Recent remarks made by a ruling party leader where he expressed, during a campaign rally, that social safety net beneficiaries would not receive their due allowances unless they voted for his party are completely out-of-line with the very notions of a working democracy.
The president of Lakkhirchar union Awami League of Jamalpur Sadar, Hatem Ali, all but insinuated that those eligible for social safety net programs under his constituency would lose access to benefits unless they attended AL meetings and voted for the party symbol.
Such sentiments are nothing short of disgraceful coming from a political leader, who is clearly an individual speaking out of turn as there is very little reason to believe that the highest political ranks of any political party would ever endorse such troubling views on voting.
When it comes to social safety-nets, the majority of such programs seldom benefit those who need them the most as things already are. According to a study conducted by CPD last year, over 3 million elderly people and 2.5 million widows who are eligible for social safety benefits are not receiving them as the money is being pocketed by ineligible parties.
Our social safety net programs have, for the longest time, been in desperate need of both increased budgetary allocation and more regulatory oversight since an inordinate amount of vulnerable people depend on this money to barely subsist.
Which is why for a political leader to threaten his own constituents of withholding that service unless they voted for his party is especially deplorable.
It is heartening to see, however, that other ruling party candidates have called him out on his threats reassuring that they don’t align with the broader views. But it is equally important to divulge into how a political leader could be emboldened enough to hold his own people hostage this way.
A leader is someone who looks out for his people, clearly Hatem Ali missed that memo.
