Abul in a China shop

Abul is down." "Abul is a patriot." Neither of these hyperbolic statements is my choice. The first one is from our finance minister, who, in his staccato style of cryptic delivery in a stentorian voice, meant to say either that Syed Abul Hossain, former ICT minister, who was also former communication minister, had stepped down or succumbed to the pressure to quit his job. If brevity is the soul of wit, our finance minister is amazing at times. He can be brief even in his wit and soul.
The second one is from the prime minister, who wants the world to know that her former minister has made a supreme sacrifice by resigning from his post. Those who have been in the run for a ministerial appointment know that's true. Tough as it is to get a posting, it should be even tougher to take a decision to quit. Abul Hossain took that tough decision and he deserves a standing ovation for it. A round of applause, please!
Except that it sits in the stomach like a log: Why should the World Bank want to single out this one man in a population of over 160 million? If you have read the paid advertorial, which appeared on the front page of leading dailies in this country, the former minister explained his position prior to his resignation. In his own words, the international lending agency is not alone in its sinister attempt to undermine him. There is a group of people who are jealous of his success. They have been on his case since his first day in office.
The former minister repeatedly mentioned in that paid paean of patriotism that he has never engaged in anything that should hurt his country. He flaunted himself as a consummate patriot, a man who is dedicated to his leader, party and country. If everything he wrote in what reads like a Greek tragedy is fact, the World Bank and those who doubted his integrity should be on their knees begging for his forgiveness.
But the question that circles the mind with the fury of a black cat in a dark room is why he alone has been getting all the attention? Why should he be the only one to get all the praise and criticism? Why should he alone run an advertorial defending his position?
If we are to believe what we hear, Abul is only one of the names that appeared on the World Bank list of culpable people against whom it claimed to have credible evidence of plausible corruption. Has the former minister been somewhat a Jesus to suffer for the sins of others? It looks like he became the concentrated expression for a slander campaign launched against this country. In that remote sense he is a patriot, a living martyr to a dead cause. He is our poster boy for patriotism, someone who went down taking the blows for his colleagues who are his compatriots.
Most people still believe that he should have resigned long before the World Bank cancelled the loan. He would have been a true patriot only if he had shown his good judgment before the international bank made its move. By the time his conscience came alive, we were already flashed before the world as yet another example of moral failing.
By all means, it has been too late for Abul to quit. He should have stayed on the job to fight to the end to prove his innocence, if that is true. We cannot be elated by his belated resignation, because it came at a stage when there was nothing left to lose.
If anything, Abul is going to be remembered as the central character of the longest-running slapstick comedy in this country. Every time someone calls him a patriot, it draws a roar of laughter from the audience. He will also be remembered for dragging us into a moral muddle that not only destroyed our credibility to the outside world but also forced us to look at each other in striking disbelief.
Abul is a one-man bubble in our national psyche. He is like a veil on our collective brain that deprives us of our lucid moments. Every time someone calls him a patriot, we are staring into the abyss. Every time Abul calls himself a patriot, the abyss is staring back into us. A house of horror, things look disfigured if we look at him.
A bull in a China shop, Abul is in a fix. If he doesn't take the blame, he can destroy reputations. If he takes the blame, he can destroy what is left of him. He can be a patriot, if he stops hurting the country with his balancing act.

The writer is Editor, First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star. Email: [email protected]