0240 Hrs GMTLondon
Monday13 August 2012
The © Muhammad Haque daily Ethical, Democratic and Economics
Commentary
The SHEER IDIOCY of behaviour concerned of those involved on BOTH sides
of the latest “spectacle” staged around the name and the institutionality of
the London Borough of Tower Hamlets YET AGAIN confirms my thesis that it is
very important to consider the ethical, moral and the universally understood
fitness of persons who crave “elected posts or office” before any of them is
processed through to “stand for election
to a public position for the Party”.
Otherwise, the community
affected ends up being hoisted in the most unwanted way!
How is it possible that during the last week of the “Games”,
allegedly “hosted” by “Four local Councils” including Tower Hamlets Borough
Council, when the UK mainstream media and all the conceivable OTHER media
outlets have been engaged in playing the
“very high feel good” tune, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council manages
to get itself into the “local” “newspaper” outlet by staging a spectacle
concerning claims, counter claims about a guest
allegedly invited or not - from a Party in Bangladesh!
The MAIN DUTY in context of the Tower Hamlets
Council in the past week should have been to make sure the local community was
in line to “receive the benefits from the staging of the “2012 London Olympic
Games” within their “Borough”!
Yet there has been no row, no squabble, and no exchange
of bitter verbal accusations over any of that!
I said in March 2012 that Tower Hamlets Council was
in crisis. Why did I say that?
I was not remotely thinking of any Political Party
or faction or agency from Bangladesh or from any other overseas
country or region being linked with the Tower Hamlets Council. Although
evidence suggests that there is a higher incidence of Bangladesh-based Party
Political influence in the composition of the majority of the recently
recruited Bangladeshi personnel in the Council.
I was thinking of the dozens of “elected councillors”
IN PLACE “on Tower Hamlets Council” who were drawing daily
benefits by claiming to be serving the local electors and the local community. I
know that most local people have nothing but contempt for most councillors they
know about. Why?
I could write hundreds of pages. But at least for
this piece I don’t have to.
One active member of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party
shared his own estimation of “councillors”.
He said during an unplanned action seminar which I
held in the Hanbury Street [off Brick Lane ] last night [Sunday 12 August 2012 : the day that the 2012 Games were formally “concluded”]
that he himself rarely recommends a councillor to anyone seeking help about
things to do with the Council!
And he is someone with years of canvassing
experience behind him. He has canvassed hard for the election of several Labour
Party candidates for election to Tower Hamlets Council.
So he is in a good position to know what he is
talking about.
If he says that he cannot be confident about the
competence of a single councillor, how bad is that state of affairs?
And how shockingly unfit the average Councillor of
his knowledge must be!
So low is the standing of current Tower Hamlets
Councillors that the spectacle about a “Bangladeshi Party Political guest” involving a number of councillors would not
merit any dignified attention from the ordinary members of the community.
The ordinary Tower Hamlets resident’s [elector or
not; voting or not] thought process goes something like this :
If an event, an incident involves a councillor
or more than one councillor then it must be treated with the maximum scepticism.
And derision.
Even contempt.
And often ridicule.
And this item of “news” is one such.
Had the Tower Hamlets Councillors and the Council’s
in-situ, incumbent bureaucracy were having a spat with the supposedly
independently operating “Opposition” Councillors over the number of young
adults out of job or education or away from productive, creative, compatible
training programme and the provision for getting the thousands of youngsters
out of the scrapheap future then that would be a real matter to get worked up
about.
Then the councillors [if there were any of them involved in a
row of that description] would deserve due recognition.
But in Tower Hamlets, Councillors, especially those
from the “Bangladeshi part of the population”- who are and have been numerically
the most prominent for the past decade or so -
THAT it has done so is prima facie the case. Undeniable. On
the headline. On the web site of the former “East London Advertiser” [texts
reprised below].
The texts of the piece by-lined to Mike Brooke do not do
much credit to the “East London Advertiser” either.
They have got most facts wrong.
At least according to the information which I have gathered
over the past three days.
Firstly, Tower Hamlets Borough Council is NOT an extension
of ANY political party operating in and based in Bangladesh . So whatever the claims after the facts, there
was no constitutional right for any Bangladesh-based Political party to claim
any access on that basis to the Council.
Secondly, the matter of protocol has to be complied with.
And it was not complied with.
Finally, Lutfur Rahman has been known to have expressed his
neutrality about any invited guests. So what actually happened?
SOME, not the majority of the “supporters of the invited
guest” were in a state of confusion about where the main proceedings were
taking place.
When it became clear where they were, it was clear that
space was a serious issue and all the standard safety procedures had to be
adhered to.
If there was a mischief in setting of an alarm then the
correct thing should be to collect all the evidence and then make an authentic
finding and then make it public.
This has not happened yet and people are making comments before
the full facts of the fire alarm going off have been established.
Why should any councillor accept the suggestion that THEIR
own Council is staffed by personnel who might be acting unprofessionally?
The answer is: The councillor concerned must know that
there are Council employees and others with access to the Council’s
installations that might be dodgy, unreliable!
Which sums up the case: Tower Hamlets is not a fit Council!
The blame for that should be laid at the doors of those who
are responsible.
It is easier said than done.
As the Council is an undemocratic outfit, finding the chain
of command, control and responsibility in an honest way may prove harder than
it ought to be!
Ands therein lies the basis for my preliminary finding: Tower
Hamlets Council is prone to idiotic spectacles!
[To be continued]
Olympic Town Hall blames ‘violent guests’
over VIPs barred from council chamber
Town Hall officials have today
slammed back at opposition councillors calling for an investigation into why
fire-alarms were mysteriously set off which disrupted yesterday’s civic visit
by a Bangladesh government minister to Tower Hamlets Olympic ‘host’ borough.
Labour and Tory
councillors were already furious over executive Mayor Lutfur Rahman banning use
of the council chamber when the alarm rang 15 minutes into the visit by Bangladesh Minister Syed Ashraful Islam. The town hall had to be evacuated
with hundreds of VIPs and office staff spilling out onto the street.
Tower Hamlets
council has now accused some guests of being “disruptive and abusive” and is
insisting the invitation from the council chairman to the Bangladesh government member was “a private meeting.”
A Town Hall
statement said: “The fire alarm went off shortly after the guests entered. Some
had already been very disruptive and abusive and there have been allegations of
threats of violence against our staff.
“We will think
carefully before allowing any similar functions in the future.”
Councillors deny
there were any threats—but agree many guests were angry when they were kept in
the lobby and barred from entering the reception because of overcrowding, which
they blamed on the council chamber being locked.
Mr Islam, in London for the 2012
Olympics, had earlier been herded into a side office along with other VIPs
because Mayor Rahman had ordered the chamber to be kept locked.
Labour and Tory
councillors now want CCTV footage examined to find out if the fire-alarm had
been malicious.
Labour’s deputy
group leader Motin Uz-Zaman said: “We want to make sure anyone responsible
should be reported. It’s totally unacceptable.”
He had earlier
asked if he could give the visiting minister a tour of the chamber—but was
refused.
Tory group leader
Peter Golds said: “Locking up the council chamber was embarrassing and put
Tower Hamlets to shame.”
Poplar &
Limehouse MP Jim Fitzpatrick, one of the VIP guests locked out of the chamber,
said the ban was an insult.
He told the
Advertiser: ¨It’s sad when we should be offering the hand of friendship during
the Olympics that the mayor decides to withdraw any opportunity to see what
Tower Hamlets is all about.
“It’s a big mistake
by Lutfur Rahman, whose refusal could be regarded as offending international
guests.
“His ban seems
perverse, petty and demeans the mayor’s office.”
Council chairman
Rajib Ahmed, Tower Hamlets’ First Citizen who had invited Mr Islam, had to hold
an impromptu gathering in the street where the Bangladesh minister gave his speech, after the Town Hall near the Blackwall
Tunnel was evacuated.
Mr Islam, a member
of the ruling Awami League government which heavily defeated the Bangladesh
National Party’s Jamaat Islam alliance in the 2009 elections, later went on to
a civic reception in Islington—where he was welcomed into the council chamber!
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