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The finance minister as a lightning bolt
r ■ 1 HE finance minister
I apparently ate the humble pie two Thursdays ago in a tone that ranged between regret and recrimination. He admitted it was wrong to put political people on the boards, which led to poor performance of the state-owned banks. The minister, however, said nothing with regard to what he has done about it or how he was going to recover the plun-
dered cash or catch the culprits who made off with the money. In all practicality, he sounded disjointed like Rip Van Winkle after he had woken up from his proverbial sleep.
In reasonable countries, people are held accountable for their mistakes and mischiefs. In those countries, the buck stops somewhere because public money isn’t exactly anyone's family fortune. The finance minister once shrugged off Tk. 40 billion as no big deal. Not long ago he obediently accepted the resignation of a bank chairman as if Tk. 45 billion skimmed by the man was pocket change. Much earlier, when stock market manipulators were laughing all the way to the bank, he had accused the small investors of being greedy.
That's why the Thursday therapy came across as confusing. It's not clear why the minister said what he did and what he was expecting out of it. He was surely not taking responsibility for anything. It must have been through him that the political appointments were processed. He should have known it better at that time that square pegs were being fitted into round holes.
The minister's candor on Thursday had the resonance of snatches from the Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence." The minister was talking without speaking and we were hearing without listening. If the minister was making a serious confession, it should have been backed by some evidence of his repentance if not resignation. If the minister was making accusations, it should have been followed by a plan of action to nab the guilty. If the minister was merely sharing information, it should have been followed by naming the names of those who were involved.
So, why did he want to bare his soul? May be it was the day the minister woke up on the right side of his bed. May be he has got genuine grievances bottled up inside
him that squirted out at a Freudian moment. It's not unlikely that he could be a captive of the system that compels him to go against his will and do things against his grain. That could be the only way to explain why a thoroughbred man like him is erratic at times. That could be the reason why he speaks in spurts, scoffs at reporters and has stereotyped himself by shouting the same expletives over and over again.
If we add up all the bank scams of last six years the total amount defrauded should exceed Tk. 100 billion. If we throw in the Tk. 250 billion raked in by the stock market manipulators, the big hole in the economy gets even bigger. Disappearance of money or people works like jet propulsion. The thrust produced propels the miscreants forward while the society goes in the oppositedirection.
One can always argue if our society is moving forward or backward. One can also argue if the economy is limping or leaping. But one can never deny that society like human body needs holistic growth. The body cannot be sound body if the mind is sick.
Now these are the arguments we wanted to hear from the minister instead of one abrupt enunciation that rang out nothing but the desolation of no-man's land. The soliloquy rather sounded neither like an admission of guilt nor a vow to deal with the guilty. It sounded more like the aplomb of a gambler who is ready to shuffle his cards and forget the last hand.
The proof of it appeared in the same scene. When reporters told the minister that the new chairman of Janata Bank had once taken a helicopter ride at customer's expense when he was the managing director of Sonali Bank, he right away dismissed it as an instance of "misconduct." It showed that the minister had meant nothing he had said earlier. It also showed he had learned nothing from his experience.
Because misconduct is the mother of mischief in the manner fuses are used to initiate detonation of explosives. It must have been the same oversight that had led to political appointment on bank boards. When misbehaving people are rewarded, it not only condones their wrongs but also gives them the courage to do worse.
Abraham Lincoln narrated this story. When a bolt of lightning struck on a stormy night, a frontiersman got down on his knees and prayed to God to give him a little more light and less noise. Let's hope the honourable minister is listening.
The writer is Editor, First News, and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
Email: badrull51@yahoo.com