Hunted By Unnamed Letters, While Scammers Escape Actions

It shocked everyone across Bangladesh when Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said a few days ago that several Advisers to the Bangladesh interim government opposed reforming the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Dr. Iftekharuzzaman also slammed the drafted ordinances on press freedom saying that the draft mocked at media professionals' rights to work independently. It was witnessed by the whole country how offices of two major newspapers were demolished and burnt down to ashes in recent months. Cultural institutions were vandalized too by mobsters.

Another more horrendous scenario unveils that state organs and legal frameworks are being abused under the ruling period of the current government to imperil ordinary people like honest entrepreneurs and common citizens in order to harass them and to extort bribes from these victims. Dr. Iftekharuzzaman regretted that the evil gambits of exercising influence on regulatory authorities are still rampant like the immediate past regime. Certain regulators are issuing scary letters to innocent business owners with vague allegations and putting false corruption blames on people who run their enterprises with adequate integrity.

Another point shows the ground reality that there is a large differentiated margin between the market value and registration cost of assets like plots. People who buy or sell land cannot secure market prices from government offices where the original price of land properties goes down on a wider scale. General people are not responsible for these inconsistencies but some morally perverted employees from regulatory institutions capitalize on this uneven ambience to trap naïve people and put them under illegitimate pressure in unauthorized ways. In this manner a vicious game is being conducted to facilitate bribery and extortion victimizing plain-hearted citizens.

Similar enforcement has been imposed on detained senior journalist Anis Alamgir. He was first arrested on charges of conspiring against the government and then he was slapped with corruption charges in the middle of nowhere. This reckless situation is polluting the country's legal system and degrading people's confidence on judicial services. Even it was witnessed with alarm how mob violence was instigated in some cases to get hold of bail order from courts which got widespread news coverage. Justice, equal rights, good governance and rule of law cannot be established under these defiled and biased circumstances.

If businessmen cannot work without fears, how can Bangladesh regain its lost investment pace? Foreign direct investment (FDI) and investment from local entrepreneurs both have suffered tremendous nosedives. It has already hit news headlines that nearly 400 factories have been laid off during last 18 months leading to around 12 lakh job losses. Burgeoning unemployment is an inevitable security threat because hungry people are angry people. People who have lost their jobs have every chance to get embroiled in unlawful activities. Law and order situation all over Bangladesh is already devastated with political retaliation, attacks on women and mob assaults have made the all out situation all the more deteriorated.

State-owned banks have miserably failed to recover defaulted loans. Befitting legal actions are not being taken against top brass banking administrators as a result of which the figure of non-performing loans is mounting constantly. A broad number of private banks are suffering from an intensified liquidity crisis. Finance Adviser Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed has meanwhile said that the elected government has to face some enormous challenges in economic recovery endeavours.

Bangladesh interim government's Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin has stated very recently that the country's external loans have crossed 23 lakh crore taka whereas this amount was 2 lakh crore taka during the ousted ruling party's tenure. Sheikh Bashir Uddin further said that Bangladeshi Taka has undergone 46 percent devaluation in the meantime. All these facts and figures portray highly depressive economic quandaries Bangladesh has been encumbered with.

Offensive comments on women and beating up girls by fanatical groups have gone viral on social media. Women empowerment is thus facing severe perils. Countless numbers of controversial cases have been filed against thousands of people following August 2024 which has generated panic in everybody's mind.

Professor Anu Muhammad said that the augmentation of blazing injustice and lawlessness has shattered people's hope about the interim government. Good governance and rule of law are still a far cry for Bangladesh, Anu Muhammad further said. He added that the rise in extortion and mobsters reflect a very unhealthy circumference across the country.

Professor Dr. Mainul Ahsan from Economics Department, University of Chittagong said that ordinary people who did not commit any crime must never be hassled. It is also a sign of total loss of accountability in administrative units and law enforcement agencies, Dr. Mainul Ahsan commented.