19 September, 2012
M.
Serajul Islam
The Cabinet Secretary must have been confused (or flabbergasted?)
to find himself in the limelight in the cabinet expansion/reshuffle drama. The
Prime Minister put him on the spot for phoning Tofael Ahmed (TA) and Rashed
Khan Menon (RKM) and seven others to convey the decision to join the Cabinet as
if he was appointing them as Ministers. She advised the journalists who were
curious why TA and RKM did not join, to call him and find out the answer!
There is one thing that must be admitted about the Prime Minister.
She does not believe in beating about the bush. If she dislikes an issue or any
one, she shoots straight. She does not believe in making anything unpleasant
she has to say, sugar coated. Even when she does not use unpleasant words, her
body language reflects her inner feelings when she wants to convey unpleasant
opinion about an issue or any one. Honesty in thought, action and even body
language are the fundamental strengths of her character. Even her worst enemy has
to admire her for these qualities.
In this instance, the Prime Minister knew that the journalists
would ask her questions about TA and RKM after the swearing ceremony of the new
Ministers was over. Indeed they did. The Prime Minister tried to calm their
concerns by suggesting that the expansion was a routine matter and everyone
should take it as such. However, when questions were raised about TA’s decision
to decline the offer to become a Minister, the Prime Minister could not restrain
herself in expressing her true feelings.
The Prime Minister was literally correct when she told the
journalists that she did not call TA and others to be present at Bangobhavan to
take oath as Ministers. Nevertheless there is no reason except in a state of
insanity to believe in the literal meaning and that the Cabinet Secretary on
his own asked these individuals to join the Cabinet. Her body language left no
one in any doubt that she was simmering inside because TA and RKM declined to
join. By her sarcasm, she tried to divert
the affront that the refusal conveyed; for these were affronts pure and simple.
The refusal also revealed some unpleasant realities about the Awami League and the
ruling alliance or the Mahajote.
Clearly there was nothing routine about this expansion/reshuffle.
The expansion has come when the government is moving into the final year of its
five years’ tenure. At this time, it should be busy reaping the benefits of its
tenure to flag its successes for winning the next elections. An expansion at
such a late stage logically suggests that the government is not succeeding with
the existing cabinet to reap the results to ensure its return to power and that
it needs extra hands in the Cabinet to revive the falling image and ability of
the government. In deciding the expansion, the government even did not consider
that the number of Ministers would rise to 53 making the Prime Minister’s
council of ministers, minus the powerful Advisers, as heavy as that of the BNP
that it had sarcastically and severely criticized as “elephantine” when forming
the government.
The argument about deteriorating governance as a major reason for
the latest expansion is also strengthened by the fact that there are serious concerns
and criticisms these days in everybody’s mind about this government. If such
concerns and criticisms were coming just from the opposition, one could dismiss
these as propaganda or exaggerated. The criticisms are coming with more
severity from within the ranks of the Awami League and from leaders of the AL’s
alliance partners. In fact, the criticisms of the Finance Minister in
Parliament by TA, RMK and Hasanul Huq Inu have been so severe that even the
Opposition leaders would not have been able to match them if they had been in
parliament and taking the floor.
In fact, the Finance Minister by his recent actions, has himself flagged for the nation that this
government is functioning in a manner that cannot even be called rational let
alone successful. He called a scam in Sonali Bank where Taka 4000 crores has
been siphoned off by fraud as “nonsense” and a media invention; then apologized
for such an incredible statement and then said he has been considering
resigning for the last nine months! It is not just the Finance Minister who has
given evidence of the sorry state of affairs of governance. The same sad
failure is spread over the main Ministries of the Government again not by the
assessment of the Opposition but by the senior members of the AL and its
alliance partners. The Finance Minister has flagged the serious lack of
coordination among the Ministers and their Ministries as one of the reasons for
the deterioration of governance.
A major criticism against the government is its anti-democratic stance
of governing with un-elected Advisers in place of the elected Ministers. This
criticism has also been flagged by the senior members of the AL who are not in
favour with the Prime Minister and leaders of the Mahajote more forcefully than
the opposition. In clear violation of the rules, these Advisers sit in the
Cabinet Meetings and some are seen regularly in the media making policy
statements on Ministries with scant regard or respect for the Ministers. The
Prime Minister however prefers the Advisers and underscored this by refusing to
ask her Adviser Dr. Mashiur Rahman to resign despite serious pressures even
from her own party.
The criminalization of the public educational institutions is another
major evidence of deterioration of governance under this government. The
student’s wing of the party has literally taken over these institutions. The
recent disturbances Jahangirnagar University, BUET and Dhaka University are
alarming. Past governments allowed their respective student’s wings a lot of
leverage to indulge in various activities not conducive to maintaining the
educational environment of these institutions.
Under this government, the Chatra League has been allowed to control the
public universities more effectively than the Vice Chancellors and the Provosts
of the residential halls.
In the most recent conflict in Dhaka University, the Chatra League
beat up the leaders of the Chatra Dal in broad daylight outside the office of
the Vie Chancellor. They did not care that their acts were being filmed by the
private television channels to be shown to the public. Yet when the Vice Chancellor was asked by the
journalists about the incident, he told them that he was unaware of the clashes
and could have missed witnessing unless he was in deep slumber as he was in the
office at the time! Newspaper reports
also mentioned that the Chatra Dal leaders had gone to meet him after he had
given them an appointment. The Vice Chancellor by his action has thus proven that he dares not do anything that
could earn him the displeasure of the Chatra League underscoring the utter
depth to which the once “Oxford of the East” has fallen.
As the proverbial weather bird, President Ershad has been first
not just to underscore the falling fortunes of the AL led Mahajote; he has
already stated publicly that in the next general elections the Jatiya party
would not be a part of the Mahajote. In fact, he has high hopes of becoming the
official opposition in the next AL Government (assuming that BNP would opt out
on the Caretaker issue) although of late, he even fancies himself of being the
next Prime Minister! The left elements in the Mahajote, apart from acting as
the opposition in parliament against the Government’s failures, have recently
held parleys among themselves concerned that with the government failing,
whether it would be appropriate for them to continue in the alliance.
Added to these pressures against it, the AL led government is also
under pressures from abroad in a manner than no past government ever faced. On
issues of Dr. Mohammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank, the Padma Bank loan, human
rights, etc, the Government has gone on the wrong side of
governments/institutions that are crucial to its development efforts. What is
simply astounding is that the Government has chosen to annoy these powerful governments
and institutions for reasons that everybody except those in the inner circle of
the Prime Minister thinks are suicidal for the country.
The unfortunate state of affairs concerning governance however did
not happen suddenly. The deterioration has been gradual and extends not just to
areas touched in the preceding paragraphs but also over law and order; failure
to deliver power and keep prices of essentials down as it had promised in its
election manifesto. Before the opposition could expose the deterioration, the
signs were flagged by sections within the ruling party. Fingers were pointed at
the exclusion of four experienced leaders TA, Abdur Razzak, Amir Hossain Amu
and Suranjit Sen as reasons for the failure of the government to deliver. Thus
there was pressure on the Prime Minister from the very beginning to take these
leaders into the Cabinet and not to depend on inexperienced Ministers in key
and critical Ministries. While the Prime Minister herself recognized that her
inexperienced Ministers were failing to deliver having mentioned many times in
her Cabinet meetings that they were being watched on their performance, she
refused to bow to the pressure to bring TA and his colleagues into the Cabinet.
In fact, it has been an open secret since the Prime Minister
formed her first Cabinet leaving TA and his colleagues out that she were getting
even with them for their role during the Caretaker Government. At that time,
these four together with many others in the party had decided to support change
of leadership in the top of the party including Sheikh Hasina, to democratize
it. The Prime Minister did not forget or forgave these leaders for their role.
In fact when Abdur Razzak was fighting for his life in a hospital in London, TA
publicly regretted that the Bangladesh High Commissioner or his staff in London
did not even visit him in the hospital!
The earlier reshuffles, three before this last one, were also made
in the face of widespread criticism of governance and inner pressure to bring
back the so called reforists. The Prime Minister nevertheless inducted the less
important among the so called reformists in the Cabinet before but simply
refused to look upon TA, Abdur Razzak, Amir Hossain Amu and Suranjit Sen with
favour. While Abdur Razzak passed away meantime, Suranjit Sen was inducted
among the major “reformists” into the cabinet. When however he arranged his own
exit on the allegation of corruption by his personal staff, she was more than
happy to ask him to resign from the Railways Ministry. Although by some
mysterious ways he managed to remain a Minister without portfolio after
resigning, he has not been given any charge in the latest reshuffle, suggesting
no doubt that the Prime Minister is not really unhappy at his present
predicament.
This time the expansion and reshuffle of the cabinet had again become
because of serious deterioration of governance and stronger voice of dissent
within the party. Although, the Mahajote showed discontent with the
deterioration of governance, those still with their limited influence in the
party were not bothered with the alliance partners. With Jatiya Party decided
to leave the alliance, it really did not matter whether the parties led by Hasanul Huq Inu and RKM stayed or not in the
Mahajote for their ability to assist the AL in the next elections is very
limited.
It was in fact TA who was the main reason for the latest expansion
and reshuffle of the cabinet. No matter who called TA to join the Cabinet, the
decision to make him a Minister was one the Prime Minister made because of
pressure from her senior colleagues to keep the rank and file in the party
happy; rank and file who are disillusioned with the government and believe that
TA would be able to help bring the sinking ship to the shores. The Prime
Minister’s reaction in the media left little doubt that she is not in talking
terms with TA and agreed to offer him the Cabinet post reluctantly because of
pressure and that she was not really
unhappy that he did not join the Cabinet, the affront notwithstanding, for she
can now blame those who had put pressure on her in his favour for what TA did
to the party’s image that has surely
been dented by TA’s action.
Talk show guests have had a field day analyzing the
expansion/reshuffle. A Professor who is a regular guest in talk shows and an
unabashed critic of the government went over the rails congratulating TA and
RKM for their courage to rise above personal ambitions for democracy. He said
that they refused to respond to the Prime Minister because she had offered the
posts like the owners of dogs throw crumbs at dogs taking for granted that such
offers would be gleefully accepted! He
apologized for the crude analogy but was quite convinced that the refusal was a
great victory for democracy. Many were
excited with the refusal for like the Professor, they too thought that it was a
victory for democracy.
For many, disillusioned with the government, the refusals were
indeed news to be excited about for TA and RKM have done what seemed like impossible; that
politicians belonging to the ruling party and its allies would ever have the
courage to stand up to the Prime Minister. They also agreed that the Prime
Minister should have personally talked with TA and RKM to ensure that they would
accept the offers before the Cabinet Secretary called them to be told that they
were being invited to become Ministers. In case of TA, his position and
importance in the party clearly demanded that the Prime Minister herself should
have shown this minimum courtesy to him.
Clearly TA was treated shabbily by the Prime Minister who left no
one in doubt that she has still not forgiven him. In the end by her insensitive
action, the Prime Minister enhanced the respect of TA in the party and the
nation together with also flagging what everyone knows, that there is major
dissension within the Awami League and that TA is leading a significant faction
in the party at odds with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, by her
insensitive handling of the expansion/reshuffle, has acknowledged this deep division in her party.
In a way, she has made the same mistake she made in handling the case of Dr.
Mohammad Yunus. By pursuing her personal dislike for the Noble Laureate; she
has ended in making him more popular at home and abroad at her expense. In
humiliating TA, she has enhanced his position, honour and importance in the
party and the country; again at her expense.
Nevertheless, the refusals are hardly going to help democracy in
any way all the felicitations and
congratulations to TA and RKM notwithstanding. What the expansion/reshuffle
drama has underscored is that the AL is still firmly in the grasp of the Prime
Minister who is still in no mood to share her power with anyone. True those who
are appointed as Ministers are informed by the Cabinet (in fact it is the Joint Secretary and not the
Cabinet Secretary who does this job normally) but only to be asked to be at the
Bangobhavan at the appointed time for the oath. That such individuals would
receive their calls from the cabinet without any prior knowledge of their
appointments expresses a mindset where the elements of respect and courtesy are
totally absent; where instead there is a clear statement that the Prime Minister
does not care for these individuals; a mindset described by the Professor on
the talk show for which he apologized.
This mindset that has surfaced clearly from the
expansion/reshuffle drama has also explained by way of collateral damage that
the government is in a poor state in terms of governance and the country even
worse in its never ending march to establish democracy. The BNP should not
gloat from these truths that would no doubt help it to fight the AL; it should
take the lessons on the mindset of the Prime Minister so that when its turn in
power comes, it does not make the same mistake and suffer the same predicament.
Then only would the resignations of TA and RKM serve any useful
purpose for the cause of democracy the way the Professor thought the refusals
would. It is still too premature to conclude such an outcome. This apart, the
expansion/reshuffle is not going to serve any useful purpose. Already, issues
emerging about those inducted as Ministers indicate that this was one
expansion/reshuffle that the Prime Minister would have been better off not undertaking.
The writer
is a former Ambassador to Japan
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