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Too little advice, too late

Shahnoor Wahid
Begum Khaleda Zia has said something that she should have said seven years ago on the eve of starting her second term as the prime minister. If she had done so, things would have been different today as far as image of her party is concerned. She has said something too little, too late.
Now, what did she say? After taking oath as members of parliament she spoke before the newly elected members from BNP and told them to "cooperate with tire government, supporting its good works and criticising the bad ones.”
But what caught everyone's attention was her advice to tire party men to lead a simple life, shunning luxury. These words reminded us of die bizarre race by die 4-party alliance rulers for plundering the country's resources for personal gain so that they and their family members could maintain a lifestyle matching the millionaires in Europe and America.
The "sacrifices" of the people's representatives of this poor country included 100 crore taka apartments in the US and Dubai, 20 crore taka villa in Dhaka, 10 crore taka villa in village, 10 crore taka limousines (4 of them), mini zoo, foreign furniture, club membership, family trips to Bangkok for shopping, family trips to Singapore for health checkups, children sent to best boarding schools in Malaysia, Singapore, USA. and so on.
And all this happened right before the eyes of the BNP chairperson. She was the prime minister and she had all the secret
service agencies and NBR to submit reports on the "income" of her ministers and MPs. She has seen how a middle-income businessman from Bandarban or Jessorc or Comilla became a billionaire within five years just by being an MP or minister in her government.
Didn't she realise that no one could earn that kind of money in five years by doing politics? Didn't she realise that there were laws in die country and someday when BNP would not be in power law would take its own course and try those people?
If one remembers, it was quite difficult to get near her to talk about the wrong-doings of her party men. Therefore, to expect her to take any steps to stop them in their plundering binge was something inconceivable. She is on record for calling an extremely rogue party MP from old Dhaka dushtu chheley when someone complained about his atrocities in the locality.
We have never seen her reacting to the complaints that a senior member of her party regularly consumed sugar, rice, meat, milk etc., from the kitchen of the MP hostel and never paid for them.
Begum Khaleda Zia and her party people always looked for invisible enemies to blame for her party's image going down. Even now, they are blaming "foreign hands" in the debacle of the party in the national election.
But, surprisingly, they never looked within to find out the causes of die image failure or election failure. When senior members plunder government land or a few kilos of sugar, no one from outside has to spoil the image of
"Fringe benefit" for MPs?
the party.
The other day, the sugar plundering senior BNP leader gave a sermon before some supporters. He told them to be imbued by the ideals of late President Ziaur Rahman. Now that, coming from him, was a bit too much really.
A man who cannot control petty greed and who cannot rein in his own sons, must not talk about the personal honesty of die late president. Such men in BNP are personifications of greed, lust and intrigue. They survive not by giving service but by doing disservice to the party and die nation.
An example of practicing what one preaches. A newly elected minister of the new government took part in a TV talk show last Sunday night There, he expressed his surprise at how any MP or minister of this poor country could own a 2-crore taka limousine to show it off to the poor countrymen.
Now, we know that particular minister comes from a business family of repute who can afford to buy expensive cars. But we also know that he maintains a simple life, never caring to show off family wealth. He, thus, has
set examples before his voters in his constituency.
The grim task ahead for the mohajote (Grand Alliance). It has started impressively with a carefully selected cabinet But before it can go any further to address various socioeconomic challenges, it is faced with challenges from its very own student wing --Chhatra League (CL).
We know the prime minister has issued warnings to the CL leaders but people feel more has to be done before CL turns into Frankenstein's monster -- destroying its creator.
The terms of reference (ToR) of the student wing therefore have to be specified so that they cannot do any or everything on campuses in the name of being a tail of the ruling alliance. Unless these issues are addressed right now, they will remain hanging around to pose as bigger threats to the mohajote in the future. They must not be oblivious to the disservice done by Chhatra Dal to BNP in the past.
Shahnoor Wand is a Serwx Assistant EdAx o'Tne D^y Star
***And all this happened right before the eyes of the BNP chairperson. She was the prime minister and she had all the secret service agencies and NBR to submit reports on the "income" of her ministers and MPs.****