An Italian proverb goes like this "mors tua vita mea" - meaning your death is my life. The closest equivalent in Bengali would be the proverb "karo poush mash karo shorbonash", literally meaning someone's disaster is another's good fortune. It has been seen that in many such disasters in the world, majority of people were affected but a few also made their fortunes from it.
Bangladeshi media reported that during Covid-19 pandemic, more than eleven thousand individuals emerged as millionaires. This does not surprise me. In undivided Bengal, during the Great Famine of the Bengali year 1350, fifty lacs people died, and few hundred neo-millionaires came about. Corruption was there at that time too but not so rampant as it is now.
During the Bengal famine, India's British Viceroy got an expert named Jawla Prasad Srivastav, on food scarcity in Bengal in his cabinet. He reported that in the famine the dishonest food merchants had earned thousand rupees as extra profit for each death in the famine. Now in twenty-first century, history has repeated itself in Bangladesh. Every day, hundreds of people are dying which is being capitalised by unscrupulous individuals who are rising as millionaires. Now the economists in Bangladesh are engaged in research on how these millionaires are emerging within such a short period.
Before I discuss on this, let me narrate a story that I had reading during mid Afghan war in the 90s. At that time, western forces, especially the Americans, were bombing Kabul day and night, to destroy the Taliban bases. Kabul was devasted and hundreds of people died there due to bombing by the Americans.
However, the Americans have created a blue zone in the city of Kabul. All the Afghan aristocrats along with agents of foreign construction companies, were residing in that blue zone. The puppet government headed by Karzai was installed in that place, and it was guarded by American and British forces.
When there was death and devastation around Kabul, the blue zone was a different picture altogether. There were night clubs and most of the foreigners, who had come to rebuild the city were, in reality, looting the precious Buddha statues and other artefacts. They were enjoying their time there in that protected zone with young singers and dancers. The day Kabul was mercilessly bombarded, what was happening in the night life of blue zone was illustrated in a cartoon that was published in an American magazine.
I am providing some extracts from that cartoonist's story: In that night club, two gentlemen were sitting around a table, one American and another Japanese. The sound of ruthless bombing by American fighter planes were heard from that night club. The Japanese gentleman told his American partner - "there is a good news for us. Our fighter planes have destroyed Bab-e-anzam area of northern Kabul." In search of terrorists, they had destroyed the entire area. The American gentlemen asked, " how many civilian casualties were there?" to which the Japanese man replied, "Do not bother about casualties.
Our contract for re-construction of north Kabul will be extended now. We can hope for a net profit of 3-4 million dollars in this project." The American said, "I will give you another good news - Indian construction company, after getting a good beating by Talibans, decided to leave Afghanistan. They were our powerful competitor. Now, in their absence, the whole construction deal is ours".
I do not know whether the following news was published in wall street journal or any other American papers. In Afghan war, millions of men, women, and children were dead but the number of American millionaires had increased in triple. In the off shore banks, the accounts of the newly rich class quickly increased and they are mostly billionaires now. The news further said that American and western soldiers instigated the Talibans and captured them to destroy the statue of Buddha that is 2000 years old. They looted all the precious historic artefacts and sold them in the European market with a profit exceeding the margins by a huge amount.
After the Iraq War, an anecdotal news was published in an American daily that after capturing Baghdad, when American forces were busy looting Saddam's palace, an American trooper fancied Saddam's toilet seat and took it away. Karl Marx had said that the character of the bourgeoisie is same in every country. The petty bourgeoisie class in Bangladesh has proved that this is indeed true. Within a year and a half, Bangladesh got more than eleven thousand neo millionaires.
Many of them made their fortune by corruption and malpractices, taking advantage of the pandemic. They constructed fake hospitals and provided fake documentation of identification of corona, and sold fake certificates with corona negative results for their clients. A class of businessmen in collusion with health ministry bagged money out of this dire situation through their corrupt practices during this pandemic.
Last Thursday (29 July), I had the opportunity to discuss this situation with Dr. Atiur Rahman, ex-governor of Bangladesh Bank. During his governorship, Bangladesh had a thriving economy but he could not remain in his position due to the conspiracy of a section of the bureaucracy. In his opinion, the neo rich class emerged due to the lockdown situation. They earned huge amounts of money both legally and illegally but could not spend it in night clubs or holidaying and travel. They deposited the money that they could not spend on their night life, in their bank account.
That was one of the reasons they became millionaires, but my friend Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam, another economist of Bangladesh, thinks otherwise. He said, this emergence of new millionaires so quickly is not a natural phenomenon. Of course, it has a good side to it if this money is invested in the country. But if it is instead siphoned off to foreign countries, Bangladesh will get poorer. He said the economic disparity between rich and poor is increasing so rapidly that it has made possible the emergence of eleven thousand millionaires in such a short time.
Now the question is not about how many of them became millionaires in a short time but the question is "how" they emerged in short time. Rich people did not get to spend on their lavish lifestyle during lockdown. That is, however, not the only reason for amassing so much wealth. Bangladesh Bank should inquire about these people and their sources of money and investigate to find out how they got to be millionaires.
One theory is this - to facilitate the business class to make up for their losses during corona pandemic, government has provided them with so many concessions and cash. Many recipients did not use this money for promoting their business but instead deposited it in their bank. My own theory is this - during the pandemic, the dishonest new rich class and businessmen could not transfer their money to foreign countries by houndi and other means. For the last year and a half, this transfer of wealth was halted.
That is the main reason behind the rise of their bank balances, making them millionaires. Another ex-governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr. Salauddin Ahmed has said that the government has followed a policy to help the affected businessmen, but this did not work. The big entrepreneurs got all the facility and the middle and small entrepreneurs tried hard to get it but failed.
During her first two tenure, Hasina government followed a mixed economic policy. Now, after retirement of ex Finance Minister from the Ministry of Finance and the resignation of Dr. Atiur Rahman from the governorship of Bangladesh Bank, the government's economic policy suddenly took a turn towards hard capitalism, following global capitalistic policy. This is the main reason behind the emergence of millionaires in Bangladesh in such a short time. If government does not change its economic policy, the disparity between rich and poor will keep increasing. The emergence of neo-millionaires will not help the economy of the country.
Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury is an eminent journalist based in London known for the historic song "Amar Bhaiyer Rakte Rangano Ekushey"
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