Bashkhali: The height of criminality

What happened in Bashkhali is very significant to me. First, it is a Hindu family who are already soft spots for victimisation, and number of incidents had already taken place all over Bangladesh making them political scapegoats. Second, the Hindus who are in Bangladesh are no serious challenge or competitors to established authority or establishments. Third, they are dedicated, disciplined and devoted teachers, traders and workers. It is not only true in Bangladesh, all over the world it is a verified fact that minorities' contribution in the nation building is higher than the majorities'. They are our prized possession and we have a duty to safeguard their life and liberty.

The other day Mahathir Mohamad before his retirement was saying that: if the minority Chinese were given opportunities what the government was giving to the majority Malays, their contributions would have been ten-fold to the nation. Even then the contribution of the Chinese in the development of Malaysia is enormous both in business and entrepreneurship. The incident in Bashkhali is the waking up call for the government and the governed to act. Otherwise Bangladesh is and will fast become another Bulgarkhana, the epitaph left by the 16th century Muslim historians, for its lawlessness, or matsya-nyaya of the 8th century, a period of anarchy and disorder before the establishment of lawful authority.

I am not going too far or blame anybody. We have enough of blame game by politicians, parties, and the people here and there, for the last three decades. I blame myself of not doing enough to stand straight and face the consequences. I did face a few of hooligans under the great chagrin of my brothers and sisters who felt that I was naï

ve enough to confront the local marauders. What I found is that in the battle of nerves, they are the most vulnerable, but how do you know that they are not going to gun you down when pistols, revolvers, not to speak of AK-47 assault rifles, are not in short supply. Our family members, friends and neighbours are constantly dealing with them by emptying their pockets and purses. It was hard to find a single family who has not been mugged and often even mutilated, and in some instances murdered by these enemies of the people. I was boasting for long that somehow I was strong enough to evade them. The other day I lost my driving licence, along with few thousand taka from my flapped chest pockets. It has become my habit to put on double flapped pocket shirt whenever I go out and disperse my possessions in them and in the concealed pockets of my trousers. But these are shoddy pretensions of safety. I heard my family members and friends telling stories how they were bodily searched by the criminals. These criminals roam around in gangs, take possession of bus seats or jump into your taxi and clean you up. All the stories do not come to the newspapers nor do they get headlines, but these are facts of life. Some of the petty thieves, burglers, and muggers have been graduated to higher activities of arson, rape, murder and mass killings. Bashkhali incident is one of many.

Dhaka is fast becoming a city of day time dacoits. Chittagong, as we read in the newspapers, is also becoming a centre of criminals. Khulna, Sylhet you name any major city, the citizens there are no less terrorised. I can't tell much about the villages, but certainty the terrorists abound there too. People are maimed and murdered by the mastans who have full control of the villages. The petty businessmen, the landholders pay them tolls on a regular basis. Bus terminals, launch ghats, and train terminals are run by gangs, they prey on innocent passengers, and in these holidays many people can only go home at the mercy of the marauders. Even the airports are not safe. Our most foreign exchange earners, the labourers working day and night abroad, when come home and land at Dhaka airport, they are first harassed by officials of kinds, and once they get out of it they are surrounded by bunch of criminals. They are either mugged on the spot or huddled into predetermined taxis. Some of those most lamentable stories came to light through the newspapers. Let me tell you of yet another harassment. An yellow taxi stopped at a garage with a Middle-East returnee passenger in Mohakhali as if the driver had some mechanical problem. The passenger had to take a scooter, and as soon as the passenger left, the taxi zoomed towards the airport again. It happened so fast that I could not intercept the taxi driver. In most airports of big cities, to save passengers from harassment, the airport authorities have their own pre-arranged taxicabs.

What is it, what's going on all over Bangladesh? Can we survive as a nation with such insecurity and inefficiency? I was telling many friends and family members: if things do not change by 2020 we shall be an example of another failed state. The 2020 is arbitrary, anyway, you can add to it any one or more years, if things do not improve even then, we will simply be condemned as a nation. The first priority of a people's government is to give security, safety and sense of belonging to its citizens, and other things will follow.

What is the solution? We have enough of police in the cities, at least in Dhaka. But can the police force with its best intention, stop what I mentioned earlier? First, we are to stand firm, and to supplement our firmness we need some helpful officials to stand by our side. In most cases we avoid police because they are not people-friendly. It seems that the law enforcing authorities are left to their pre-colonial state of mind. They should be trained for the 21st century. Second, the people's representatives, from the ward commissioner to the member of the parliament are beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. If you have enough courage and time to spend, you go to them, and in no time you will realise that these representatives are encircled by their partymen and sycophants. Without connection you cannot meet your representative. May be they are busy with more important personal matters, and have little time to spare for others!.

I had been once to the Nagar-Bhaban to enquire about a problem. It is a huge building and there is no enquiring office at the gate. There is no complaint box. Should I urge them to have at least a complaint box and give due attention to that. Third, the only recourse left to the people is the newspapers. But the government is most often than not feels uneasy with them. The best virtues of a democratic government to my mind are tolerance and truthfulness, and both are in short supply. What's the harm in enhancing them?

Kazi Ihtesham teaches history at Jahangirnagar University.