A Few Positive Steps in Bangladesh

By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)

March 9, 2007

Powerful men and women used to be beyond the law in Bangladesh. They could do anything they want. They could get away from any kind of misdeeds or blatant crimes. Their pervasive political connections, accumulated wealth from unfair means and limitless power provided guarantee of their complete indemnity from justice.

Something really "odd" is occurring in Bangladesh. All these "untouchables", mega-demigods, whose once murky shadow on the street would have scared the life out of any powerless citizens of Bangladesh, are getting apprehended, arrested, putting into locked up place where they really belong.

The intermingling of corrupt politics of godfather, godmother like politicians with immoral greed among unashamed industrialists had robbed millions of impoverished Bangladeshis from their potential livelihoods. The senseless talk of creating a "Future Bangladesh" by the very same corrupted thugs in broad daylight in their heydays of uninterrupted butcheries has apparently started to unravel into its true ferocious reality. A "Future Bangladesh" for only the selected few in the highest echelon of the pompous “high-class” society who would wield their newly purchased vanity lifting Hummer or glossy BMW driving alongside the vein-strained rickshaw pullers or hapless street beggars were in full-motion action.

Could these recent crackdowns on these thieves, their master-mind strategists really bring the positive change the country yearning for so many years? Or would it become like all the previous decorated stage-drama for the general populace to consume? Perhaps it all depends what really happens when these criminals face fair trials. Yes, fair trial is the corner stone. Even the most despised criminals deserve fair trial. Bangladeshis are all too accustomed to witness all these previous mockeries of justice in myriads of shameful cases in the past. Killing of prominent journalists, finance minister, beating up and eventual death of fearless poet and writers never met fair justice. A “Future Bangladesh” cannot be built on unanswered tears of victims and their literally strangulated families.