Cross Talk
A nation for sale?
CORPORATE raiders are notorious people. They orchestrate hostile takeover of companies and break up their assets to generate huge profit. This time a similar raid is being launched on this country. Private companies are taking it apart piece by piece to make more money. I don't oppose their right to do business, but what their business is doing to our rights as people is appalling.
Since Rousseau wrote the social contract theories, people are given the right to be the legitimate sovereign of their country. There seems to be a mad scramble over this inalienable right as commercial interests are trouncing over national interests. Right now we are living in "a payable situation" in this country. We are ready to sell, if anybody likes to pay.
So, a private company has agreed to pay for the beautification, modernisation and maintenance of the cafeteria and the surrounding areas of the Teachers Students Centre of Dhaka University.
The benefits are obviously mutual. The 30-year agreement includes a 10-year provision to strengthen the sponsor's network on the campus. In return, the university gets a modern cafeteria with central air-cooling facilities and funds to support some of its annual activities.
That is only one piece of the puzzle. Television talk shows are sponsored by private companies, where sensitive issues of national interest are discussed and the government is regularly assailed under the sponsorship of a foreign company.
At Dhaka international airport the immigration counters are branded by corporate houses. It's difficult to tell whether those are bank counters staffed by government employees.
That leaves us with bus stations, shopping centres and over-bridges, which are also plastered with corporate colours and logos, creating confusion if one is walking through familiar neighbourhoods or new corporate premises.
If people of this country matter anywhere, it's in the squeeze between the power of publicity and publicity of power. Needless to say, the commercial bodies are busy with publicity and government bodies are busy with power.
This is how a sovereign nation is being dismembered, not limb by limb but frame by frame, its pride auctioned in the name of beautification, modernisation and maintenance. The university can't afford amenities; the civil aviation is cash short, the city corporations and others are eager to make quick bucks.
Hence, what ought to happen is happening. This country is like an open house. Anyone who pays is free to pick a part of choice and promote his business.
We are looking at a family situation projected on a national scale. What happens in a cash-strapped family living in their own house? They rent out a few rooms to generate additional income. The tenants often share the kitchen and toilet facilities with the landlord, and the arrangement leads to scandals in many cases as intimacy erodes into privacy.
Similarly, there are certain things which are sacrosanct in a nation's life. These are non-negotiable, non-transferable aspects of sovereign existence, which must be guarded like family honour. I am talking about the sanctity of an entity for the same reason an Urdu musical night at the Central Shaheed Minar should smear the memories of our language martyrs.
Likewise, a gala reception in a graveyard is outrageous, and idol worship inside a mosque is sacrilegious. Everything has a place in life, and some of these places are enshrined with apportioned gravitas. For example, a private organisation shouldn't pay for the modernisation of the prime minister's office and install their sponsorship plaque. For the same reason, nobody should sponsor and use his logo on the national airline.
I think it was in the '60s when Burma didn't have enough foreign currency to buy the paper needed to print its own currency kyat. At that time Germany had helped the country by giving the paper as a donation. Donations and sponsorships are part of the protocol. There are many instances of nations living on dole.
There are also instances when university campuses are embellished with endowment or philanthropic funds in exchange for recognition with a statue or bust if the benefactor is an individual or a plaque in case of an organisation.
But giving the right to do branding and network-building is an uneven negotiation, especially when the reputation of an 88-year old academic institution is pawned to the aspirations of a 12-year old corporation (fined Tk.168 crore for running illegal VoIP business and show-caused by BTRC for breach of agreement and telecom rules).
At this rate it can go to a ludicrous extent as public institutions keep making further compromises to stay in "business." The police and the army can be modernised if we agree to stitch sponsor's logo on uniforms, like the cricket team does on jerseys. Perhaps digital ad-scrolls can be hung on the walls of the prime minister's office or Bangabhaban in exchange for sponsorships to add modern amenities.
Even distribution of national flags can be encouraged on the Independence Day to spread nationalistic feelings amongst us. For that matter, we shall find many interested sponsors if we allow them to print their logos in one corner of the red and green. Pardon me if you find these ideas offensive. In that case you are too late, because similar transgressions of our national honour have taken place already.
There is a silent sale going on in this country. Immigration counters, university campuses, roads, parks, and walls are already taken. In the next wave we might give the national parliament, martyrs' memorial, national museum, secretariat and other government establishments. The sky is the limit. Pay and pick before the stock runs out!
About 400 years ago, a similar drama had unfolded in this part of the world. Mughal emperor Jahangir granted the right to do business to the East India Company, which eventually conquered the land and subjugated its people.
In the modern Company Raj there is a twist. Minds of people are conquered through brand-building and product promotion. The subjugation of the land gradually follows, like a fisherman reels in his catch.
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