Editorial
120 days of the Fakhruddin government
Focus on the election please
The caretaker government (CG) led by Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed has passed four months in office and it is a good time to take a stock of what has been its achievement so far. While there are several excellent initiatives undertaken by the CG, which have received the approbation of the people, there are several issues that it should have fared better on. There has been wide-scale acclaim of the way it had initiated the anti-corruption and anti-crime drive. What we are waiting for, however, is the conduct of trial of the alleged offenders in a transparent manner, and the conviction of the guilty through the due process of law. In this regard we cannot say that we are not a little disappointed at the delay in the framing of charges and the start of trial in respect of the high-profile alleged offenders now in custody. The recasting of the Election Commission (EC) has revived its credibility that was at a low ebb not very long ago. And the Anti-Corruption Commission that was kept toothless, perhaps deliberately, has been invested with more clout to address the issue. In similar vein, we hope, the Public Service Commission, under its new Chairman, will strive to wipe the partisan stain that smeared the statutory institution of the government. Some of the bottlenecks that had plagued cargo handling at Chitttagong Port have been removed and it has certainly become more efficient. On the other end of the scale, considering that the primary mandate of the interim government is holding a free and fair election, one feels that the EC could have moved faster in finding a solution to the matter of the type of voter list we ought to have. Also, the government should have innovated a way out of the present ban on politics to initiate a dialogue with the political parties, one of the main stakeholders, and without whose participation no comprehensive political reforms can be initiated. The galloping price hike has been a negative factor in the rating of the government performance. We feel that the main focus of the government should be the election. But polls without reforms would not be acceptable to the people. Thus towards that end it must remove the ban on indoor politics immediately to allow the EC to start dialogue with the political parties on political reforms. It will also be worth keeping in mind that with limited time at its disposal the government it can hardly afford getting mired in damage control and crisis management exercises that do very little for its credibility.
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