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NEWS ANALYSIS

They should go

Syed Badrul Ahsan
The World Bank as well as a broad section of people in this country would like Mashiur Rahman to quit his position, in the national interest, as the prime minister's economic advisor. Questions are beginning to be raised about the prime ministerial health advisor Modasser Ali, who clearly needs to step aside in order for a proper investigation to be carried out about his involvement or otherwise in the Hall-Mark financial scam. And with hooligans having now entered the scene at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in questionable defence of an embattled vice chancellor, it now becomes critically important that Vice Chancellor Nazrul Islam and the pro-VC of the university do the
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FROM PAGE 1 decent thing of handing in their resignations in order for Buet to get back to normal.
Calling for the resignation of a public figure is certainly not the same thing as assuming that the individual in question is guilty of the crime he has been accused of. It is only a reminder to the individual and to the wider public that in this day and age, it is extremely important that the public weal not be lost sight of. In these past many
months and weeks, this thought of doing the public a favour has certainly not been a priority with those who matter, especially the men against whom accusations of a varied sort have come up. It took a very long time for Syed Abul Hossain to resign. He ought to have left office on his own and then let the entire issue of his alleged links to the bribery question be handled by the government. For her part, the prime minister should have issued clear instruc-
tions to her minister to get out of the way and let the normal business of government go on. When Syed Abul Hossain finally decided to go, it was pretty late in the day. The damage, to the government and to the country, had already been done.
In the matter of the two advisors and the vice chancellor, the question is surely not one of whether they have committed the wrong some people think they have. Every individual is innocent until proved guilty. But, again,
when charges of corruption are levelled at an individual, it quite undermines his ability to perform. From that perspective, Mashiur Rahman, Modasser Ali and Nazrul Islam have been weakened by the question marks raised about their role in the positions they have been holding. Their authority has been haemorrhaging. A strong, decisive government based on deep foundations of democracy and so mindful of public concerns would have asserted its due role and influenced these men into leaving or would have decreed that they leave. Since governmental authority is today frayed at the edges, for a good number of reasons, it now becomes the responsibility of the three men to tell themselves that for their own good, for the good of the government, indeed for the good of the state, they will leave the stage.
The reason why the two advisors and the vice chancel-
lor should not linger in their jobs is more moral than legal at this point. The economic advisor's reputation has come under a cloud because of the World Bank's assessment of his role in the Padma bridge project. Every day newer questions are coming up about the health advisor's place in all this sordid tale of what Hall-Mark has been up to. As for the Buet vice chancellor, the issue is as bright as a gleaming day: he has lost the confidence of his academic colleagues and his students to administer the university. By holding on to his position, by imagining that conditions will simmer down and return to normal and he will be back to exercising the old authority, he is only making a bad situation worse.
An exasperated Oliver Cromwell told a laid-back, out of tune parliament long years ago, “In the name of God, go!”
And the parliamentarians went.