& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Words of wisdom that could be

Habibul Haque Khondker
***Here I want to speculate on what kind of letter former prime minister Khaleda Zia would have left for incoming Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Let me also assume that Mrs. Zia would share her reflections honestly and with utter candour.***
WHEN President Barack Obama entered the White House after his historic inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America he discovered a letter from the outgoing president George W. Bush waiting for him at the Oval Office,
This tradition was started in the 1980s. In 1987, when Ronald Reagan left the White House, he left a letter for his successor George H. W. Bush --creating a new tradition. H.W. followed the tradition by leaving a letter for William Jefferson Clinton.
Mr. Clinton, in turn, left a letter for Mr. George W. Bush. Following this tradition. George W. left a letter with a yellow sticker marked 44 on the envelop for President Barack Obama. No one knows the contents of that letter, which the new president read on the morning of January 21.
One can speculate that the letter may have good wishes, some reflections and some advice -- such as. "never believe in weapons of mass destruction."
Or, who knows, maybe some trivia: "the booze is in the lower drawer." or the "flush of the toilet does not always work" or whatever. I leave that to the US political pundits to work out.
Here I want to speculate on what kind of letter former prime minister Khaleda Zia would have left for incoming Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Let me also assume that Mrs. Zia would share her reflections honestly and with utter candour.
Dear Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,
First, let me congratulate you on winning a landmark election, which my partymen say was not fair. But be that as it may, I want to share my reflections with you on what went wrong during my administration and would like to leave some advice for
your administration.
1 was complacent after an overwhelming victory. I thought I was invincible. My popularity would never decline. I was wrong.
I rewarded some civil servants who helped me win the election with fast-track promotions. This was not a good idea as it alienated the civil service.
I tried to weed out all officers from ' various branches of the administration who had even the remotest connection with the Awami League. Just to give one example, I sidelined a promising officer from one of the branches of the military when I was told that the wife of that officer was distantly related by marriage to Awami League leader Zillur Rahman. Trust me, 1 had superb intelligence on matters like these.
Politicisation of the civil service was not a good idea. Especially, politicisation of the judiciary created a lot of mistrust between the civil society and my administration. It was difficult to claim that people would reelect me because of my successful leadership and then try to make sure that a judge favourable to my administration, or a chief election officer with unquestionable loyalty to BNP. or pro-BNP people would man the Anti-corruption
Commission to help us get re-elected.
Please do not try to deny that there is terrorism in Bangladesh. I found myself entangled with the religious right and had to overlook religious extremism. My administration was even foolish enough to try to deny the existence of Bangla Bhai and others who some of my cabinet colleagues claimed were creations of Awami League supported media even when their activities were widely reported in local and international media and when bombs were blasting all around the country. Later, I had to eat humble pie when my administration arrested him.
When your political rally was bombed and you were targeted for assassination, my party leaders claimed that that was an internal feud and, rather than trying to investigate the crime, my law enforcing departments discovered some guy called George Mia and accused him of a crime he did not commit. In fact, this drama contradicted the BNP line that the bomb attack on Awami League rally on August 20, 2004 was an internal Awami League matter. My senior party colleagues made similar accusations --that these were due to internal feuds - -when Ahsanullah Master MP of Awami League and the former finance minis-
ter ASMS Kibria were assassinated.
Never deny the rise of prices of essential commodities reported in the mainstream media by saying those were media-created.
Never say unnotir joar (the high tide of development) even if the economy is buoyant. I found out, to my dismay, that the talk of joar (high tide) brings bhata (low-ebb) of popularity and sky-rocketing of prices.
The stories of corruption in my administration came to me but I was in denial and not ready to listen because I was blinded by affection of my children and close relatives. So do not allow your children or close relatives to oversee business transactions.
Never let your children set up another Bhavan or a parallel administration. Thank You. KZ.
Habibul Haque Khondker is a sociologist