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| A guard of honor pays tribute to late Awami League leader and former health minister Mohammed Nasim as officials and activists attend his burial at the Banani graveyard in Dhaka on June 14. (Photo: AFP) |
Sirajum Munira, 28, a lecturer at Begum Royeka University in northern
Bangladesh, was arrested under the country's controversial Digital Security Act
(DSA) on June 14. Her arrest was soon followed by dismissal from her job.
Her crime was a one-line Facebook post that mocked Mohammed Nasim, the former home and health minister who died of Covid-19 on June 13. She later apologized and deleted the post, yet she became one of a string of arrests and abuses over social media posts related to the pandemic.
Munira’s derogatory remarks against Nasim, an influential politician from the ruling Awami League party elected to parliament six times, were inappropriate, but the reason for them is well known. Nasim’s 2014-19 tenure at the health and family welfare ministry was mired in massive corruption, which probably cost him a cabinet post in the current government. His legacy in the health sector continues.
Bangladesh has drawn strong criticism at home and abroad for its inability to stem Covid-19. From its first three reported cases on March 8, the country had recorded 115,786 cases and 1,502 deaths as of June 22.
Much of the blame lies with poor state health services — lack of resources and coordination, poor services, mismanagement and discrimination — that have become more exposed in the time of a pandemic. Even Nasim’s family couldn’t trust the state health services he once led and he was treated in a private facility, but he didn’t survive.
The top brass of the health sector have not only failed to adopt effective policies and courses of action to curb the spread of the virus but have also put the lives of medics in grave danger by not providing high-quality personal protective equipment in time. Media reports busted a syndicate that provided substandard N95 masks for doctors, putting their lives at risk.
Some 3,301 health workers including 1,041 doctors, 901 nurses and 1,360 medical staff have been infected with the coronavirus. About 50 doctors, most of them specialists, have died from Covid-19, according to the Bangladesh Medical Association.
On the other hand, dozens of ruling party leaders and local government officials have been accused of stealing food aid intended for the poor under the government’s relief schemes.
Yet criticizing has become more dangerous than ever as the state and non-state actors are quick to vent anger on whistleblowers to wash their hands.
