Tofail’s Reaction

People of Bangladesh are not at all surprised to see Mr. Tofail Ahmed’s reaction, as expressed in the print and electronic media, to the recent filing of a corruption case by ACC against him. The typical way he has reacted is well known to our people. All charges of corruption against our politicians are always ‘false and fabricated’. He also hinted that it was a politically motivated case. His political colleagues spared no time to give him a clean chit and urged upon the government to withdraw the case unconditionally. That’s what they all had been doing for the last sixteen years. Politicians in our country fail to arrive at agreements on issues related to the welfare of the people. But they take no time to come out in a body, like the members of a trade union, with full force to save their colleagues whenever anyone of them is charged with a corruption case. Can we ask them a simple question: If all of them are innocent as flowers, as it is commonly uttered in political slogans, then who all did the corruption in the last sixteen years ? Who were responsible to place Bangladesh on the top of the TI’s list of corrupt states for years together ? And, finally, why should ACC, a nonpolitical independent organization, file ‘false and fabricated’ corruption cases against Mr. Tofail and other politicians ? Will any politician be kind enough to answer these questions ?

If we look at our present lot of ministers, MPs, mayors, ward commissioners etc we find that in the last sixteen years the flowers that blossomed in the political garden of Bangladesh were not innocent and attractive like roses. They were all either useless like water hyacinth (kachuripana) flowers, or poisonous like thorn-apple (dhutura) flowers. Because they were cultivated, nourished and groomed by the most inefficient, if not corrupt, gardeners like Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. The way these political children of Khaleda and Hasina are now demanding unconditional release of their creators bear testimony to the fact that they were created, not as politicians to serve the country, but as a bunch of sycophants, having no democratic or other values of life, only to blindly and loyally serve their respective political mothers.

Politics has to be managed by politicians only. There should not be any doubt about that. But can we leave such a matter of vital national importance like politics to the political kachuripana and dhutura flowers cultivated at national, district and upazilla levels during the last sixteen years ? Certainly not.

Messsrs Tofail, Shahjahan Siraj, Mannan Bhuiyan, Saifur Rahman and other senior leaders alike joined politics long before Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina took over the political stage of Bangladesh. It is most unfortunate that these senior political leaders failed to rise above allegations of corruption.

The million dollar question, now, is: Shall we ever get rose-like politicians who will steer our country through the present political mess and create a political environment where democracy and values of life shall prevail ? If the answer is yes, then the next question is: When and how ? May we ask our political pundits to throw some light on the subject ?

Duties and responsibilities of the members of the purchase committee

Some former members of the Khaleda-Nizami cabinet who, being members of the then Cabinet Purchase Committee, have recently been arrested for their alleged involvement in the infamous ‘Gatco Corruption Case’. Other members of the same committee are on the run to avoid arrest. Some such arrested former ministers, some ‘Talkers’ in the local TV channels and some journalists, through their writings and speeches, are trying to give an impression to the nation that the said Cabinet Purchase Committee was nothing but a mere rubber stamp without any significance. As an ordinary citizen I do not know what is written in the ‘Rules of Business’ on the duties and responsibilities of the members of the purchase committee. But I can assume that a committee on which sits a number of senior cabinet ministers, and on whose recommendation the prime minister gives his/her decision cannot be a committee on paper only. If the members of the committee conducted themselves as the domestic servants of the prime minister and, knowing the prime minister’s mind recommended something which the prime minister wanted to do with some ulterior motive, the concerned committee members cannot escape the responsibility for the wrong doing by the prime minister. If found guilty, they must be punished to put such ministers on guard in future.

A dubious practice

Some men and women earn greatness during their lifetime by making outstanding contribution to their own nation, or to the world civilization. As a mark of respect and gratitude to these great persons and to glorify their contribution, institutions and establishments are generally named after them after they die. This is also done to inspire the members of the younger generation to follow the footsteps of these great souls. But in Bangladesh we just see an opposite trend. Here some people in authority, especially the politicians, who are mostly corrupt, are in a great hurry to immortalize themselves while they are still alive! They don't want to wait till their death when people could evaluate their contribution and, if felt necessary, could decide to name some institution(s) after them. In the last three decades, we saw a mad rush by the corrupt political leaders of our country to name educational institutions, students' halls of residence, hospitals and other welfare institutions after their own names. In almost all such cases these persons did not spend money from their own pockets to establish these institutions. They all did it either by managing the required money out of the public exchequer, or by indulging in extortion from the general public, by exercising their political power. All this is being done in very bad taste, to say the least.