The third Awami League government: a gutsy start to din bodol and the political mathematics of zero
I have been living in the outskirts of Dhaka for the past week, hearing jackals every evening, and waking up every morning with the symphony of birds. While I can now claim to be inspired by Farhad Mazhar (or is it that line from Jibon Theke Neoa – Desh ke bhalobashle grame jete hoi?), this rural touch means poor internet and limited power. So I missed the liveblogging of the cabinet last night. Just as well, because this gave me some time to collect my thoughts on the beginning of the third Awami League government. I would very much like to have written an unambiguous endorsement. And there are lots of things to endorse. Sadly, I fear all the good may yet come to nothing unless strong steps are taken to contain the party’s local excesses.
I think the best word to describe the cabinet is ‘gutsy’. It took Hasina guts to junk the experienced, and yet recalcitrant, stalwarts. Khaleda had taken similar steps in the past — firing Obaidur Rahman or Mannan Bhuiyan — but pundits of all type believed that Hasina wouldn’t do something like that. Well, she did. And given that no pundit (or lowly bloggers like yours truly) got this election right, let’s be a bit more circumspect before pronouncing our verdict about how the AL old guard (RATS-Jalil/Selim) and former new guards (Saber-Noor) will react. There is definitely a risk that these factions will try to destabilize/sabotage the government. But that in and of itself shouldn’t stop us from noting the fact that Hasina took a bold step for change.
We all know the challenges, but there are also opportunities. Take the food-agriculture combination of Dr Razzaque-Matia. Immediately, food prices are on the mend given expected good crop and rupee-taka exchange rate. But beyond the next season, there need to be a lot of work on fertilizer/seed distribution and food procurement and storage. There is no reason to expect that these guys will do any worse than the last couple of governments, and with a bit of luck, they may actually do a lot better.
In finance, Muhit is an experienced bureaucrat who, one hopes, can get things done by the secretaries while standing up to the donors. In education, Nahid has a chance to implement his progressive ideas.
In foreign affairs, as Rumi bhai/Asif note below, Dipu Moni will project an image of Bangladesh that will be in sharp contrast to the ‘failed state / new front in the war of terror’ we have had to put up with in the past decade. Rumi bhai is skeptic about her ability to deal with India. But our India policy has always been determined by the head of the government. If the PM wants to take a particular stance, it will happen whether it is Dipu Moni or Morshed Khan or Abdus Samad Azad.
I worry a lot more about Dilip Barua — an unreconstructed Marxist — in the industry portfolio. Is this the most left wing pick ever? After two years of investment freeze, do we really need to unnerve the business community?
A number of newbies — Rezaul Karim Hira and Mustafizur Rahman Fizar — seem to have been picked for no reason other than they have been long serving MPs with good reputation. Insofaras we want honest (shot) people in the cabinet, this is fine, but are they ‘joggo’ (qualified)?
I am not sure what to make of this honesty/competence dichotomy. Obviously we want competent people who also have widely accepted reputation of honesty. But other than Matia Chowdhury, we don’t have that many people who meet both criteria. In the past, we saw a bunch of honest people with not much demonstrated competence in 1991, and a lot of experienced people in 2001. I would choose the BNP 1991 over BNP 2001 everytime.
If AL doesn’t try the war criminals, a lot of progressive folks like us will be upset, but I doubt it will be noticed in the mofussil or villages. If the price of rice isn’t down to 10 taka / kg, it will be noticed everywhere. But as long as the price is around 20 taka and not rising, AL will be able to claim a ’success’. And war crimes trial and rice price below 20 taka will make it more successful than the last two governments, provided one other thing.
That other thing is the notion, sometimes perceived, but mostly real, that Awami League has a semi-fascistic streak of intolerance. In the past week, I have heard about lists being drawn up in the PG Hospital and National University to ’settle accounts’ (hishab chukano). I have seen BNP men being beaten up in Savar. No one should have missed the news of a BNP man being shot dead in Bijoynagar a day before the new cabinet took oath. There are worrying stories coming out of all corners of the country about reprisals and dokhol.
In a Prothom Alo piece in late 2000 or early 2001, Zafar Iqbal (hardly an anti-AL voice) said the second AL government had achieved a lot of things: Ganges treaty, CHT peace, food price stability, tackling the 1998 flood. If all of its achievements could be given numerical values, however, Prof Iqbal would give it a score of zero. This is because in the crucial field of law and order, AL failed. And a big number (AL’s achievements) multiplied by zero (its one big failure) is still zero.
This is the political mathematics of zero. Of all the ministries, it is Home Ministry that is crucial to avoid a zero outcome for the third AL government. Winning from Uttara — where 2000-2001 era is still remembered with horror — the new home minister should understand this political mathematics very well. The task before her is enormous: our law enforcement system needs thorough reform, AL’s party hacks need be kept in check, and people have to feel safe.
I saw her deputy, Sohel Taj, on TV the other night where he said ‘let’s compare the first week of October 2001 with the first week of Jan 2009′. No, let’s not. We know the last BNP government was one of the worst in our history. And that government did not come to power on the back of overwhelming support of new voters. I saw a graffiti the other day: prothom vote prothom premer moto, er pobitrota rokkha korun.
In Dec 1970, another new generation offered their prothom prem to Awami League. Despite the greatest achievement in our recorded history — winning the Liberation War — AL couldn’t honour that prothom prem, and lost that generation in the process. Please do not dishonour the prothom prem of this generation. History won’t give any of us another chance if you do.
…the first cut is the deepest…
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The only worrying news so far is from Dipumoni, Why do we need a South Asian Task force? Porer judh dho nijer deshey eney ki labh.
“Terrorism has no boundary. Regional cooperation is required to curb terrorism,” she told reporters at her foreign ministry office.
Ofcourse it has boundary.
Why do you think Canada and Mexico doesn’t face the same threat of terrorism like the US ? Hopefully she has the foresight to understand this.
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Have you guys noticed all the distribution of minitry for a muslim country call Bangladesh
Prime Minister–Women
Foreign Minister–Women
Home Minister–Women
Agriculture Minister-Women
State Minister–Women
Where is the western world & it’s newspaper articles? How many women they have as secretary in their cabinet? Labeling us as Islamic fundamentalist country.
I am little worry about to know that an AL MP already started corruption to take TK65 Lacs from a Businessman for Upozilla Chairman nomination. THis MP is a distant relatives of mine unfortunately. I won’t name her. If this is what I see which already have started in Bangladesh, I will keep my judgement on AL until I see any progress. I also learned that most of the election cost was more than TK 1 Core for each MP and I am not sure where this spent money will come from since salary is not that high from MPs in Bangladesh and most of MPs we believe are not millionaries.
Time will tell where we go from here.
Regards,
M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu), Virginia, USA
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Great analysis Jyoti bhai. And yes, first cut is the deepest. If there is betrayal then it will take another thirty eight years to come back in this force. Well two observation: firstly the fear of subotage can be set aside as both the old and new groups of reformers know that they made mistakes, and adults should not whine over punishments for their own mistakes. They will take lesson from it rather. Second issue is on the home ministry; I totally agree. It was Jainal Hazarees, Hazi Selim, Mokbul bla bla who sunk the boat in 2001 despite AL’s success in price stability and so on. So for AL looks like mainting price stability will be necessary but not sufficient.
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Elections are only the First Step to ‘Good Governance’ -> achieved Brilliantly.
2nd Step: pick an exceptional Cabinet -> Congrats to AL for dropping the old CROOKS from cabinet. Good Luck to new Cabinet,
3rd Step: Law And Order -> enforce it, fix it, reform it, renew it.
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100th Step: add IMPEACHMENT and Term Limits to Constitution.
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After ALL those steps are completed successfully, then we can say we are ready to enter the door to ‘democracy’.
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Dr. Fakruddin is a good man but his followers were not:
I do appreciate his service but his lack of knowledge about politics and nature of Bangladeshi were the cause of his failure. I have advised him multiple times but he failed to understand my prediction.
1) I have asked him to “Initiate General Amnesty 2007″ during his 6 months tenure to use CTG popularity and power to make all corrupted people out of jail with bond to no future in the politics and giving back corrupt money, and he or she would live normal life in Bangladesh under this Amnesty.
AL and BNP played back door policies being in the jails to unseat him and created cause on the field and CTG started loosing popular supports. That’s why I have said many times that understanding nature of Bangladeshi is the biggest politics in all time to be successful. CTG had good intention but all failed for their lack of understanding about the future and prediction, and back door politics in Bangladesh.
I hope and pray for the best. Time will judge this new Govt success and failure. It’s important to learn to give credits where it belongs to even he or she is your enemy.
Regards,
M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu)
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MM – You got FFF election and the the road to democracy didnt you?
You also got a corruption shakeup, a new clean cabinet, and a reformed Hasina, as the biggest achievent since 1971.
What failure of Dr F?
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The most glorious silver lining, that the new cabinet shows, is the exclusion of the relatives of the PM, like Sheikh Selim, from the cabinet. As corruption and nepotism go hand in hand in countries like Bangladesh, this is a good portent for the country.
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Ahbab, I just noticed in Rumi’s other post:
Liveblog in USA, “6:55PM……Eng KH Musharaf Hossain ( Is he father in law of Sheikh Hasina’s daughter?)”
From what I hear, he is Khondokar Musharaf Hossain, father in law of Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Putul. Can anyone confirm?
But although thats not a good sign (if its true), I hope and expect he is genuine.
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K Gazi,
No, you can rest assured on that – Putul’s father-in-law is a different Mosharraf Hossain.
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Did food price come down because of AL?
If we have head on our shoulder, then we should think before saying anything. The bottom line international food and materials price has come down more than 80% and our thug syndicates controlled by AL and BNP kept the price of essential high to punish CTG and made CTG failed. This true back door politics from AL and BNP.
If you believe that price came down because AL came to power, then you live in Lala land. Now we don’t give credit to new Govt if price of interntional market comes down for food and materials, not because AL came to power. Try to distinguish their success based on market conditions.
This is called Huguga Bengali, no brain or thinking process and believe whatever was said, not looking around in the world.
–M M. Chowdhury (Mithu)
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MM Chowdhury
“The bottom line international food and materials price has come down more than 80% “…in your dreams…LOL ..o maybe you mean 0.8% and not 80%.
Retail Food Prices Drop Slightly in Last Quarter of 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 7, 2009 – Retail food prices at the supermarket decreased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the latest American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey. The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the fourth quarter of 2008 was $48.19, down about 1 percent or 49 cents from the third quarter of 2008.
http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=newsroom.newsfocus&year=2009&file=nr0107.html
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Just look at Cooking oil price in the international market and compare the price in Bangladesh. Then your eyes will open, just one example. Look at the fertilizer price in international market and price in Bangladesh, Look at the rice and wheat price in international market and price in Bangladesh market. I even not going to Oil price yet.
Then you should be convinvced what I have said.
–M. M. Chowdhury
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Actually, I can confirm that Eng. Khondokar Musharaf Hossain is Sheikh Hasina’s daughter’s father-in-law.
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And of course, Maj. Gen. (rt) Tareq Siddiqi, who was just appointed as an advisor with cabinet minister status, is her sister’s husband’s brother. He is the fifth such appointment of an advisor with cabinet status.
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MM- MM — I made exactly same arguments about food prices against Jyoti in different thread, against AL’s self-proclaimed food-price “magic”. So I am with you on this.
However, CTG’s part-time job was NOT to solve all the problems of Bdesh with a handful of advisers, (without 60 cabinet members). Bdesh desperately needed a *Shakeup* to cutback crime and corruption among politicians, and this election and the years to come will be the Success Story of that shakeup.
There’s some work needed in anti-mastani, anti-corruption and student anarchy, let’s see if AL can apply their “democratic magic” on those issues.
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Kgazi, I think that argument was about food prices in the nineties. Leave the economics to the economist, please.
Regarding the current food price slow down, this was already predicted because of the world inflation coming down. No credit to AL govt.
http://unheardvoice.net/blog/2008/11/28/1295/
But as politics goes, if the blame goes to the governing party, when the price goes up, it is natural that the reverse would happen as well. No point harping on that. Now this thread is not on inflation and who gets credit for it. Let’s get the focus back on the bigger picture.
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I can’t agree more with Siraj Bhai.
–M M Chowdhury
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Siraj – very good, you just repeated what I said to MM.
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the food magic logic is an interesting one. apparently automatically as the AL gets into power they drop before they even lift a finger.
now call me a jealous bengali, but isnt that a little odd?
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So, people were saying AL gone wild!… check out this…
Pabna, Jan 9 (bdnews24.com) – A 12-year-old girl, daughter of a local Awami League leader, was raped and killed allegedly by BNP activists on Thursday night at Gabgachhi in Sujanagar Upazila, police said.
Rubayet Bunte Rakib Hridi, the victim, was daughter of local Krishak League general secretary Rakib Al Kuddus.
“A group of terrorists kidnapped Hridi from her home, took her to a nearby place on Thursday night and raped her to death there,” Sujanagar Police officer in charge Azizul Islam told bdnews24.com.
Police recovered the body and sent it to Pabna General Hospital for autopsy on Friday morning.
Islam also said they had already arrested local BNP activist Younus Ali, 22, and Rawshan Ara of the same village in this regard.
“Some BNP terrorists killed my daughter in an act of reprisal after their defeat in the election last month,” said Rakib AL Kuddus.
Police said they were investigating the incident.
“I campaigned for (Awami League candidate retired air vice marshal) AK Khandaker despite pressure from rivals not to do so.” Kuddus said.
Local BNP unit denied any involvement.
“It had nothing to do with election defeat,” said Upazila BNP general secretary Selim Reza Habib, a former MP who lost to Khandaker.
“Only terrorists are to blame.”
Rape and murder charges were filed with police, the officer said.
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You wanted democracy . unabated rape murder and killing u got it. welcome to Bangladesh.
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Arif, the point is not that AL is ‘going wild’. The point is that in the past week, the law and order situation has taken a sharp dive. Whether it is BNP internal feud, AL reprisal, or BNP going on rampage, the fact is that things have gotten worse. If this is not tackled now, expect another army coup in not too distant future.
Why is there a problem if Hasina appoints a relative to the cabinet? If there is a problem with Engr Mosharraf Hossain or Maj Gen Siddiq, then please let’s here it. Just because these people are related to Hasina in and of itself shouldn’t be a disqualification.
Btw, today’s Daily Star has a front page commentary from its editor on the new cabinet. Most of the points, including a key adjective from the title seem to echo this post.
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For the sake of record, I am fully supportive of the refreshingly bold spirit in which PM Sheikh Hasina has acted in forming her Cabinet and hence the question of me attempting to “destabilize or sabotage” the newly formed Cabinet simply does not arise. I wonder why this doubt should have arisen in the first instance. I have always been supportive of change and as the overwhelming mandate is for change, this can only be delivered by bringing about changes within ourselves first. The PM has done just that and she deserves and needs the unwavering support of all in this regard. The people have performed their responsibility and now it is the turn of the new Government to deliver and perform as change agents. Allah speed to the new Cabinet.
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Wonderful to know that Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP is not going “destabilize or sabotage” the newly formed cabinet and wishes it “allah speed.”
But the Honorable MP would be well advised to be reflecting on not just good wishes for colleagues or the faults and failures of the Official Enemy but also the faults and failures of own party men and party women and these are plenty.
As everyone knows as soon people come to power the members of new junta seek new opportunities faster than the speed of light with the help of the Devil to accumulate wealth through means that are not honorable.
Will the Honorable MP and his colleagues help prevent this by acting forcefully and monitoring the behavior of the executives of the state?
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Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP: “I wonder why this doubt should have arisen in the first instance. ”
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Not pointing personally, this is why people *doubt* MP’s of Bdesh:
Previous MP’s both AL and BNP, rarely demonstrated any sign of honesty, sincerity, integrity or moral value. They worked only for themselves, their families or their home villages. They rampaged the property and assets of a poor nation in the disguise of party politics or ‘democracy’, while people starved in the streets.
They abused their power, misguided and boycotted parliament, staged sabotaging hartals, delayed anti-corruption and law&order processes, and turned Bdesh into ‘the most corrupt nation’. During that time PEOPLE starved and students practised mastani INSIDE colleges and universities, often supporterd by MP’s, while nation went in a backward spiral of NON-development.
Just being “supportive of change” is not enough for an MP, who has been given the people’s trust and Job Responsibility to reverse not only the damage done in past 15 years, but also tangible and substantial Improvement in the nation’s physical growth. As an MP, you have to demonstrate leadership in action. If MP’s fail to demonstrate true performance and their promise, then people will continue to doubt their commitment.
We would like to hear from you, what Change in ACTION are you proposing to do as an MP, to motivate a parliament-wide reversal of all MP’s performance, and nationwide improvement in lifestyle. This will help to reduce the doubt.
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Jyoti bhai,
I agree. I heard Nethree had a good talk with our home minister.
I am wondering that how there is no shuffle in the secretary level? What about army and intellegience? Did anyone get fired yet? INTERESTING… hmmm
Dear Chowdhury,
Sir Walter Raleigh, sir, Sir Walter Raleigh. You are the man!
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Jyoti – “Why is there a problem if Hasina appoints a relative to the cabinet? ….Just because these people are related to Hasina in and of itself shouldn’t be a disqualification”
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Thats a huge problem in Democracy and Governance.
Because Bdesh has just returned from a 2-year anti-corruption Clampdown, BD is a topmost corrupt nation, and where Nepotism (family favoritism) is a corruptuion practice – its totally against the NEW HASINA promise of anti-corruption.
Below are more reasons why it should be a disqualification, (from a random CITY website):
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“Selecting relatives for non-bid contracts with a city department violates
the fair and equal treatment policy.
….This law is intended to prevent favoritism by government personnel when they make decisions. Nepotism is a subset of favoritism; it is favoritism towards relatives.[5]
Nepotism erodes public trust in government institutions, their integrity and operations. It creates reasonable concerns that the decisions of government are not based on merit and objectivity, but on family relations. See, e.g., State Ethics Commission ……(administrator misused his office in violation of fair and equal treatment policy, **conflict of interest standards and anti-nepotism law** by hiring his wife and son as temporary employees in his agency) ……. (judge who appointed son as referee and appointed son’s law partner to lucrative receiverships violated judicial canon prohibiting nepotism). The adage “blood is thicker than water” applies in the government context. It expresses why a decision by a public officer is suspect when it affects the financial interests of the officer’s family member.
Furthermore, nepotism often creates management problems in job assignments and promotions, reduced work productivity and the administration of discipline.
….Anti-nepotism laws are aimed at avoiding preferential treatment and inefficiency in public office by preventing public officials from favoring their relatives. …..
http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us/ethics/opinions/advisoryopinion2005_2.htm
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just because hasina is in her strongest ever personal position (wrt party, country) and bangladesh is in some respects back to square one, it doesnt mean that rights to nepotism must be given extra value.
Even if the relative is the best candidate for the job(highly unlikely), giving them the position is wrong if you are interested in the ‘unretardation’ of bangladeshi society.
But then again it is true we haven’t grown out of the dynastical rule solution to political continuity. Many of us actually still prefer it if it suits us and strengthen it with our democratic options. This is a very messed up situation.
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Kgazi,
There is a major difference in ministerial level appointments and appointments of the government personnel.
K. Musharaf is an elected member of the Parliament, with higher degrees from abroad and has PM’s confidence. How his selection as cabinet minister is problematic? These are political appointments, sir. These are completely different from what you are referring. You have this bad habit of twisting references.
Fug,
you make no sense. Where did you find nepotism? Selecting an elected parliamentarian with a higher qualification is not nepotism.
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i dont think you can understand.
say my name is fazle abedin and there is a position for x in my organisation. lets call it the Crazy Rural Advancement Posse. i have plenty of talented people around me but i think that one talented person has an extra special talent, he is related to me.
I know that giving the job to my relative strengthens my blood position and i am indifferent to the meaning of a meritocratic and egalitarian society. I might appoint my relation as i know them better, we share earth bound kinship ties.
The situation is so desperate and undignified that even if my relative were the best for the job, The right thing to do is to get somebody else and send that dignifying social signal ringing through the society. Thats the greater interest but jonoshatro is just a slogan.
anti-nepotism makes sense even just for self preservation. What happened to Mujibs family is unjust, some blame the conspiritors, a few blame his relative who came in with gun blazing. But surely surely you can see some element of nepotism got him into such a fix.
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Fug,
Why dont you give me a political example? That imaginary analogy is more nonsensical than your previous comment.
We dont have to go to Sheikh Mujib’s rule to understand effect of nepotism. We can look at Khaleda Zia and that is enough.
But question is how single KM is an example of nepotism? He is a qualified elected parliamentarian, who did not went against sheikh hasina during CTG. He has every reason to get that appointment. Political appointments are not similar to talent hunt. No harm done.
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Arif,
Even if he was a Nobel Prize winner with Engineering degree from abroad, and the best MP that Bdesh ever had, and the most honest, the fact that he is RELATED to Sk Hasina makes him a case of Nepotism, because, she selected HIM to be her minister.
No matter how good the intentions of Hasina (and I wish AL the best), the govt dealings, parliament events, and perception of the public and governance, will ALWAYS see him as a conflict of interest. Thats like the case when Benazir Bhutto (gbhs) appointed her own husband to be Industry minister, because he was a billionaire. That was also classic nepotism.
It is obvious that many of us dont understand what is nepotism, and how does this KM case apply to nepotism examples. Bdesh is totally flooded with nepotism in EVERY single office, business, school, govt and industry – because “Nepotism” is so widely misunderstood as a problem, therefore widely ignored.
We probably need to introduce nationwide anti-nepotism laws in Bdesh, as our KEY move to anti-corruption.
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Kgazi,
You are right. You dont understand what nepotism is.
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well said, mm chy about the food prices, i may have missed your point altogether as i find that, you hv completely ignored the drastic fall of fuel price almost by 3oo% in the international market.
the other day our hon’ble commerce minister Mr. Faruk Khan categorically stated that, once fuel prices are reduced there will be drastic fall in prices of commodities and foodgrains. perhaps to sabotage this healthy prediction a couple of bureaucrats stammering like clowns were let loose on the tv screens last night declaring to reduce prices by Tk.2/- per Litre, Kerosene/Diesel, completely ignoring octane/petrol!!!
pray why these jokers with such funny attitudes are allowed to indulge in this callous game???
hv a nice day!
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That’s right – I dont understand Arif’s formula of nepotism:
Select family members as cabinet ministers, and then say “they are ‘foreign educated’ therefore its not nepotism” !!
We hope Hasina will reform herself on this issue also, and realize that it’s classic nepotism. She will be wise enough to remove family members from Cabinet, for the interest of the nation, and for her determination against anti-corruption.
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Boy I am glad that I am not related to Asif, Rumi bhai, Naeem or any other DP writers. Otherwise I too would be beneficiary of nepotism.
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arif, it wasnt really an imaginary example CRAP is BRAC, Fazle Abed is Fazle Abedin.
KZ’z nepotism was her downfall. SHW could do better, though to be fair i have no expectations or illusions. the bangladeshi people were sadly mistaken, they failed to vote ‘no’ in sufficient numbers.
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sal y jamal, my whole argument was aboout reduced international price for food and materials, not because AL came to power. AL trying to fool people using the slogan than price has reduced becase of them. I believe that AL is wrong and our uneducated general people signing the same song with AL. Just my 2 cents
–M M Chowdhury
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Kgazi,
No comments. It is pointless to argue with you.
Fug,
Fazle Abed appointed her own daughter in charge of his fashion houses. BIG DEAL.
But that is not the point. KM is no less than any of the new members of SH’s cabinet. Hence, his relation with SH is not an issue of nepotism. If Hasina had appointed someone random from her family in the cabinet then i would have understand your problem.
Fug, your frustration comes from your defeat. You will pick anything to fight against SH’s newly elected government. Let this woman run her cabinet in her own way. Give her some time and then criticise. I can see this is too much to ask from Kgazi, is it too much to ask from you as well?
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Arif: says “Let this woman [Hasina] run her cabinet in her own way. Give her some time and then criticise.”
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How much time should we give Hasina before she realizes her error? 5 years, 10 years? By that time all damage by nepotism will be done, and it will be too late for Bdesh to reverse the damage. Havent we given our politicians enough time to realize those mistakes?
We cannot afford to miss the point that even if he was a Noble Prize winner, he should be disqualified, because of one key problem – family relation. By definition, nepotism is “patronage bestowed, or favoritism shown on the basis of FAMILY relationship”, it has nothing to do with skillset.
Nepotism is the single biggest cause of corruption => poverty in Bangladesh.
Remaining silent on this issue does not really help Hasina to reform Bdesh, it actually steers her, and AL, closer to failure. Because, very likely she thinks the same way as Arif does, that because he is ‘foreign educated’, that there is no nepotism or conflict of interest. It is our duty to make sure that our leadership understands the major mistakes of governance, right now – just before the beginning of another 5-year term.
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Kgazi, I do not agree with your definition of nepotism, but I think it is a valid standard to aspire to. It’s probably the best standard, if not the most realistic standard.
But funny thing is, I don’t remember seeing an avalanche of posts here from you when the military government formed its first cabinet of advisors, with almost half the cabinet and the head of the ACC belonging to one single family. I guess Lt. Gen. (rt) Hasan Mashud Chowdhury’s resignation on charges of nepotism is late by two years, right?
On the same note, what’s your feeling about the current Managing Director of Trust Bank, a Mr. Iqbal U. Ahmed?
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tacit, why no complain about CTG nepotism? simply because:
1) CTG was a temporary bandage organisation, installed to enforce discipline in anarchic politics, which was peaked by AL-BNP 2006. They were not claiming to be ideal ‘democratic’ body, shining examples of anti-nepotism.
2) they were not democratically elected, and were not flying the flag of DEMOCRACY, to demonstrate an example of governance.
3) their goal was NOT to set the “code of ethics” for selection of parliamentary cabinet members, which an elected govt (like Hasina’s ) must do.
4) they did not run parliament with ministers, MPs, or cabinet. They were a bunch of officials, with no rival party, setup strictly to pave a better road to elected parliamentary governance, like a ‘caretaker govt’.
On the contrary, Hasina’s govt is democratically ELECTED, they are the opposite of past CTG. Hasina’s govt is founded on the election, constitution, democracy, anti-corruption, and manifestos that were promised to people. There is NO ROOM here for nepotism, and that is why my “avalanche of posts”, responding to questions.
B) What about IU Ahmed, tell us more. Trust bank is a private bank, with Board of directors, governed by BD Bank, what does that have to do with national parliamentary democracy?
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Trust Bank Management:
Chairman
General Moeen U Ahmed, ndc, psc
Chief of Army Staff, Bangladesh Army
Vice Chairman
Maj Gen Md Matiur Rahman, ndu, psc
Adjutant General, Bangladesh Army
Directors
Brig Gen Md Zillur Rahman, MCPS, MSC
Brig Gen S M Mahbubul Karim
Brig Gen Md Rafiqul Islam, ndc, psc
Brig Gen Mahbubul Hasan, ndc, psc
Professor Md. Abdullah
Brig Gen Md Nazrul Hasan
Managing Director
Mr. Iqbal U Ahmed
http://www.trustbank.com.bd/directors.php
[Reply]
If there is BD govt violation in Trust Bank, on management or admin, then BDesh Bank would get together and take action.
With new democratic govt, let the NEW ACC, NBR and Finance Ministry take take action if there is any private-bank violation. Thats what ACC was established for.
[Reply]
hahahahahahahahahaha…
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