EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

Contractual appointments

Selectivity essential

Contractual appointments are not unique to any administration, but when these become a pervasive phenomenon they cause more harm than good to the very system that the appointments are supposed to invigorate. In the case of our administration the latter is more likely to be the case if the number of public servants reemployed after retirement or have had their service tenure extended, continues to be at the current level. One wonders what the compulsions are for the government to fill up more than 200 administrative posts with retirees and even outsiders, as reported in this newspaper recently.

Admittedly, employing people on contract is needed sometimes to fill up a technical post, or the job sensitivity requires continuity that might be snapped if the incumbent goes on retirement. But this obligation should occur rarely and the option should be exercised carefully and indeed very selectively. It is regrettable that in most cases these appointments have been motivated by partisan consideration rather than that of benefit to the state. Looking at the list of the appointees the criticism in large part appears valid.

Apart from the tag of partisanship that the government has to wear because of this, the impression such appointments give is that there are not enough qualified persons to step into the shoes of those that are going on retirement. And this impression is even more reinforced when one finds that most of the top appointments at present are being held by retirees, including that of the cabinet secretary.

And when the situation is juxtaposed with the number of senior officers that are OSD, the matter assumes a critical proportion. Can we endure a situation where in the administration there are several hundred public servants on so-called special duty, and getting paid for doing nothing, while at the same time several are being retained after retirement or inducted from outside.

The arrangement is counterproductive for many reasons, not least of all for the fact that it saps the morale of the incumbents since it stunts the prospect of promotion and vertical rise of the serving cadres. We urge the government to be very selective in this regard if not do away with it altogether.

Bangladeshi nurses in Libya

They must be free to leave

Reports of Bangladeshi medical staff, especially nurses, not being allowed to leave embattled Libya are worrying. As our correspondent now in Choucha on the Tunisia-Libya frontier notes, a number of Bangladeshis fleeing Libya have spoken of many nurses being compelled to work in hospitals, tending to those wounded in the armed clashes between government and rebel forces. It is also quite natural to suppose that many of the wounded are individuals caught in the air raids over Libya by western forces. While it is perfectly understandable that those wounded in the war as also others will be in need of treatment, it is inconceivable that foreigners working in these hospitals will be detained against their will.

Libya is now in a state of increasing devastation as a result of the military clashes between Col. Gaddafi's forces and the opposition. Add to that the attacks launched on his forces by the West. In such conditions, with uncertainty surrounding the state of things, tens of thousands of foreign migrant workers have chosen to make their way out of the country. Bangladeshis working in Libya happen to include a diversity of professional groups --- doctors, nurses, teachers, factory workers and others --- all of whom are now in a quandary as to how to save themselves by fleeing. Many have already returned home, albeit empty-handed. But with the Libyan forces reportedly not allowing some women nurses from Bangladesh by having them get off a vehicle taking them to the border, the situation can only be imagined.

We think the Libyan authorities, for all the desperate straits they are in, should be approached by the Bangladesh mission in Tripoli regarding an uninterrupted departure of our nurses from that country. Obviously the Libyans cannot guarantee their safety of life. And compelling the nurses to stay back amounts to treating them as hostages. That is unacceptable.