The New Nation - Internet Edition

From the day of resignation of four advisers of the caretaker government on January 8, certain quarters appear to have been in a vicious campaign to malign them in public esteem. Some quarters are even publishing libelous writings or airing slanderous statements in a free-style manner without making the slightest effort to crosscheck the veracity of information that the quarters concerned are spreading with impunity.

Fact remains that the former advisers had taken responsibilities in the government not on their own seeking but being called upon to take risk at a time of grave national crisis. Knowing the risk involved they felt the urge of patriotism to steer the country from the dangers of an impending civil war. They were anxious to fulfil the commitment to democracy. Their great success was to save the country from the prevailing anarchy. They worked for a year day and night sacrificing their personal comforts, family responsibilities and resigned silently without hesitation when the perception was given that their resignation would help the caretaker government to be more effective.

Although all the major successes were achieved in the ministries under them, by any stretch of imagination the slow progress in the economic sector cannot be attributed to them.

This caretaker government has done a lot of works that would go down as significant achievements in the march on the road to accountable and transparent democracy.

On the first anniversary of the present government many of those achievements have figured prominently in the list of its successes in public life.

The price hike of rice and some other essential food items that have caused sufferings to the people should have been addressed most seriously. No doubt lack of timely action aggravated the crisis.

The work of the present caretaker government has been more difficult than that of its predecessors because of the difficult situation that it has been dealing with. The campaign against corruption caused problems for many. It's thus not unlikely that certain quarters were not happy with what they actually did and talked about.

It does not matter to the resigned advisers the bitterness of those who are against the change. But the demoralising effect of such maligning can only be ignored at the cost of diminishing the courage necessary for the new advisers to move forward. These quarters are trying to malign the former advisers with the ultimate objective of maligning the caretaker government itself.

The intelligence agencies cannot remain blind to those elements engaged in such nefarious activities against the caretaker government at such a critical time of national life. The reality in Bangladesh is that the mischief making of black money of corrupt ones is too widespread to be taken lightly. The press is not excluded from the subversive influence of the corrupt ones specially those staying abroad safely. The envelop journalism should be well known to those who care to know. They have a two-fold purpose. One is to delay hearing of corruption cases against them. The second is to cause political instability.