Plight of the pilgrims
The civil war that broke out all over Somalia by January 1990 has continued until now. As a matter of fact, Somalia does not have any viable centrally managed government for one decade and a half. Ethnic conflicts contributed to country-wide militancy, mass killings, vandalism, and looting of public properties.
I personally witnessed these scenarios in Somalia beginning from 1991 until 2004. Despite the destruction of public infrastructure along with provisions of social services, there are many positive developments in Somalia that deserve appreciation.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. One of these aspects is the management of pilgrims (Hujjas) in Somalia. In the dearth of a central government and in absence of a national carrier, Somalis have been managing Hajj very efficiently at their private capacities amid civil war. It is indeed amazing to experience how a war-torn society works together for a greater spiritual objective.
Private business communities put their consorted efforts to charter airplanes from different air leasing companies and offer very competitive price and efficient services. I have the feeling that the private entrepreneurs in this case prefer spiritual values and blessings to making money. It may be the opposite in the case of our country. The government machineries dealing with the holy responsibilities are just looking for monetary gains out of the plight of the innocent pilgrims. They forget that very hard owned life savings of a retired person is placed at the disposal of the government.
I personally traveled by private owned chartered flights from Somalia to Saudi Arabia during 1992 Hajj. It was very smooth and pretty cheap. The organizers used to manage Hajj visas from neighboring Djibouti since there was no Saudi consulate in Mogadishu.
I traveled to Saudi Arabia from Kenya to perform Hajj in 1999. It was astounding to see how the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslim (SUPKEM) handled the entire Hajj matters. The Christian predominated government of Kenya fully relied on a registered community association like SUMKEM to manage the Hajj matters.
It is appalling see the quality of management of entire Hajj programme by our government. I am sure that Bangladesh does not stand close to collapse like Somalia. Neither has it succumbed to ethnic conflicts and any dearth of governance. Why then the sectoral management of our government is so useless? Why does the government engage its sectoral monopoly in Hajj flights to prove its inefficiency at optimal level? Is it decent and humane for anyone to make Hajj (a holy rite) complex and nasty just for some commission and little percentage? Why do we nourish our mean and material interests out of the plight of the innocent pilgrims?
We should not forget the fact that most of the pilgrims from Bangladesh invest their entire life savings in order to perform this holy rite. Government authority responsible to this sector should have quality of services at an acceptable level. It is not nice to make the pilgrims hostages at the hand of the sectoral management. There must be transparent system of accountability from various government apparatus dealing with Hajj. It seems that in such matters, we may have a lot to learn from the Somali experience.
I wish to put my following suggestion to the responsible authority and concerned members of the public regarding management of pilgrimage:
- The management of Hajj flights should be handed to the interested private companies.
- An international tendering should be organized inviting the overseas air leasing companies to offer bidding under full supervision of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
- Price of $750 to $800 per Hajji including inboard services along with landing fees should be an expected quotation given consideration to the average economic background of Bangladeshi pilgrims.
- Airport erected for the VIPs and foreign dignitaries should be opened for the use of pilgrims.
- The pre-departure and upon arrival services for the Hajji should be given to the private companies, who should be given clear indication of standard of services required.