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Where do we need a government?

Reaz Ahmad
WE must thank the government for telling us the recipe for getting a Nobel Prize.
Courtesy a government minister's in-depth knowledge about how things operate in the Western world, we now know it for sure that having cheese sandwiches and drinking wine, the white one, brightens the prospect of one’s getting world's most covet prize -- Nobel.
Over six years into Prof. Muhammad Yunus getting a Nobel Prize, the minister in question also subtly questioned the prudence of the Nobel committee by making a query that why he (Yunus) was bestowed with the prize in the peace category and not in economics, particularly when the micro-credit guru had not helped any war to be defused.
And another minister asked Yunus as well as one of the world's best known development practitioner Sir FH Abed to join politics if they want to talk politics.
Wait a minute. Are these the issues that the currently average Bangladeshis are haunted by? Do we really need a government to tell us the recipe for getting a Nobel or set for us (those who are not involved in active politics) a boundary beyond which we would have no voice unless we choose to join their political bandwagons?
In fact, where we need the presence of a government more urgently is in the areas where we, the general citizenry, suffer the most — the areas where governance is pathetically missing, areas where people face insecurity and areas where the rule of law, at times, sounds a misnomer.
Look at the death galore on our roads. An average of 10 to 20 lives are taken away everyday mainly because we let loose a band of transport drivers equipping them with no training, no road-safety knowledge whatsoever, but just some 'fake and date expired licenses.'
I wonder that if one in the likes ofYunus and Abed are not allowed to talk politics unless they join politics, would we be allowed to talk about road safety issues without joining the relevant government agencies. But people are asking questions on a daily basis on what the government functionaries are doing for redress. How many more lives have to be sacrificed before the reckless driving is brought to a halt?
We actually need a government to bring discipline in the existing haphazard and choked road traffic systems that we have now and free the roads from the hands of drivers with 'licenses to kill' in their possessions.
Little do we need a government for giving people sermons on how they should talk on issues concerning politics and whether or not they should go for cheese sandwiches and white wine to grab a Nobel or two.
Just the other day, a senior reporter of a national English daily fell prey to a road accident involving the motorbike he was riding on and a rashly driven town service bus. If one takes the bus driver's profile, s/he would conclude that it was rather a case of 'homicide' and not an accident per se.
The driver in question, who goes by the name Mofiz, acknowledged before law enforcers and newsmen that:
a) He is illiterate,
b) He never appeared for any driving tests to get the license,
c) He managed a license illegally by paying hefty amount to BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) middlemen, and
d) The one (license) he was possessing had already became invalid as it expired in 2009.
Interestingly, while we get our government, its functionaries and its political leaderships omnipresent in taking swipes against their opponents, 'perceived' opponents and never tired of tirades, we hardly see the presence of a government when it comes to the point of providing people with safety and security in their daily lives.
We need the government's presence to safeguard public rights, where people don't mysteriously disappear. We need a government where people can see their rights to access information is well established and people are empowered to the level that can demand for further transparency and accountability in the whole governance procedures.
Now that Mofiz is caught after we lost a spirited young journalist in yet another incident of 'road killing,' would the government take the onus upon it to answer to the citizenry that how is it that a driver was able to mange a license without appearing into any driving test? How could he manage running a town service bus years after years with an illegally-managed driving license that had already expired three years back?
Government must soul-search and give us answers to what roles its machineries -- that include regulatory bodies and traffic law enforcers — are playing after feeding on tax payers' money. After all Mofiz is not the only one at fault here. Some heads from within an inept nexus of government functionaries have to roll before we get our roads free from all the Mofizs.
The writer Is a News Editor of The Daily Star.
E-mail: reazahmad@yahoo.com