'Failed state and Bangladesh'

At last Ershad was forced from power. We voted our own leaders and parties to state power -- first BNP, then AL, and again BNP. But has this made any significant difference to our lives? The autocratic Ershad is now criticising this government for corruption, terrorism, suppression of rights, etc. And his criticisms are no farce! What an irony of fate!

Mr Anam has rightly mentioned that we have earned the most "precious" and "brightest" jewel in the crown of national achievement -- the freedom of this country through a bloody fight against the mighty Pakistani rulers. I would also like to add here that we also fought for our language and established our mother tongue as a state language which is a great achievement. We got rid of the curse of the military regime in 1990. But have we been really emancipated?

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We have to remain in fear of Bangla Bhai. We have to see the blood of our intellectuals like Dr Azad, Professor Anu Muhammad, poet Shamshur Rahman, and the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Mr Anwar Chowdhury. We have to mourn the death of the popular law maker Ahsanullah Master, former MP Momtazuddin, and the noted journalist Manik Saha and now Humayun Kabir Balu. We still see poor people starving to death and minorities burnt to death. We receive reports from Amnesty International on gross violations of human right. We see the law enforcement agencies dysfunctional, the parliament dysfunctional, the lower courts of judiciary dysfunctional, the essential services like water, electricity, and telephone dysfunctional, and as a whole, who can argue with the proposition that we are a "dysfunctional state"?

But I agree with the Editor that we are not a "failed state". "Failed" is a comparative term. Its antonym is "success". On this ground, being in the government is a success, because they are achieving what they wanted to achieve. Let me clarify. In our country, whatever they say to the people, the main objective of those coming to power is to serve their self interest. If we look at the Parliament, it seems businessmen are dominating the house. There is a serious lack of professional politicians in the House. During nominations, all the parties give party tickets to those who have money, muscle, and influence. These "businessmen" just "invest" a huge amount of money to win the election, and after coming to power, they naturally try to realise that invested money with interest. So it is also natural that they will little think of the people and will little respect the people, and try to make money through corruption.

I can quote here many reports from our newspapers as instances of corruption of our lawmakers. A few months ago, the news of corruption over CNG auto rickshaws and the huge overdue telephone bills of the lawmakers is enough to demonstrate their "money making" mentality. So the government by the politicians seems very much on track to achieve its hidden objectives.

Alas, to prove it I must refer to the report of TI (Transparency International) citing Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world. To remain in power, the government is using the whole administrative machinery (police, security branches, and civil administration) against the people.

Therefore, I must suggest that the state is not failed but successful because the government has achieved its objectives of remaining in power for its own benefit. At the same time I must confess (admit) that we general masses, the source of all power are "failed" because we invariably send the wrong people or the wrong political parties to the parliament who exploit us, torture us, and dishonour us all the time, by making the state "dysfunctional". We hardly find any difference between our democratic and autocratic governments.

I thank Mr Anam for writing his timely post-editorial.

Md Firoj Alam is a frequent contributor to The Daily Star.