The inconsistency of action
Monday, 14 September 2009
Mahmudur Rahman
It takes a torrential downpour for realisation that the city drainage system doesn't work, a howler of a storm to conclude that billboards are set up without safety parameters and a drive against adulteration to make out that what the consumer consumes isn't safe. Headlines scream about the wrongness of it all, committees are set up and then everything somehow fades into oblivion.
In management parley, it's all about learning from mistakes and then doing something about it. In real life the learning is carefully noted; nothing much happens after that. If the adage justice delayed is justice denied, then the prospects of justice seem rather bleak. And so nearly seven months after the BDR carnage, a trial is yet to be held; two months after poisoned medicine kills innocent youngsters, action cannot be taken and the headlines are consumed by destruction of adulterated food and consumer goods with no action against the perpetrators.
Several times mobile courts have gone in and made the headlines by uncovering food stuff unfit for human consumption dished out by some of the more well known as well as lesser known organisations. Fines are implemented and then we move on. No real action to prevent a recurrence of such activity ever sees daylight. The latest public show of destroying such adulterated items is another case in example.
There are public bodies with sufficient powers to address these issues and yet we are never told about what happens to such organisations which have their premises sealed during such drives. The latest example boasts of names that have been part of every family life over decades and yet there was nothing mentioned about what action was taken against the organisations. They continue to thrive and continue their activity after a pregnant pause simply because of such inconsistency of action.
In a country where the population burgeons, a few falling by the wayside appears to have lost consequence-a far cry from what used to be taught in -- school that every life is precious. Nothing apparently is safe anymore; ghee, honey, mustard oil, biscuits, chanachur, bread, cake, energy drinks, and jelly-the list goes on and on.
What is worrying is that most of these items are selected by mothers for the physical and mental well-being and growth of their children. As it is the housewife has an uphill task of balancing the budget at a time when prices keep jumping in spite of all interventions and intentions. If after all careful planning the quality of products is in question what is the way out? How many traders have been picked up for selling formalin-treated fish? Or do they not have a responsibility?
Its time for some action; concerted and consistent. Nothing good was ever achieved without some harsh decisions. This is one of them. (The writer is a former head of corporate and regulatory affairs of British-American Tobacco Bangladesh and former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board. He can be reached at mahmudrahman@gmail.com)
It takes a torrential downpour for realisation that the city drainage system doesn't work, a howler of a storm to conclude that billboards are set up without safety parameters and a drive against adulteration to make out that what the consumer consumes isn't safe. Headlines scream about the wrongness of it all, committees are set up and then everything somehow fades into oblivion.
In management parley, it's all about learning from mistakes and then doing something about it. In real life the learning is carefully noted; nothing much happens after that. If the adage justice delayed is justice denied, then the prospects of justice seem rather bleak. And so nearly seven months after the BDR carnage, a trial is yet to be held; two months after poisoned medicine kills innocent youngsters, action cannot be taken and the headlines are consumed by destruction of adulterated food and consumer goods with no action against the perpetrators.
Several times mobile courts have gone in and made the headlines by uncovering food stuff unfit for human consumption dished out by some of the more well known as well as lesser known organisations. Fines are implemented and then we move on. No real action to prevent a recurrence of such activity ever sees daylight. The latest public show of destroying such adulterated items is another case in example.
There are public bodies with sufficient powers to address these issues and yet we are never told about what happens to such organisations which have their premises sealed during such drives. The latest example boasts of names that have been part of every family life over decades and yet there was nothing mentioned about what action was taken against the organisations. They continue to thrive and continue their activity after a pregnant pause simply because of such inconsistency of action.
In a country where the population burgeons, a few falling by the wayside appears to have lost consequence-a far cry from what used to be taught in -- school that every life is precious. Nothing apparently is safe anymore; ghee, honey, mustard oil, biscuits, chanachur, bread, cake, energy drinks, and jelly-the list goes on and on.
What is worrying is that most of these items are selected by mothers for the physical and mental well-being and growth of their children. As it is the housewife has an uphill task of balancing the budget at a time when prices keep jumping in spite of all interventions and intentions. If after all careful planning the quality of products is in question what is the way out? How many traders have been picked up for selling formalin-treated fish? Or do they not have a responsibility?
Its time for some action; concerted and consistent. Nothing good was ever achieved without some harsh decisions. This is one of them. (The writer is a former head of corporate and regulatory affairs of British-American Tobacco Bangladesh and former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board. He can be reached at mahmudrahman@gmail.com)