"Taking Bribe", "Giving Bribe" & "Giving Speed Money"
The CTG should focus on it's communication in differentiating these acts and articulate clearly to the populace that the scope of the proposed "Truth Commission" will be dealing with only those who are involved with "Giving Speed Money" - which we hope is the case.
It's problematic to talk about something new or do something new that would be somewhat different from what has been done in the country in last 36 years. You go outside the track of what has been traced, they will shout in their ugliest and loudest voice. It is a shame that leaders like Motia Choudhury has joined the chorus of the corrupts. We also think that the CTG is at fault too. They do not develop the idea fully before Mr. Law Adviser start talking about it.
Here is a simple suggestion - for God's sake - every time any of you give an opinion about anything, can you at least research the topic? There is a thing called Internet and there are many different search engines that you can use to research the ideas - to find out what has been done on the topic of good governance. We are not talking about a space project or some other hi-tech project - where no-body has done. All you guys have to do is find out what other nations have done about it. There is also a thing called Google Scholar ( http://scholar.google.ca/) which you can use to search more in-depth materials if you really understand a topic well.
Mr. Barrister Adviser opens his mouth and everybody starts giving their opinions. They professors, economists, political leaders (right, left and middle) - they are everywhere - and they do not think that truth commission is a good idea. Funniest of all is that they also think they government would violate the constitution!! Bah, what a visionary leaders. Ei shomoi mukh kharap korte ischcha kore, but korlam na.
Lets be objective and see what we are dealing with. There is a thing called Speed Money that businessman have to give while doing business. This is not actually a legal thing to do. But when it comes to Speed Money - giving it is much less criminal than taking it - at least from moral and ethical point of view. There are grounds for the policymakers to differentiate among the parties who are involved in speed money transaction - although all the parties can be said to have participated in corrupt practices.
So, what is speed money, after all?
"A particular type of corruption—one in which officials responsible for dispensing a legal service to legitimate recipients threaten to withhold or delay the service unless a bribe is paid. This institution is often referred to as "speed-money". Since even the humblest official has the power to slow down processes under his supervision, speed-money is ubiquitous and its presence has been widely noted"
Given this definition, if a truth commission wants to deal with this phenomenon - would that be a wrong thing to do? Not really. Taking bribe, Giving bribe and giving speed money is not same type of corruption. It would certainly within the moral jurisdiction of the government if it decides to setup a Truth Commission to deal with those who were involved in Speed Money transactions. Do not listen to the corrupt politicians - they are out to make failure for the CTG out of anything and everything. They shouted when it was pointed out that the most of the politicians of the country is corrupt and they were proven wrong. The people of Bangladesh know who was involved in what. A new breed of politicians will be grown out of the ashes of the old - off course, government have to facilitate that following what was done in Singapore decades back. Hope that will happen in time, too.
However, we have a request to make to the CTG. Please focus on the communication - the way things are communicated among the populace is seriously flawed. There is a need for education, training the journalists to tackle the matters that might be new to them. So, please have somebody who is professional do the job of communicating the government agenda. Best option would be to hire a couple of young news reporters in the government offices and also ask the news houses to attach one newsman to the prime minister's press corps so they can be specially dealt with with training and education. In the short term it would be a good start. Eventually more newsman and reporters have to be brought under this type of training program where they are taught how to deal with new items, concepts or ideas.
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the members of the CTG, economists, policy makers and lawyers, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article.
We have not seen the Liberation War, but we know if we can free the country from corruption first, we will eventually get to other dreams soon. Because of corruption, we could not even get into information highway for years, let alone other dreams!
This is the kind of article for which we started this column. Because of ongoing mess, a gift from our older generation, we often get diverted. Now that it seems some sanity is returning in Bangladesh, we would try to go back to our original plan.
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