Army willing to prepare voter roll, ID cards

[Miraz]

From BDNews

The Bangladesh Army can prepare voter identity cards, electoral roll or national identity cards within a few months, the army told the cabinet Saturday.

The army placed a multimedia presentation on the issue at a cabinet meeting at the Chief Adviser's office Saturday.

In the presentation, the army said it was capable of preparing voter or national identity cards, and electoral roll or whatever the government wanted. The army, however, did not give any budget for the purpose but said the expenditure would be reasonable.

Sources close to the cabinet said the government would examine reports from others too before coming to a decision.

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, 10 advisers and election commissioners were present at the meeting.

I think this is a very good move by the army. The list prepared by them will be certainly more accurate and reliable than list made by EC. IMO, free from political manipulation will be the most important aspect of the voter list or ID cards.

[zakirc]

Very good idea, it will also be easier to integrate biometric data in voter / national ID card if the army is involved.

[Kabir]

Before following the western platform, I want the govt to take strict steps in reducing use of any form of biometric in our country. It's just not the right technology for the most part, and I'm completely against it.

Having the army make the voters list may give the country an added platform to function in the near future. I would also like to see a national security system which keeps all these data.

[Hatebreed]

Good initiative. Let's hope they go through it all the way and do a good job.

[ialbd]

good initiative indeed. Can expect a fast, fair & accurate voter enrollment process now.

[zakirc]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Before following the western platform, I want the govt to take strict steps in reducing use of any form of biometric in our country. It's just not the right technology for the most part, and I'm completely against it.

Living in Bangladesh, I experience in every day life the proper identity problem affecting our daily life. Most of the frauds, a lot of crime is done utilizing false identity. Taking this one step would make daily life in Bangladesh very significantly easy for general people, the government, banks, businessman, police ... basically everybody.

I have opened a separate thread on this topic, and I would really appreciate if you could spell out your concerns. One of the objectives of my posting that thread was to find out weaknesses of my proposal.

[Kabir]

The army's offer is Tk. 300 crore. Interesting!
It is interesting to see the way they're planning to make everything linkable. This is probably the best thing that can be done to create a platform for improvements in every sector in Bangladesh.

I just don't like the idea of biometric data yet. Our people are not honest enough to keep biometric info of others.

Tk 300 crore army offer to produce national ID cards

Dhaka, Feb 17 (bdnews24.com) – In an ambitious plan that could change the way electoral battles are fought and criminals are chased in Bangladesh, the Army says it can produce a national identity card for all voters for as low as Tk 300 crore.

Senior officers, in a presentation Saturday, have told members of the Cabinet and the Election Commission the job can be done in about 12 months.

bdnews24.com has learnt that the proposed identity card will contain such information as name, father's name, sex, permanent address, personal identification number (PIN), date of birth, photograph, barcode of thumb impression, thumb impression/signature of individual, profession, signature of election officer and signature of local elected representative.

"It was well thought-out, all-encompassing and, above all, pragmatic," one of those who attended the briefing told bdnews24.com.

"It takes into account Bangladesh's very own conditions, relies heavily on support from armed forces, police, BDR, local teachers, and gives details of hardware and manpower requirement."

Among the audience was the army chief, Lieutenant General Moin U Ahmed.

The "immediate objective" will be to produce a database of roughly 100 million voting eligible citizens for national elections, but the plan, if implemented, will eventually create a national human resource database of all citizens.

The Bureau of Statistics has been proposed to be custodian of the database and will host the central data repository.

The army in its proposal says laminated paper card (laser printed) should be given to all users free of cost.

If anyone wants to have better versions of cards like plastic card or smart card with chips, they will get it if they are ready to pay the cost.

"The proposed national citizen identification database will contain PIN, bio-metric data for multi-purpose national use like national ID, voters' list, tax payment, different licensing, land registration, crime investigation, police verification etc," one adviser, speaking to bdnews24.com, said of the army offer.

The army says the task will require a combined effort of the Election Commission, ministries of home and local government, the Bureau of Statistics and the defence forces.

Various committees – from national to upazila -- have been suggested to oversee implementation.

Civil servants will sit on the executive committees, but technical experts, politicians, civil society leaders and NGO officials will be part of the advisory bodies.

bdnews24.com/tik/0421hrs

[zakirc]

Originally Posted by Kabir
I just don't like the idea of biometric data yet. Our people are not honest enough to keep biometric info of others.

Lolz Kabir .... I could not entirely disagree.

Good to see the army is planning on biometric data enabled ID card. As long as the info is stored in redundant servers controlled by separate authorities (Maybe one can be stored with the army for safekeeping only), it will be very difficult for one person / group to make modifications to the records.

[gatekeeper]

Actually, having the Army do it may be the only solution. Very few institutions work as efficiently as the Army does in Bangladesh. This particular lot is very professional. I say give then 300 cr and get it done. At this point it is difficult to trust anyone else with this.

[gatekeeper]

[QUOTE=Kabir;373962]Before following the western platform, I want the govt to take strict steps in reducing use of any form of biometric in our country. It's just not the right technology for the most part, and I'm completely against it.

QUOTE]

Can you explain your position on this?

[Hatebreed]

I like the specifications, it seems adaquate, although security of the data concerns me. If they can implement centralised system connecting the different sectors throughout the whole country, an independent anti-corruption dep't should be setup to monitor the system. They should make sure stored data can't be altered without going through strict procedures like the registration itself, and it should keep a parmanent and detailed log of all modifications made to the data.

[Kabir]

Originally Posted by gatekeeper
Can you explain your position on this?

Sure.

I attended several conferences on biometrics ID, and the latest one was last summer for the Biometrics ID forum at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information Studies. There were several important people who joined us, but one of the persons that I really enjoyed listening to was the guy who owns the company that has designed the new US e-passport (it's not out yet, but they gave us a quick peek).

Among several things that this passport can do (which they're also debating about) is that, you don't necessarily need to swipe the e-passport, as it can be detected by remote machines and your identity can be detected in seconds. What's more interesting was, the US authorities have also placed (for testing purposes only) retina scanners in a couple of airports. These scanners are so powerful that if you look at them, they will get your retina's scan with a beam, and find out your details in less than a second. With e-passport, you're not only giving your passport details, you're also giving the association between yourself and your identity cards...which was thus far based on only your face.

So to cut the long story short, this brings up issues about your privacy (same old same old), security, anynomity, freedom, and whatever every citizen would want.

To get to this level, our country has another 20 years of work left (given that they have this plan) when they will integrate all the necessary technologies to bring the country's population's identity down to one single database, which is handled by some authorities, and used (or misused) by the authorities, lawmakers, and whoever has a hand on it.

This brings us to the second question raised by zakirc.

Originally Posted by zakirc
Lolz Kabir .... I could not entirely disagree.

Good to see the army is planning on biometric data enabled ID card. As long as the info is stored in redundant servers controlled by separate authorities (Maybe one can be stored with the army for safekeeping only), it will be very difficult for one person / group to make modifications to the records.

Even though I have mixed feelings about our army, they are by far the MOST reliable authorities in Bangladesh. But lets put it on paper. Who are the other authorities? Police? BDR? Government (with honorable ministers)? Who else? May be you can add to this list yourself.

My question is, have we got enough proof to believe that they're honest, and will keep your records with pure honesty? Have they gained so much trust from us that we will give them our biometric data, and they will make sure that they won't sell it to the people in our country? Or to foreign countries? If not anyone else, I'm not convinced about it yet. Yea it could be that things will change drastically when these things come into use...but I would rather wait for the things to change by itself, and then have such things installed. Even then, it breaches privacy rights of every citizen.

I hope I don't have to tell you how it breach privacy rights of the citizen? At least, we're all adults here, and have a university degre?

[zakirc]

Its good to see an expert in the field amongst us.

Originally Posted by Kabir
Sure.

Among several things that this passport can do (which they're also debating about) is that, you don't necessarily need to swipe the e-passport, as it can be detected by remote machines and your identity can be detected in seconds. What's more interesting was, the US authorities have also placed (for testing purposes only) retina scanners in a couple of airports. These scanners are so powerful that if you look at them, they will get your retina's scan with a beam, and find out your details in less than a second. With e-passport, you're not only giving your passport details, you're also giving the association between yourself and your identity cards...which was thus far based on only your face.

But isn't this overcooking the issue? Having some form of dependable identification feature integrated into an ID card is definitely much different than retina scan or proximity reading. Lets not forget we already have a very vague field in our ID / Passports, i.e., Identification mark. This is definitely very insufficient as the description goes like "Cut mark on right hand" ... or something like that.

So to cut the long story short, this brings up issues about your privacy (same old same old), security, anynomity, freedom, and whatever every citizen would want.

Anonymity, is our worst enemy at this moment because that is what leads to most of the crimes done in Bangladesh. All the frauds, wrong people being arrested (I am not referring to only the recent "Sundor Babu" incident), holding multiple passports, driving licenses, tax evasion and this list can actually go on forever. While there is requirement of anonymity in cases like your shopping habit, personal taste of movies, sporting teams etc. those can be taken care of by simply not making your ID a requirement fro those actions. However, this ID will be come very useful for Bank Account opening, Tax Purpose, Trade License, Land Registration etc. areas where there is potential of fraud, harm to the society or other citizen. We should not forget that the government's job is to protect every citizen's right. I am not sure how the Biometric ID will violate security and freedom unless u meant security of law-breachers and freedom of criminals.

I hope I don't have to tell you how it breach privacy rights of the citizen? At least, we're all adults here, and have a university degre?

I still feel that some more light needs to be shed on this issue. Please don't get me wrong Mr. Kabir, I am trying to understand this issue and learn something in the process.

[Mav]

What are they waiting for?
Just start doing it. They should also announced that everyone above age 13-14 should have a ID by 2008, otherwise fined....

Make some new rules where citizens have to show ID to get daily needs. Then many will do it.

[sunny747]

THe most important thing is 300crore taka will be in our country only. It will not be spent on any foreign company. And it would be a good source of income for the army.
I'm soooo proud of our defence...

[PoorFan]

Originally Posted by sunny747
THe most important thing is 300crore taka will be in our country only. It will not be spent on any foreign company. And it would be a good source of income for the army.
I'm soooo proud of our defence...

Exactly my feelings. No need to give the job to foreign development partners, which will cost 3 to 4 times more than our army proposal, even if they insist loan or donation on this regard, we should do it on our own.

Free of cost is most expensive thing in real world.