Hallo, You are aware of the issue raised by Mr.

Zia in his mail dated 13th and 24th April mentioned as above. In January 2011 I took an initiative to transfer the salary of the national consultants to their respective bank accounts in order to avoid associated hassles and to make things simpler and easier- to do that I requested our Consultants to open a bank account with Mercantile Bank to which many of them objected and preferred to collect cheques from BASE office rather. We also enquired if this could be done by electronic transfer - our bank suggested that it will take some more time. However , I have a strong difference of opinion with Mr. Zia where he feels that requesting Consultants to collect cheques from panthapath office is " undermining them or little insulting". I do not know his basis of this conclusion - it looks like this kind of ideas are grown from a colonial psyche . This also manifests that we are still belonging in a semi feudal and a semi burgoeise society, our mentality haven't grown like a citizen of an independent country and this mentality is very much responsible for loosing when we negotiate with the powerfuls specially with the foreigners. An organization stands higher than an individual and the country stands higher above the organization - we all know this proverb. No individual is bigger than an organization whoever (s)he is, for example a person like nobel lauriet Dr. Yunus has been struggling to remain attached with GB because he knows very well that without a portfolio in an organization(GB) his chances of leading an active life will shrinked to the least ,if not zero. Even the two top leaders of our country are well aware of this fact and they have been doing their best to remain as chiefs of their respective organizations because they know that as long as they are associated with their organizations , they have a future , withot this they will be only an ordinary citizenveteran persons like Dr. Kamal Hossain , former President B. Chowdhury are vivid examples. We all consultants including myself remain in the pay roll of BASE Consulting and none of us should dare to consider oneself as bigger than the honor and dignity of the organization. Aren't they all supposed to serve BASE? Or Is BASE supposed to serve them ? All these persons have had a long experience of serving this or that organization be it govt. or corporate bodies or NGOs etc- did those organizations came up with cheques and services saying dear sir please receive this cheque and thus oblige by! or always everywhere they have collected their cheques from thier respective accounts department? In BASE ,the Consultants are received with due honor , offered cup of tea and are given the cheques and most of them are quite happy even the senior most retired Secretaries like MR. Habibur Rahman. Mr. A.K.M. Shamsuddin and others are quite happy and have a very close relationship and thus many of them are coming with proposals to bring their friends under the pay -roll of BASE from egene etc. I have proof ( email) that some Consultants rather preferred to collect cheques from BASE office . Among the 3 persons who phoned Mr. Zia I could guess two persons , one of them was a promotee officer from clerical position and thus has a kind of false pride and the other one is basically ungentle in his behavior and manner, his behavior and style of talking is unacceptable, as far as I heard one of them is a relative of Mr. Zia.What would have been the situation if they were asked to collect cheques from PDP ? Wouldn't they accept it - I guess they will be happy. If that is true what is the problem with BASE? Is that BASE is a national organization, doesn't it mean that we respect foreigners than ourselves and that this is being endorsed by someone who is a very close freind of BASE and a well wisher of this organization. I understand that he could not realize the underlying motive of the complainants.

Let me also bring it to your kind notice that you know very well we in Bangladesh haven't been able to really practice democracy for long and thus a democratic values haven't been grown and developed. Though constitutionally and legally peole are the owner of this country and they are the master but in reality this has been turned as a meaningless rhetoric. The officers and staffmembers of the republic are supposed to serve the people but in our country they (and we too) treat themselves as the master of the country and thus they are so powerful and previleged. Mr. Zia's understanding might have been developed from this observation. However, I feel that BASE should run it's affairs according to it's own rule and philosophy and thus Consultants should follow that rule and we should not allow others to interfere into the internal affairs of this organization . I have expressed my opinion on the issue and please know your decision so that I can act accordingly.