Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

While the present caretaker government must be commended for a variety of jobs done bringing succour to people, their performance during the last few months, if evaluated in an unbiased perspective, suggest a lack of proper identification and prioritisation of problems and how best to combat them. We all know the long list of problems plaguing Bangladesh and also the number one problem which is corruption. Corruption, like an alloy consisting of a number of metals, is an admixture of characters: financial, political, intellectual etc. What was and is needed is dissection of the ‘corruption alloy’ and identifying the most malignant element. The malignant element is the ‘serial killer’ hidden behind what we take by our mouth: food, drink and medicine. People would have merrily shopped rice at Tk 50 per Kg and oil at Tk 100, if the present government hit heads of the syndicated manufacturers and traders of adulterated food and medicine with sledgehammers the way the joint forces helped demolish the unauthorised constructions.
   With adulterated food and medicine galore Bangladesh has become a ‘killing field’, much more alarming than that of Pol Pot in Cambodia. Greedy food doyens have waged genocide against teeming millions who are gulping formalin-laced fishes and fruits, relishing dairy products made of acid treated ‘cow dung’, seeping tea brewed by used and spent tea leaves, frying vegetables with oil blended with spent lubricants and taking medicine with lesser or without ingredients as the regulatory bodies are not equipped with resources to check them.
   Our soldiers must wage a war against those who are poisoning and killing us! An independent ‘Anti Adulteration Commission’, formed by the chiefs of armed forces, as ex officio members, with 25 years’ budgets approved, should be made for salvaging the dying.
   Maswood Alam Khan
   Banani, Dhaka

Although politics is described as ‘political science’ in universities it is not science at all but a highly specialised form of art. No sooner than Tony Blair had declared his intention to go, I (a mere  passive member of Labour Party for many years) received a personal ‘Dear Shafi’ letter from ‘yours sincerely, Gordon Brown’ (with stamped signature) to support him in his visions as the next leader of the party and win a historic 4th term for Labour. His slogan is ‘Gordon Brown for Britain’ and he is going to travel the country and he wants to discuss with me (i.e. all members) and learn from us the various important issues to be able to meet new challenges, etc.
   Against such wonderful top to bottom contact and feedback mechanism in the UK,  the political machinery in Bangladesh hitherto were  only one-way traffic namely ‘top down’ and hence really no different from ‘autocracy’ once someone came into power. The government and Election Commission must make the parties more democratic so that political movement prevails as both way mechanisms down to and from the grassroots level even within the parties.
   Engineer Shafi Ahmed
   London UK