THE opinion of the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, published in a weekly magazine of an English language daily on January 18, seems to be nothing but eyewash. The chairman only avoided the issue, which is one of the most burning issues concerning of the future of the nation. He could definitely have expressed a more factual and realistic opinion than that lame statement.
Given that the graft-related allegations on the Padma Bridge are very serious, the chairman of the supposedly independent body should have had the courage to give a fair and clear opinion. Or the commoners may think that the commission is not as independent as we have been told for years. Dodging the issue marks him irrelevant and aggravates Bangladesh’s position on the matter.
Similarly, his argument that including the former minister in the first information report would have caused a political uproar was lame and irrelevant. Is he more concerned with political uproar, or the investigation of the matter? If the people of the country cannot rely on our own anti-corruption body, there is nothing to wonder what the World Bank feels about this government and the commission.
Would the chairman, if he is still there, under a BNP government, still give the same or similar statement? Our experiences in the past suggest clearly that the views of the ACC chairman are not objective and impartial. He should, at least, know that all the people cannot be fooled for long.
A concerned citizen
Dhaka