Commentary: Corruption and cruelties making governance impossible for government

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Crimes and cruelties are almost engulfing the nation bringing the social order to a breaking point while the government seems unconcerned and unwilling to act as check. Anybody in the government or with the government has nothing to worry for grabbing properties or stealing public wealth. Such grabbing and wanton corruption in public affairs cannot but make public life miserable.

We cannot say that the government is helpless rather the government is weak and ill-organised against its own grabbers and looters as because the government depends on their self-serving loyalty. This weakness of the government is exploited to the furthest extent. These unruly and corrupts elements are too powerful to be any good for the government.

These grabbers and looters are making the government looks helpless and not good for the people’s safety and peace. The people are fuming and instances are not few when the people take law into their own hands and resort to mass beating to offending police officers and party followers.

In short, the signs are ominous for maintaining law order. Politicised police are not proving impartial in enforcing law. They are too much under the control of local leaders.

Only in yesterday’s newspapers the list of crimes was overwhelming. The Cabinet on Monday ordered concerned officials to take drastic measures to combat bribery in AC Land Office throughout the country. Another news highlighted irregularities of Tk 300 crore in purchase of equipment of Bangladesh Medical College. Yet another news dwelt with arrest of Managing Director of Sonali Jute Mills and a GM of Sonali Bank for embezzlement of Tk 126 crore on the mills account. In fact, the entire public sector is being robbed now by powerful people where the government is either helpless or some of them are equally making overnight fortune.

On the cruelty side one would only wonder how a brother strangulated to death three siblings and partially hacked another brother who narrowly escaped the death. The incident took place in Narsingdi Sadar Upazila on Tuesday night.

In another incident, a local leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) allegedly assaulted the Headmaster of Haatbarbazar Secondary School because some students of the school had displaced some flowers from the Shaheed Minar located in the school premises in Jhenaidah’s Kaliganj upazila on Tuesday.

What seems to be very disturbing is that the Chairman of a local Union Parishad witnessed the assault from a close distance and himself used abusive words at him (the teacher) instead of resisting the party man from harassing the head teacher in front of several hundred students.

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In another sad incident a small girl was tortured and humiliated by slashing her hair publicly by powerful brutes without anybody daring to stop them.

Adding to the list of cruelties some hawkers at the city’s Chandni Chawk market on Wednesday stabbed a fellow hawker to death in course of an altercation on flimsy matter. He used to sell clothes on a footbridge in New Market area.

Meanwhile bodies of two garment workers were recovered hanging in a house in Kamarjuri area of Gazipur district early yesterday. In Chittagong City three persons suffered bullet injuries in a clash between two groups of Chhatra League activists over distribution of tender form of ferry ghats under the City Corporation.

Hospital staff had beaten a young man three times at Bogra Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital on Monday last. The incident occurred when the young man who admitted his father on respiratory troubles and who died later, had asked an on-duty doctor where the switch of the fan in the hospital ward is located. One can’t understand how such small thing can create anger in medical teams working to save one’s life.

In yet another brutality, a bus driver and his associates tortured a teen-age boy tying him with a truck as they blamed him for stealing an electric gear. The incident happened in Putia Upazila of Rajshahi district on Tuesday.

The biggest newspaper headline on Thursday was arrest of former lawmaker Lt Col Dr Abdul Kader Khan on charge of killing of Awami League MP Manzurul Islam Liton at his Gaibandha home last month. Police accused him for masterminding the killing to vacate the seat for him to get elected again.

Another report in The New Nation said hoodlums are openly controlling the transportation services in metropolis Dhaka under political shelter. Police are also reportedly allowing illegal operation of small transports like CNG vehicles on regular monthly payment basis. In fact muggers and police are running their own system where official control on the system is proving total failure to bring discipline in city transport system.

It is one thing for the government to be inefficient but it is quite a different matter to encourage and protect lawlessness of the government’s own followers. The government is making the governance impossible.

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