Health advisor's unpardonable remarks
It is time to assess the remarks made by Syed Modasser Ali at Gopalganj Sadar Hospital a couple of days ago. The assessment is simple. By being dismissive of the principle of citizens' right to information and by publicly stating his intention of placing ruling Awami League elements in 13,350 positions at the community health levels, he has committed an act that is unhealthy and therefore unacceptable and, in the end, unpardonable.
The free-wheeling comments by the prime minister's advisor for health may have dented not just the integrity of the government he is part of. They also raise questions about the brazen manner in which political partisanship is being resorted to by individuals like the health advisor.
In its totality, Modasser Ali's attitude humiliates an entire nation, for he has pitted his political party against that nation through insisting that only his party members and followers be given jobs that by right should be open to all citizens, to be gained on the basis of merit.
The health advisor has spoken of the deprivation that Awami League workers went through after the general elections of 2001 and till the end of the BNP-Jamaat government in 2006. There is little question that as a party, the Awami League was at the receiving end of everything sinister the government led by Khaleda Zia was able to devise in its time in office. But that can in no way be an excuse for anyone to ask that every available post now be handed over to anyone who belongs to the Awami League or is a fan of it. Where have the interests of the country gone missing here? And under what law does the health advisor demand that his party be rewarded because it has suffered in the past, citizens be damned?
Syed Modasser Ali has not just shocked us with his point of view. He has also confirmed our feeling that divisive politics is yet abroad in the land, that indeed it promises to acquire darker shades of notoriety as the days go by. He has, in so many words, openly told us what we have long suspected: that the ideal of national unity under a leadership truly national in outlook and wedded to the principles of the War of Liberation is yet a pipe dream, that tribalism is the big, dark, dominant truth in our times.
We expected better from Modasser Ali. And we did because he comes of a profession, which prides itself in serving humanity, across politics, across colour, across gender, across faith. He has now disappointed us. He has infuriated us. And he has injected the fear in us that what he has said might also be the sentiments of many others in this government.
Of course there are men like Obaidul Quader, able to sense danger that may arise through pronouncements of the kind Modasser Ali has made. But how many are there like him? And how will these few explain to the nation that Modasser Ali's remarks are but an aberration, that they are his personal opinions and do not reflect the views of the government?
For the government, indeed for the prime minister, there is a huge need for damage control in the light of Modasser Ali's incendiary comments. One does not require much wisdom to understand the truth that the health advisor's comments have left us all, citizens across the political spectrum, reeling in shock and seething in anger. He has undermined the position he holds.
It is now for the government to do a couple of things: it can disassociate itself from Modasser Ali's remarks and it can lean on him to resign. Indeed, the prime minister will be reassuring the country and will be taking a big step toward restoring public confidence in her government by making her health advisor go in the larger national interest.
For his part, Syed Modasser Ali ought to do the morally acceptable thing: he should resign on his own. He has damaged himself. He has called the high calling of his office into question.
The free-wheeling comments by the prime minister's advisor for health may have dented not just the integrity of the government he is part of. They also raise questions about the brazen manner in which political partisanship is being resorted to by individuals like the health advisor.
In its totality, Modasser Ali's attitude humiliates an entire nation, for he has pitted his political party against that nation through insisting that only his party members and followers be given jobs that by right should be open to all citizens, to be gained on the basis of merit.
The health advisor has spoken of the deprivation that Awami League workers went through after the general elections of 2001 and till the end of the BNP-Jamaat government in 2006. There is little question that as a party, the Awami League was at the receiving end of everything sinister the government led by Khaleda Zia was able to devise in its time in office. But that can in no way be an excuse for anyone to ask that every available post now be handed over to anyone who belongs to the Awami League or is a fan of it. Where have the interests of the country gone missing here? And under what law does the health advisor demand that his party be rewarded because it has suffered in the past, citizens be damned?
Syed Modasser Ali has not just shocked us with his point of view. He has also confirmed our feeling that divisive politics is yet abroad in the land, that indeed it promises to acquire darker shades of notoriety as the days go by. He has, in so many words, openly told us what we have long suspected: that the ideal of national unity under a leadership truly national in outlook and wedded to the principles of the War of Liberation is yet a pipe dream, that tribalism is the big, dark, dominant truth in our times.
We expected better from Modasser Ali. And we did because he comes of a profession, which prides itself in serving humanity, across politics, across colour, across gender, across faith. He has now disappointed us. He has infuriated us. And he has injected the fear in us that what he has said might also be the sentiments of many others in this government.
Of course there are men like Obaidul Quader, able to sense danger that may arise through pronouncements of the kind Modasser Ali has made. But how many are there like him? And how will these few explain to the nation that Modasser Ali's remarks are but an aberration, that they are his personal opinions and do not reflect the views of the government?
For the government, indeed for the prime minister, there is a huge need for damage control in the light of Modasser Ali's incendiary comments. One does not require much wisdom to understand the truth that the health advisor's comments have left us all, citizens across the political spectrum, reeling in shock and seething in anger. He has undermined the position he holds.
It is now for the government to do a couple of things: it can disassociate itself from Modasser Ali's remarks and it can lean on him to resign. Indeed, the prime minister will be reassuring the country and will be taking a big step toward restoring public confidence in her government by making her health advisor go in the larger national interest.
For his part, Syed Modasser Ali ought to do the morally acceptable thing: he should resign on his own. He has damaged himself. He has called the high calling of his office into question.
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