Disclosure of wealth
Mallik Akram Hossain, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Political parties in Bangladesh are very often blamed for all sorts of ills prevailing in the society. Among others, accumulating wealth by illegal means has been pervasive among the leaders. Politics has been a lucrative business to make money within a short period of time. Deputy leader of the opposition Mr Abdul Hamid has reaffirmed this claim while he said in the parliament that if you invest one crore taka in the election then, when elected, you can earn 100 crore taka. Reportedly, many politicians have become millionaires by virtue of being political leaders alone! Both the ruling four-party and the opposition 14-party alliances promised to disclose wealth of ministers and MPs. Their rhetoric has not been reflected in their actions, though. According to a DS report, the deputy leader of the opposition Abdul Hamid proposed formation of either a parliamentary body or a judicial commission to probe the "wealth accumulated through corruption" by the family members of the incumbent prime minister as well as former premier Sheikh Hasina. But the speaker and the ruling party did not respond to the deputy leader's suggestion. We appreciate the deputy leader of the opposition's integrity. We urge the incumbent four-party alliance government to accept his proposal for fulfilling one of their pre-election commitments.
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