South Asia                                                                                  

Bangladesh Nationalist Party Government Says it is Tough on Crime: the end of Bhejal and Ghuush?

by Sophia Barkat
 

 

With elections a year away, political parties in Bangladesh are gearing up for a showdown. Slogans are being chosen. In this election, "law and order" just might be a key issue, at least as far as Dhaka District is considered.

The Awami League, itself notorious for failing to establish law and order, tried hard to blame the death of Ivy Rahman on BNP’s government last March, saying that the Government had tried to assassinate the Opposition leaders during the annual meeting which was held in public. BNP swiftly called in the InterPol to investigate the assassination of the veteran politician, and the InterPol report is not indicating any BNP connections.

Indeed, BNP has been trying to create the opposite image in this “post-911” era in which “democracy” and “law and order” are being tied to foreign aid. Unlike in previous Khaleda Zia-led regimes, the present Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government, along with it’s Jamaat-e-Islami coalition ally, have spent the last four years (2001-1005) enacting swift laws to enforce law and order, a seriousness that many Bangladeshis find to be amazing. It seems that Zia wants to look decisive. So, what’s going on?

 

 
Law and Order is a Matter of Policy

BNP-led government's Finance Minister, Saifur Rahman, in a recent speech at the Jatiya Sangsad (National Assembly) stated that it was this government’s interest to promote “good governance by establishing transparency, accountability and rule of law and ensuring sound allocation of resources”, and then spent a good amount of speech talking about this. (See http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/i)

All talk? Unlike in other BNP regimes, maybe not. The government has set up several crime-fighting commissions to fight everything from rampant corruption, fraud and violent crimes that are plaguing the nation. RAB, or Rapid Action Battalion, for e.g., was formed on March 2004 and operates under the protection of the Armed Police Battalions Ordinance 1979 and the Armed Police Battalions (Amendment) Act, 2003.  Formed by a coalition of Army, Navy, Air-Force, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and regular police, RAB has the capability and the technology to attack crime from all angles. As stated by it’s website, the capabilities of RAB forces are:

a.	Internal security Duties.
b.	Recovery of unauthorized arms, ammunitions, explosives and such other articles.
c.	Apprehension of armed gangs of criminals.
d.	Assisting other law enforcing agencies for maintaining law and order.
e.	Intelligence gathering in respect of crimes and criminal activities.
f.	Investigation of any offence on the direction of the government.
g.	Such other duties as the government may, from time to time, assign.

 

So as not to be just about show, RAB has offices all over the city, from which it coordinates activities, and maintains a list of daily accomplishments – apprehensions of criminals—on its website, listing crimes and criminals reported as well. And RAB statistics for Crime in Dhaka in 2005 shows a marked improvement from 2004. In February of 2004, for e.g. there were 59 robberies in Dhaka. In February of 2005, just 6 dacoities (robberies) were listed.

But the fantastic decrease in numbers begs the question and should -- is the data made up? It’s possible. However, a look at 2004 statistics before and after March 2004 suggests that perhaps it was not cooked in 2004. There were 61 and 80 robberies in August and December of 2004 – all after creation of RAB – showing that perhaps creation of RAB itself has done little to tackle crime, at least in 2004. The numbers look far more impressive in 2005, no doubt, suggesting either that enough criminals have been apprehended in 2004 that the numbers have fallen considerably – what with an average of 65 arrests per month in 2004 alone – or that the numbers are being cooked, which may well be. How, for e.g. can one explain a sharp drop in robberies from December 2004 --when there were 80 (See http://www.rab.gov.bd/) to just 9 in January 2005?

 
Regular citizens report, however, that ever since the creation of RAB Dhaka city crime has plummeted. The joke on the street, and amongst BNP supporters, is that criminals are paying to spend time in Dhaka city jails – which though in terrible condition beats the “shoot at sight” power that RAB apparently has over wanted criminals.

But can RAB be exploited for political purposes? Possibly, though right now, it is too early to tell what is going on. Some recent information on top-level government officials -- data not in RAB -- seems to suggest that the BNP-led Coalition might not be bluffing altogether about being tough on crime.

Just recently, BNP’s AKM Mosharraf Hossain, who was the Energy Minister, resigned after it became public that he allegedly accepted a Toyota Land Cruiser Cygnus from a Canadian-based energy company. RAB at work? Possibly, though it could well be internal house-cleaning by Zia's government. The history of Bangladesh's political parties is wrought with tales of corruption, but never before has the Government requested the resignation of one of its own cabinet members. Slain President and husband of Khaleda Zia, Ziaur Rahman, was also known for never taking a bribe. Have the values rubbed off on Khaleda enough to influence the same standards?

Zia, along with her rival, Awami League’s Sheikh Hasina, had both had a strong policy regarding energy exports from Bangladesh.  Both have said an unequivocal NO to exporting petroleum or natural gas to the major consuming nations and even to India, though recently, Zia's government has signed a energy pact with China (See link), and even welcomed China to sit in on the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meetings (See link). Business with the Canadian counterpart, therefore, may seem counter to Zia's plans, and the sacking therefore more political than a matter of enforcing law. Who can tell?

 

Food Regulation & Mobile Courts

While armed forces are required to clean up Dhaka City streets, other less serious crimes are also being addressed. Fraud perpetrated by food and drug manufacturers and distributors in Bangladesh is currently being investigated and tried immediately.

From the milk-powder to the cooking oil to the cough syrup, products in market are commonly “adulterated” or full of “Bhejal”, which is the word in Bangla. Bangladeshis complain quite often: “In everything there is bhejal.”  Bhejal is so standard a problem that food companies hoping to find more buyers will often advertise on TV with slogans like “100% pure – no Bhejal.”

In August 2005, at the expense of 5000 sweetmeat shops, restaurants and hotels the BNP-Jamaat coalition government issued strict rules to close down and fine businesses who adulterate what they sell with chemical additives and other harmful products, reports Bangladesh-web.com. To date, about 100 shops have been fined, according to BBC. Many prominent sweet shops and food-chains are in this group.

Angered by the inconvenience, fines and arrests, the Bangladesh Food Traders’ Council went on a two-day strike in Dhaka, between August 3 and August 4, to protest ‘the harassment by mobile courts – courts that set up close to the restaurants and then move on to the next location -- in the name of checking food quality,” reports Bangladesh-web.com. The council includes owners of restaurants, Chinese restaurants, bakeries, and fast food and sweetmeat shops. The mobile courts are being expanded to the district-level by the BNP government, The New Nation reported.

What’s the citizen reaction? Cities in Bangladesh are known for the sweet shops and tanduri restaurants that mark every street corner and make the famous colorful Chomchoms, Golapjamuns, Kalo Jaam’s and Jilapis, the Moghlai Biryani, Naan and Chicken Tikkas. Sweets, used to mark the birth of children, offered to guests at home, and account for most sweets consumed in cities, were made unavailable by the strike. However, most people were happy with this move by the BNP and hoped this was not short-lived.

 

Other Provisions to Fight Government Corruption

Armed force using RAB has been but one way the BNP-led government has tried to fight violent crime. But armed force is largely ineffectual when it comes to white-collar crimes like corruption. Ghuush is Bangla for bribe. Without ghush very little is possible in Bangladesh. Bribes are accepted at all levels of society in Bangladesh, especially in the public sector. An Anti-Corruption Commission has been set up, therefore, and it is being advised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to find meaningful solutions to this problem.

The Commission suggested a rise in the pay-scale of government employees to give some incentive to employees to feel good about their work, and it was granted in 2004 – the second-ever pay-raise in 35 yrs of the nation’s history. Though the pay-scale change was not enough, it is a marked attempt to increase worker satisfaction and reduce corruption. And expected Taka 40 billion (US $ 0.67 billion) is likely to be spent in the next 3-yrs as this is phased in, according to Saifur Rahman, Finance Minister's June 2005 speech.

UNDP has also advised that government salaries be tied to performance. This is being incorporated into a program to reduce corruption amongst Traffic Police. While Traffic Laws protect citizens, they are never enforced. Traffic police, who are poorly paid and never rewarded, make a living by extorting money from those who break traffic rules. Once the money is paid the traffic-law violator is released. The Commission has suggested that to reduce this activity traffic police be rewarded points, and points be rewarded with a pay-raise for every traffic violation reported by them.

The suggestion has been enacted into law, but questions remain about its effectiveness. RAB, which works in conjunction with the Commission, reported 48 road-violations in February 2005, 52 in April 2005 and in July 2005 there were 41. There were no statistics for 2004, so no year-by-year comparison was possible. Only time can tell if this is of any use. However, steps seem to have been taken in the right direction. (See http://www.rab.gov.bd/)
 

 

Over All Crime Statistics
 

RAB is in charge of keeping tallies for crime in Dhaka. The graph suggests that at least in 2004, most crimes accept “theft” did not drop much or remained more or less the same, while “women abuse” fell sharply after June 2004.

Was it due to increased vigilance from RAB? Or is this just a seasonal change? A year-to-year comparison shows that there were 79 reports of “women and child abuse” in May 2005 versus about 1200 reports of “women abuse” in May 2004, (http://www.rab.gov.bd/crimestat.html) and there were about 900 reports of “women abuse” in January 2004 versus 51 reports of “women and child” abuse in January 2005.

The drop is significant and almost begs the question if the books have been cooked – numbers hiked in 2004 to make 2005 look that much better?  It’s entirely possible – this is politics in Bangladesh, after all. There is a marked drop in other types of crimes between 2004 and 2005 also. Should Bangladeshi’s be excited or is all the work left to be done?

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