Dear Musharraf Bhai,
I believe, Dr. La Porte made a very important and timely observation re the right of people to RTI being formulated in Bangladesh.
I urge and recommend that BAAI and other organizations representing people of Bangladeshi origin write to the Bangladesh CTG/CA to incorporate and preserve the RTI of all people, cause free access to information and transparency is the single most factor in ensuring accountability of officials in power at any time. It is much better to follow the time- tested US model of RTI that has proven very successful in uncovering the excesses of government and preserving/re-establishing citizens' rights, than the proposed Indian model. Notwithstanding, the reasoning that may be cited that given the LDC status of Bangladesh such restrictions are appropriate; history proves that an open/accountable government is a better and effective government for the people and the country.
Through a copy of this message, I request all organizations/email groups to press the government of BD to adopt the policy of RTI for all, not just Bangladeshi citizens, immediately so they are timely within the public comment time. Thank You, Dr. La Porte for bringing this to our attention.
Regards,
Sultan Chowdhury
Potomac, MD
mmhussain@aol.com wrote:
mmhussain@aol.com wrote:
To: baainews@yahoogroups.com
CC: laporte@uchicago.edu, Mahmud.Hussain@VDOT.Virginia.gov
From: mmhussain@aol.com
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:21:58 -0400
Subject: [baainews] Fwd: To Mr. Hussain - Re: BAAI & RTI (?)
Dear friends:
The attached is a request from Mr. Paul La Porte from the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago on Right to Information matters in India and Bangladesh which might interest you.
Please respond as you deem appropriate.
Thanks.
M. Musharraf Hussain
President, BAAI
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul La Porte <laporte@uchicago.edu>
To: mmhussain@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:26 pm
Subject: To Mr. Hussain - Re: BAAI & RTI (?)
Dear Mr. Hussain:I am MD-PhD student at the Univ. of Chicago and I have spent a fair amount of time in Bangladesh conducting medical research (see links below). I’ve also been working pro bono on Right to Information matters in India and Bangladesh in recent years.As you may be aware, the Ministry of Information released a Draft Right to Information Ordinance about 2 weeks ago, and they are seeking public commentary until next week.The Right to Information Draft restricts usages to citizens only. Thus, any Bangladeshis with foreign citizenship (US, UK, etc.) and any foreigners would not be able to use the Right to Information to access Gov’t records or files, even if it pertains to their own well-being. This is a consequence of the adaptation of the Indian Right to Info Act 2005, which contains this restriction. In contrast, the U.S. Freedom of Information Act of 1966 does not contain this restriction, and allows any “person†to apply for any information.So, I am writing to find out if you and your colleagues would be interested in writing to the Ministry of Information, the Chief Advisor, or the newspapers (DS, Prothom Alo, etc) to ask that the RTI be extended to all people, since clearly a good number of your organization’s members (and possibly even you) would not be eligible to use RTI if you are US or UK citizens! I have already written to the concerned people but I think that similar expressions from foreign-nationality Bangladeshis would also be very well merited and helpful for everyone’s sake.Kindly advise at earliest... I can be reached at the cell phone number below or by e-mail.PL_____________________ _________ Paul La Porte, MS-III
Pritzker School of Medicine
The University of Chicago
Mobile/SMS: +1.253.678.7655
Pager (UC Medical Center): 773-845-0431
FAX (Dhaka line): +880.2.9886537
SMS (Delhi): +91.98.48356765 ID: paul
E-mail: laporte@uchicago.edu
Yahoo Messaging: laportetacoma
Research: www.bangladesh-selenium. org
Photography: http://laporte.uchicago. edu
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