EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

 

Stock market scam report

Bring the culprits to book

We congratulate the probe committee for completing its task in good time and handing over its report to the finance ministry. The committee has identified around 100 persons, many of them 'powerful' people, who seem to have been involved in the stock market manipulation. The enquiry, we feel, has established prima facie case against some institutions, companies and individuals of their involvement in the manipulation. The report has come down strongly on the lack of oversight and collusive role of the SEC.

While we laud the finance minister's pledge to bring all those responsible for the debacle to justice, we are a bit confused by his suggestion that the names of those mentioned in the report would be deleted before the report is published, which will be in the next 10 to 15 days.

We understand the minister's commitment to double check the findings of the committee, but if the intention is to re-verify some of the findings of the report, it does not justify deletion of the names of those whose role in the scandal has already been established. We feel that deleting the names established through the probe committee's enquiry is bound to convey the impression that this is being done to protect the culprits and that the veracity of the findings is being questioned. His comments have cast doubts on the Probe Report itself, which is most unfortunate.

It should not be lost on anyone that names of most of all those behind the share market crash is known to the public and no amount of maneuverings will change their views.

The recent share market scam has had tremendous impact on small investors, and the vast portion of the amount of twenty thousand crore that was swindled, and the 15 crore taka siphoned off, belonged to them. There is need to not only expose the culprits involved in the scandalous affair, they must also be brought to book expeditiously, not only for the sake of justice but also for the sake of stability and efficient management and functioning of the stock market.

We demand transparent handling of the report and quick implementation of its recommendations, including punishment of the manipulators. 

Proper use of antibiotics

Timely call made for it

The World Health Day passed off the day before yesterday with a call for informed and rational use of antibiotics. This came under the theme of the day which was “Antimicrobial resistance and its global spread”.

The call is extremely relevant for Bangladesh. Here, people get to use antibiotics indiscriminately even when afflicted by simple fever or pain. There is a widespread lack of knowledge of the consequences such casual application of antibacterial drugs leads to. Pharmacies, many of them unregistered, dispense antibiotics for any complaints that patients come up with. Sometimes physicians also may try the hard drug to get quick relief to patients suffering from common cough or fever.

It is feared that such uninformed use of antibiotics might have seriously scaled up resistance to drug. Even where a less potent antibiotic would have worked perfectly well on patients they would need to have higher potency drugs to cure themselves. This has also other ill-effects on the body's immune system.

To mitigate the riotous application of antibiotics a four-pronged strategy needs to be adopted. In the first place, the overarching imperative is to make it legally binding on pharmacies to sell antibiotics only on the basis of a prescription from a qualified doctor. Secondly, the Drug Administration will have to be adequately staffed and equipped to carry out monitoring operations in the market. This is a specialised job which cannot be done through ordinary law enforcers. Thirdly, pharmacies that remain unregistered would have to be formally enlisted with the health directorate within a specified timeframe. Last but not least, an awareness campaign ought to be launched through the media, both electronic and print, to sensitise people all over the country about the hazards of indiscriminate antibiotic uses. Patients should be warned against self-medication. Finally, doctors will have to ensure that patients not only use an appropriate antibiotic but also apply the same for the stipulated number of days.