While explaining Bangladesh's experience in curbing corruption as a panelist at a high-level panel discussion on the second day of the first minister-level meeting of OIC in Jeddah, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday said the incumbent government of Bangladesh took different initiatives including necessary institutional reform to implement its zero tolerance policy against corruption. Anisul said though Anti-Corruption Act was formulated in 2004 to make anti-corruption bureau as an independent institution, the government has to make many institutional reform and formulate new laws to implement the act.
It needs no emphasizing that the government is strongly determined to establish good governance and a graft-free administration, which will in turn ensure development and justice in society.
In order to fulfill this mission authorities concerned should maintain a vigilant eye towards the wrongdoers and root out corruption from every corner of society. In Bangladesh, corruption has been a very common disease prevailing in different forms since time immemorial. Most of the government offices, banks, corporations and semi-government offices reek of corruption of different dimensions from top to bottom.
It is time to create an atmosphere
where honest and patriotic persons
will come forward to serve the
country with pride and virtue
However, with the passage of time the definitions and doctrines of corruption have changed. People who work on right principles are unrecognized and considered to be foolish in the modern society. Earlier, bribes were paid for getting wrong things done, but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time. Corruption has become all too ingrained into the Bangladeshi political and governmental process, sadly, but if we are to hold on to any dreams of sustainable progress, widespread changes must be made in our bureaucratic and political processes.
However, while much progress has been made over the last years to address corruption, we still have a lot to learn from the past to fight corruption effectively. The one thing that needs to be ensured is proper, impartial, and unbiased use of various anti-social regulations to take strong, deterrent, and timely legal action against the offenders, irrespective of their political influences, money or power. Firm steps and concrete actions are required to curb the menace and create an atmosphere where the good, patriotic, intellectuals will come forward to serve the country with pride, virtue, and honesty for the greater good of humanity.
