On Sunday night, the Prime Minister left for New York leading reportedly a 180-member delegation, seven of them ministers and nearly two dozen senior bureaucrats, including several secretaries.
The PM is due to address the UN General Assembly session. It is nothing very special. It will make no difference as to how big or small is the PM’s entourage. The finance minister, foreign minister, health minister, expatriate welfare and overseas employment minister, environment and forest minister, food minister and state minister for foreign affairs are on the prime minister’s entourage. Among top officials, principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, PMO secretary, foreign secretary, environment secretary, shipping secretary, Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs secretary, health secretary, labour secretary and a planning commission member also accompanied the prime minister.
If the ministers were necessary for good governance then no prime minister would have taken so many ministers with her at the United Nations when the country is in turmoil. We are not talking about wasting tax payers money. That goes on any way. As if the people are paying taxes to provide men in the government expensive life style and they should be happy for being helpful to men and women in power to have the time of their life at the expense of people’s money.
The government is not even elected by the people so they have no accountability to the people. One argument may be that the PM needed confidence and courage for her visit to the United Nations and big crowd accompanying her shall provide that. But they shall not be able to make truth a lie that this government has no popular mandate to govern. The argument that the people do not talk about election but only the economy is not saleable under the United Nation’s Charter, although the economy is also in ruin. Under the UN Charter no development is possible where the government is unresponsive and unelected.
Only misconception is that the UN is not the right place for a disputed government eager to suppress the press freedom and independence of the judiciary to display itself with pride and pomp.
Cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that it was essential for the senior officials to accompany the PM for providing inputs during her meetings and to follow up her commitments. What these people were doing by way of preparing the PM for her visit to New York when they were in the country? It proves that they were busy doing nothing. It is most likely that the PM took them for such an enjoyable trip to express her gratitude for being helpful to continue in power though they have no ability to be useful for good governance. They are being rewarded for their incompetence and personal loyalty.
The country belongs to the people and there has to be accountability. So we feel that no government elected or not elected must not ignore the need of taking care of the people and feeling concerned when people’s safety and security are in jeopardy.
This is a pertinent question to be answered : If so many ministers and bureaucrats are not useful for governance then why they should be paid from people’s money? Many people with any sense of responsibility come to the conclusion that we have too big a government to be of any use to the people or the country. It can be slashed to a third of its present size.
