The
government is yet to deliver
required services to people by
mobilising domestic resources at a
time when foreign aid as percentage
of funds for development programmes
is on the decline, said speakers at
a dialogue on Wednesday.
They also
called for electoral reforms to make
a ‘dysfunctional’ parliament
functional in future and devolution
of power to local government bodies
so that people at the grassroots
could be benefited.
Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman termed ‘healthy
political processes’ prerequisites
for successful reforms and
development and said the country had
underinvestment in power, transport,
port and other physical
infrastructure sectors.
“We need a lot
of consensus for liberating society
[from evils]… And we have a new
generation of challenging people,”
he told the dialogue on ‘Bangladesh
Development Forum 2004: Civil
Society’s Perspective’, organised by
the Centre for Policy Dialogue at
the CIRDAP auditorium.
Representatives
of bilateral and multilateral
lending agencies stressed on
flexibility in regulating
non-government organisations, as the
government is planning to frame a
new law on NGO affairs.
Pro-government
speakers, on the other hand,
proposed formation of a commission
to bring transparency and
accountability to NGO activities.
“For God’s
sake, please join politics if you
[as an NGO] are biased to any
political party. Don’t tarnish the
image of those NGOs who are doing
fantastic jobs,” former commerce
minister Amir Khosru Mahmud
Chowdhury said.
He also alleged
that some donors were patronising a
section of NGOs indulged in funding
political campaigns.
The BNP
lawmaker also emphasised on keeping
‘faith’ in politicians, saying there
were political leaders who did not
patronise musclemen to further their
political interest.
Saber Hossain
Chowdhury, organising secretary of
the main opposition Awami League,
said the government should not judge
NGOs on the basis of ideology.
Describing
rhetoric over donors’ ‘certificate’
as a bad signal, he said the prime
minister should not refer to donors
while addressing public meetings and
claim that the government had
received ‘this and that’ amount in
foreign aid.
The AL leader
also expressed apprehension that if
there were reforms to the Election
Commission, free and fair elections
would not be possible with a
bureaucracy “which is extremely politicised”.
“The citizens of
the country feel disempowered as
they see the government, instead of
being responsive to its citizens’
concerns, more responsive to similar
demands when these originate from
the donors,” CPD executive director
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said in
his keynote speech.
World Bank
country director Christine Wallich
said elections in
Bangladesh cost 10
per cent of the GDP and winning the
polls in a particular constituency
required Tk 20 million.
She prescribed
political reforms and public
dialogue on national issues.
JSD leader
Hasanul Haque Inu said the political
scenario was not comfortable even
though the
AL had decided to
return to parliament.
Former finance
minister M Syeduzzaman said none
should threaten with stopping
development work if the constituents
did not vote for a particular
political party’s candidate.
USAID director
Gene V George said there was a
misperception that NGO funding was
not transparent while German
Ambassador Dietrich Andreas said the
fund came from taxpayers’ money of
sending countries.
Advocating for
a dialogue between the government,
NGOs and donors, Danish Ambassador Niels Severin Munk cautioned that
Denmark would not come up with
assistance unless “they are allowed
to play their role”.
He once again pointed
out that he had raised the issue of
“blocking” foreign aid three times,
which were “linked to corruption”.
