The Law Minister, Shafiq Ahmed has claimed that the government will seek to amend the law that created the Anti-Corruption Commission, so that it may finallly be neutral and independent.
Rather, the real story is: Reacting quickly to the dropped charges brought against her by the Anti-Corruption Commision–an organization that is thought to have sympathized with the BNP opposition, Sheikh Hasina has moved to neutralize a source of opposition internal to her government.
Claiming that in the past the ACC has harassed politicians, the government will move swiftly so that it can no longer do so.
The Daily Star quotes Mr. Ahmed as saying: “The commission will function for preventing corruption,” after he met the ACC Chairman Ghulam Rahman to discuss recommendations to implement the change in the 2004 founding act.
At issue is a set of recommendations that would require the ACC to consult with the government before bringing charges to members of that government.
Though the move to handicap the ACC is being described as pro-people, it will simply throw out the baby with the bath water. Even though the ACC might have engaged in partisan investigations in the past, this move will simply neutralize, denature, the commission, so that almost any legitimate charge of public graft will be shuttered at the outset before any public spirited investigator can look through the offending party’s books.
This looks– suspiciously– like bureaucrats and legislators are shielding themselves from any charge that might possibly be brought against them now and at any time in the future.
