Editorial
Khaleda's swipe against advisers
Isn't it unbecoming of her?
Four-party alliance leader and erstwhile prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia has taken umbrage at the advisers' talking to the media and some of them meeting AL chief Sheikh Hasina which to her constituted a breach of oath they had taken. She went hysterical with her invectives uttering too many things without any apparent connection, far less having any foundation in truth. Begum Zia literally accused the advisers of working to stop free and fair election, a very serious charge against them to countenance. Far worse, she didn't explain how they are stopping fair elections, just as she couldn't substantiate her allegation of them having broken their oath of office.She drew a strange analogy between serving bureaucrats meeting at Mahmudur Rahman's business office and the two advisers meeting the AL leader, saying: "When advisers can secretly meet the leader of the opposition, what's wring in bureaucrats meeting?" As a former prime minister, instead of discouraging secret activities of bureaucrats, she seems to endorse it. We recall that the two advisers met Sheikh Hasina, not on their own, mind you, but having been clearly sent by President Iajuddin as his emissaries to the AL chief. The president by not making it public that the advisers went to meet Sheikh Hasina at his initiative, stood on the wrong side of the truth, even if unwittingly, so we would like to think. As for the adviser's talking to the journalists as frequently as they did, they not only served the people's right to know but also brought to bear the pressure of transparency and urgency on the emergent issues of vital importance. It was a great service to recount, but they have only begun their job. The sheer anger and utter illogic with which the former prime minister took an exception to the advisers' role seem to suggest that she is unhappy with them for not doing her bidding as she otherwise perhaps finds done by the chief adviser.
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