Naming of institutions

In every society where ethics has not been totally made redundant, a few norms are practiced in naming the organs of the body of national importance, especially when dealing with the names of the politicians who still occupy the helm of power. In Western democracies, no institution ever carries the name of a sitting President or Prime Minister. It is rare even to honour a living former President or Prime Minister (PM) by affixing their names to any institution, no matter how much their efforts were effective in the flourishing of the body in question. A rare exception is only exhibited in the United States where, as a traditional practice, a library is set up in the ex-President's home town, mostly with private donations, bearing the name of the outgoing chief executive.

The most illustrious Canadian statesman Pierre Elliot Trudeau's name was never attached to any roads, public buildings, or organs of any academic institutions, not only during his tenure as one of the longest serving Prime Ministers of Canada, or even thereafter as a retired ombudsman of this great democracy, albeit his popularity as the principal architect of the legendary Charter of Rights and Freedom, was never surpassed. Only after his death a few years ago, was Montreal airport named after him, and recently the University of Toronto, Canada's largest university, has glorified itself by naming an academic building after him.

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Closer to home, there is not a single establishment in Singapore that carries the name of Lee Kwan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore. There was a proposal to name the Changi Airport of Singapore, incidentally the best airport of the world for more than a decade -- and that hangs the portrait a few Asian makers of history such as Mahatma Gandhi, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Min, and Bangabandhu -- after him, which was immediately turned down by Mr. Lee himself. No government office or institution ever carried the picture of Mr. Lee even when he was the PM.

In Canada as well, no one has ever seen the picture of the PM glorifying the walls of any office or institutions. Turkey, a country which, like Bangladesh, has also seen a lot of ups and downs in democratic practices, has an exemplary tradition of hanging only the portrait of Mustafa Kamal, the father of modern Turkey, while naming an institution after an activate political leader is a far cry.

Bangladesh is probably the only country among the Westminster democracies where the current parliament has passed a law making it mandatory for the government offices to hang the portrait of the PM, lest people dishonour their elected leader! Incidentally, Sheikh Hasina deserves the distinct honour among our PMs and Presidents as being perhaps the only one whose portrait did not dangle on the walls of office buildings, nor did any institution bear her name, during her tenure as the PM. In fact, her government's decision to hang only the portrait of Bangabandhu, the father of the nation, was a very prudent one to bestow the long-deserved honour to the greatest national hero of the land.

During the presidency of the late Ziaur Rahman, in addition to two other widely-acclaimed virtues, namely his personal honesty and non-adherence to nepotism, he strictly maintained the policy of not allowing anyone to honour him by naming any institution after him. Not long after his tragic death, the government of the day went on a naming spree and by early 1996, just before the fall of the BNP government, there were around 500 institutions that carried Ziaur Rahman's name. It was not only the name of Ziaur Rahman, who must have been turning in his grave to feel how all these cherished virtues, for which he is highly regarded, have been nullified by his successors.

Begum Zia as the PM apparently did not spare any opportunity to inaugurate institutions exhibiting her name. Most of the universities, including Rajshahi University and Islamic University, which had a female dormitory constructed during her tenure, gave such dorms her name. Many of her ministers were not lagging behind either to glorify themselves, by ascribing their names to anything that was built during their rule. In my visit to Dhaka in the early nineties, I watched on BTV news that a minister was inaugurating an auditorium bearing his name in his home town, notwithstanding the fact that the minister was miserably defeated in the election in both of his home ridings. Two years ago, in my journey through Dhaka city, I came across a college bearing the name of a current cabinet minister whose record in no way suggests even the minimum probity expected from a human soul.

The current controversy emanates from the proposed naming of a female dormitory of Dhaka University after the current PM, defying the long and highly acclaimed tradition of not naming any element of this great university after any living human being. The said dormitory was allegedly proposed to be named during the tenure of the erstwhile government after the late Begum Sufia Kamal, an eminent female icon of our nation. There are ongoing arguments and counter-arguments, in which who donated the state property for the dormitory, either the present PM or the former PM, came into play, as if it was their personal property. The PM must be enjoying the debate, since the majority of the senate members are in favour of her name.

During the tenure of the last AL government, seldom the names given by the preceding BNP government were hanged. The current alliance government did not reciprocate that norm. Even the M A Hannan airport and the Syed Nazul Islam (who was he?) bridge were renamed.

If the BNP ever has to evacuate the helm of authority and if a non-BNP government pays them back in the same coin, what would be BNP's option to counter that tit for tat move? It might call hartal, as it did when a pontoon bridge linking Ziaur Rahman's mausoleum was removed from the lake, or resort to a few street demonstrations. However, would it help it to regain the lost moral ground? People at the helm of power seldom address that question.

Dr. Mozammel H. Khan is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh.