Dear Prime Minister, beware of the touts

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
February 11, 2009

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/177/dear-prime-minister-beware-of-the-touts

Since the landslide victory of Awami League in the general election of December 29, 2009, several 'advisors' of the Prime Minister have emerged in the society who are proclaiming themselves to be 'silent life support' of the present government. Many are even so adamant that they do not care making such claims even to the members of press in Bangladesh. I have no idea if any of the intelligence agencies in the government are monitoring such illegal activities of touts who are abusing the name of the top executive of the country.

Just last week, I encountered one such 'advisor', who told me how busy he was in finalizing the nomination of the candidates of Awami League as well suggesting the Prime Minister in choosing her cabinet colleagues. I asked, are you working in any particular office of the ruling party while holding the post of advisor? He said, "no, we are the silent life support of Awami League helping the Prime Minister with our expert opinion on various important issues."

When I contacted the office of Awami League, it was crystal clear to me that such claimants are mere touts who are using the name of the ruling party and the PM for making cash through illegal means.

It may be recalled here that, during the rule of BNP-Islamist Coalition government, so-called political office of BNP named Hawa Bhaban turned into the most important powerhouse of the country. A bunch of sycophants and touts were busy in cashing huge amount of money by using the name of the Prime Minister and other important figures in the government.

Even when Awami League was in power during 1996-2001, a large number of activists belonging to this party turned active in various important government offices using the name of various influential figures in the government. Some of them were appearing in government offices wearing 'Mujib Coat' [black color half sleeve coat mostly worn by Awami Leaguers]. Reason behind putting a Mujib Coat was to give an impression to the commoners that those people were very close to country's powerhouse.

Now, after the general election of December 29, when Awami League publicly promised of introducing politics of changes thus turning the country into a land of infinite possibility, many of the Bangladeshi voters in particular and masses in general were seeing a real hope of change in the positive direction. They were even hoping for a brighter Bangladesh under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina.

Here I need to focus one important point. Although many of the political opponents of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman criticize his administration during 1971-1975 for various reasons, none would ever term Bangabandhu as a corrupt person or a person with minimum level of greed. In fact, the founding father of this country had such extra-ordinary caliber of moral cleanness. But, his fame and name was greatly affected by some sycophants and touts belonging to Awami League. When Bangabandhu was assassinated along with other members of his family, these sycophants and touts were amongst the first batch of people, who did not hesitate in jubilating the tragic death of the founding father of the nation.

Western societies as well as secular forces in the world are in particular delighted at the victory of Awami League and Sheikh Hasina, as this party traditionally used to confront religious extremism and fanatics. But their confident was greatly knocked when Awami League signed a treaty with Islamist group like Khelafat Majlish in establishing Sharia rule in the country. Anyway, Awami League quickly realized that signing of such treaty was not a good decision and they immediately wrapped that controversial treaty. And very interestingly, the man who engineered this treaty was none but the general secretary of Awami League, Abdul Jalil, who played extreme dubious role during the tenure of military controlled interim regime in deducting Sheikh Hasina from the party, thus making a total reform in the party.

In the passage of time, Mr. Jalil has already lost his credibility and now only awaits a silent exit from the front ranking leadership of the party. Because of his questioned role, Jalil was excluded from the present cabinet like many of his fellow colleagues. It was even reported in press that, Mr. Jalil was one of the key players in sending the present Prime Minister in prison, while the previous government had no real allegation against her except some cooked charges brought by several controversial businessmen. There is no reason to undermine the intelligence of Bangladeshi people, who in fact fully understood that the interim government wanted to send Sheikh Hasina in prison, by hook or crook. Anyway that is a controversy, which might get resolved in the months or even years to come. Another such dampened figrue is Amir Hossain Amu. According to various information, this gentleman has also been cornered in Awami League because of his over enthusiasm after 1/11 in ousting Sheikh Hasina from the leadership of the party.

According to many political pundits, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina did the right thing in putting all the controversial figures in her party at the corner side. This possibly will atleast save one of the leading parties in Bangladesh in facing one more great challenge due to conspitaror party insiders.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list