Spoilers, inaction, anarchy, and return of ‘UDDINS’

A case study in the recent edition of an International Business textbook, widely adopted in the US classrooms, has brought up the issue of corruption among the high-ups in Bangladesh. The case study in the book authored by Charles Hill implicates the son of former prime minister of accepting a $5 million bribe from the German electronics firm, SIEMENS. The bribe was allegedly paid by SIEMENS to win a mobile phone contract in Bangladesh. The SIEMENS has recently been convicted by the US and German governments for bribing foreign governments; the company has agreed to pay a $1.4 billion in fine. That is one of many allegations against BNP-led coalition government that ruled the country during 2001-06. Among countless other allegations against the BNP-Jamaat apparatus include:
* complicity of the former state minister of home affairs and a lawmaker in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on Awami League rally.
* involvement of top government officials in the ten-truck arms smuggling caught at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd. company complex on April 1, 2004.
* complicity of the coalition leaders and activists in perpetrating the post-2001 election violence against the religious and political minorities.
* accepting $2.94 million (equivalent to Tk 21 crore) bribe by the former state minister for home affairs to protect the son of a business tycoon from a murder case.
* graft charge against the former speaker, deputy speaker and chief whip of the parliament for appropriating properties of the national parliament.
Not only did the former coalition government not properly investigate any of the incidences mentioned above, the government apparatus either clumsily tried to implicate innocent persons or sweep the matter under the rug.
Perhaps, widespread predation and misrule of the former government can explain what gave a group of technocratic-bureaucratic-military oligarchy led by three Uddins (Moin Uddin, Fakhru-Uddin, and Iaj-Uddin) to seize the nation's power through the muzzle of guns.
The same three Uddins, previously handpicked by the BNP-led coalition believing to be subservient to the coalition's wishes, later found it more convenient to realign their allegiance only to serve own interests. People initially supported the intervention only to get respite from constant bickering and instability, as if they traded off freedom at the price of temporary peace from anarchy.
Alas, as the later actions of the caretaker government indicated, the country appeared to get respite from a group of roving bandits only to be replaced by a group of static bandits.
Only when the Uddins' minus-two theory failed, their attempt to create a special interest status-quo got rejected, and multi-national coalition withdrew support fearing public backlash, then they felt obligated to conduct election as a safe exit strategy. The election of 2008 which installed Awami League in the nation's power gave people high hopes. And, many good initiatives undertaken by the new government such as installing a cabinet with many individuals having untainted past, putting significant efforts in solving power crisis, successfully repelling BDR mutiny and setting up the long-sought war crimes trial set the bar of public expectation even higher.
But, now as it appears, party spoilers have re-emerged to carry out tasks to spoil the successes of the government. The recent killings of a public representative in Natore alleged to be perpetrated by ruling party activists and killings of a party member by the gun of a ruling party MP on the parliament premise portends ominous sign.
Had the government swiftly moved against the spoilers, the opposition activists wouldn't have dared to incinerate a train in Shirajganj. The question is why AL fails to take strong action against the party spoilers? Hasn't it learnt any lesson from the loss of 2001 election? The 2001 election defeat is largely blamed on the unruly activities of the party stalwarts. Do the benefits from inaction, whatever that may be, justify the future costs of losing power once more?
The inaction will surely alienate government from the public and will motivate the opposition to resort to more violence. Violence and instability have always been an effective strategy to destabilise government and often compel public to seek band-aid solution. That's how the Uddins and the likes get motivated and find pretext to strangle democracy in the name of security. In short, inaction invites violence, more chaos and undesired outside intervention, interrupting democratic process.
With increasing chaos and violence, government's good priorities will get whipped and attention turned away to combat chaos. Turmoil may even derail the War Crimes Trial process, thereby once more denying the long-sought justice for genocide, rapes and atrocities committed 39 year ago. May be the painful legacy of untried war crimes would continue to hunt the nation for more years to come.
Dear Prime Minister, let's have confidence on your commitment and election pledge. Let the nation move towards a better country with your wise action and prudent leadership. Don't let us down.

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Dr. ABM Nasir is an Associate Professor of Economics at the North Carolina Central University and can be reached at [e-mail]