THE chief adviser to the interim government Muhammad Yunus has announced the formation of six commissions, headed by eminent citizens, to effect national reforms to make people鈥檚 aspirations come true, prevent the recurrence of fascism or autocratic rule and introduce a state system based on people鈥檚 ownership, oriented towards welfare and dedicated to public interests. The central points of the reforms plan are, as the chief adviser said in an address to the nation on September 11, to establish a fair electoral system and good governance. All this is a welcome step forward. This appears more so after the downfall of the 15 years of autocratic regime of the Awami League government, which the student-mass uprising spanning July and August toppled on August 5. The commission are meant for electoral system reforms, police administrative reforms, judiciary reforms, anti-corruption reforms, public administration reforms and constitutional reforms. Other members of the commissions will be named after discussions with respective commission heads. But all this might not suffice. The interim government, for an example, also needs to change its approach towards issues of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the national minorities living there. Because the traditional approach, as has so far been seen, has not resolved the problems there.
More such initiatives are also needed as order needs to be put in the affairs of education, health, transport and the media that have degraded over a decade and a half. Besides, the way the commission heads have been selected appear patriarchal as no woman has been named to head any of the commissions. This has been a weakness of the interim government to reckon with. Whilst the commissions have their time frame set for the completion of the tasks, three months beginning on October 1, there has been no announcement so far on the terms of reference of the commission and their composition. No details on the terms of reference of the commissions can well be likened to the absence of the terms of reference of the interim government itself. More than a month after the installation of the interim government, citizens are still in the dark about such issues. The composition of the commissions should, however, also strike a balance in gender and minorities, national and religious, for them to work well. What is also expected of the interim government is what the commission would come up with should be effectively put to work. After the 1990 mass uprising, or the 1990s Anti-Authoritarian Movement, that began with a series of popular protests and toppled the government of General Ershad, a task force was established in 1991 under the stewardship of Professor Rehman Sobhan with the representation of a number of well-meaning people to chart out the future of Bangladesh. But none of this is reported to have been heeded.
Whilst the government should attend to the concern in the composition of the commissions and make public their terms of reference, it is also expected that the reforms plans that the commissions would come up with should not gather dust the way the plans of the 1991 task force did.
