Abu Hena
As the year 2013 drew to a close, Bangladesh ended up with a cock + tail, ‘power anonymous’ government and a stage-managed parliament craftily created through a fictitious election. Power addiction and power abuse is the basic characteristic of this government. Some are habitual power abusers and others have it in their genes.
This parliament which represents only a tiny percentage of the electorate is the product of an ice- cold disdain for public opinion, trickery, deceit and intrigues. The men and women who now sit in ‘the House of the People ‘have already poisoned the national political well and the cost of the public-be- damned attitude of the power brokers have proved immense.
The Economist had earlier this month commented in one of its issues: “Writing about politics in Bangladesh, this newspaper has often found itself drawn to the analogy of a Punch-and-Judy show. We know this is deeply unfair – to a wholesome if brutal form of puppetry,”
Cost of political turmoil
The independent think-tank CPD recently came up with a report stating that four major sectors of the economy lost TK 49,017 crore during the first half of the current fiscal year due to political turmoil. At the same time many business and professional bodies have estimated a loss of TK 100,000 crores embracing the economy as a whole.
Meanwhile our neghbours have started cashing in on the political turmoil. The WB has slashed the GDP growth target to 5.7 percent down from the government’s 7.5 percent and the government has been forced to downsize the FY 2014 annual foreign project aid target by $420 million to $2.95 billion due to poor disbursement of the assistance amid weak project execution performance. Russia has declined to provide funds for the Rooppur power plant citing slow progress and the Finance Minister has decided to divert the budgetary allocation of the Padma Bridge fund to pay the salaries, parks and allowances of the huge ‘white elephant’ called the public administration which now dominate the public sector, violating all mandatory financial rules and regulations.
The Government, on 14 November fixed the minimum wage of TK 5,300 for an apparel worker to come into effect on 1 December. Up until now 946 garment factories in Dhaka and Chittagong to be exact, failed to pay the new wages.
As the new academic year is about to start we find ourselves asking some important questions about our universities: What our public universities ought to be doing? And are they doing it? After all to take five years out of a young adult’s life is a major investment, and we ought to be clear whether or not it’s bringing in a worthwhile return. Our societies, now badly afflicted by mischievous politics, seldom produce clear replies to these fundamental questions. The universal perception, however, is that higher education is proving to be expensive and counter-productive. Successive Governments have pledged to transform the public universities into breeding grounds for political designs and intrigues using the youths as mercenaries and the teaching communities as political surrogates.
The recent RU incident
Earlier this month The Daily Star came up with a lead story titled “RU at Fault” analyzing the causes which have turned Rajshahi University into a virtual battle ground. The story brought to public notice certain sensational facts to explain why the university authorities, the BCL activists and the law enforcing agencies got together by common interest to suppress any opposition protest in an insensitive way.
The crux of the problem lies at the large scale recruitment of teachers and employees on political considerations which created deficits in funds and forced the administration to increase fees and introduce evening courses to raise funds. The university recruited 368 teachers and staff against 208 posts advertised in 2012-13 academic year alone. As they were appointed without the mandatory approval of the UGC it did not grant TK 5.5 crore required for salaries and allowances of the 344 teachers who were similarly recruited without authorization over the years.
The RU authorities then decided to increase fees and launch evening courses to arrange their salaries. This triggered series of angry protests by the affected students. Gross anomalies in recruitment in Dhaka, Jahangirnagar and Chittagong universities have also been reported. But the situation in RU is the worst. Currently it has a fund deficit of TK 50 crore.
Thus when the general students launch a movement to resist any move to increase fees, all the political forces, the pro-government university authorities, the BCL activists and the government’s law enforcement agencies join hands to suppress it. The media reports focused on police brutality and the brazen display of arms by BCL activists on February 2. The gun trotting behavior of the BCL cadres was utterly reprehensible, to say the least. Equally despicable was the abandon with which the police used brutal force against the peaceful general students who were protesting over various fee hikes. But what is utterly disgusting is the callous attitude of the government which as usual left out of the FIR the names of the six BCL activists whose pictures were displayed in the video footage brandishing automatic weapons.
Hitler’s rating
Hitler always received higher ratings from students than from any other group in society. His views were supported by majority of German academics.
Situation in Bangladesh is no different. So we may be assured that the universities and education they provide do not necessarily impart wisdom. Yet the universities can instill certain virtues in young minds, including respect for the indispensable foundation of democracy, the rule of law, the need to back up right opinions with clear arguments, open mindedness, and the need for courage in the pursuit of truth. These are moral qualities which must form the basis of any university education. In the long run this is the only way we can ensure that universities justify the resources and time they consume.
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The writer was a member of parliament from 1996 to 2006.
Source: Weekly Holiday