East India Company was ruling the country at the time and the capital was Kolkata (Calcutta back then). All sorts of experiments were on regarding tax collection. Lord Cornwallis came along as the governor general and in 1793 introduced the land acquisition and tenancy act pertaining to 'permanent settlement'. The zemindars' private ownership of the land under this law was given recognition. They were to collect taxes from the peasants, keep a portion for themselves and hand over the rest to the company.
The zemindar was not only the land owner, but owned the subjects too. He was the all-in-all. His wishes were the final word. The sun would set and the moon would rise at his behest. We would even decide whether a subject's child would go to school or not, who was to get married or not and so on. He was the 'huzoor', the lord. Kushtia's Mir Mosharraf Hossain's satirical play 'Jamidar Darpan' was all about the tales of the zemindars. Published in the Bangla year 1274, it described the cruelty and clout of the zemindars. The zemindar's was name Haiwan, meaning 'beast'. The writer intentionally gave him such a hateful name. The lines of the play spoke of how the peasants suffered under the zemindar's repressive rule, completely at his mercy.
In 1950, the state acquisition and tenancy act was revoked, abolishing the zemindari system. But so what if the law was revoked, traditions die hard and carry down till today. There are these zemindars almost in all places of the country. They wield huge power in their respective areas. They are called MPs. There are, perhaps, some exceptions to the rule.
2.
Almost all the MPs live in the capital. There are government flats for them here, but most of them don't live in these flats. Their flunkeys and associates stay there. They have plots of land allocated in RAJUK's housing projects. They have the perks of importing large luxury vehicles free of duty. Many of them even sell those cars. Basking in the benefits to the hilt!
When an MP goes to his constituency, his home teems with the local leaders and leaders on the periphery. Most of them earn their money by business, contracts, lobbying and such. There is a nexus of corruption surrounding them. When he strides along, he is flanked by all these people. When he drives along in his car, he is accompanies by their convoy of motorbikes. The 'lord' has come from the capital.
I remember an incident of a few years ago. I would take part in TV talk-shows at the time and the MPs would often be there too. Poet Rezwan Siddiqui and I were in some such talk-show and another guest was due. He turned up, accompanied by another three. One was his bodyguard, one was carrying his attaché case, and the other was carrying his mobile phone. He wouldn't answer his calls directly. The man would answer the call and say, "Boss, so-and-so wants to talk." "Tell him to call tomorrow afternoon, I am at a wedding now." He couldn't care less that the two of us were sitting there. Totally shameless.
Rezwan Siddiqui whispered angrily into my ear, "Insolent man! We two seniors are sitting here and he didn't even say salam!" Once the show began, we learnt he was an MP. Rezwan Siddiqui passed away recently. He was a gentleman.
Will the MPs' zemindar tradition prevail, or will they detach themselves from the local government and concentrate of promulgating laws, debating on issues of national and public interest in the parliament?
3.
An MP holds an Aladdin's lamp. He has endless power. The upazila parishad runs at his command. Needless to say, the union parishad too. He decides who will be the chairman, the vice chairman, the members. Sometimes the newspapers in Dhaka report of close contest in the local government elections. But in actuality, the contestants are the nominees of the MP or the MP-aspirant.
Large budgets are allocated at the upazila and union level now and there is a flurry of constructing roads, culverts and bridges, even if they are not needed. Culverts are made in the yard, in the paddy field, anywhere and everywhere, even where there are no roads. Projects mean money. There is an amazing nexus between the MP, the local government officials and the party contractor.
All is controlled from the capital by LGED under the local government ministry. An important leader of the ruling party is placed in charge of this ministry. The main function of this ministry is to use the taxpayers' money to patronise party men. These projects are passed by ECNEC in presence of the head of government. The MP sahibs send in the project proposals. And if any MPs manages to get the prime minister to visit his constituency and deliver a speech, voila! He just hands over a list of "development" to the prime minister who reads it out, and that's all that is needed. These find way onto the prime minister's priority list and who will dare not to allocate the funds?
The MP sahibs do not read the constitution. They may have never seen the constitution in their lives. Even if they have, they have never cracked open a page. They have no idea that their task is to pass laws in the parliament and debate over relevant issues. An MP invests huge sums of money to become an MP. First he pays a big chunk to by party nomination. Once he gets the nomination, he goes into action. He outs his hired goons to use. He had allocations for them -- the minimum being a motorbike and a daily allowance. He has to keep them on hire for a month and a half or two. Even in a union parishad election, millions of taka is spent now. How much does a candidate spend in the parliamentary polls? Only the Almighty knows.
Once he becomes an MP, he is the zemindar, the lord of the area. Many officials at the upazila level can't do their work properly in fear of him and his lackeys. If they try to follow the law, all hell breaks loose. They are verbally accused, beaten, threatened with transfers. They are in a state of fear. Many seek transfer away from the area on their own volition. Many simply join their bank of corruption to save their own skins. And many of them are bad anyway.
4.
The upazila parishad and union parishad are the most important tiers of local government. Many of us do not want to understand that the local government is also a government. It must be autonomous. Such systems exist in the developed countries of the West and the East. Our officials travel to see these in the name of training with public money. It hardly seems that they learn anything whatsoever. In our country, the local government is kept as an appendix to the central government. The union and upazila parishads are used to implement the decisions taken from about at the village, union and upazila level. And the MPs towers above it all like the monstrous creature in Sindbad's tales.
We froth at the mouth with our rhetoric on democracy, but are not bothered about empowering the local government. The government structure is not compatible with the democratic system. The ministers, MPs and officials eye the autonomous local government in such a manner as if a competitor has entered their turn and will want a share of their spoils. There are all-out efforts everywhere to ensure a sort of proprietorship.
We have seen that the political governments are syndicates. They want to keep all power among their cronies. If they clinch the majority in the election, they win all. They haughty attitude is as if they have just descended from the skies above. Before the election, they are as humble as it can get. Once the election is over, they glare down at the people in arrogance.
In recent times the word "reforms" has gained much currency. We need to know such the authorities are thinking about when it comes to the local government. Will the MPs' zemindar tradition prevail, or will they detach themselves from the local government and concentrate of promulgating laws, debating on issues of national and public interest in the parliament? The matter needs to be decided upon. The stand of the political parties in this regard must be made clear.
* 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