Bangladesh, 2008

Let me begin by

congratulating Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann on his

well-deserved election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-third session. I would like to

thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his very

effective leadership in promoting global peace, security

and development.

I take this opportunity to deliver this statement

also on behalf of the least developed countries (LDCs).

This has been a difficult year for many LDCs, amid

rising food prices and a looming economic slowdown.

But we have remained resolute in confronting the crisis in

a spirit of mutual understanding, support and cooperation,

as enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

My statement today will address three

interrelated issues: food security, democracy and

development. These issues are inextricably linked to

one another and are of fundamental importance to the

welfare of the citizens of Bangladesh as well as other

LDCs.

We have witnessed during the course of this year

an extraordinary rise in food and energy prices, which

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has undermined the food security of many least

developed economies. This experience should

strengthen our resolve to look for long-term solutions

leading to a world free of hunger. In the twenty-first

century, food security for all citizens in the world must

be acknowledged not just as a development imperative,

but as a moral imperative. Each and every human life

is sacred, and it is our collective duty to provide

adequate food and nutrition to people throughout the

world.

The recent global rise in food prices has been

acutely felt in Bangladesh, even though imports

account for a very small percentage of our total cereal

consumption. Domestic rice prices spiked by nearly

60 per cent during the year through February 2008,

against the backdrop of two devastating floods and a

tropical cyclone that destroyed one of our key harvests.

For a country like Bangladesh, where roughly 40

per cent of the population lives below the poverty line

and where poor households spend as much as

70 per cent of their income on food items, such a steep

increase in food prices has had significant adverse

effects on food security, poverty alleviation and human

development.

Food insecurity can disrupt the core of a

democratic polity and derail its development priorities.

The cost of food insecurity is measured not only by

deprivation, but also by increased instability, which

can be very costly for a society. While the free market

remains an incomparably powerful tool for the efficient

allocation of resources, markets are often imperfect,

and no Government can stand idle and hope that the

private sector will resolve a food crisis. Making food

available to all, and at affordable prices, remains a

cardinal responsibility of all Governments. In

Bangladesh, we took this responsibility very seriously

and delivered rice to our citizens through a public

distribution system, in an effort to ensure that no one

went to bed hungry.

Soon after assuming office in January 2007, our

Government announced a road map for holding a truly

democratic and meaningful election. That was no easy

task, as decades of corruption had seriously

undermined both our democracy and our economy.

Corruption’s ill effects corroded our vital public

institutions, and the cost was ultimately borne by the

ordinary citizens of Bangladesh, who could ill afford it.

My Government is determined to ensure that

corruption does not imperil the rights of the

underprivileged and that, in future, our democracy

ensures the good of all Bangladeshis. Our fight against

corruption has been the first step in a long and difficult

process, and we believe that the work will continue

under the auspices of the Independent Anti-Corruption

Commission, which was created as an institutional

bulwark against corruption. Legal action was initiated

against corrupt individuals, but we never compromised

due process and judicial independence.

The foundation of a democracy rests on a

compact between the State and its citizens. That begins

by ensuring that each and every eligible citizen can

vote, freely and without fear, and that each and every

vote is counted. To that end, my Government has

completed the monumental task of electronically

registering over 80 million voters with photographs

and fingerprints. That was achieved in just 11 months

and is a feat that I believe is without precedent

anywhere in the world. Our Election Commission

trained over 500,000 election workers, deployed over

10,000 laptop computers, webcams and fingerprint

scanners and set up over 90,000 registration centres to

ensure that every eligible voter could have his or her

photograph and fingerprints digitally captured.

Multiple layers of safeguards were put in place to

ensure that the new voters list was flawless.

In addition to creating a world-class photo voters

list, we issued national identity cards to all those who

registered. The Election Commission, with the

newfound independent authority granted to it by our

Government, completed that task in record speed with

the support of the Bangladesh army. Our armed

services personnel — many of whom have shown their

deep and abiding commitment to the ideals of the

United Nations through their service in United Nations

peacekeeping operations — provided critical logistical

support. Their experience, we believe, could be

invaluable to supporting and strengthening democracy

in post-conflict environments. Our success with the

voters list was the result not just of civil-military

cooperation, but also international cooperation. We are

deeply appreciative of the technical assistance of the

United Nations Development Programme for that

project and the financial support of our development

partners.

An election is only the first pillar of democratic

governance. During the past 20 months, my

Government has relentlessly worked to shore up

democracy’s other pillars. We have made the judiciary

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fully independent. My Government has established the

National Human Rights Commission to protect and

promote the fundamental rights of all our citizens. We

have enacted a right to information law, which will

help provide the transparency that is necessary to a

well-functioning democracy. We have, in consultation

with the political parties, amended and strengthened

the Representation of People’s Order, under which

forthcoming elections will be held. That law and

regulations under it will require the registration of

political parties for elections, ensure intra-party

democracy and implement campaign finance reforms

that will limit the influence of corrupt money in our

political system.

Just last month, the Bangladesh Election

Commission organized the successful holding of some

local and mayoral elections. That marked a new

beginning in our electoral process, and our citizens

were able to exercise their franchise without undue

influence of money or muscle power. The elections

were held without disruption and drew an

unprecedented number of voters. Let me reiterate here

that my Government is fully committed to holding free

and fair parliamentary elections on 18 December 2008,

as announced last week. We are confident that all

political parties will participate in the elections.

Few nations face the challenges that we face in

Bangladesh for mere survival. Our development gains,

achieved through the work of years and decades, can

be wiped out in a matter of hours. One cyclone can

push hundreds of thousands of people back below the

poverty line. Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to

climate change, given that we are a low-lying delta in

one of the highest rainfall regions of the world. There

is growing concern that an irreversible climatic shift

will displace tens of millions of our people. By some

estimates, a one-metre sea-level rise would submerge

about one third of the total area of Bangladesh. Given

our population and its vulnerabilities, that would result

in the greatest humanitarian crisis in history. Inaction is

simply no longer an option. It is nothing less than a

basic moral imperative that countries that have

contributed little to this crisis, such as Bangladesh, not

be left alone and unsupported to suffer the most from

its consequences.

Adaptation is necessary, but it may not be

sufficient to cope with the unavoidable impacts of

climate change. Countries like Bangladesh will face

the worst consequences in the absence of a legally

binding commitment on mitigation. International

efforts to minimize emission levels should not,

however, disproportionately tax poorer nations. We

must have guaranteed access to appropriate mitigation

technologies and know-how on affordable terms. We

strongly feel that the post-Kyoto agreement should set

up a technology transfer board, in order to ensure that

the least developed nations have access to affordable,

eco-friendly technologies. Bangladesh will not be able

to attain sustainable development without appropriate

technological support in that regard.

We would not have discussed the food crisis issue

here in the Assembly, if we had believed that it was a

one-off event. The crisis will revisit us, perhaps with

greater intensity and frequency, unless we put in place

both short- and long-term measures to prevent its

recurrence. Many of us in the developing world were

deeply encouraged when the Secretary-General

responded to our urgent request for a high-level task

force to address the current food crisis. It was also

timely and appropriate that the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations convened the High-

Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome in

June 2008. The Conference afforded us the opportunity

to deliberate on systemic and non-systemic issues that

exacerbated the current food crisis.

Bangladesh, as representative of the least

developed countries, also urged the Secretary-General

to look into the possibility of creating a global food

bank. We suggested that the food bank could allow

countries facing a short-term shortfall in production to

borrow food grains on preferential terms. Once they

overcame the shortfall, those countries could return the

quantum to the food bank. We could also explore the

possibility of determining special drawing rights for

each country, using criteria such as population, level of

poverty and annual variation in their level of food

production. Such an arrangement would allow us to

prevent hoarding and price gouging by speculators in

anticipation of, and during, a food crisis, and we

believe that a mechanism can be put in place to guard

against any moral hazard issues that might arise.

Since the adoption of the Brussels Programme of

Action in 2001, LDCs as a group, have made some

progress in their macroeconomic performance and on a

few social indicators. The progress is, however,

insufficient and uneven. More important, their

economic growth has made only a little dent in poverty.

LDCs continue to face serious structural hurdles in

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their development efforts. They remain acutely

susceptible to external economic shocks and natural

and man-made disasters.

The full and effective implementation of the

Brussels Programme of Action has now become an

even greater necessity. However, it is unlikely that we

will achieve the overarching goals of the Programme of

Action and the MDGs, unless international

commitment to the LDCs in the areas of aid and trade

is fully delivered.

The Brussels Programme of Action will conclude

in 2010. The General Assembly is in the process of

preparing for the fourth United Nations Conference on

the Least Developed Countries, to be held towards the

end of the current decade. The upcoming conference

will provide an important opportunity for LDCs and

their partners to review critically past performance,

especially in the areas of failures and weak

implementation. That will help us develop a new,

action-oriented strategic framework for the next decade

to assist the LDCs in their development efforts. I call

upon Member States to extend full and effective

support for the successful holding of the next United

Nations conference on the LDCs.

Bangladesh is in the midst of a profound change

that we believe is also relevant to people all around the

world, especially to those fighting poverty, corruption

and underdevelopment. As with any process of change,

it is not without setbacks and will take time to

complete, but in the end we remain confident of our

success. Our goal is to strengthen democracy in

Bangladesh, and my Government has done everything

in its power over the course of the past 20 months to

work towards that end.

I have spoken about the remarkable achievement

with our voters list, which will ensure that the elections

this December and every election thereafter can be free

and fair; and I have also discussed some of the

fundamental institutional reforms that we have

undertaken to bolster the foundations of democracy.

Many countries around the world are in their own ways

going through similar processes, and we hope to share

our experiences in order to help them, as we ourselves

have benefited from the support of the international

community and organizations like the United Nations

Development Programme.