A culture of impunity: defined

Published : 12 March 2015, 01:44 PM
Updated : 12 March 2015, 01:44 PM

"We call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government to leave no stone unturned in investigating and prosecuting the attack on Avijit Roy and Rafida Ahmed Bonna," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz from New York.

"This attack is emblematic of the culture of impunity that pervades Bangladesh, where the lack of accountability in previous attacks on the press continues to spurn a deadly cycle of violence."

This is how Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reacted to the gruesome murder of Avijit Roy in Dhaka. CPJ is a respected organisation that does research and analysis of the deaths, injuries, and threats to journalists worldwide. Their mission is to shed light on the practice by extremists of all stripes and certain governments, of killing or silencing the messenger.

In a dictatorship the practices take the form of outright misuse of the judiciary like the Egyptian Government of Al Sissi imprisoning three Al Jazeera journalists. Extremists and self-proclaimed soldiers of God commit their dastardly deeds by simply beheading journalists in front of a massive TV and online audience.

The FBI is in Bangladesh to "help." By the way, that really is all they can do: "help." But last time they came they did not "help" much, and were unceremoniously packed off back to their cubicles by the Khaleda Zia government.

There was simply too much of the "culture of impunity" to really catch and punish the perpetrators of the crimes that were committed. So in order to come up with a solution we really need to understand the concept of a "culture of impunity."

Let us stipulate that speaking power to the truth is a dangerous thing to do and has been for eons. It is especially dangerous if you happen to be in Bangladesh and write about religious extremists and other soldiers of hate, err, faith.

The blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed in February 2013, with no one ever convicted. Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed in January 2013, but survived the attack. Once again no one was charged, let alone convicted. Not that there is a shortage of clues as to who done it!

The Islamist hate mongers were all over social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and various blogs and publications. Writing and publicising views are one matter, but these guys were inciting murder. They posted pictures of Avijit and Bonna and other journalists. They made clarion calls to their followers to kill the journalists.

They went way past just sharing their views. However, nothing happened. Why? Well, we are back to the culture of impunity.

What is the culture of impunity? It is mainly a cultural and societal bias that ensures that there are very little to no consequences for committing bad acts. In an environment of impunity you can get away with murder (sometimes literally); you can borrow millions of Takas from the Bank with no intention of paying back knowing full well that Banks will never do anything to recover their loss; you can get a job without qualifications and the list goes on. You can even take over someone else's property if you are powerful enough. Sounds familiar?

The culture of impunity is one of utter corruption and debauchery. What about the culture of impunity in Bangladesh? The fact that the murderers of Avijit may never pay the price is also part of that culture. How do we know that the "Culture of Impunity" reigns supreme?

Here are some sure indicators,

Aristocracy of Pull

Ayn Rand talked about the Aristocracy of Pull in her book "Atlas Shrugged." I am no fan of Ayn Rand, but in her writing she clearly showed how the Aristocracy of "Pull" can destroy a civilisation, albeit, a fictional one. This aristocracy is the old meme of "who you know and not what you know" matters!

Who you know automatically substitutes knowledge, ability, and competence with something ethereal akin to tribal bonds. Look yourself in the mirror and you will see that we are guilty of the "pull." Giving you a real life example; my brother-in-law is a successful businessman striding between Bangladesh and the US. Anytime, you ask him about something (say opening a Bank account) he will instantly search his large mental database and answer, "Oh, yes I know so and so in the so and so Bank" and then off you go to that bank. Or even more mundane thing like having breakfast and he will know someone who owns the restaurant and that is where you end up having breakfast. No matter, how crappy the omelette might be.

That is the aristocracy of Pull in things big and small. When the only thing that matters is who you know, the rule of law is degraded, and in the case of Bangladesh probably non-existent. There is the underlying assumption that because you know someone important they will smooth things out. The consequences for bad acts are always mitigated because someone will pull strings for you. It is your uncle, it is you nephew, it is someone who knows someone who knows someone, consequences be damned.

The main reason the guys who killed the bloggers in 2013 have not been brought to justice is the invisible hand of the "Pull." Someone, somewhere, has gotten to somebody that the wheels of investigation have ground to a halt and now rusting. The Aristocracy of Pull also means that people who are responsible for carrying out various tasks (like arrest someone, gather intelligence et cetera) face no consequences if they do not perform. Which they hardly do most of the time.

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

The Judicial system in Bangladesh is on the verge of collapse and has been since the beginning of the country. The Humpty-Dumpty is barely put together by duct tapes and last minute patches and the beast just carries on. However, it carries on at a glacial pace. There are many reasons for delays and dysfunction and the least of it is the "Aristocracy of Pull" described above.

However, there are structural issues. Bangladesh is a Common Law jurisdiction meaning most of the laws are based on British practices that have accumulated over the centuries. They may or may not have any validity in today's Bangladesh but there they are forming the core of the legal system for the country.

Because Common Law is mainly precedent based, the "aristocracy of Pull" can run rampant. So a civil case can take 20 years to be adjudicated. The criminal justice system also runs ever so slowly because every step of the way someone is pulling the course of justice in some preferred direction. That is why most of the murderers and criminals are not punished in a timely manner. We live with William Ewart Gladstone's "Justice delayed is Justice denied" on a day-to-day basis.

If we want the rule of law to prevail we need to incorporate such modern tools as, Speedy trial deadlines, transparency so that court proceedings are webcast and public, open public records of all investigations and litigation (in the US all court cases are public unless they are specifically sealed by the court, which is rare), and less corruption. Tall tasks but probably doable if we all get behind and take one baby step after another!

Pervasive Corruption

There are degrees of corruption in all countries and societies, but Bangladesh takes the cake. In the latest Transparency International survey Bangladesh is ranked 145 out of 175 countries. It has a total score of 25 out of 100. That is far below the abominable failing country of Pakistan which is ranked 126 out of 175.

So what is going on? Corruption is grease that keeps that "Aristocracy of Pull" going. You cannot bribe someone if you do not know how they are going to react. The bribing takes place via intermediary A.K.A. through someone that both parties know. Besides the outright bribes there is the world of shadow expectation: where it is understood that a favour will be repaid with a favour later down the line.

The perversity of the system is that it is self-perpetuating and generational. We all know that it is eating us alive but we simply cannot give it up because of the tribal nature of the "Pull."

How do you fix this morass? With difficulty and over generations. However, first and foremost, there needs to be small victories and we must start with a conviction of the murderers of Avijit. The government should pull out all the stops and move heaven and Earth to find the perpetrators and punish them. Get FBI to help in a meaningful way and not use the three lettered organisation for feather dusting. The inciters of the murder like Farabi should be held accountable and punished according the laws of the country.

The longer struggle requires that we make all judicial proceedings transparent, remove anyone from any legal proceeding who wants to interfere, and constantly monitor the work of the responsible people and departments.

Oh, one more thing, take the salaries of the Police, Law enforcers, and Judges, and multiply them by a factor of 20. Make the salary and payment lucrative enough that the temptation of bribes and corruption are lessened. There is a distinct case study with great success: Singapore. The little island was just as corruption-ridden as Bangladesh but the leadership did the hard work and achieved something miraculous, a country which is a shining example of prosperity, tolerance, and low crime rate and there is no "culture of impunity." I wish a similar future for the land of my father.

Kayes Ahmed is a businessman running multi-national operations from Colorado, USA.