Unfortunate and unacceptable (Ban Protesting Students from Public Service)
THE announcement by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday that students who had indulged in violence and vandalism during the recent agitations demanding cancellation of the quota system in the public service recruitment tests would be identified from video footages and automatically disqualified during examinations and viva voce is both surprising and shocking.
It is surprising because the Public Service Commission did review the results of the 34th Bangladesh Civil Service preliminary tests and thus amply implied that agitations by the aggrieved students had been legitimate.
It is shocking primarily because of its vengeful text, tone and tenor. According to a report published in New Age on Friday, Hasina questioned the merit of those who indulge[d] in vandalism, castigated them for demanding abolition of the quota for the dependants of the freedom fighters who gave them an independent country, and claimed that anti-liberation forces had engineered the so-called movement against the quota system.
The announcement is highly likely to come as a bolt from the blue to the organisers and participants of the protests; they must have deemed it a moral victory when the Public Service Commission decided to review the results. Apparently, with the vindication of a right cause, they have also incurred the wrath of none other than the prime minister herself, which, at least at this point in time, suggests that some of them may have to say goodbye to their dream of joining the public service.
The agitations in question did touch off debate across society about the quota system in public service recruitment examinations, an issue that successive governments have conveniently sidestepped lest they should be viewed as anti-liberation war, anti-women, anti-ethnic minorities, etc.
The core demand of the protesters did not come out of nowhere, either; the Public Service Commission, in its annual reports and also a special report in 2008, recommended that the quota system should be at least reformed because it had become increasingly difficult to have the quotas filled owing to the dearth of eligible and competent candidates. With 55 per cent of the seats allocated to different quotas, e.g. freedom fighters and their dependants, women, members of minority communities, only 45 per cent of the candidates are recruited on the basis of merit, which the special report, authored by two former civil servants, termed unconstitutional.
Besides, as different quarters, including New Age, have argued that, while the nation is forever indebted to the freedom fighters, sustained efforts to build the sovereign, strong and sufficient Bangladesh that they risked or sacrificed their lives for would be the proper homage to them.
Regrettably, however, the Awami League-led government appears downright hostile even to the idea of some students rallying for its abolition and adamant to punish them. Regardless of what the incumbents would like to have the people believe, their position is apparently not aligned to the spirit of the liberation war, which envisages a state and society where there will be democratic space for dissent and divergence, and where people will be rewarded for upholding the right cause. Hence, the incumbents would do well to revise its position.
Unfortunate and unacceptable
THE announcement by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday that students who had indulged in violence and vandalism during the recent agitations demanding cancellation of the quota system in the public service recruitment tests would be identified from video footages and automatically disqualified during examinations and viva voce is both surprising and shocking.
It is surprising because the Public Service Commission did review the results of the 34th Bangladesh Civil Service preliminary tests and thus amply implied that agitations by the aggrieved students had been legitimate.
It is shocking primarily because of its vengeful text, tone and tenor. According to a report published in New Age on Friday, Hasina questioned the merit of those who indulge[d] in vandalism, castigated them for demanding abolition of the quota for the dependants of the freedom fighters who gave them an independent country, and claimed that anti-liberation forces had engineered the so-called movement against the quota system.
The announcement is highly likely to come as a bolt from the blue to the organisers and participants of the protests; they must have deemed it a moral victory when the Public Service Commission decided to review the results. Apparently, with the vindication of a right cause, they have also incurred the wrath of none other than the prime minister herself, which, at least at this point in time, suggests that some of them may have to say goodbye to their dream of joining the public service.
The agitations in question did touch off debate across society about the quota system in public service recruitment examinations, an issue that successive governments have conveniently sidestepped lest they should be viewed as anti-liberation war, anti-women, anti-ethnic minorities, etc.
The core demand of the protesters did not come out of nowhere, either; the Public Service Commission, in its annual reports and also a special report in 2008, recommended that the quota system should be at least reformed because it had become increasingly difficult to have the quotas filled owing to the dearth of eligible and competent candidates. With 55 per cent of the seats allocated to different quotas, e.g. freedom fighters and their dependants, women, members of minority communities, only 45 per cent of the candidates are recruited on the basis of merit, which the special report, authored by two former civil servants, termed unconstitutional.
Besides, as different quarters, including New Age, have argued that, while the nation is forever indebted to the freedom fighters, sustained efforts to build the sovereign, strong and sufficient Bangladesh that they risked or sacrificed their lives for would be the proper homage to them.
Regrettably, however, the Awami League-led government appears downright hostile even to the idea of some students rallying for its abolition and adamant to punish them. Regardless of what the incumbents would like to have the people believe, their position is apparently not aligned to the spirit of the liberation war, which envisages a state and society where there will be democratic space for dissent and divergence, and where people will be rewarded for upholding the right cause. Hence, the incumbents would do well to revise its position.
Unfortunate and unacceptable
