Faridul Alam Farid
As Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has exhibited the qualities and brilliance of a real statesman while picking the members of the cabinet, wherefrom she did not hesitate even dropping individuals like Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, who is also the father-in-law of Prime Minister’s daughter Saima Wazed Putul, there is sharp speculations about Sheikh Hasina making a massive change in her advisors and would drop most of them, mostly because of inefficiency and controversy.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is putting preference in picking people with no controversy in her cabinet as well as the advisors.
Existing advisers to the Prime Minister are: H T Imam [Political Affairs], Dr. Mashiur Rahman [Economic Affairs], Dr. Gowher Rizvi [International Affairs], Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, BB [Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Affairs], Major General (rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique [Defence Affairs], Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury [Media Affairs], and Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed [Information and Communication Technology Affairs].
Prime Minister’s Political Affairs advisor H T Imam was the cabinet secretary during the tenure of Bangabandhu’s killer Khondokar Mushtaq Ahmed, while the Media Advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury’s media houses were hesitant in boldly supporting Awami League during the December 30 general election. There also are some serious and credible allegations of corruption, nepotism and financial crimes against some of the advisors to the Prime Minister.
A change in the administration is offing:
According to sources, within next 100-days of the new government, there will be massive changes in the administration while a number of prominent names in the administration would be sent on early retirement.
No room for the sycophants:
With the bitter experience of the past, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is determined in not giving any space to those sycophants, who only had invited problems for the government. She also is particularly aware of some members of the media, who in the past have availed numerous advantages through sycophancy though they had not been active right before the just concluded election. Instead, most of those members of the media were trying to maintain their “neutral” position, fearing “landslide victory” of BNP-led coalition.
Blitz’s bold stand against Islamists prior to the election:
Prior to the December 30th Election, while many pro-Awami League newspapers were either hesitant or uninterested in combating militant forces like Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-E-Islami, Blitz, as a part of their commitment, boldly supported anti-militant Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The audio clip between ISI agent and BNP leader Khandaker Mosharrof Hossain, leaked by Blitz, among the Bangladeshi dailies, was only published in the Daily Sun, one of the prestigious English newspapers in Bangladesh. The news related to the audio clip was also published in a number of front-ranking Indian and international news outlets, while a section of so-called pro-establishment news outlets such as Daily Observer, Janakantha, Bhorer Kagoj, Dhaka Tribune, The Independent, Ittefaq, Independent TV, Mohona TV (owned by newly included State Minister Kamal Ahmed Majumder), News24, Channel24, DBS TV, Ekushey TV, ATN Bangla, ATN News, Samakal, Nagorik TV, Desh TV, Boishakhi TV, SATV, Jamuna TV, Bijoy TV , Our Time, Amader Somoy etc., felt either unwilling or reluctant in publishing this important news. Attitude of these media houses right before the election and particularly on the Election Day were notoriously hostile towards the ruling party.
Why Prime Minister Sheikh did not get the Nobel Peace Prize?
After giving refuge to almost one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina well deserved the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. But unfortunately, she did not get!
Expressing anger at this, editor of Blitz and internationally acclaimed multi-award winning anti-militancy journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury said, “This is certainly a grand failure of the Foreign Ministry, Foreign Affairs advisor, Political Advisor and those worthless so-called pro-Awami League media. None of them either have taken serious initiatives or did not have the minimum qualities of pursuing this matter in a proper way. In fact, the previous Foreign Minister had followed a bankrupt diplomacy. At the same time, those “pro-Awami League” journalists were simply busy in extracting mere personal benefits through sycophancy while not doing or not having the capacity of doing something positive internationally in favour of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”
He said, “If proper initiatives can be taken immediately, Sheikh Hasina definitely will get the Nobel Peace Prize. I want to believe, people in her inner circle will take necessary steps in this regard without wasting any time.”