Surging crime and rule of corruption
VIOLENCE, crime and corruption of all types are searing the land. Coming up with increasing frequency, grisly incidents of killing, abduction, rape, ransom have put a blot on the image of the country. On the other hand our political leaders are parading themselves before the media saying little relevant but much incendiary.
A Bangla daily editorialised on September 3 last that in the first six months in the current year, 2,263 murders were committed in the country. Let me cite some gory incidents that stunned the whole nation: On September 19, Zahirul Islam's (22) dead body shredded into six pieces was recovered from near a septic tank in Singair upazila of Manikganj. The grisly killing of two auto-rickshaw drivers, Abu Hanifa at Gouripur and Monir Hossain at Gazipur after snatching their vehicles in the second week of September, as reported in the dailies on September 19 last are such brazen acts of greed, cruelty and barbarism. Kalikoir businessman Shamsul Huq's dead body floating in Goala river was recovered near Fulbaria. Reports of such macabre crimes are not only ominous but a chilling symbol of the breakdown of law and order.
Swapna, a nine year old minor girl, was raped and killed by two youngsters Jacky and Rana while she was going to her relation's house. Locals nabbed Jacky and handed him over to police but Rana made good his escape.
Extortionists in the past week at Rampura area in the city snatched Tk. 17 lakh from a money exchanger, shooting his son dead on the spot and the father grievously injured close to Rampura thana. It won't be enough to describe the situation in the country as just sickening.
The whole country is being held hostage in the hands of a limited number of criminals. Fed up with increasing incidence of hijacking, extortion, robbery, looting and even raping of minor girls that brought no response from the law enforcement agencies, people at large and in some cases, victims themselves, out of pent up anger took law into their own hands.
There is no denying that the present crisis and disorder in the society stem from lack of political leadership and a moral vacuum. If the highest executives in the government, the secretaries in the ministries, can resort to fraudulent means for taking freedom fighter's certificates for getting extension in service without ever participating in the freedom struggle, what ethical standard and morality can we expect from the common man? The prolonged inaction of the executive on all such issues by treating the enforcement agencies as poodles of their political masters further tainted the administration.
Disgust, or more appropriately hatred, was probably the overwhelming feeling in the past months because of the sickening news of scams being unearthed with each passing day. Shocking lapses of the concerned agencies and unforgivable bad governance now see Bangladesh sliding into distress zone, causing heavy losses, hitting development targets and resulting in deaths, diseases and lost image.
Rhetoric can't fill the stomach. What the average people care about is governance, the sort of governance that would make a real difference to their life. Successive governments were unable to provide this and the trend, unfortunately, still continues, with ominous consequences for the nation and the ruling party. Corruption is inevitable in a system that disallows sacking of officials or booking the culprits with an iron hand.
This should be a moment of national catharsis. The January 5 election did not give the present ruling party the required mandate to rule the country with total consensus. Democratic spirit and values have given way to authoritarianism. Just within 9 months after the take over, the government is facing enormous challenges on all fronts: unbridled crime and corruption, moral decay, financial scam, political stagnation, accumulation of wealth in some unscrupulous hands, adulteration of foodstuffs, and politicisation of the administration. The present government, it seems, will walk out not like heroes in the cause of the people, but like one betrayed, not by the people but by its partners and sycophants.
Things could get better if the government understood the importance of good governance, if in their speeches in meetings, and before the media, they had articulated exactly what they had planned to do about the things that went wrong. Instead, what we got were polemics and platitudes and political alliances with parties of diverse ideologies shamefully crafted into a marriage of convenience, regardless of their inglorious records during the Liberation War.
But undeniably true, there was and there is stability in the chair, but there are no stirrings of change in the country. Despite the PM being in permanent national focus, there seems to be hardly any agenda, or any vision and or action other than promises, and if there is any agenda or vision, there is hardly any strong initiative to implement that mission. The only promise or agenda that is being realised is a chance for exploiters, extortionists and corrupt officials and political mastans to have a field day. The PM must be knowning about what is going on but she appears incapable of taking action against officials and the closest associates of the ruling alliance who are so openly insubordinate and brazenly corrupt.
The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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