Editorial
Govt should assure people, not
importers, amid melamine scare
THE government on Sunday deferred a decision on the sale of eight foreign milk powder brands, samples of which were tested at the laboratories of the chemistry department of Dhaka University and found to contain melamine, pending further test results, so says a report published in New Age on Monday. As a professor of the chemistry department at Dhaka University, which has stood by its test results, suggested, it would be unscientific not to carry out repeat tests; hence, the government’s decision appears reasonable. What is not acceptable is its refusal to ‘take any liability’ should further tests confirm the conclusion of the university about presence of melamine in the brands in question. Equally unacceptable is the government’s argument, as articulated by the commerce secretary, that it is up to the people to decide whether or not to consume the milk brands in question. Moreover, what is downright deplorable is the commerce secretary’s claim that the government’s responsibility in this matter is to protect the interests of the businesspeople who have invested crores of taka to import powder milk from abroad. Need we remind the incumbents that it is the responsibility of the government to protect the interests of the people at large and not merely those of a small group of people, no matter how influential they may be?
Meanwhile, the government’s response to the unfolding health crisis has thus far been lackadaisical, to say the least. Even after three tests, including the one by Dhaka University’s chemistry department, there remains confusion over which brands of powder milk are safe for children. The government is yet to deliver a concrete observation or caution as to which milk brands might be safe. We must stress that consumption of milk is not an optional matter as far as children are concerned. Given the limited supply of local dairy product, the responsibility does fall upon the government for having allowed supposedly toxic milk to be imported and marketed in the country. Moreover, it should have unveiled the test results before the Eid holidays and not kept millions of parents in apprehension.
Here it is pertinent to take note of two varying test results. The one done at the premier public university found eight brands to be tainted with melamine while another, done by the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institution, which is the national watchdog to ensure quality of consumer items, did not find any of the brands to be tainted. The competence and authenticity of a BSTI certification have long been in doubt due to widespread allegations against its officials issuing certificates for bribes. The standards testing institution must be strengthened and streamlined, ridding it of irregularities so that its seal becomes a symbol of trust on which the people might rely. It would only serve the interest of the people and the nation in the longer term. Also, the standards testing institution should be made to test products and items before they hit the market duly and thoroughly and to regularly carry out random tests of products already in the market to ensure that they maintain the quality that they are supposed to, with special emphasis given to food items and medicine.
As for the immediate matter of melamine-contaminated milk, the incumbents must take immediate steps to ascertain the toxicity of the available brands of milk in the country and issue directives accordingly.
Sorry state of urban sanitation
THAT 60 per cent of the Dhaka inhabitants defecate in open spaces, as disclosed by a sanitation specialist and reported in New Age on October 16, is as worrying as it is frightening given the major public health threat posed by it. Mujibur Rahman, a professor at the Bangladesh University of Science and Technology, while speaking at a discussion with members of the media, explained how even the dwellers of many a luxurious building in the city discharge excreta into the canals and lakes through pipes creating as much pollution as slum dwellers and floating populations without latrine facilities do. The river Buriganga has already been contaminated almost beyond purification while we still go on contaminating other water bodies without any intervention. If things go on unchecked, as the professor has warned, the sanitation of other cities and major towns will likely also be on the verge of collapse within the next five to ten years.
In our country, most of the people in rural areas cannot afford to install sanitary latrines while in the urban areas, especially in slums and habitats of low-income groups, open latrines can be seen near canals or other water bodies. In the peripheries of Dhaka, like the flood embankment that goes around the city, people still use open latrines as hygienic latrines are not available in those areas. Even though the government claims that 88 per cent of the families across the country have so far been brought under the coverage of sanitation, according to the UNICEF, BRAC and the NGO Forum sanitation facilities are available only to 33 to 39 per cent of the people, which implies that a huge task lies ahead to bring the 150 million people of the country under safe sanitation programmes.
Undertaking appropriate awareness campaigns is crucial to improving the situation. There are a number of non-governmental organisations that distribute sanitary latrines to poor families for free in a bid to improve health and hygiene. Relevant government agencies could do the same. The government needs to wake up and take immediate actions. People must be made aware of the public health risks of poor sanitation and hygiene through widespread social motivation programmes.
Yet another walkover for bigots
Our political parties are so terrified of being branded as anti-religion or anti-Islam by Amini and his like that they too would rather take down a baul monument, as this regime has done, than confront intolerance and bigotry by a band of criminals and misfits, writes Shameran Abed
THE sinister political agenda of Islamist bigots were given a significant boost on Wednesday when the present regime, weak and unprincipled as it is, capitulated in the face of pressure from obscurantist forces and tore down a baul sculpture from in front of Zia International Airport. Emboldened by their success, the bigots demanded on Friday that all sculptures in the country be destroyed, even those that commemorate our war of independence. Then, on Sunday, Fazlul Huq Amini, chairman of the Islami Oikya Jote and the foremost champion of religious bigotry, reportedly said that the upcoming parliamentary elections will be fought on the single issue of sculptures, between the lovers of sculpture and the lovers of religion. The intrinsic fallacy of the argument aside, the statement underscores the fact that the bigots have sensed an opening and will exploit it for whatever it is worth.
Of all the disservice that the current regime has done to our country in the last 21 months, the aiding and abetting of fundamentalists and bigots must rank at the top. To begin with, members of the Jamaat-e-Islami were largely spared from this regime’s anti-corruption crusade, as if they are so incorruptible that none of the BNP’s indiscretions rubbed off on them, even after five years of being a major component of the government that is widely considered the most corrupt in our nation’s history. Then, more than a year after the anti-corruption drive began in earnest, when this regime finally did come around to arresting the Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami on charges of corruption, they were indisposed to keeping him behind bars for any significant length of time. He was thus released on bail before any other major politician. If that was not dubious enough, the monkey business that this government is doing with the Jamaat secretary general is. Even though a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid some weeks back, the police apparently have not been able to capture him until now. Yet, consider this: in the weeks that he has officially been ‘absconding’, Mujahid has not only held public events but has visited, as a member of the Jamaat delegation, the office of the chief adviser for official talks and even shook hands with Fakhruddin Ahmed. The chief adviser could have put the handcuffs on this fugitive himself, if he was so inclined. It would have made for great television.
Also, forget not the role this regime played when bigots laid siege to its women’s development policy, which sought to ensure equal rights for women under the law. Then, like now, the regime capitulated and amended sections of the policy after bigots took out processions after Friday prayers for weeks on end to demand that the policy be scrapped. Yet, when women’s rights activists attempted to bring out a procession in favour of the policy, the regime invoked the emergency powers rules and broke up the procession. In these 21 months, the emergency powers rules have been invoked many times to break up many processions and demonstrations, from those brought out by students at Dhaka University to those by garments’ workers demanding higher pay and rights activists protesting against human rights violations and gender discrimination. Not once, however, have the emergency power rules been invoked to break up a procession brought out by the Islamist bigots.
It does not end there. When a freedom fighter was mercilessly beaten by Jamaat activists at a freedom fighters’ seminar organised by the Jamaat, which is a ridiculous proposition in the first place, the law enforcement personnel neither provided protection to the victim nor took any action against the perpetrators. This would not have required the invocation of the emergency power rules. Physically assaulting a person is a crime under the ordinary laws of the land the last time this writer checked. What is perhaps most ironic is that the bigots have been able to hold rallies and meetings at will during this period of emergency, but when the Sector Commanders’ Forum, made up of bona fide war heroes, tried to organise a convention to generate support for the issue of trial of war criminals, it faced tremendous resistance from this military-controlled regime which initially denied the forum an appropriate venue for the convention.
The continual appeasement of obscurantist forces by this regime has naturally encouraged and emboldened the bigots and while the prospect of the end of its dismal tenure later this year may be a silver lining of sorts, the situation is likely to be no better once the country returns to elected rule. This regime has not been the first to give in to these organised forces of darkness, it has just been the latest. The truth is, neither the BNP, which has for almost ten years been allied with the Jamaat, nor the Awami League, which proved through the 2006 Khelafat Majlish deal that it is just as likely to sell its soul to the devil to come to power, can be trusted to take on these bigots if and when they come to power. The parties are so terrified of being branded as anti-religion or anti-Islam by Amini and his like that they too would rather take down a baul monument, as this regime has done, than confront intolerance and bigotry by a band of criminals and misfits.
For those who feel sickened by sights of bigots rejoicing as government agencies pull down a monument commemorating Lalon Fakir, who, by the way, happened to be a great progressive, the options on offer in the upcoming elections are entirely unpalatable. Even in the United States where there is apparently little difference left between the two major political parties as far as economic policies are concerned, a clear line can still be drawn on the cultural issues. Social progressives can give their vote to the Democratic Party safe in the knowledge that the Democrats will not take away abortion rights of women, just as rural conservatives can give their vote to the Republican Party safe in the knowledge that their second amendment rights to bear firearms will be protected by the GOP. In Bangladesh, the bigots have plenty of choices, but which party can social progressives give their vote to in the upcoming elections and be certain that it will fight bigotry and intolerance on their behalf?
In the last couple of days, thankfully, we have seen the first signs of a movement to resist the forward march of the obscurantist forces, originating as these movement always do at Dhaka University, which for all its degeneration and decay still remains the foremost bastion of progressive thought. However, in the absence of political leadership on the one hand and the unwillingness of our civil society stalwarts to rise to the challenge on the other, will the progressives who have raised their voice be able to sustain their fight against forces as determined and organised as the obscurantists are? Time will tell.
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