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The bottom line

24 February 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By An amused citizen Dhaka
24 February 2005, 18:00 PM
I sympathise with the grievance and disappointment felt by the Hon. Finance Minister (DS 22 Feb) with the "critics" meeting over Bangladesh governance at Washington of all places! Unfortunately the fact is that it does reflects the lack of "respect, confidence, capability or whatever one may call it" of the donors. After all they felt that an evaluation is in order, so that they can review the quality of performance of the receivers of various aids and loans.

The unfortunate events which contradict the Hon. Minister's observations as reported are there for all to comprehend. It can be viewed from the front page reports (DS: 22 Feb). I quote "Grenade blast at Habiganj ", "12 militants held with important materials", "Govt. sleeps as over 4,000 die in decade" and "UN declares level 1 warning in Dhaka". All these reports reflect adversely on our capability and capacity to govern which is undeniable.

The finance minister is reported to have also said, "We are a sovereign and large country." One wonders what he meant by "large"? Is it the population or possibly landmass; because apart from these two yardsticks we are possibly near the bottom in most other criteria of performance. This is reinforced again (DS: 22 Feb) by AFP, Singapore, report which states "Singapore best Asian city, Dhaka worst".

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Passing the buck on to the "opposition" and "interested quarters" and comparing it with other similar events elsewhere is but an excuse and a gimmick that does not hoodwink anyone. The bottom line is that we (our government) are incompetent and incapable to boot, whether we like it or not. No amount of sorrow or anger can wash it away.