Bangladesh's fresh start

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 20, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 41-55

  Alamgir, Jalal ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON   (United States)

^b CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH   (India)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67651243850     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. The statistics up to 2001 are from Syeed Ahamed, "Why AL Won," Forum 4 (January 2009), available at www.thedailystar.net/forum/2009/ january/why-al.htm. The 2008 statistics are the author's calculations from official results.
2. Transparency International's Corruption-Perceptions Index (CPI) assigns countries scores from 1 to 10, with 10 representing the lowest level of perceived corruption and 1 the highest. In 2001, Bangladesh had the highest level of perceived corruption among 91 countries surveyed; in 2002, the highest among 102 countries; in 2003, the highest among 133 countries; in 2004, the highest, with Haiti, among 145 countries; and in 2005, the highest (along with Chad) among 158 countries surveyed. For yearly rankings and an explanation, see www.transparency.org/policy-research/surveys-indices/cpi.
3. See Human Rights Watch, World Report 2007 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2007);
4. World Report 2006 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2006);
5. Ali Riaz, God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), 72-73.
6. Syeed Ahamed and Mashuqur Rahman, "Getting the Math Right," Daily Star (Dhaka), 12 January 2009.
7. Nizam Ahmed, "From Monopoly to Competition: Party Politics in the Bangladesh Parliament (1973-2001)," Pacific Affairs 76 (Spring 2003): 63-64.
8. Yasmeen Murshed and Nazim Kamran Choudhury, "Bangladesh's Second Chance," Journal of Democracy 8 (January 1997): 71.
9. Nizam Ahmed, "From Monopoly to Competition," 64.
10. For a succinct review, see Ali Riaz, "'God Willing': The Politics and Ideology of Islamism in Bangladesh," in "In Memory of Edward W. Said, 1935-2003," Special Issue, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 23, nos. 1 and 2 (2003): 301-20.
11. See Jalal Alamgir, "Democratic Performance in Bangladesh, 1991-2006: A Political Measurement," Journal of Bangladesh Studies 9, no. 2 (2007): 1-12.
12. The figures are from the Terrorism Knowledge Base; available at www.tkb.org/home.jsp.
13. Reporters Without Borders, "Bangladesh-Annual Report, 2005"; available at www.rsf.org/article.php3?id-article=13423.
14. Amnesty International's report is available at http://web.amnesty.org/ report2005/bgd-summary-eng.
15. "[Former BNP cabinet minister Lutfozzaman] Babar, Hawa Bhaban Behind Aug 21 Grenade Attack: Former BNP Minister Pintu Says Under Remand," New Nation (Dhaka), 19 January 2008; available at http://nation. ittefaq.com/issues/2008/01/19/news0599.htm.
16. International Crisis Group (ICG), "Restoring Democracy in Bangladesh," Asia Report, no. 151, 28 April 2008, 6-7.
17. For a summary, see "Anti-Speak on Reforms," Daily Star, 22 September 2006.
18. "1.22cr False Names on Voter List," Daily Star, 3 December 2006.
19. See "Iajuddin's 'Doing Alone' Policy Enrages Advisers," Daily Star, 11 December 2006; "Four Advisers Resign in Frustration," Daily Star, 12 December 2006; ICG, "Restoring Democracy in Bangladesh," 6.
20. British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury is quoted in "Diplomats Hope Elections Will Be Held Soon," Daily Star, 23 January 2007; available at www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/23/d7012301096.htm.
21. See "EU Envoy Backs Purge of Corrupt Politicians," Daily Star, 13 February 2007.
22. For more on the role of the West, see ICG, "Restoring Democracy in Bangladesh," 7-9; Jalal Alamgir, "Lessons in Democracy from Bangladesh," Nation, 26 February 2009; available at www.thenation.com/doc/20090316/alamgir.
23. ICG, "Restoring Democracy in Bangladesh," 16.
24. Among those arrested was the author's father, economist and one-time AL cabinet minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir. He was held from February 2007 until October 2008.
25. The statistics are from the Economist, 6 September 2007. For a sampling of firsthand accounts, see "Torture to Death of a Prominent Tribal Leader," Notice UA/BD/02/07, Asian Centre for Human Rights, 2 April 2007;
26. "Indigenous Defenders at Risk," Indigenous Rights Quarterly 2 (April-June 2007);
27. The Torture of Tasneem Khalil (New York: Human Rights Watch, February 2008);
28. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, "Seven Days of Torment," New Age, 9 November 2008.
29. Devin T. Hagerty, "Bangladesh in 2007: Democracy Interrupted, Political and Environmental Challenges Ahead," Asian Survey 48 (January-February 2008): 178.
30. Human Rights Watch notes, "The special tribunals set up for these cases often fail to meet international fair trial standards because of limits on access to counsel, flawed evidentiary requirements, and lack of judicial independence." See "Bangladesh: Events of 2007," World Report 2008 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2008), 241. The Asian Human Rights Commission deemed the caretaker government "evidently incapable of providing public access and fair trials."
31. See The State of Human Rights in Bangladesh 2008 (Hong Kong: AHRC, 2008), 3.
32. See also Amnesty International, "One Year On: Human Rights in Bangladesh Under the State of Emergency," available at www.amnesty.org/ en/for-media/press-releases/one-year-human-rights-bangladesh-under-state- emergency-20080110.
33. "Conviction Rate Gives Rise to Serious Questions," New Age, 25 February 2008.
34. Odhikar, Human Rights Report 2008 (Dhaka: Odhikar, 2009), 19-20. In November 2008, a High Court judgment found the Truth and Accountability Commission unconstitutional.
35. Asian Human Rights Commission, "Bangladesh: Military Dealing with Case Assignments in the Supreme Court and the Systematic Smothering of the Judiciary," 14 October 2008; available at www.ahrchk.net/statements/ mainfile.php/2008statements/1727.
36. Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
37. See www.worldvaluessurvey.org as well as International Foundation for Election Systems, Issues and Priorities for Bangladesh: The 2000 IFES National Survey (Washington, D.C.: IFES, 2001). See also www.thedailystar.net/suppliments/2008/opinion%20poll/o-poll.htm.