VALIDATION OF ORDINANCES FIRST TEST FOR NEW GOVERNMENT

UNCLAS DHAKA 000058 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM BG SUBJECT: VALIDATION OF ORDINANCES FIRST TEST FOR NEW GOVERNMENT -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) During two years in power, the Caretaker Government promulgated more than 100 ordinances including many designed to fight graft and strengthen Bangladesh's dysfunctional democratic institutions. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's new government must now decide whether those ordinances should be enshrined as lasting law. How Hasina deals with the ordinances will be an early sign of whether she is serious about democratic reforms and cleaning up Bangladesh's notoriously corrupt politics. -------------- A TROVE OF ORDINANCES .. -------------- ¶2. (U) Before stepping down on January 6, 2009, the Caretaker Government promulgated 114 ordinances. Its primary mandate was to hold free, fair and credible Parliamentary elections, and many of the ordinances were designed to tackle the widespread fraud, violence and intimidation that marked previous votes. For example, the Caretaker Government approved ordinances to require candidates to disclose information about their education, wealth and criminal records; to update electoral rules; to modernize electoral rolls; and to create an authority to issue national identity cards. ¶3. (SBU) Other Caretaker Government (CTG) action went beyond the scope of preparing for elections and sought to deal with broad societal problems such as endemic corruption and poor governance. For example, the CTG promulgated ordinances to reform the judicial and legal system, to expedite trials of corruption suspects, to strengthen local governance, and to democratize and clean up corruption-ridden political parties. Other ordinances gave legal cover to activities that restricted personal freedoms under the state of emergency that was in place for most of the Caretaker Government's rule. The Caretaker Government also promulgated a Right to Information Ordinance and ordinances creating a Truth and Accountability Commission and a Human Rights Commission. Together, these ordinances promise a better framework for governance. -------------- .. AND THEIR UNCERTAIN FATE -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Some of the ordinances, such as those related to implementing the Emergency Power Rules, were never meant to remain in effect beyond the tenure of the Caretaker Government. By law, the other ordinances need approval of the new Parliament within 30 days of its first sitting, now scheduled for January 25, or they will expire. Prime Minister Hasina's Awami League government has formed a committee of legal experts to recommend what action to take, and a report is expected before the Parliament convenes. One possible option under discussion would be to pass an amendment to the constitution that covers all the ordinances and then to vote separately to cancel ones which are no longer necessary or are unwanted. Another possibility would be to introduce each ordinance as an individual bill for consideration by Parliament. Adding to the uncertainty over the ordinances' fate was a July decision by a High Court panel, now under appeal, that only ordinances directly related to holding elections were legal. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Prime Minister Hasina has said she supports enacting the ordinances into permanent law. Many of those ordinances, however, chip away at the traditional prerogatives of Bangladeshi political leaders to enrich themselves through graft and to wield power through manipulation of the judiciary, civil service and local government. Now that Hasina's Awami League has won an overwhelming majority in Parliament that allows it to amend the constitution unilaterally, the fate of the ordinances will be the first test of whether her promises to improve governance and fight corruption are sincere. MORIARTY