Karl Marx’s Philosophical Views Are Relevant Till Today to Our Socio-Economic Spectacle

 

Class discrimination, price hike, corruption and extreme lack of good governance in the banking arena, financial activities and in all other sectors have hammered the ordinary citizens of Bangladesh. Solid and sustainable development cannot be acquired without eliminating class discrepancies, bribery and corruption.

Acclaimed German philosopher Karl Marx (1818 to 1883) promulgated to the world over one hundred years ago how to conquer the diabolic and repressive clutches of capitalism. Karl Marx in his speeches and books asserted that capitalism is responsible for socio-economic discrepancies and injustice. The destitute workers remain impoverished, deprived and hungry while all the profits and privileges are gobbled up by owners of industries. We can find Karl Marx’s views relevant to the status of readymade garments (RMG) factories in Bangladesh.

People across Bangladesh are suffering tremendously because of unrestrained price hike. It is not at all clear what the authorities concerned are doing to reduce prices of daily essential things. Market monitoring should be conducted very stringently to keep prices under control. At the same time stern actions should be taken immediately against the syndicates who are responsible for extensively rising prices.

We are also alarmed by the rise of fanatic religious groups like Hefazat-E-Islam, militant outfits and some more communal organizations who have assaulted religious minorities in a number of areas in Bangladesh. Social as well as political awareness is required to combat these evil forces who want to engulf the country with the darkness of fundamentalism. Anti-independence groups should never be allowed to raise their ugly heads.

Class variation is the biggest hurdle for socio-economic advancement. The common people of Bangladesh including workers and farmers cannot get hold of the blessings of development because most of the wealth of the country is clutched by a particular group of influential big shots who are always backed up by the bourgeois political parties like Awami League and BNP

The glorious Liberation War of 1971 was fought to establish equal rights for everyone. But we could not do so because all the political parties who have ruled Bangladesh so far have enforced capitalistic repressions on the country’s people. Capitalism opposes the idea of equal rights. Capitalism does nothing except depriving general people. For this reason a socialistic state mechanism is necessary to ensure social justice and economic benefits for all citizens. Capitalism is the biggest hurdle on the way to equity and human welfare. Therefore, the existing capitalistic repressive economic system should be replaced with the ideals of socialism.

Some infrastructural projects of Bangladesh are much more expensive than other countries. It is not at all clear why so much money is being spent on these projects. Higher expenditure on development projects often leads to greater corruption. Unfortunately there is no significant initiative from the government to fight graft and financial disorder.

Most of the state-owned and private banks have been affected with huge sums of defaulted loans. The magnitude of defaulted loans has amounted to approximately 1 lakh 44 thousand crore taka including written off credits. Financial sources have informed that most of the defaulted loans have been transferred abroad by money launderers. Money launderers often transfer money to overseas destinations by over-invoicing and under-invoicing. Reportedly the amount of laundered money has gone up to 6 lakh crore taka during last ten years.

Enormous figures of defaulted loans and mysterious loans have put a number of banks in capital deficit and liquidity crisis. Most of the banks have failed to recover their defaulted loans. Financial experts have said that political influence, nepotism and lack of good governance are responsible for banking scams and financial turmoil in Bangladesh. Banking sources have stated that most of the loan scammers got bank loans through fake mortgages.

Financial experts have referred to political influence and inefficiency of Finance Ministry and Bangladesh Bank as some more principal causes behind money laundering. In recent times it has been exposed by concerned sources that a powerful group of money launderers are making false shipment papers and fake invoices to facilitate illegal money transfer from Bangladesh to overseas destinations. Under-invoicing and over-invoicing are another two ways utilized by financial culprits for transferring money to foreign countries through unauthorized channels.


Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury
is a contributor to different
English newspapers and
magazines.