Quota for war heroes’ children

It is reported (DS October 18) that the government is taking an initiative to grant 30 per cent quota to the children of our war heroes in the ensuing selection of assistant judges. I would request the government to give a second thought to the idea. A judge must possess a very high level of IQ, profound knowledge and integrity. A war hero’s son or daughter may not necessarily have those qualities of head and heart and may not qualify in the selection tests. There is nothing wrong in that. Everybody is not cut for everything. If one does not qualify in the tests for the selection of judges one may try to do something elsewhere where s/he might excel. If a wrong candidate who does not have the required intellectual ability, knowledge and integrity is appointed as a judge s/he will be failing to apply her/his judicial mind correctly. People who will be going to such a judge for justice will be deprived of justice. People will suffer in the hands of such an incompetent judge for about 30 years or so till s/he retires. Merit and competence should be the only criteria while selecting candidates for posts like those of judges, and nothing else. It is said that as shadows of God judges dispense justice on His behalf. People who will deliberately select wrong kind of people as judges will surely be held responsible by God on the Great Day of Judgment. That is what we all believers believe in.

Our war heroes are the greatest sons and daughters of our country. Their children deserve our highest consideration. They must be looked after by the state. Everything possible must be done to ameliorate their hardships. But nothing should be done, which ultimately goes against the interest of the people of the country. They may be given free education in educational institutions run by the government; they may be given free medical treatment in all government hospitals, the deserving ones may be given ration at subsidized rates, they may be given bank loans on very soft terms to do business; they may be given government khas land for farming; or they may be given priority in appointment in such jobs which are not as sensitive as that of a judge.

Our doctors need to be disciplined

Recently some surgeon(s) at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital stitched up a patient after surgery with a scalpel blade in the patient’s abdomen (DS October 22). A small schoolgirl lost her life in the same hospital due the negligence of the doctor(s) on duty (TV news October 22). Almost everyday many such incidents of criminal negligence, indifference, malpractice and incompetence by the doctors in Bangladesh are taking place in government and non-government hospitals. For obvious reasons it is not possible for the media to report all these unfortunate incidents. Since the liberation of Bangladesh we have not heard of any single case wherein any recalcitrant medical practitioner has been taken to task either by the government (ministry of health) or by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC), the two guardians of our national healthcare system. In some cases, after the incidents were reported in the media, inquiry committees were constituted. Reports and recommendations submitted by these committees were never made public, nor did we ever hear that any actions were taken against any wrongdoing doctor. Some cases were taken to the court of law by those aggrieved parties who could afford such litigation, but with no result. Because the relevant laws in our country do not protect the rights of the patients. Whenever the health ministry or the BMDC is asked about such an incident the bosses who run these offices always come out with the pet reply that they have not received any such complaint in writing from the aggrieved patient or his/her next of kin. The other very common reply to such a query is that the existing laws in this regard are not adequate to take a recalcitrant doctor to task.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the people of our country, even after 38 years of our independence, are still helpless hostages in the hands of our doctors. Our present health minister, the health advisor to the honorable prime minister and the state minister for health are all from the medical profession. (It is not understood why so many doctors are necessary to run one single ministry like the health ministry. The appointing authority might be reminded of the old proverb: Too many cooks spoil the broth.) The leading bureaucrats at the health ministry and the health directorate are all doctors. Being doctors themselves, all these (doctors turned) politicians and medical bureaucrats probably do not see anything wrong or unethical in the professional activities of their brothers and sisters in the medical profession. Their track record bears testimony to the fact that, for decades, they have so far been giving protection to the wrong doing doctors. Otherwise, the situation could not turn so bad, as it is today. The senior doctors who are running the affairs of the health ministry and BMDC as ministers, advisors or bureaucrats cannot escape the responsibility. Very often these leading doctors tell us in TV talk shows that they are handicapped by fund constraint to run the affairs of the health ministry effectively. It is only the half-truth, not the whole truth. What fund constraint stops a surgeon from taking the scalpel blade out of the abdomen before the patient is stitched up ? What fund constraint makes a government doctor leave his/her place of duty and indulge in private practice during the time when s/he is supposed to serve tax payers free of cost ? It is not always a question of availability of fund. In most cases our people are not getting proper attention of the doctors because of their greed for money. Most of our doctors conveniently forget that the medical colleges wherefrom they graduated were established and are run by the taxpayer’s money. The pay and allowances paid to the government doctors also come from the same source. Certainly they owe an obligation to our people. It is, therefore, primarily a question of attitude on the part of our doctors.

The present ministers and the advisor are very active leaders of the pro Awami League trade union of the doctors called Shwadhinota Chikitshok Parishod (SCP). Senior health officials, like DG health, are also leaders of SCP. Similarly, when BNP was in power the leaders of the Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh (DAB), the trade union of the pro BNP doctors ran the health care system of Bangladesh. It is these SCP and DAB leaders who for their personal aggrandizement are spoiling the health care system in our country. Otherwise, with all its shortcomings and fund constraints our government and non-government hospitals could offer much better service to our people.

Finally, I would like to draw the attention of the honorable prime minister and the members of our parliament to kindly look into the matter before one of their dear ones falls victim to the indifferent attitude of, or corrupt practice by, a doctor. It may so happen that one day, when they will no more be ministers or MPs, a dishonest doctor may victimize one of them. It is in their own interest, and the interest of the people whom they serve. We had enough of it. The nation can no more bear with the irresponsible and unethical activities of our doctors and their leaders. It is high time the government takes necessary actions to discipline the doctors before it is too late. The existing laws relating to medical profession are, no doubt, anti people. The present lawmakers may please make them pro people immediately. The parliament must make necessary laws to ban all trade unions like organizations like SCP and DAB. Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) is good enough to look after and promote the professional interest of our doctors.

Before I finish I must apologize to those of our doctors who have been rendering dedicated service to our people. This letter is not meant for them. Surely they are the honorable exceptions. But the fact remains that however bright some white spots may appear on a blackboard, those cannot make the board look white.

ACC: The toothless tiger

The respectable Chairman of the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), after having worked in the organization for about three months, has expressed his helplessness in dealing with the corrupt people. He called the ACC a “toothless tiger”. He did so not quietly, but loudly in a press conference. Our media people took it as a bombshell and treated it as such in their respective newspapers and TV channels. The present Chairman of ACC, Mr. Ghulam Rahman, is known for his personal honesty and efficiency, which is a rare quality among our present day bureaucrats. I do not believe a responsible officer like him has not called his own organization ACC for a gimmick. He must have done it, I believe, to let the countrymen know why he cannot do his job. It’s a wakeup call to the present government of Sheikh Hasina.

If we take a close look at the history of the ACC we find that since its inception it has been getting a very shabby deal from the people who ruled us from time to time. It has always been a paper tiger. Many of our political leaders, senior bureaucrats, and leading businessmen who in connivance with one another have been sucking the blood of our people for decades never allowed ACC to have its biting teeth and claws. These people and their representatives who sit in the parliament would never, as it appears, pass laws necessary to make ACC an effective organ of the state. The reason is not far to fetch. An effective ACC would verily stand on the way of these people to indulge in rampant corruption.

During the last two years rule of the caretaker government (CT) the people of Bangladesh witnessed with awe and horror how deep rooted and wide spread corruption was in our country. The ACC at that time unearthed many cases of corruption involving trillions of taka and took the corrupt ones to the court of law for trial under some ordinances passed by the CT. It is true that while doing so some ACC officials committed some avoidable excesses, and some innocent people were harassed. But the public perception at that time was, and still is, that most of those who were caught by the ACC were highly corrupt. People of Bangladesh are shocked and surprised to see that almost all the persons indicted by the ACC came out, and are still coming out, of the courts totally unscathed. Many such people are audaciously showing ‘V’ sign to their supporters while embarking on or disembarking from the prison van. Our media are also showing such pictures with a kind of fanfare to glorify these people. Still there are others who were accused of corruption are now trying to be heroes in TV talk shows and also in the parliament. It happened so, not for the fact that all these people were not corrupt, but because of the loopholes in the relevant laws, and shortage of efficient manpower in the ACC. If the laws were pro people, instead of being pro corrupt, and the ACC were equipped with competent officers, if not all, many of those who were caught by the ACC would have been punished by the court. It all happened so because the honourable members of the parliament who were elected in the general election held in December, 2008 were all united in not ratifying the anti corruption ordinances promulgated by the former CT. If the Establishment Division could be made to post suitable officers to the ACC things would have been different. But unfortunately the senior civil servants who head the Establishment Division, like their political counterparts, do not want to see an independent and strong ACC for reasons well known to us.

It now all depends on the honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who in her party’s pre election manifestoes promised to the nation that she and her party would fight tooth and nail against corruption. No less a person than the Chairman of the ACC has now publicly expressed his helplessness by calling the ACC as a “toothless tiger”. Notwithstanding what her political and bureaucratic advisors tell her on the subject, history will hold Sheikh Hasina personally and solely responsible for not doing enough to make the ACC a tiger with teeth. Her party will also have to pay a heavy price in future elections. There is no good reason to think why should Sheikh Hasina take the responsibility for such a bad consequence. Let’s have no more of rhetoric from our leaders.