A Battle Line Crisscrosses Narayanganj And A Bangladesh Reality Gets Exposed
By Farooque Chowdhury
11 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org
The battle line crisscrossing today’s Narayanganj, a river-port city near Dhaka, is not between the forces of status quo and its opponents. It’s not between, as almost always perceived in almost all Bangladesh political incidents, Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the two major political parties in today’s Bangladesh mainstream. The line runs through the status quo.
And, Narayanganj is part of Bangladesh reality, and the haphazard appearing battle line is part of Bangladesh socio-economic-politics, and the Bangladesh socio-economic-political reality is riddled with contradictions that allow none to escape from its clutches. It’s a rotating shaft with its own driving mechanism.
It exposes the state of a part of the dominant interests. The villains in the Narayanganj incident are not rare characters in the present Bangladesh socioeconomic reality. The antiheroes roam and shout and threaten and spread panic and display power and thus dominate the stage, which is far wider than Narayanganj, which is revolving but the revolving movement is so slow that the stage appears static.
The heroes – the people – appear onlookers as they wait and wait and wait silently. For them, the time is moving ultra-slowly, and the time is waiting for a sharp turn in history.
The Narayanganj incident, recent abduction and killing of seven citizens including an elected representative and a senior lawyer, and followed by exposure of extortion and plunder of hundreds of millions of Taka [Bangladesh currency], is not a sudden outgrowth. It takes time for such a forceful growth. It needs fuel, and the fuel requires origin.
So, there is the fact of ignoring the Narayanganj antiheroes while the case was developing over a longer period of time. But the questions are: Why was the developing case ignored? Is the case of ignoring a case of ignorance or a case of connection?
The antiheroes appear non-partisan, or they belonged and belong to more than one political party over a long period of time. They were always on political move, and were always joining bandwagon. But they are political; their politics is a politics of plunder.
They were always dynamic. They were always renewing their political allegiance, abandoning the runner up and cheering up the champion. They were in a continuous turncoat process: switching over from one party to another as dominant political map changed over the years.
But, to the actors, one consideration was constant like a North Star: bagging of money. The ways for pocketing varied. The variances depended on area, size and time for mining money.
Money was in a lot of places. There were money trees in and around the locality, and in many localities. Trucks carrying goods, the river flowing by the river-port city, and many other areas and activities bore alluring signs of money, and all the sources were tapped. It was an act of ingenuity.
Common people were “not” that genius. Even, the ordinary citizens had “not” that imaginative power.
Only imagination can’t ensure money-mining. It requires force and power, even if informal. A weak force is ineffective in this case as big money requires strong force. Intermittent show of force also turns useless in this case. It requires regular presence of force, even in an informal setting and form.
These require connections, and connections require deals, and deals generate activity and inactivity, depending on concerned area of mining. These virtually take the characteristics of an institution: an institution of plunder and power, or, of extortion and execution. In short, the circuit is plunder-power-plunder or p-p1-p2, where p2 is bigger than p, or extortion-execution (e-e1).
As a sporadic form, and in an isolated setting, this can’t exist for a long time. It also requires a favorable ground, political and social. It requires more power and force than the power and force of formal and legal institutions and of legitimacy if an informal institution of plunder and extortion operates within the precinct and maze of formality, institutions, laws and rules for a comparatively longer period of time as the informal institution has to overpower all legalities and institutions enacted to safeguard property.
The reality that thus develops is: a private property “blossoms” by plundering and extorting properties that include private property and the commons. It thus shows its might: Mightier than legalities, institutions, arrangements and processes as it hoodwinks, juggles, distorts a lot set, enacted, enforced to secure existing private property and its owners.
It exposes its mightier position as it influences a lot, as it gains acceptability and respectability. Its political position, its skill to manipulate politics and political parties, its power to silence and purchase many eyes and ears and brains and conscience exhibit its mightier power, “mightier”, for a certain time, than pen! It may appear a temporary numb of collective conscience! It thus exposes its mighty connections.
The connections – roots deep inside the socioeconomic reality and branches spread over a wider area – empower and rejuvenate it. The connections to the socioeconomy and politics are more important than connections to individuals as individuals can’t turn effective and useful without socioeconomic-political setting.
It’s a detail and delicate arrangement. It’s full of intricacies. An isolated case of regular and widespread extortion and plunder – a daredevil act – can’t survive, operate and flourish for a longer period of time spread over many areas.
Many such “stories” were conveyed by the Bangladesh mass media for decades. The media regularly convey similar “stories” from many other places. A few of those were/are tales of more powerful barons with their private armed gangs while scores are petty but mighty in respective areas of operation. People know the local lords where there is failure in reporting as people in respective localities have very live experience of this power.
The acts, feat of skill, are done by none but by gang of politically armed swashbucklers only.
Anyone, broadly, from Bangladesh can now easily add names in appropriate sentences composed above. Names of persons, places, positions, parties, processes, performances, pacts among involved have been mentioned and indicated in the Bangladesh mass media for many times.
Now, one, conversant with the Bangladesh mass media reporting throughout a period of the few last decades, can recollect similar names and incidents over the decades. The picture is broadly the same: power-extort-execute.
Now, one can check reports and histories of companies, and biographies and autobiographies of capitalists in India, which may include Jamshedji Tata. A few dreams of those capitalists required decades to initiate, a few of their dreams remained unrealized. Then, one can ask: how much money those capitalists made over how much time by how much appropriation of surplus value? One can ask: how much naked show of power and disregard of existing property arrangement were there? One can also ask a question that someone can interpret as “favoring feudalism”: How many Bengal zamindars were equal to today’s local lords in terms of power, connections and brutalities?
A comparison is difficult without a fine methodology, which will require, among others, putting weight appropriately, and identifying indicators and variables. But, a crude comparison can be made for having a primary hunch of the Bangladesh reality.
Other capitalist plunder and primary accumulation in other economies can also be compared. A seemingly intriguing Bangladesh reality will emerge through these comparisons. The reality of plunder gets reflected in politics, society and culture. A political-culture of plunder emerges. It’s vulgar, but efficient. It influences and molds many minds, and deactivates many. It has the capacity to bridle many minds.
This makes an amazing situation: questions are raised but not effectively, seemingly strong steps are initiated ineffectively, facts are being dug out after a long time as if none were aware of the fact. Then, isn’t it the problem within status quo, with organs and machines of status quo?
Whatever the tact or failure is a few questions related to economy will haunt the status quo: Where does the extorted money go? Does it sit idle? It’s difficult for the vast amount of extorted money to sit idle. Does the money continue bearing its color: black? Or, is it pumped or pulled into the machine powered by white money? In that case of pumping or pulling, what’s the actors’ role? How does the so-called real economy, the white money, the capital engaged in manufacturing, processing, construction, providing services react to the money accumulated through plunder and extortion, and when necessary, by killing? Does the money extorted and plundered have any particular political color or does it transcend all colors? Is the money shaping that politics with which it interacts, enters into collusion, and thus turns part of it?
Answers to the questions will show limits of the reality: of the status quo-politics, of the social classes tied to the status quo, and of its machineries.
Answers to the questions will also help identify the political-economy of plunder and extortion, and political character of interests.
A stupid or shrewd effort will be made if this reality is not analyzed with its perspective, if it’s analyzed with a narrow, cheap, partial viewpoint including “this party, not that party”, if analyzed without taking into consideration the class connections. The cheap effort actually plays a role in disseminating disinformation designed by external actors having plan to intervene to achieve global imperial goal.
A cruel reality emerges if some more information is considered to construct a broader picture.
And, the reality is a part of Bangladesh reality although a number of writers and columnists try to depict the Bangladesh reality on a “this party, not that party” basis and faithfully propagate viewpoints of the Empire. This group of writers tries to create confusion by slantingly presenting information that fit their propaganda purpose, and by this “endeavor” or “alternate” viewpoint they expose them as conveyor of imperialist propaganda having a long-term goal: Prepare ground for imperialist intervention. It’s an old tact practiced in countries including Syria.
The information that can be added along with the Narayangaj-information may include the scam of billions of Taka by a so-called multi-level marketing company over a long period of time and under careful eyes entrusted with the task of supervising, the bank scandals to the tune of billions of Taka over years although there were detail arrangements for check and balance, incidents of siphoning and money laundering of billions of Taka, and a futile attempt to commit suicide by Rezaul Karim, 40, a rickshaw-puller in Dhaka, as he was failing to bear the burden of debt.
Rezaul, the “foolish” citizen, was not that much “smart” and “enlightened” that enables one to digest or reschedule his “big” loan or getting interests of that loan “pardoned”.
So, Rezaul, the loyal toiler tried to cut his neck with a blade. He borrowed an amount of Taka 80,000-90,000 from individuals and NGOs for medical expenses of his wife. Rezaul had to pay back Taka 800-900 each week. (bdnews24.com, “Rickshaw-puller attempts suicide”, 2014-03-08) Rezaul, and millions of persons like him create a reality of vortex in a reality of plunder with many facades.
Other questions crop up within the reality: What’s being done by the extortion-killing-etc. – energizing or corroding the reality that enables it to operate? So, is not the battle line within the status quo, where same interests collude and confront and co-opt? But for how long the reality can keep its shape? A vertex may accompany a base, and there may be another sequence after the vertex, and quantitative changes bring qualitative change.
A shorter version of this article appeared in New Age, Dhaka on May 11, 2014.
Farooque Chowdhury is Dhaka-based freelancer.
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