Editorial
Cabinet expansion or a peripheral adjustment?
Qualitative change in cabinet people look for still elusive
What should have been a roar has ended in a whimper. Given the three-year record of poor-to-middling quality performance with occasional flashes of brilliance, that too hamstrung with self-created controversies, people expected a qualitative cabinet reshuffle to take place. But what has happened has more of quantity than quality to it.
This is not to, however, miss the redeeming feature of the change which is the induction of Suranjit Sengupta and Obaidul Quader, veterans of many experiences in the cabinet and promotion of Hasan Mahmud to full ministership in view of the increasing importance of the environment portfolio he held as a deputy.
The preexisting cabinet has been made up of many green horns taking the place of old guards, so that it quickly came to be described, and in fact, proved as inexperienced. While the new entrants, because of their inexperience compounded by incompetence and corruption failed to inject dynamism, the few senior ministers who have been in charge of crucial portfolios turned in a messy show as advisers and ministers with similar portfolios worked at cross-purposes. Self-initiative was lacked as ministers looked up to the prime minister for decisions and went about talking garrulously, some more as party spokesmen than as heads of ministries.
The communication, shipping and finance minister have been constantly on the spot, each obviously for different reasons. The minister with the first portfolio came under World Bank radar for his alleged part in influencing contracts for the Padma bridge resulting in suspension of funding of the vital infrastructure project, not just by the WB but possibly other multilateral financing institutions. Thus a blow was dealt to our credibility in handling big projects with transparency and accountability, something that is taking time to live down. Yet, he is being defended from the top and sitting pretty on a secure perch self-advertising his honesty, sincerity etc. Then, there is the home minister gleefully boasting of her ministry's performance just when the law and order takes a fresh dip.
What is a cabinet expansion good for, if the corrupt and the incompetent are not replaced by suitable substitutes with proven credentials? Whilst we believe Suranjit Sengupta and Obaidul Quader will make up for some of the inexperience in the cabinet, a really transformational reshuffle is called for if the government is to regain some of its lost grounds in the remaining two years of its tenure.
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