Govt committed to presenting outline of democratic Bangladesh: CA

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday 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.

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, reports BSS.

He reiterated 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 factory 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 curriculum 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 immovable 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 laundered 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 continued, 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.