EDITORIAL: Bangladesh's new cabinet with new faces

DHAKA (The Daily Star/ANN) - People's interest should predominate decisions

The prime minister has taken a bold step in infusing the cabinet, more than 60 percent, with new faces, a good number of them young and first-time MPs. This is perhaps the first cabinet of Sheikh Hasina where so many old stalwarts of the party, and of her allies, have made way for so many untried ones.
Such a move is welcome, and we say so being fully aware that while new faces will bring in new ideas to administer and govern the country better, they will be short on experience, and experience is gained only over time. But be that as it may, we hope that the new ministers would inject more verve in their work. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Thus, while we wait to see how the new cabinet fares, there are a few suggestions that we feel are in order. It should not be lost upon the ministers, the new ones particularly, that administering a ministry is not the same as doing politics. As a minister, one would have to take hard and bold decisions, and that may not always be popular. But any decision that is based on sound rationale and for the benefit of the people, and not for a few individuals or a vested group, will be eventually welcomed by the public. Populism should be shunned for the greater good of the greater majority, and partisan consideration should never find space in their discourse or thinking.  

While we welcome the new cabinet and hope that the people's mandate will be fulfilled, we would like to end by reminding the new cabinet members of the PM's words that political clout must never be exploited for personal aggrandisement, an advice observed mostly in its breach.

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