Behind the bankruptcy of law-enforcement
ON the fourth anniversary of the tragic assassination of S.A.M.S. Kibria, an outstanding diplomat and former finance minister of Bangladesh, 'The Daily Star' report came very heavily on the performance or lack of it of our investigative agency. The report commented that contradictory probe findings are indicative of the bankruptcy of our law-enforcement agencies. Without doubt this is an extremely saddening spectacle. The all important question, however, is how and why we have reached this unsettling scenario?
To recapitulate, our political scenario turned for the worse with the tragic murder of the father of the nation and four national leaders. For many years these offences were not legally and appropriately treated by the establishment till a favourable political scene unfolded. Such realities do have substantial impact on the enforcement and adjudication temperament and culture. Between 1976 - 1979 many heinous criminal cases involving murder, abduction, grievous hur,t amongst others, were allegedly withdrawn as part of a deal struck with some political parties by the then establishment. The so-called cadres of these parties created havoc in the south-western and north-western parts of the country.
From the above it is seen that quite a few desperate criminals acquired respectability as politicos whom the hapless police were unsuccessfully chasing for a long time. Matters like this send very confusing signals to the enforcement units primarily and also significantly affect the judicial authorities. Without doubt they have had demoralizing effect on the conscientious officials who fail to understand the propriety of the so-called dynamics of electoral adjustment and understanding.
Mention may be made about the cases of withdrawal from criminal prosecution on political grounds that became quite large with the passage of each political regime. Newspaper reports indicate that the volume of such withdrawals have registered sharp increase in recent years. Whether such increase is directly co-related to the heightened criminalisation of our politics may be examined by those interested to see a cleaner polity.
One needs to know if the executive organ of the state is rendering desired assistance in furthering the administration of justice and more specifically whether it is making serious efforts to prosecute the major offenders. It also needs to be examined by competent authority whether in consenting to withdrawal from criminal prosecution the Courts have taken sufficient precaution to prevent executive abuse and misuse and undesirable political favours from taking place.
Properly investigating a criminal offence particularly those relating to deaths of persons, mostly political, has become an extremely disconcerting assignment. We have allowed a situation to develop wherein there is open distrust of the capability and neutrality of the state investigative apparatus by the victims of the explosion and their near relations. The commonly leveled allegations are inaction and waiting for instructions from higher authority. Somehow these allegations cannot be brushed aside readily as informed observers will perhaps find some substance in such accusations.
The painful reality is that, as of now, incidents relating to explosions and bomb blasts have to be investigated by the institutions branded as ineffective, untrustworthy and partial until the legislature has found an alternative agency to do the onerous job or the existing arrangements have demonstrated sufficient credibility to let the institutions go ahead with their assigned job.
In the fitness of things every criminal case should be disposed of on its own merit. That is the ideal. There are, however, objective conditions in Bangladesh to doubt that the fate of some cases, if not many, did not have the benefit of such ideal standard. The inordinate delay in the holding of trial of the 'Udichi' incident should not escape the attention of concerned commentators. Some cynics say that the expeditious holding of this trial may have produced different findings. This writer is not sure but would like to dwell upon certain facts and circumstances of our socio-political existence and in particular the perilous political polarization of our society that has a definite bearing upon the basic regulatory function of investigation by the state agency, the police.
If the investigating agency stands accused of being dictated by the wishes of successive political regimes as has been commented upon, then we need to find out why this has happened. In the same vein one needs to know why some very high-profile politically sensitive accused did not have the benefit of obtaining bail in any one of the multiple cases lodged against him at a particular point of time but subsequently got it in all the cases with the ushering in of another political regime.
It is not for this writer to ascertain the varying judicial wisdom but the concerned members of public get upset when they see the same accused being sought after by the powers that be. Does not such a scenario send disconcerting and conflicting signals to the investigating agency whose operatives have learnt to live with the reality? The cynics might say that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds and as such our investigative agencies must be able to appreciate the dynamics (!) of emerging political reality.
The pernicious culture of playing to the tune of unscrupulous political masters or pandering to their unholy wishes by the investigating agencies and other sensitive State agencies has not occurred all on a sudden. Spells of unconstitutional rule, particularly during 1982 90, have substantially damaged the ethos of our public service including the investigating agencies. While leadership deficits account for some malfeasance, the real damage has been done by an insensitive and myopic dictatorial establishment that was hell-bent to screw all regulatory and corrective institutions. The unwholesome effect of such institution-bashing is now being felt by a concerned citizenry.
One is, however, not oblivious of the fact that the democratically elected but temperamentally dictatorial regimes since 1991 have been any better in realizing the damage done to the professionalism of the services. The halo and élan of public service has meant little to the political leaderships who have spent more time and energy in fostering the growth of pliable and time-serving personnel for achieving their selfish goals.
In a perilously polarized polity where criminals enjoy political patronage, criminal activities are accorded respectability for so-called political compulsions and a loathsome all-pervasive distrust between different social and political groups prevail, the predicament of police investigators who have the double jeopardy of being less-than-credible in the eyes of the law of the land and the members of public, can only be appreciated by a reasoned observer.
Our investigators definitely suffer from inadequate scientific support but even under the present circumstances they can achieve commendable success. Our investigators for reasons known, do not operate in a favourable environment where helpful information comes voluntarily from members of public but still like our physicians they do good clinical investigation without laboratory support by virtue of their intuition, gut reaction and the limited information network.
We will definitely put ourselves and our future generation in peril by our inability to let a truly professional investigating agency grow in accordance with the dictates of the law. Viewing criminal occurrences from a political angle only will be ruinous because that would not only be a damper to the growth of professionalism but also in the process shatter the remaining confidence reposed in the vital institution of the State. We still have pockets of excellence in our investigative outfits and it shall be in the fitness of things to allow such outfits to attain professional excellence without being tainted by any direction. Let the actual facts and circumstances of the incident be ascertained as is the job of the investigator and let that be placed before the court for adjudging the guilt.
Muhammad Nurul Huda is a columnist for The Daily Star.
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