The incumbent coalition government completes three years of its rule this month. As a result, major newspapers in Bangladesh are running series of articles, to assess performance of the incumbent government. Although well articulated, most of these articles fail to take into account of social and political reality prevalent in Bangladesh, as to offer serious criticism. The general sense of gloom evident in analyses, I believe, results from excessive expectation that betrays realities in Bangladesh.

Consequently, these commentaries not only appear premature, but also they expose fantastic expectation and dream of overnight miraculous performance from the government by respective writers. For, the three years of rule, in my opinion, as opposed to gross failure, is marked by mixed performance, with promise of success as well as evince of failures.

To be precise, to weigh success against failure of the BNP led alliance government, it is too early to offer any sound reasoning, as impact of some policies initiated by the incumbent government would take years to yield any positive fruition, conditioned upon their relentless pursuit in coming years, adjusted to changing geopolitical scenario. On the other, some adverse impact of flawed policies pursued by the erstwhile government would take more years to overcome, a legacy for which the incumbent government cannot be blamed.

Again, some evident failures of the alliance rule, results from structural flaws of the prevalent political system, which no political party in Bangladesh can ameliorate overnight in the current situation, because of criminalization of politics. To share my thought about success and failures of three years' of BNP rule, I submit my list of failures and success of the incumbent government, categorically.

Failures of the BNP led Alliances' Rule:

1. Law and Order situation remains in utter shamble. In spite of much promise, the incumbent government hardly could ameliorate the situation through the legal process: reforming law and enforcement agencies, as it was pledged, in order to satisfy public expectation, to uphold law and order. The Bangladesh Police, as of today, remains the least effective and the most corrupt wing of the public services in Bangladesh and BNP made no significant attempt to improve it is an irrefutable fact.

2. The BNP led government has completely failed to curb the rise of bomb culture in politics. As the government has failed to solve even a single case of bombing, the perpetrator of such heinous crimes have only experienced a boost in morale, resulting in further increase of violence, as evident in the gruesome act of 21 August incident that claimed lives of 20 people. Instead of learning from past mistakes and pursue an aggressive policy to bring criminals to the book, the government again sought to shoulder off its responsibility being engaged in blame game. What BNP failed to realize, is the fact that pointing to similar failures of Awami League does not make its failure appear shiny.

3. The government has forgotten its electoral promise of combating mass corruption. Corruption has risen with exponential rate in last few years. The annual reports of the Transparency International prove the point and for a fourth year, Bangladesh ranks first in the ranking of the most corrupt nations on earth. The prevalence of mass corruption is particularly evident in national economy, as the recent World Bank study highlights that 40 percent of national economy is being wasted, because of prevalent culture of mass corruption.

4. BNP led government has failed to negotiate successfully in diplomacy, to safeguard national interest. Its policies are riddled with contradiction and premature moves, exposing the fact that Bangladesh foreign policy is maneuvered through ad hoc basis, without embarking on a long term goal. This was precisely the case in negotiation under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime in which first Dhaka took the lead of the least developed countries (LDCs), followed by a complete reversal of policy. Similarly, its failure to reach to multilateral bodies against the proposed Indian River Linking Project is highly visible. That is to say, the greatest failure of the BNP rule lies in devising a comprehensive plan, as to secure interests of Dhaka, while dealing with New Delhi on sensitive issues: water sharing in international rivers, Bangladeshi products' access to Indian market, demarking porous border, and so forth.

5. The government has also lost complete control of maintaining its dignity and by default, esteem of the nation, as it failed to check the practice of foreign diplomats and head of multilateral agencies' unwarranted interference in domestic politics with an alarming rate. It is gross to observe that while certain diplomats, including representatives from third world countries, make statement, meet people, and offer solution to ongoing domestic political crisis that certainly violate norms of diplomacy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains idle, as to protect dignity of the nation.

6. The government has also marked its ineptitude to combat anti-Bangladesh propaganda in abroad. This is particularly the case when under the guidance of Indian intelligence agencies, a concerted effort spearheaded by Indian media was launched in the West, which as a means to discredit Dhaka, attempted to portray Bangladesh essentially as an Islamic and an anti-Western country, which has become den of terrorism and rise of fundamentalism. Fortunately, the Western media gradually is swallowing the rubbish of which numerous evidence one can cite. What is important to notice is the fact that while the Western media reiterates such Indian inspired smear campaign, Bangladesh embassies in abroad does little to indicate falsity of such trashes news. Besides, it appears that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lacks any comprehensive plan to initiate a counter movement, as to maintain an effective public relation against such propaganda.


Success of the BNP led Alliance:

1. The highly visible success of the alliance government is its Looking East Policy. Although the policy is economic in nature apparently; in reality, it embodies an extraordinary political dimension, which should it succeed, would mark a dramatic shift in foreign policy of Bangladesh. A greater integration of national economy into ASEAN trade block would trigger further foreign direct investment, open up labor market, increase export of Bangladeshi commodity, and greater inflow of remittance. It would enhance Dhaka a greater bargain chip against its hegemonic neighbor, as Dhaka would become less dependent on her. That is to say, Looking East Policy has become one of the core principles, to restore political and economic sovereignty of Bangladesh.

2. As a consequence of its Looking East Policy, potentials for foreign investment and expansion of national trade are already taking place. Dhaka has become a hub of foreign trade delegates, in search of local trade partners, to make investment. Hardly a week passes by without the visit of a foreign delegation. In recent years, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Korean trade delegates and potential investors have visited the country, expressing will to invest, as the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) appear them as lucrative. And the trend remains positive so far, as dozens of similar trade delegates and potential investors are about to visit Dhaka in coming months, especially, the Taiwanese and the Koreans.

3. The greatest success of the policy however, is opening up the avenue for Taiwanese investment, with a potential $4 billion investment in the textile sector alone. It was a bold move for the government that bore fruit already, since a major textile house from Taiwan already is setting up a textile plant in Bangladesh, investing $20 million. Because of developing trade relations with Taipei, in coming November of 2004, a 93 member team consists of investors would visit Dhaka, as Taiwanese are interested in relocating their sun setting industries: textile, apparel, garment, Information Technology, and others, to cash upon in the post multi-fiber agreement regime. Taipei has also expressed interest in importing semi-skilled labor from Bangladesh. Similarly, one can also mention about the proposed $2 billion investment of TATA, which not only is the largest proposed FDI in the history of Bangladesh, but also it indicates the success of the BNP policy, although the BNP government can claim the entire credit, conditioned upon the fact that a fair deal is reached, to save national interest, in fixing the methodology of pricing the natural gas.

4. Another visible success of the BNP led government that would have positive impact on the nation is in the field of education. The government has managed to keep the education ministry above partisan politics, as to reform education policy. This is particularly true in its quest for reforming the examination system in the grass root level, introducing American system of examination, developed by the world renowned Educational Testing Service (ETS), based in Princeton, NJ that had developed standardized examination procedures. Because of introducing objective questionnaires in the secondary and higher secondary examinations, chances of cheating, the traditional means to receive additional point, has come to an end. This is an enormous success for the nation that would help in ameliorating our shamble education system and the education minister, Dr. Moin-ud-Din Khan, for his contribution, deserves a hearty congratulation. It is noteworthy that the government has also decided to introduce standardized system in the Bangladesh Civil Service Examination, as to make sure that candidates with high merit can only pass the examination.

5. BNP led government successfully has managed relief works in the recent flood as well as in other natural calamities that had engulfed the national economy, causing a net loss of around $8 billion, according to a most conservative estimate; whereas, Dhaka received less than a quarter of a billion as additional credits from multilateral development agencies for economic recovery. Because of cautious policies of BNP, the nation was spared from catastrophic consequence given the fact that around 75 percent of cropland went under water for over a month that had destroyed the entire yields of crops, fisheries, poultry, and livestock and a mismanagement of relief and restoration work could have caused havoc in national economy

6. Institutional reforms and aggressive banking policy as a means to reduce money laundering have also borne the desired outcome for BNP government, as the inflow of remittance saw a spectacular 22 percent annual growth: $ 3.37 billion in the last year. Such increase in remittance not only helps Dhaka maintain a favorable balance of payment, but also it increases foreign reserves and Bangladesh Bank holds its reserve above $3 billion on the average. It is noteworthy to mention that when BNP came to power, foreign reserve stood around $1.58 billion, whereas, the current reserve approximates to $3.03 billion, as of the first week of October, 2004.

7. Another success of the incumbent government is boost in export. Growth in export now stands close to 16.10 percent in FY 04 and the growth stands at 26 percent in the first two months of the current fiscal year. Consequently, in narrowing the fiscal deficit, government has also made a positive contribution: while the deficit had widened to 6.1 percent in FY 00, it now came down to below 4 percent in FY 04.

7. Finally, at least, one can fairly state that at last, the BNP led government has indicated its will to curb domestic terrorism, resulting from criminalization of politics and practice of extortion and other related crimes. One can argue against the method of execution pursued by Rapid Action Battalions (RAB) and therefore, can label the practice of killing at crossfire, as the Awami League's General Secretary Abdul Jalil has recently claimed, as an example of extra-judicial killing; yet the fact is that today, in Bangladesh, terrorists are at bay: BNP successfully has turned the game against the terrorists that has yield a definite impact. Since RAB went into action, more than six dozens of high profile terrorists and extortionist have been killed, who because of their wide network of criminal spree, virtually have had lived a life of legal immunity. As a result of RAB success, currently, not only criminals are at bay inside Bangladesh, but also, a good number of them are now in hideout inside India. Consequently, RAB has earned mass public support, as evident in numerous filing of complaints at its office, and the 21 October online poll of the Daily Prothom Alo indicates that 55 percent of Bangladeshis endorses the RAB. The government has also indicated its will to carry on the process and establish the RAB as a de facto organization, similar to FBI, in the USA, and for that reason, already 14 crores of taka has been allotted to procure arms and ammunition, advanced computer technology, and communication system, to establish RAB as an independent law enforcement agency, under the reformed Metropolitan Police Act of 1972.