Will we be fatalistic and leave everything to destiny?

The pages of the newspapers are filled with news of looting and crime. Back in the day the news was about households being robbed, rice and relief blankets being filched, shops, markets and banks being looted. But the style and mode of looting has taken on a new dimension nowadays. You don’t have to raid a bank branch to loot it. Looting the share market started a long time ago. There was an interval and now it has resumed. It had started in 1996 and now it’s probably in the third semester.

Certain people are looting the banks by “borrowing” the money which thousands of depositors have kept there. And all this is done with indulgence from the government. By changing the rules and regulations, it has given permission for several members of the same family to repeatedly become directors of a bank, making these family enterprises.

The most alarming incident that happened a few years ago was Bangladesh Bank funds being looted. Those in charge were not nabbed. The biggest crime they committed was keeping the matter under covers. They wanted to conceal the matter. Former finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit said he only learnt about the matter two months after it happened.

In the seventies the people in this country would have slogans against stealing blankets. Now it’s not just blankets, the entire country’s resources are being stolen in all sorts of ways by a handful of families and groups. Some of them stay abroad, some stay here defiantly. The families of many of them have left the country and settled overseas a long time back.

People create states for material comforts of this world. They require all sorts of services. They need food, a place to stay, medical treatment, education for their children, employment for a decent livelihood. They need water, electricity, fuel and transport. They want security to reside and to commute. If many people live together, an organisation is required to look after all these requirements. The state is for the people, the people are not for the state. But in our country, it seems everything is the opposite.

I remember a rhyme by Jogindranath Sarkar which I read when I was a child. It was called “Mojar Desh” (Wonderland) and it went like this:

(In translation)

Once there was a wonderland,

Where everything was good,

The sun shone brightly in the night

And the moon in daytime stood.

The sky there was very green

The leaves were very blue

The fish would swim upon the land

And in rivers the eagles flew.

We live in a funny country like that, where everything is topsy-turvy. The state is steadily shrinking when it comes to providing services. The education system is going to private hands. They are now the distinguished education entrepreneurs. Treatment at private hospitals and clinics costs hundreds of thousands of taka. Public transport is non-existent. And security measures? That is there to suppress the good and nurture bad.

We have a border defence force. The state spends money on them. Yet yaba tablets enter the country so easily either flying through the air or swimming across the river! There is hardly a single person who has not been mugged on the streets. Everyone knows who the extortionists are and where the “toll money” goes.

As for the public servants who are paid with taxpayers’ money to serve the public, one has to almost beg them for service. Nothing moves without cash. You even have to pay to pay your taxes. So why did we create this state?

The state now is a machine to provide a certain group with facilities and benefits. This is a small group, but their reach is long. Service has shrunk to just a dot, but the state has grown massive in power and clout. It’s a lot like Sinbad’s ogre.

We almost foam at our mouths, chanting the democracy mantra. But no one talks about how democracy has collapsed for the people. The newspapers are too scared to print such news. When the people go to vote, they find someone else has cast their vote. Or they don’t need to vote. This has been going on for years. What a farce.

The owners of the state cannot be questioned. Anyone who asks a question is marked as a conspirator, a foreign agent. Unless you sing to the tune of the masters, you will be marked as a traitor. They go on like a broken record: “Give us constructive criticism.” But what is constructive criticism? It is, “Long live the masters! Everything is perfect!” That is ‘constructive criticism’.

They cannot tolerate criticism. They say, certain conspirators are engaged in anti-state activities. They only see problems. Don’t they see the roads, the bridges, the buildings we have constructed? They have been repeating the same thing over and again like a parrot since 1947. Before they would say, Pakistan is in danger. Now they say, there are conspiracies against the country.

The duty of those in charge to the state is to provide the people with services for their welfare, to alleviate their sufferings. This is their duty. They are paid salaries and allowances for this. If they deviate from this, people will naturally ask questions, will demand answers. Those in charge should welcome questions. They will only then know where they are erring, where there is a shortfall. Those asking the questions should be lauded. Yet they are taunted for their patriotism.

From the time of the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan down to the independence of Bangladesh, all the rulers have sung to the same tune. The culture of accepting criticism remains a far cry.

Down the years they have intoned the same chant: I am right and everyone else is wrong. Times are changing. Society is changing. But there is no change in rhetoric of the state and its rulers.

Why are the rulers like this? A king of a European country back in the 18^th century had said, I am the state. One of our leaders in the fifties had said, I am the constitution. Such avatars down the ages descend on this earth and honour the world with their words.

What are the people to do in the prevailing situation? Will they just look back in retrospect and say, things were better before? Or will they be even more fatalistic and leave everything to destiny, saying, it’s our kismet.

* Mohiuddin Ahmad is a writer and researcher

* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir