Rashed Khan Menon, President of Workers Party, a partner of the ruling coalition, has demanded the formation of a 'special commission' to stop corruption in the country and the formation of a 'tribunal' to try the embezzlers of bank money. According to him, 'constitute a special commission now to stop this scourge of corruption, confiscate the money and assets of the corrupt, and punish them severely. Establish tribunals for embezzlers.'
Talking about the matter, Bhupendra Bhowmik Dolan, general secretary of the 14-party alliance of the government, said, "Our policy position against corruption has always been vocal and clear." In the reality of Bangladesh, 'corruption' is the most discussed and debated topic, from the opposition party or government-supporters to the people's court. There is no way for anyone to deny that the corruption picture of the former Police Chief and Army Chief is only the tip of the iceberg, due to which the secret world of wealth of thousands of crores of money of many senior government officials is being exposed. Even, the outgoing Justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Muhammad Abdul Hafeez, at the end of his professional life and raised the question in amazement, how the government's salaried officials-employees become owners of billions, even hundreds of billions of money?
Undoubtedly, the incidents of rampant corruption have shocked the countrymen. That is why in the farewell speech of the eight-member appellate bench headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan, Justice Hafiz said, corruption is damaging all our achievements. Corruption is rampant. Offices and courts should be kept free from the hands of corrupt persons. The state should take this responsibility. Then the country will benefit. People will be protected from unwanted dangers.
Bangladesh's 'corruption' is a topic of discussion across the borders of the country and abroad. When talking about 'second home' in Malaysia, 'Begum Para' in Canada, 'mall-market' in Dubai-Abu Dhabi, sources of corruption in Bangladesh come to the fore. Transparency International (TI), an international organization based in Berlin, Germany, publishes a report every year to give an idea of the level of corruption in any country. They have published a conceptual report on corruption for the past year 2023. According to the report, Bangladesh ranks tenth among the countries with the highest level of corruption in the world. Earlier in 2022, Bangladesh was ranked 12th. According to a Transparency International (TI) report, Bangladesh has a higher level of corruption than countries that do not have democracies and countries that have authoritarian regimes.
As a result, it is impossible to hide the fact that corruption is happening. Rather, if this spread of corruption is not prevented by taking special measures now, the development progress of the country will be crushed by the iceberg. Corrupt people will continue to loot the wealth of the country in the guise of saints. Even, their children will cause cattle and goats worth lakhs of money. Daughters will break the car of crores of takas. Wives will own duplex homes and resorts.
But unfortunately we have seen here journalists being bullied for reporting corruption from police association. Many ministers are calling this information speculative. Even if they try to hide the truth, the real picture cannot be hidden. The US Financial Integrity Institution has shown that 7 billion dollars are being smuggled out of Bangladesh every year. This money is invested in Begum Para in Canada, second home in Malaysia, modern shopping malls in Singapore, Dubai, real estate and hundi business. The dividend of this money is not coming to the country. There is no initiative to bring back the smuggled money. But the expatriates are being taxed on the income they send to the country for broken bones abroad. Thousands of crores of takas are being taken away from their foreign travel.
Even if the situation is dire, even Menon, who is a supporter of the government, is forced to say, 'One of the means of earning this wealth is taking money from the bank and not returning it, bank robbery and corruption. In 2009, the debt of Tk. 22 thousand 481 crore is now Tk. 1 lakh 82 thousand crore. If the rescheduling and disposal is taken into account, the amount will stand at Tk. 4 to Tk. 5 lakh crores. He said, 'Former Finance Minister Abdul Muhith promised to form "Bank Commission" to restore good governance in the banking sector. The next Finance Minister fired him. And now Bangladesh Bank is doing a scandal with the bank.'
The same can be said about laundering black money. It appears that when bribery, corruption and looting money is proposed to be laundered by taxing half as much as honestly earned money, it amounts to a reprimand for honesty and a reward for dishonesty. The arguments put forward in this regard are not only numb, but also contrary to the government's past stand.
The impression of corruption and decadence is visible in the murder of MP Anwarul Azim, apart from Aziz, Benazir, goat incident, so that the image of gold-drug smuggling and criminal world of South Western region of the country is emerging. Earlier, the influence of businessmen in politics and Parliament increased. This time, as the subject of crime has also been added, politics has become more cornered and the level of criminalization has increased. The image of the parliament is being damaged. These issues need to be deeply examined and self-criticized.
Many believe that ruthless oligarchs are controlling the country's economy. Inflation could not be brought down to protect the interests of that oligarchy. Commodity price, rising inflation, corruption, money laundering, looting and anarchy in the banking sector, huge mountain of defaulted loans have left the country's economy in a fragile state. It was the urgent duty of the present time to restore the economy from this, to bring back relief to public and state life. Bazaar Syndicate is playing like before. Making people its victim. The government admits that there is a syndicate. But there is no initiative to break the syndicate.
In the past too, Bangladesh has been the champion of corruption five times. There has been strong criticism and protests against it. Economists always say, if we could stop corruption, our growth would have increased by two and a half percent. Bangladesh is still among the top 10 in the global corruption index of the past period, but our stigma is somewhat removed. Rather, the image of corruption that has been emerging recently by misusing government positions and power is not only affecting the country's image, but also creating disappointment in various government institutions and general public distrust.
While there are socio-economic, institutional and political reasons for such rampant corruption, the psychological factor is not to be neglected. Only a person who is extremely dishonest, sick and perverted in mind and mentality can run after money and wealth like a drunken buffalo. He can behave like a madman in illegal ways to earn wealth thousand times more than he needs. Therefore, there is a need for psychological research to uncover the true nature of their criminality and corruption. This will make it easier to identify the black cats who carry out looting and corruption in white and saintly garb and bring them to justice.
A novel in this regard is worth recalling, titled 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'. The novel is a mystery novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in 1886. London lawyer Gabriel John Utterson's investigation of the strange events between his old friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and his sinister counterpart Edward Hyde is the subject of this novel. The novel's influence was such that it became part of the English language, and the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" refers to a person who has a dual existence, usually very good but sometimes unexpectedly evil.
As the story goes, Dr. Jekyll manages to discover a drug for his own use which, when used, turns him into a man of the opposite character, i.e. the vices of his mind become dominant and he acts accordingly. By applying another medicine, he can return to normal. This is how the doctor began to nurture two people in the same body with the good and evil nature of him. He named the bad guy Mr. Hyde. In this way he continues to live as Dr. Jekyll during the day and Mr. Hyde at night.
At one point such was the situation that he began to transform into Mr. Hyde, even if he didn't want to. It turns out that his second drug that used to turn him from Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll is no longer working. As a result, his humanity began to be replaced by animality. Meanwhile, Mr. Hyde kills a man. The real Dr. Jekyll committed suicide to escape the self-deprecation within him.
Our corrupt people are overtly good men Dr. Jekyll and covertly or subtly Mr. Hyde. Everyone thinks he is a good person and a person of high status, but in terms of principles, morals and behavior, a savage animal lives in him or them. One day when the household really comes, the thief is caught. There are more corrupt people in Bangladesh than those caught. Those who sit in the upper positions and talk big talk are cutting the pockets of the country playing with people's fortune and wealth.
Psychologists say that human passios are indeed very diverse, powerful and active, with greed, profit and lust on one side and a mind that cultivates moderation and good sense on the other. There is a constant battle between these two opposite natures. Suppression of evil forces is the measure of civilization. The more moderate the leader, person, society, ruler, institution is, the more civilized he or she is.
But corruption and corruption are ever-proud to cover the civilized world in darkness. They show loyalty to the rulers for their own interests and pursuits, telling people about values. In fact, they do not believe or practice any of this. They are pushing the political system, financial structure, moral standards, customs and civilization of a society towards destruction, this is the biggest danger message.
Therefore, beware of the former 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' who are championing corruption and lighting the red light of ethics by poking holes in society, administration and profession!
Dr. Mahfuz Parvez: Associate Editor, Barta24.com; Chairman and Professor, Department of Political Science, Chattogram University and Executive Director, Chattogram Center for Regional Studies, Bangladesh (CCRSBD).