Assets amass with power

It is mandatory to disclose eight factors, including details of assets possessed by the candidates, in their declarations affidavit for candidature in parliamentary election, according to the High Court order. 

Among the other information, the declaration must include the educational qualification of the candidate, whether he or she faces any criminal charges, if there was criminal case in the past, sources of income, if there are any outstanding bank loans, and so on.
The declaration to be submitted by the candidates for the 11th parliamentary election is nothing new.
The candidate has to declare that the information provided in all the documents are made consciously and are believed to be true and accurate.
However, it is not clear how accurate the declaration is actually. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has warned of stern action against those who provide false information, but there is a doubt whether it will be able to examine these disclosures before the December election.

The value of disclosed assets is unconvincingly low. However, it is not normal if the amount of wealth and income increases five to ten fold.

The assets of ruling party candidates in general multiply while the opposition party candidates face mounting lawsuits.
It is not normal at all that the assets of some candidates of the ruling party increase five to ten times in five years. This not only happens during the tenure of the present government, but also has precedence in the term of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Again, the opposition party who accuses the ruling party of lodging ‘fictitious’ cases against the political opponents, do the same while in power.
Then again, when the opposition comes to power they create a committee to review those political cases.
It seems their first duty after taking over power is to withdraw the cases against their party leaders and activists.
Ruling Awami League government has been in power for the past 10 years. As a result, the number of cases against opponent party workers has also increased manifold. For instance, there are 30 cases filed against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and 46 cases against the party's secretary general so far.
It is necessary to look at whether the average income of common people is increasing when the wealth of our representatives is increasing exponentially.
The new wage scale announced for garment workers has shown that there is only 43 per cent hike in their wages in the past five years which is less than 9 per cent in a year. Considering the rate of inflation, the actual wage of the workers did not increase at all. However, the income of their representatives multiplied many times over in that time period.

There are several candidates who have assets worth a billion even being in opposition, according to the declarations submitted. Rowshan Ershad and HM Ershad of Jatiya Party are such examples. Rowshan Ershad possesses more wealth than HM Ershad, according to their statements.
The picture is similar for many VVIP candidates.

Someone in a recent speech referred to politics as one of the most profitable business and he certainly seems quite correct. Nobody expects public representatives to give up everything to serve the people, but their income should be consistent with the income of people in general.