From Mr S. I. Dajani, MRPharmS
SIR,-I would like to comment as a member of Council on Mr Nathan's holier than thou judgment on the performance of the Council (PJ, March 4, p369). I would like to make three points, though I very much regret that I have to do so.
(1) For the record, many members of our hard working profession were not happy with the Council; they felt let down, betrayed and unrepresented by an out-of-touch establishment. The problem was so deep-rooted that it needed something radical to bring the Council up to date and put it more in touch with its grass roots members. That radicalism became public when Hemant Patel was elected as President and, although no one person is responsible for either the old culture or for the new one, it caused major repercussions. This, in my opinion, was beneficial, as the Council needed a good shake-up. It was traumatic, but like open-heart surgery it was necessary and life saving. There has now been an improvement in probity, transparency and accountability and much needed fundamental changes have been made to heal the disquiet among a sizeable number of Council members. Mr Nathan has highlighted a number of changes and while he openly chooses to champion these, he blatantly chooses to criticise how they came about.
(2) Mr Nathan champions corporate governance but does the opposite. The old cliché "do as I say, not what I do" comes to mind. In the truest sense of corporate governance, any reports relating to the Council should be made available through the various official channels such as the Society's press office or The Pharmaceutical Journal. Surely, it is up to the grass roots members to decide who is truly representing them. To help them in this, incidentally, a recent decision was made to highlight and audit members of Councils' attendance records, branch visits, etc.
(3) Mr Nathan says in his letter that some members of Council seem to be unable to put the interests of the profession before their "narrow sectional" interests. Surely these "narrow sectional" interests are sizeable enough and important enough to get those members of Council elected. What is Mr Nathan suggesting? Say anything to get elected then ignore the members?
In the meantime, I hope to see recorded votes and an official hustings on the agenda. I hope that I will have Mr Nathan's support in pressing for these.
Sultan Dajani
Andover, Hampshire