LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADVISOR SEES THE POLITICAL CLOUDS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 001001

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/PB

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/20/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR ELAB ETRD KDEM BG
SUBJECT: LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADVISOR SEES THE POLITICAL CLOUDS
CLEARING AND POTENTIAL FOR GREATER DECENTRALIZATION

Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


Summary
========


1. (C) During a September 18 meeting with the Ambassador,
Local Government Advisor Anwarul Iqbal was upbeat about the
local government strengthening reform process and outlined
the upcoming scenarios for dialogues with the parties and
potential election schedules. Advisor Iqbal, who also
oversees the Ministry of Labor, expressed confidence that the
country was moving in the right direction regarding child
labor issues and forced labor concerns in the shrimp sector.

Political Dialogue is Moving Forward


2. (C) The Ambassador met with Local Government Advisor
Mohammed Anwarul Iqbal on September 18 to discuss the status
of the government's on-going dialogue with the country's
major political parties and to garner a better sense of local
government strengthening and decentralization reforms being
promoted by the Caretaker Government. USAID's Democracy
officer sat in as the notetaker. Advisor Iqbal expressed
confidence that the on-going dialogue with political parties
was moving in the right direction. He pointed to the
meetings planned for Saturday September 20 between the
Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) and the BNP and their
alliance partners. He expected that the election schedule
would be announced soon and felt the country was on track to
hold national elections the third week of December. Iqbal
further stated that once the final dates for elections were
announced that the general public and "grassroots" groups
would make everyone stick to the schedule.

Electoral Options


3. (C) When queried by the Ambassador about the timing of the
proposed Upazila (i.e. sub-district) elections, the Advisor
described two possible scenarios. Plan A would be to hold
some Upazila elections early in November and another batch
after the Parliamentary elections sometime in late-December.
Plan B would be to hold the national elections as planned,
probably on December 18, and then quickly hold two batches of
Upazila elections right after that but before January 1,

2009. (Note: On September 20 the Chief Advisor announced an
elections schedule based on the second scenario:
Parliamentary elections will be held on December 18, while
the Upazila elections will be held partly on December 24 and
partly on December 28. End Note) The January 1 deadline was
important, the Advisor explained, because that the BEC
legally must update the electoral roll every year beginning
in January and therefore could hold elections until that
process was complete. Advisor Iqbal maintained that the BEC
had the capacity to hold Parliamentary and Upazila elections
back-to-back.

Reforms Key to Greater Decentralization


4. (C) The Ambassador outlined USG assistance to strengthen
local governance in Bangladesh and our commitment to deepen
the country's incipient decentralization process. The
Advisor explained the multiple levels of local government.
The lowest levels of elected local governments were the Union
Parishad for rural areas and municipalities for urban areas.
Above them were the Upazilas, which had only once had elected
leadership and have been managed by the country's MPs since
the country's return to democracy in 1991. The country's
five district level capitals and Dhaka as the country's
national capital fell into a special category of city
corporations. Finally there are appointed District level
councils. Iqbal noted that each level of local government
was governed by its own legislation.


5. (C) The Advisor stated that new legislation was already
in place for city corporations and Upazilas and that an
updated municipal ordinance was ready to be enacted. The
changes to the Union Parishad law were under review by the
Law Ministry. The Advisor felt that this fresh legal
framework would increase transparency and accountability of
government actions at the sub-national level. The central
government resources would allocate greater resources to

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these local governments. He further said that other
recommendations were being reviewed, such as apportioning a
percentage of the national Value Added Tax directly to local
governments, to strengthen the Government's budding
decentralization efforts. He appeared confident that these
new local government ordinances would be ratified by the next
political government.

Police Reform Ordinance Stymied


6. (C) Noting that the Advisor was a former Inspector
General (Chief) of the National Police and a career police
officer, the Ambassador solicited his opinion on the proposed
Police Reform Ordinance being promoted by the Caretaker
Government. Advisor Iqbal felt that this ordinance would not
be passed during the Caretaker's tenure as there was
substantial resistance from the bureaucracy to separating the
police staff from the normal civil service cadre. He
discussed his years of experience as a police officer all
around the country and seemed disappointed that such a reform
appeared dead in the water at this point.

Labor Issues Being Addressed


7. (C) The Advisor also oversees the Ministry of Labor and
Employment as part of his portfolio. The Ambassador
congratulated the Advisor on the Caretaker Government's
recent relaxation of restrictions on trade union activity and
asked his thoughts on the issue of child labor and other
concerns that were raised under the AFL-CIO's petition to the
USTR. The Advisor explained that the Government had reached
out to the International Labor Organization (ILO) to tackle
the worst forms of child labor and expected to be able to
pull 30,000 children from hazardous labor conditions.
Activities included providing micro-credit to the parents of
child workers as well as training on livelihood options that
would allow those families to pull their children out of work
and put them into school. Advisor Iqbal expressed hope in
replicating these actions for families involved in the shrimp
sector. He also affirmed his belief that there was
negligible forced child labor in the country. At the same
time, he recognized that many families face extremely
difficult economic situations that compelled them to have
their underage children work instead of attend school.

Comment
=======


8. (C) Advisor Iqbal was optimistic that fundamental local
governance and decentralization reforms would survive the
next government. He embodies much of the pragmatism that has
characterized the Caretaker Government and seems to
understand the long-term changes that are required to move
Bangladesh's development forward. He is well-versed on the
issues within his portfolio and, from his years as a police
officer serving all around the country, he has a clear
understanding of the realities and challenges facing the
country's rural population. As the country becomes
preoccupied with the immediate political situation and
upcoming elections, the various reforms in local governance
that the Caretakers have promoted could end up being one of
the most important components of their legacy.
Moriarty