NEWLY appointed State Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmed set an unprecedented example of honesty by returning gifts from a local police officer. The politics of flattery and grovel to high-ups is common in a low political culture where politics supersede everything and laws overlook crimes of powerful. Amidst this culture, the junior Minister set an example that indicates the honesty and integrity is being instilled in the political leaders. If all the Minister and public officials follow the same path, we hope the culture of flattery will be ended and corruption as well.
As per news media, the State Minister, also MP of Sylhet-4, saw a truck-loaded with food on Thursday morning in front of his house and immediately ordered to send it back. Abdul Jalil, Officer-in-Charge of Gowainghat Police Station in Sylhet, supposedly sent vegetables, fish and fruits to the State Minister’s house at Sreepur village under Jaintiapur upazila in Sylhet. But Sylhet district police claims that the incident was planned by somebody only to frame the police officer.
We see clientelism and politics of flattery are common in our politics, where the State Minister is an exception. Definitely, clientelism is the overwhelmed block of democratization while flattery is the prime cause to institutional and systematic corruption.
Patronage networks through which party leaders seek to secure their positions and extend their authority without reference to the pervasive patron-clientelism that defines the entire state or the hierarchies. We have a dream that one day politicians will overcome the existing patron-client relation and all public officials and representatives become responsible to the citizens directly.
The MPs as the representatives of citizens should have a strong relationship with the locality where the prime duty of law enforcers is to ensure law and order. When a police officer sends a truck-loaded gift to a State Minister, it can be assumed there are some hidden agenda, nepotism, and seeking undue favour from the government. We congratulate the State Minister and urge all the members of the Cabinet to follow the example.
