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An indictment from within

ZAFAR sOBHAN
THE news that parliamentary standing committees have raised allegations of irregularity and corruption in the running of at least 20 of the 39 government ministries is a remarkable change from the typical spectacle of the government and the opposition trading accusations that we have grown accustomed to.
Now, allegations of corruption are nothing new in Bangladeshi politics. The BNP accuses the AL of corruption. The AL accuses the BNP of corruption. Everyone accuses the JP of corruption.
What makes these latest allegations so compelling is that they are leveled against the government, not by the opposition, but by other members of the government itself.
Due to the opposition's boycott of parliament, the parliamentary standing committees are operating without opposition participation and are chaired and run by members of the ruling alliance.
The members of the standing committees are to be applauded for having the courage to speak out in a manner that can be expected to create difficulties for their own government and for their own political careers. The intended function of parliamentary standing committees is to oversee the actions of the different ministries and it is a welcome change to see at least one entity within our system of government operating as it should.
one hopes that the government will see that this kind of criticism coming as it does from within the ruling alliance rather than from outside cannot be dismissed as mere politics as usual.
The government has routinely dismissed all allegations of corruption leveled against it as political posturing on the part of the AL. Last month, the finance minister even went so far as to cavalierly dismiss the Transparency international report that found Bangladesh to be the most corrupt country in the world by pouring scorn on the report's methodology. The intellectual dishonesty of his dismissal of the Ti report after using its previous report as Exhibit A in the case against the AL government in the last election was lost on no-one, except perhaps the government.
if we cannot get our elected leaders to take allegations made by the opposition (or indeed a respected non-partisan international institution with no discernible axe to grind) seriously, perhaps the findings of members of their own party will persuade them that there is some substance to these latest allegations and convince them that it might be of benefit both to the nation as a whole and to the government to address these concerns.
The fact that corruption is rampant throughout all levels of the administration is obvious to anyone who has the misfortune to have to deal with any governmental entity and the continued denial by the government of what is apparent to even the most casual of observers seems to reflect nothing more than its contempt for the intelligence of the electorate.
We all know the truth of the situation. Now that the parliamentary standing committees have taken the courageous step of putting on record what we all know to be true there can be no excuse for the government to continue to bury its head in the sand and pretend that allegations of corruption are nothing more than the opposition trying to score political points.
if members of its own alliance find the performance of government ministries below par due to gross mismanagement, irregularity and corruption, perhaps the government will now finally be convinced to take measures to tackle the epidemic of corruption that rages throughout the administration.