Category: Opinion

Finance minister’s worrying lack of concern about inflation

IT IS indeed worrying that the finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, is ‘not worried about inflation at all.’ According to a report on Tuesday, when talking to a private news agency, Muhith produced a couple of simplistic reasons in his attempt to justify his lack of concern about inflation—i.e. ‘Inflation is rising in every country. Prices of all things are high in the international market...

Myth, politics, economy and inflation

The increase in petrol, furnace oil and kerosene prices, the latest catalyst of price hike, makes less sense when you consider that the price of crude oil is on a descending drift since April. The current price of $80 per barrel is down from $115 earlier...

Challenges for Int’l Crimes Tribunal

WITH the indictment of the detained Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami nayeb-e-amir, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during the war of independence in 1971, the International Crimes Tribunal on Monday paved the way for...

Govt owes an explanation to NHRC, people

IT IS, perhaps, indicative of the Awami League-Jatiya Party government’s general disregard for human rights and the rule of law, and its particular disliking for the current chair of the National Human Rights Commission that the latter was not allowed...

Hard line hardly helps anyone

THE ruling Awami League’s plan to take a hard line in respect of anti-government agitations by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition is indeed ominous because it may eventually lead to yet another round of confrontational politics and concomitant...

Fuel and electricity price hike on top of high prices

The government, rather than reducing waste and corruption, diminishing lavish expenditures and going for moderation, prudence and thrift, has decided to take the easy and convenient way out, causing untold distress and despair along with immense resentment...

Obama: America’s ‘first Jewish president’?

Obama is the “the first Jewish President”. That’s the title of New York magazine’s lead article, written by John Heilemann and quoting a major Obama fundraiser. Listening to Obama speak at the United Nations on Wednesday many would...

Transport fare issue

The capital city’s bus owners have rejected the government-fixed rates of fare for different types of transport. The reason for their rejection is based on an apprehension that a chaotic situation may set in if transport operators begin to charge...

Fuel prices

The continual increase in the price of fuel seems to be an un-ending spiral which is affecting common people. The price hike is the second one since May of this year. Occurring in a matter of months, the public tend to think what compelled the government...

No let-up in BCL atrocities

THE Bangladesh Chhatra League is at it again. According to media report on Thursday, at least 12 students of Rajshahi University were hurt as BCL activists attacked general students rallying against an increase in the price of admission forms for the...

Fresh police recruitment

The report that bureaucratic tangles have stalled recruitment of around 16, 000 new police personnel is unfortunate. It cannot be gainsaid that the present manpower strength of the police is very low compared to the size of the population. While an improved...

Where is AL’s commitment to fight against Corruption?

On the Global Competitiveness Index, 2011, Bangladesh has ranked 108th among 142 countries surveyed by World Economic Forum. Whilst other countries have bettered their previous standings, Bangladesh has slid down the rung. That we are more competitive...

Home minister at it again

THE home minister, Sahara Khatun, seems to have a queer sense of timing, especially when it comes to making her oft-repeated and widely-questioned claim of significant improvement...

The diplomatic debacle and lessons for govt to learn

THE two-day visit of the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, in all practical purposes, proved to be an anti-climax, anything but a diplomatic jackpot or a watershed in Bangladesh-India relations that the Bangladesh prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, herself...

Indian PM’s visit : Our expectations

WE look to the forthcoming visit of the Indian premier to Bangladesh as much more than just a visit by a leader of a big neighbour. It is a historic visit and has all the potentials of becoming a major turning point in the bilateral relations between...

Imagine PM had said the opposite : Mahfuz Anam

Recently ruling party MPs, for the first time, came out in droves on the Sangsad floor criticising the unforgivable failure of the communications minister resulting in major highways suddenly becoming unusable, and that also just before the Eid holidays....

PM’s salvo at criticism

To the nation’s disappointment, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appears to have dismissed demands from her party and ruling alliance lawmakers that she sack some under-performing ministers. The lawmakers were only giving expression to widespread public...

Shipping minister’s remarks : Is the PM listening?

In what appears to be an ex post-facto justification of an earlier comment, the Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan has again said in so many words that drivers have no need for education. We are shocked at this brazen reiteration of a remark that amounts...

When police turns mugger

There must be something seriously wrong with the system when those that we turn to for safety and help themselves resort to robbing and mugging. News reports, of two incidents in recent times regarding cops snatching money from the public, speak volumes...

High time to do something decisive

The deaths of Tareque Masud, an internationally acclaimed film director, Ashfaque Mishuk Munier, a renowned cinematographer, along with three others, in a gruesome road accident on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Ghior in Manikganj on Saturday is not just...

In the name of the father: The Economist

The influential weekly magazine of the United Kingdom ‘The Economist’ has published a new article on Bangladesh. The headline of the article is ‘In the name of the father.’ The following is the full version of the article: ASK well-connected Bangladeshis...