Bangladeshi Taka, Pakistani Rupee: Paths taken and not to be taken

Published : 26 August 2013, 12:22 PM
Updated : 26 August 2013, 12:22 PM

The summer of my discontent is almost over. Loss of a dear friend, the near civil war in Egypt and the real possibility that Bangladesh might end up having a centre right government tinged in Islamic hue by the end of 2013 has ended the summer torpor for me. As of August 24th the Bangladeshi Taka was trading at BDT 78.12 to one US Dollar. The Pakistani Rupee was trading at RS. 103.09 to the Dollar. I distinctly remember the days in 1974 when I was running around near Shahjalal's Dargha in Sylhet looking for illegal money lender to buy some Pakistani Rupees as they were convertible and I needed them to make my trip to London. From about 1971 through 1979, BDT was simply not convertible and the Rupee was trading at RS. 25 to a Dollar.

So, why am I talking about such mundane things as Taka, Rupees and Dollars? Mainly because those numbers show economic and societal prospects and the paths the two wings of erstwhile Pakistan have taken and what can happen if we lapse and fall into the path of Rupee.

I can date the beginning of the end of the Pakistani state as a viable and vibrant state to the year 1979. Nadeem Paracha a writer based in Karachi wrote sometimes ago, "If one is to pick a year from where Pakistan's political and cultural slide towards a curious faith based neurosis began, that year is bound to be 1979". I hope that someone some 30 years from today will not carbon date 2013 as the year Bangladesh started sliding towards faith based irrelevance. Why is that possible? Mainly because of a short sighted callous political game played by the ruling party by creating the laughable International Criminal Court and the naïve manipulation of the youth who ran off in haste to Shahbagh. They confused and conflated revenge with justice and vice versa. The net result is that the politics of the place got murky and dark forces are now riding on the fear of the truly pious and God fearing people of Bangladesh. The local election result is a clear indication that Awami League has lost its tenuous touch with the deeply culturally religious people of the country. A coalition is forming that opposes the secularity of Bangladesh and this coalition may very well win the next general election. So, much for divide and conquer!
Indulge me dear reader. Put aside your scepticism about the triumph of the Faith based neurosis for a minute and consider what may happen if the next rulers of Bangladesh wrap themselves up in the Green and Black and try to take us down the path of Rupee.

The path of Rupee is strewn with the abject retreat of the secular forces in the face of a military dictator and a coalition that systematically changed the cultural equation in Pakistan. On the other hand the path of Taka bumped along for a long time lost in the dark but steadfastly refusing to fall into rhythm of religious neurosis. That was probably because of the searing memory of atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army cloaked in Islamic jingoism. There were very little light anywhere until suddenly the global garment industry en masse beat a path to the door of the Taka. The entrepreneurial fever and some four million women who work in the garments sector have changed the path of Taka.

The first thing the travellers of the Path of Rupee will do is try to thwart the economic freedom of women. Watch out the way they would want to control the media and impose censorship. In Pakistan, Zia's coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami had a free run of the Ministry of Information. They systematically banned and censored songs, books, plays and carefully defunded girl's education programs. The National Alliance (mainly Jamaatis in another name) including Zia adopted a national slogan, "Nizam-e-Mustafa", which literally means the Law of the Chosen one, or Prophet Mohammed. They used this slogan and verbal jujitsu to explain that "they had to cleanse the society of un-Islamic elements and culture" before there can be any election. Thus the path of Rupee was drawn up. The army officers were encouraged to have beards (a practice frowned upon in earlier times) and Zia handed out books written by Abul Ala Maududdi (the spiritual leader of Jamaat) to young military officers.

We have the elements of this Rupee philosophy in the term of "Hifazat-e Islami". The very term Hifazat means safe keeping and it has been cleverly deployed. These newly prominent 'Islamists' are suddenly the safe keepers of the religion of my parents and their parents! What the Sahabaghi nincompoops did not get is that by conflating revenge with justice they were giving the very same people that they wanted to stop. So, the elements to watch out for are changes in policy towards certain words, cultural events and films. I will bet my last two Dollars that an Islamic tinged government will certainly try to ban the "Baishakhi" festivities on some security ground. When that happens you know the mullahs are stacking the deck or if you prefer chess, they have just put forward their Bishop for a long and slow march to the path of Rupee.

The purveyors of the way of Rupee manufactured an apocalyptic outlook to drive fear and anxiety to the highest level in Pakistan in 1979. They had a readymade Armageddon. In July of 1979 the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the Skylab that has been orbiting the earth has developed gyroscope problems and was expected to fall to Earth. The orbital experts speculated that the craft could fall in Australia or in the Indian sub-continent. The experts also said the craft will burn up in the atmosphere on re-entry. Piffle snort said the Islamist Media moguls that controlled TV, newspapers and radio in Pakistan. The state owned PTV (Pakistan TV) started regular bulletins about the imminent fall of the Skylab. Azhar Lodhi a prominent TV newscaster and a supporter of radical Islamisation started to talk about prayers, sending the women back to their homes, closing of girl's schools and cleansing the society. He started to talk about the falling Skylab as the beginning of the Judgment Day (Qyamatt). For a period of some 90 days, the country was gripped by the approaching apocalypse, imagined of course. The dictator Zia started to enforce Islamic law one after another, big and small. The PTV and Azhar Lodhi called for special prayers and drove ordinary middle class to the mosques in droves and accept the draconian Islamic laws without a single whimper. For the mullahs the Skylab crisis was too good to pass up. In the end the Skylab fell in the Ocean and parts of it landed in the deserts of Australia. The event left but the apocalyptic that it had triggered lingered on. Zia and Islamists used the Skylab as a warning to the folks of Pakistan from the Almighty. Never mind that the Almighty turned out to be some nerdy shorts wearing scientists in NASA.

Yes, the upcoming government will probably try to manufacture a crisis of similar sort. It will be difficult in the days of Internet, multiple private TV channels and many alternative media outlets. But, try they will. One of the way the path of Rupee was promulgated was the silence of the intellectuals and lack of organised resistance to falsehoods and demented propaganda. I do not mean resistance on the streets but the resistance of the pen and the media. The Islamist radicals will look for an event to stoke the fears and drive us back towards the path of Rupee by twisting the truth and manufacturing crises.

When in doubt about which path to take for the country when faced with continuous barrage of self-righteous proclamation of God's edicts, just look at the exchange rate of BDT (Bangladeshi Taka) to Dollar and compare that to the exchange rate of PKR (Pakistani Rupee) to the Dollar. The long blood soaked story is told in simple numbers, 78.12 and 103.09 and sliding. Our society has changed profoundly because of the garments industry workforce. Some four million women have become the bread winners for their families. That fact alone changed our society in a fundamental way. The safe keepers of Islam will try to curtail women's economic emancipation just as soon as they get a whiff of power. They will say, the society has become promiscuous and the genie must be put back in the bottle. They will talk about the fraying moral fibre and the wrath of Allah. What is more moral than putting food in your mouth, helping your children get an education and generally pursue a modicum of happiness?

Resist the path of the Rupee — that way lies evil!

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Kayes Ahmed lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA with his three dogs. He runs a small yet global apparel and design business based in Boulder.