Reform admin, police, judiciary

The University Teachers Network, a platform of teachers who had actively participated in the recent student-led mass uprising, has called for immediate reformation of the civil administration and police, and forming a neutral judiciary to ensure safety and justice to people from all walks of life.
In a dialogue held at Dhaka University yesterday, they also demanded all types of syndicates in the market be abolished to reduce the prices of essentials.
Not only teachers, but also people from other professions, participated in the discussion titled “What We Want from The Interim Government”.
Presiding over the event, Prof Anu Muhammad, a former teacher at Jahangirnagar University, said it is the third time that a possibility to rebuild Bangladesh has emerged.
The scope to do so was missed once after the Liberation War in 1971 and again after the fall of HM Ershad in 1990, he said, adding, “During the caretaker government in 1990, Prof Rehman Sobhan proposed a reformation model, but none of the successive political governments followed it.”
Stressing that the situation is different this time, he said while the political parties were key players of all previous mass uprisings, this time the students are the main force.
“This generation once said they hate politics but they stood against the bullets fired by police. What could be more political than that?” he asked.
He said the spirit of Liberation War will remain the main priority in rebuilding the nation.
“It (the spirit of Liberation War) doesn’t belong solely to Awami League. During its tenure, the party used it to shield their oppression and plunder, all of which are activities contrary to the aspiration of our independence,” he added.
He blamed the system for making Hasina a dictator, and suggested revolutionary reformation to the state mechanism, which will require a change in people’s mindset.
“Our MPs, ministers and high-ups never bothered about the environment or air pollution while remaining in their air-conditioned cars, homes and offices. For a starter, the government officials may begin to open their car windows to inhale the air of Dhaka — the most polluted air across the globe — to get an idea of what common people have to suffer from,” he said.
He also said the interim government should focus on reforming the country’s constitution, adding that it may face obstacles from three forces — the civil and military bureaucracy, the businesses who got unprecedented privileges from the Hasina-led government, and the external powers who have interests in the country.
“The government took numerous illogical and costly projects, which only benefited the local and foreign businesses. Local businesses like Beximco, S Alam, Bashundhara, United, and Summit groups may create problems with their huge capital,” he added.
Kazi Maruful Islam, a professor at Development Studies department of Dhaka University, said, “We need to reform the state’s system keeping in mind the Liberation War, anti-discriminatory society, secular democracy, exploitation-free economy, participation of the citizens, the government’s responsibility to the citizens, and diversity of the state.”
The teachers’ network will act as an observer to the government, said Prof Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan of DU’s International Relations department.
“If they do wrong, we will act as we did earlier. Besides, a students’ network will be formed among the students of private universities, who were a vital force in the recent mass uprising,” he added.