Damage control in Berlin

It seems as though the sense of loss occasioned by Bangladesh's missing out on $300 million from the US President's Millenium Development Fund was what prompted the finance minister to abandon his TI bashing stance and go deep into the issue. Engagement with TI as to the make-up of its Corruption Perception Index and what steps must be taken by Bangladesh to combat corruption is the statesmanlike and mature thing to do.

Bangladesh first topped the CPI in the last year of the Awami League rule. We have since repeated this ignominious distinction each year of the current government's tenure. The question for the finance minister is why has it taken so long for the current administration to do anything about corruption.

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It can fairly be asked what exactly the government has done these last three years to lower corruption. Not one government functionary, politician, or people known to be corrupt has been brought to book. Pledges such as the creation of an anti-corruption commission, office of ombudsman, and the separation of the judiciary from the executive -- all measures that would have helped bring down corruption -- have languished unimplemented. Not only TI, but the media, civil society, and even parliamentary standing committees that have raised the issue of corruption have either been ridiculed or contemptuously ignored.

In fact, the government has done nothing except to bash the media and others -- such as TI -- who have had the temerity to raise the issue. And make no mistake, the government's intemperate responses to reports of corruption and subsequent foot-dragging have harmed the country's image far more than the reports ever did.

The government needs to take responsibility both for the corruption that has continued unabated during its tenure as well as for its imprudent responses which have only served to exacerbate the problem of the country's image.