The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

The 31-member Council of Ministers chosen by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reflects her choice overwhelmingly for new faces and a careful preference for those who do not face charges of corruption in courts.

The size of the government has also been consciously kept limited. Four advisers with the rank and status of ministers were appointed soon after the swearing in of the Council of Ministers.

Party stalwarts including Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta, who have been bracketed as reformists since the January 11 change of 2007, have not been included.

The selection also indicates a soft corner for heirs of those AL leaders who were killed in 1975. Syed Ashraful Islam, son of Syed Nazrul Islam, Acting President of Bangladesh during the War of Liberation, Tajnim Ahmed Sohel Taj, son of the first Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed have been made minister and state minister.

Son of AHM Qamruzzaman, Khairuzzaman Liton, has recently been elected Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation as AL nominee. However, Mohammad Nasim, son of former Prime Minister Captain Mansur Ali, has fallen from grace since AL's debacle in the 2001 election.

President Iajuddin Ahmed administered oaths to the Prime Minister, her 23 Cabinet colleagues and eight ministers of state in the packed Durbar Hall of Bangabhaban.

This is Sheikh Hasina's second term as Prime Minister and the third Awami League government since the independence of Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina in 1996 headed 'a government of national consensus,' now she heads a government of 'Mahajote' (grand alliance).Five members of her cabinet have previous experience as ministers or ministers of state. They include Abul Maal Abdul Muhit and Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khondakar who were ministers in the Ershad government; Matia Chowdhury who was minister, Syed Abul Hossain and Syed Ashraful Islam who were ministers of state in the 1996 government.

The Cabinet thus has highly experienced members like the Prime Minister herself, AMA Muhit, Matia Chowdhury, AK Khondakar, Syed Abul Hossain, Syed Ashraful Islam as well as 26 others with no ministerial experience.

The ministerial appointments made at the advice of the Prime Minister show a careful attempt made to avoid mistakes committed by past governments since the restoration of democracy in 1991 both in number and quality. Three members of the minority community have been chosen. Two of them also represent the left political alliance and the hill districts. There are two women and two technocrats in the Council of Ministers.

The Prime Minister clearly has shown her guts in dealing with her senior party colleagues and in so doing she has also taken a calculated risk about the performance of her government. However four advisers HT Imam, a former cabinet secretary, Dr. Mashiur Rahman, a former economic relations secretary, Syed Modasser Ali, an eye specialist and Dr. Alauddin Ahmed a former Vice-Chancellor of Jahangir Nagar University are expected to be able to help overcome the experience-gap.

An interesting departure from a negative practice of the past was the presence of four MPs-elect belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party at the oath-taking ceremony although they are yet to take oaths themselves. The BNP MPs were MK Anwar, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, Barkatullah Bhulu and Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anny. Two MPs-elect belonging to Jamaat Moulana Shamsul Islam and Hamidur Rahman Azad were also present. The oath-taking ceremonies of the three previous governments had been avoided by the respective main opposition party.

The distribution of portfolios announced late at night were howover questioned by many as important ministeries like Home and Foreign Affairs went to hands having neither previous experience nor high academic backgrounds needed to run those.