This Bill is Dangerous: Another View

I was taken aback by the editorial in your paper of 28 January, 2000 on the Public Safety Bill tabled in the Parliament. I am taking the liberty of addressing this letter to you because I have confidence in your fairness and objectivity. I would leave it to your readers to decide whether your remarks are ill-judged but these are certainly biased observations.

The problem of law and order is not new. It has plagued the country for a long time and both the last government as well as the present government tried to deal with the problem in their own ways. One of my first columns in your esteemed paper was written on this subject in 1992. The BNP government enacted the Anti-Terrorist Act to cope with this menace. The present government has introduced a similar law but with significant difference. I would have been happy if you paused and pondered on the rationale for such successive efforts before launching a bitter attack. Obviously you failed to notice the difference between the present bill and the Act which was passed and used by the previous government. Nor have you given adequate thought to the human rights of those who lose their life or limb or their property.

I would like to submit to you that the present bill is a remarkable improvement over the earlier effort made by the BNP government. You are no doubt fully aware of the circumstances in which both the BNP government and now the Awami League government felt the need to strengthen the provisions of the law to effectively deal with the law and order situation. Criminal activities in general but terrorism, mugging and extortion in particular have become a serious problem for the law abiding citizens of the country. The business community has been clamouring about it. The present government has taken the initiative to smash the criminal gangs which were operating with impunity in the south-west districts of the country. The bold and thorough cleansing operation in those districts had earned the government appreciation and gratitude of the millions of citizens who were helpless hostages to these criminal gangs. The government moved firmly and achieved remarkable success. There can thus be no question about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's commitment and determination to combat this evil. She is equally determined to root out crime from the urban centres but the nature of the problems are different and there are a number of difficulties in the way. The most important of these difficulties is the delay in the trial and punishment of the accused criminals. Notorious terrorists with several murder charges are set free on bail. Regardless of the seriousness of the crime, the trial takes years and years. Guilt is never established and the guilty goes unpunished. On the one hand, the authorities are frustrated because criminals cannot be punished and on the other hand, criminals are encouraged because law-enforcing agencies are seemingly helpless either to keep them behind the bar for any length of time or to get the trial completed within a reasonable time. This is, undoubtedly, the crux of the problem. The bill introduced by the government in the House addresses these problems.

I wish to invite your attention to some of the significant features of the bill. We can surely judge these points on the basis of the common yardstick of our understanding of public interest.

* First, the accused will have the right of appeal to the High Court. The right to appeal to the highest court of the country removes in one stroke whatever reservations one may have had about fundamental human rights.

* There is no death penalty in the present bill. The law passed by BNP had provisions from death penalty.

* Bail can be granted under the proposed law though it has been made more difficult.

* The enquiries must be completed within one month which can be extended by 15 days and by another 30 days under special circumstances. Once the trial begins, it will continue uninterrupted till the verdict is given.

* The trial must be completed with 90 days but under certain special circumstances, within 120 days.

* The punishment for false accusation will be 7 years of jail term.

You will see Mr. Editor, that the thrust of the bill is on speedy enquiry and trial. It addresses a precise weak point of the existing law which tends to prolong the proceedings and causes inordinate delay. Having considered these features of the bill one would inevitably come to the conclusion that the net result of the changes made in the new law will shorten the enquiry and trial period. You will no doubt agree with the adage that justice delayed is justice denied. The bill aims at ensuring justice within a reasonable period of time. Apart from shortening the enquiry and trial period, there are really no basic changes from the existing law.

The letter will become too long if I go into all the features of the proposed law. I am certainly not an expert on the subject but we all know that while crime remains embedded in human nature, the manner in which it is committed changes with the passage of time. Extortion by using terror tactics is a somewhat recent phenomenon in our society. Destroying cars and other vehicles by setting them on fire is also a recent phenomenon. Throwing acid on women by men was unheard of when we were young. The new bill proposes to deal with all these rather recently devised forms of crime usually found in urban centres in Bangladesh. It is also an attempt to ensure justice to those who are victims of terrorism, extortion and wanton violence. I hope your readers will not form a hasty opinion on a bill which has been drafted with utmost care in order to deal with the urban crime which seems to have become a major constraint in our economic and social development effort. Why should it be seen as an attempt to muzzle the Opposition? Surely you are not suggesting that we should permit opposition activists to commit terrorism in the name of democracy? Should the present ruling party go into opposition, they should not fear this law because this law is aimed at terrorists and not on lawful activities of a political party. I shall be grateful if you will be kind enough to publish this letter in your esteemed paper. This will, I hope, give your readers an opportunity to see the other side of the coin which your editorial seems to have neglected. Why should you not believe that the government is making a sincere and genuine effort to give the people respite from the terrorists?

The author is the Finance Minister of Bangladesh.