2016 Annus horribilis
There are good reasons to call 2016 a horrible year, and I am sure most of us will be glad to see the back of 2016. To say that it was a traumatic year for Bangladesh would be an understatement. Seldom have we been visited by so much of misfortune, and seldom have events in Bangladesh taken up the space and time of the international electronic media as have some of the events in this country. And this despite our achievements in many other sectors.
It was a politically quiet year for us, primarily because there was hardly any politics to write home about except for the few local body elections that were held with predictable results. The wheels of development moved faster than before and we can take comfort in the country crossing the thousand dollar mark in per capita earning although that figure does is not quite reflect the spread of the per head earning across the board, and a record foreign exchange reserve. But the ruling party's emphasis on development was noticeable particularly in its effort to project the primacy of development over democracy in deflecting all criticisms of the current political dispensation and all calls for an early election though greatly muted since 2015.
The agriculture sector continues to provide us great comfort, and in spite of many encumbrances at home, the RMG sector did not fail to live up to its potential to reach the 50 billion dollar mark by 2021, having secured more than USD 34.24 billion in export earnings in the 2015-16 fiscal year. However, we can be rightly dismayed by the fact that we have failed to receive a positive re-evaluation of our GSP designation even this year, despite the factories meeting most of the conditions set by the importers. However, thanks to the peaceful environment during the course of the last one year in this sector that has helped us to reach the target, of course except the brief flutter in a segment of RMG factories at the fag end of the year.
But all our achievements were smeared and tainted by the most traumatic episode in the nation's life in many years. The painful event of July 1 in Holey Artisan was never anticipated; although the entire year was spattered with activities of the Islamic extremists, Holey Artisan was a nadir in the extremists' act of violence that resulted in the gruesome killings on a night of the month of Holy Ramzan. Nothing has been the same in this country ever since, and the consequences have been very widespread and felt in many areas, apart from the fact that it has left a deep scar in the collective psyche of the nation.
But Holey Artisan in a very queer way has a redeeming aspect too. It threw up a hero in the form of a 20 year young man Faraaz, whose exemplary courage and sacrifice will much outlive the sordid tale written by the senseless murderers. Since coming under the radar of the AQIS and the ISIS, a number of their affiliates have sprung up in the country and, reportedly, since 2013 a variety of local Islamist groups have carried out the murders of at least 40 pro-secular writers and activists, members of religious minorities and foreigners. Among those killed in 2016 are U.S. embassy employee and LGBT activist Xulhaz Mannan, secular English professor Rezaul Karim Siddique, and law student Nazimuddin Samad. While the agencies have been successful in pre-empting some of these groups, not many of them could be arrested alive, thus depriving the intelligence agencies valuable intelligence that would have helped them in better combating the menace.
Apart from that, several painful murders, some of them in broad daylight, have hogged the headlines too. The murder of a second-year history student of Comilla Victoria Government College and a cultural activist, Tonu who was found dead about 400 yards from her house inside Comilla Cantonment on the night of March 20, has remained unsolved and so has the killing of an SP's wife in Chittagong, although several persons have been arrested in this regard.
The year was also marred by attacks on religious and ethnic minorities in various parts of the country, the tenor of these attacks gives one the impression of a well-planned action with ulterior motives. But certainly the assaults on the Santals in Gaibandha had nothing to do with religion or ethnicity but pure lust for land, and reportedly there is involvement of politicians too.
Another blot in the traumatic year of 2016 was the Bangladesh Bank heist which to this day remains a mystery. The initial reaction of a former Bangladesh Bank Governor, who later headed the inquiry commission set up by the finance ministry, pointed towards an inside job or at least active collusion of some central bank insiders without whose help such a transfer would not have been possible. But the mystery has become an enigma with the finance minister blowing hot and cold regarding making public the inquiry report. But the longer that is withheld the deeper will be the speculation and the suspicion of the common man that the government has perhaps something to hide.
While we bid adieu to 2016, let us begin the year 2017 with the confidence that, "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.'" – Tennyson
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
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