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Yellow card for the Grand Alliance?

A.K.M-A Quader
THE voters in the Chittagong City Corporation election gave the mayor a red card, ending his sixteen-year rule, and a yellow card to the grand alliance government. You may think differently, but an election reflects the voters' mood. Postmortems and analyses of this verdict will be useful if the grand alliance takes lessons and acts accordingly. The result is a verdict against non-performance and empty rhetoric.
The grand alliance will be mistaken if it does not acknowledge the mindset of the voters under 50 years of age, who want to see them-
selves as citizens of a free democratic country and whose expectation from the elected government is not limited to dal-bhat only. With electronic media and digital connectivity they are aware of performing governments elsewhere.
They know how a modern government functions, and who runs it; how elected representatives speak and behave; and how insignificant is the permanent bureaucracy in making decisions and policies. They consider good performance of the government as normal and business as usual while they are critical of nonperformance.
Traditional supporters of Awami League and other political parties are dwindling as they are
ageing or dying. To survive the new voters' wrath for non-performance, the party in power needs to change its own mindset and style of governance. They have been elected to serve the entire people, not to rule it.
They must not consider themselves as the ijaradar (lease holder) of the country forever. Their words and deeds must demonstrate that they are responding to the people's wishes. The government must admit its mistakes, failures and oversight, and leave aside blame games and flimsy excuses.
The people voted for the grand alliance for change and for performance. During the past eighteen months, in spite of good achievements in certain areas such as price stabilisation of food and essentials, agricultural outputs etc., non-performance — in power and gas sectors, continued campus violence, tender manipulation by hoodlums, wrangling between MPs and elected upazilla chairmen, environmental degradation, rehabilitation of Aila victims, etc. — has irked conscientious citizens.
They believe in what they see on the TV screens and read in the dailies. They are shocked to see dao wielding students roaming in the campus, party hoodlums snatching tenders, stinking water bodies and breached embankments. These are not certainly the signs of change that they have been asking for.
The people are fuming because of rampant bureaucratic corruption, manipulation by hoarders and smugglers, excesses of the land developers, tycoons and political demi-gods etc. The clipping of the wings of the ACC has not been palatable to the common mass. Even if we do not approve of the past caretaker government, it had, through the ACC and other agencies, vividly revealed the rot and depth of corruption.
The written words and electronic clippings depicting those crimes and corruption are permanently embedded in the people's memory. They know how bad some of us are! During the past eighteen months of the grand alliance government, the ACC, or any other government agency, has not revealed any such corruption or malpractice — as if the country is now blessed with Sufis.
The grand alliance is suffering from nonperformance and image problems because of some cabinet members and advisers. Reshuffling a cabinet from time to time is a standard practice to purge the non-performers and to strengthen it with new faces — like the substitutions made in a football game.
Reshuffling is certainly desirable in many ministries -- energy and power, home affairs, industry, environment and forest, water resource, science and IT, finance, law, and may be more. Some advisers should be axed for non-
performance and for embarrassing the government from time to time, and for not being clean in the public perception.
Whenever the Awami League was elected, the "Aa-me League" (I am the league), for unknown reasons, had the upper hand over the mainstream Awami League members, and it is not different this time. The "Aa-me Leaguers" have always successfully walked in the corridors of power, and have been patronised.
The recent appointments of civil servants at all levels, and of DGs, chairmen, directors VCs and Pro-VCs of the public universities, district administrators etc., are no exceptions. Why on earth should these positions be given to the "Aa-me Leaguers" by ignoring merit, competence, capability, track record, integrity, honesty, courage, leadership, excellence and vision.
The absence of in-house policy, programs, working papers and laid down strategies as per the election manifesto by the grand alliance has been compromised by induction of the "Aa-me Leaguers" who lobby for such posts by calling on ministers, advisers, MPs, labour leaders, student leaders, party mastans and so on. How can you, therefore, expect a change?
The chaos in the government has time and again been visible through ill-conceived actions. Examples include appointments to the war crime tribunal, appointment of law secretary and High Court judges, on-going struggle between MPs and elected upazilla chairmen, listing of schools for MPO etc.
The chaos exists because the ministers, advisers and MPs want to influence every appointment and decision to ensure that none should be anybody in Bangladesh, except for those blessed by them. They believe that they are the final arbitrators of the nation. What a mindset for changing Bangladesh!
The people are no fools. They understand the importance of such appointments and decisions; they are aware how the elected governments function vis-a-vis the roles of MPs, congressman and senators in a democratic society. An MP elected for legislative duties must give up his feudal mindset of being an icon everywhere in his/her constituency and elsewhere.
The election of Chittagong City Corporation should be duly judged by the grand alliance, especially by the Awami League, as ayellow card, and they must act expeditiously in a pro-people manner by overcoming non-performance and changing their behaviour. Let the Awami League leadership finally get rid of the "Aa-me Leaguers" to win the hearts and minds of all the people. Help us Almighty to change our mindset.
Dr. A.K.M. Abdul Quader is Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.