit leave to appeal before the Supreme Court.

Measures have also been taken to recover the grabbed immov
able assets

of the Freedom Fighters’ Welfare Trust, he added.

“We want our country to be known with dignity to the world as a democratic

country. The planning of the country should be centered on the people of the

country, not on any leader or party,” Dr Yunus said.

He said autocratic Hasina government unnecessarily implemented projects

involving crores of money which were never meant for the people of the

country, but ugly egos and large-scale theft were involved with those.

The Chief Adviser said the government has already started the process of

scrutinizing all the ongoing and proposed development projects.

Considering the stage of implementation of the projects, cost savings in the

remaining works and even cancellation of those will be considered if

necessary, he said.

Noting that none will be allowed to cheat with the people anymore, he said

the government will give priority to projects that will create employment.

Dr Yunus said the government has taken initiative to bring back looted and

l
aundered money.

An initiative has also been taken to form a banking commission to restore

order in the financial sector, he said, adding that boards of directors of

various banks have been reconstituted so that there has been a big change in

the banking sector in this one month.

“We have established rules and regulations in this sector. Much more work

remains to be done. We did only the main tasks as the first month’s work,” he

said.

Dr Yunus said the people of the country have been victims of inflation due to

the fact that the fascist government printed a new Taka 60,000 crores and

released it to the money market for looting.

Containing this unprecedented inflation is one of the main goals of the

interim government, he said, adding that the policy interest rate has been

raised to 9 percent to check inflation.

In order to protect the common people from price inflation, OMS, food

friendly programs including providing essential commodities to the marginal

people at affordable prices have been co
ntinued, he said.

Tk 5,800 crore for import of rice and wheat, Tk 8,900 crore for internal

procurement and Tk 7,360 crore for three food subsidy programmes have been

earmarked in the current financial year to combat inflation, he said.

An additional USD three billion has been requested from the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) while an additional USD one billion from the World Bank,

and an additional USD one billion from JICA, he said.

The Ministry of Finance continues discussions with the Russian Federation

regarding the payment of advances and outstanding for the Rooppur Nuclear

Power Plant construction project, he said.

Initiatives have been taken to utilize the USD 48 billion in foreign aid in

the pipeline, he mentioned.

Dr Yunus said plans have been adopted to stop looting money in the name of

megaprojects as well as increase allocations in health and education sectors.

Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha