“World Bank is Corrupt” – আপনার ডালেও কুচ কালা হেয়
*Update below*
“World Bank is corrupt, therefore ওদের কি অধিকার আছে আমাদের দুর্নীতিবাজ বলার?”
That tune seemed to be the desperate last ditch effort from a government facing severe damage to its reputation, before more sensible people took charge. The change of tune from Muhith and Quader speak for themselves.
I do not have the screen shots, but readers can rest assured that early yesterday evening both Daily Star and bdnews24.com ran a similar feature about a recent Forbes article on the dysfunction within the bank itself. Daily Star link here and bdnews24 link here. Both these articles featured prominently on their front pages. Both disappeared from their home pages within hours.
What was that about?
My suspicion is that pressure came from the top to run features on this piece. Because only at the top resides people with half a brain who think that this was a proper refutation of the World Bank’s allegations.
If anything, this attempted poo-slinging in the Bank’s direction boomerangs back to stain the government: why was our government trying to get funding from such a sloppy institution which allegedly lost $2 bn in computer glitches? Was someone in our government hoping to benefit from such a glitch? Someone figured that out and decided to step back.
If Sheikh Hasina had any sense, she would fire whoever came up with this “media strategy”.
(As an aside, the bdnews link informs us with undisguised pride that its editor, Taufique Imrose Khalidi, reads Forbes. This is the equivalent of trying to impress a cricket fan by saying you once saw Tendulkar’s brother-in-law’s best friend’s wife’s step sister bat at a local charity match. Dear bdnews people, please get a f***ing clue. In the world of business and economic reporting, The Wall Street Journal is the poor man’s FT. Forbes is not even a poor man’s WSJ.)
Update 3 July: BDnews headine screams “JICA to fund Padma bridge project”. Daily Star and everyone else says JICA is reconsidering. Khalidi’s deception crew rides again!
