By Fazal M. Kamal
At a recent event the Prime Minister told members of the Rapid Action Battalion, “You all must give attention to the fact that common people don't suffer in any way... they must not face any unnecessary torture and oppression.” She added, “Remember, we're public servants as our wages and allowances come from people's pockets.”
Rarely have administration leaders made such honest, forthright and frank observations anywhere in the world (naturally keeping the incumbent US president away from these computations for the sake of fairness while avoiding the possibility of rational evaluation getting all tangled up).
But the Prime Minister’s very mild and awfully civil exhortation, it has to be admitted, sadly, for the sake of candor, has come a tad too late for hundreds of people because either they have already gone missing or their lifeless bodies have been discovered or at the very least they have already paid their wages for attracting the attention of members of law enforcement entities all across this land over the last one decade at the minimum.
Additionally, it maybe recalled, these statements of the PM come in the wake of entreaties made not too long back by law enforcement officials who had bleated with the Prime Minister to relieve them of the legal burden of barring them from tormenting persons arrested by them and in their custody.
Clearly, these were not the words they were eager to hear even if they emerged from the highest level of the state.
Moreover, this is also bound to cause a whole lot of head scratching and a great deal of confusion among the law enforcement personnel. They might well wonder, if over all these years they had carte blanch for whatever and whichever way they preferred to proceed, why suddenly are they being reminded of issues they had, for all and every practical purposes, given a pass with the utmost nonchalance.
Be that as it may. The situation had devolved over the years to such a degree that persistent and universal urgent admonitory statements from human rights organizations located in many different parts of the world were treated with unreserved disdain while the tears and fervent appeals of people and victims within the country were viewed as troublesome and annoying garbage.
In the meantime there were reports galore in the media and rampant among the populace of hapless citizens being intimidated with the greatest malice and often subjected to physical abuse reminiscent of the worst colonial behavior inflicted on a subjugated nation. In fact, almost out of the pages of Ripley’s Believe it or Not came stories from wives of law enforcement personnel of abuse, threats and worse inflicted on them by their hubbies. And if these weren’t astonishing enough, there were inconceivable tales of handcuffed persons being physically battered.
The answer to any question relating to the whys of these episodes is: there are more than sufficient incentives to encourage uniformed personnel licensed by the state to resort to atrocious stuff. The evidence seen so far, incidentally, suggests that they haven’t been merely given a 007 license; they actually appear to possess 0014 authorizations and, more importantly, there ain’t no M to report to. Which pretty much provides them—i.e. those who wish to metamorphose into rogue elements—with the liberty to easily outdo any incarnation of Bond, James Bond. Or perhaps even Goldfinger.
To illustrate the existing circumstances we can select any instance at random. For example here are some allegations made a few days back by a woman named Jibon Ara in Cox’s Bazar. She said, “As I refused to give bribe to the sub-inspector [Manosh], he became angry and then he gave me electric shocks. I passed out at the time.” As per reports, Jibon Ara added that the Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge's Court granted her bail on March 23 following submission of a report by Judicial Magistrate Tamanna on the torture by SI Manosh.
Per news reports, she was shifted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital's One-Stop Crisis Center where she was found to have injuries on her chest and genital area due to electric shocks.
Subsequently, Jibon Ara filed two cases with the Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge's Court -- one of torture and seeking bribe and another under the Women and Children’s Repression Prevention Act. In spite of her nerve to openly accuse a police officer, as is often the case, nothing much happens after the “inquiry”.
So why do they continue to get rotten? It’s of course assumed, for obvious reasons, that a majority of them don’t take that path. But those who can’t curb their avaricious enthusiasm are certainly more prone to take the low road. The causes for an increasing number of them transforming themselves into the latter form are a combination of factors--aside from the lust factor--which also include their commanding officials spewing the most bizarre political and pseudo-political statements. And then there’s the persistent, albeit incongruous, hogging of media attention.
In this context a very recent event may also explain the strange shenanigans going on. At a meeting of captains of industries and businesses with a Cabinet member and assorted officials the pronouncements of a servant of the republic in charge of revenue accumulation reprimanding, nay threatening, some business people were tantamount to the contemptible verging on the ludicrous. The entirety of the fault isn’t his alone: he was being provided with the opportunity to pontificate at confabulations almost everyday and thus elevated to the level of pontifex maximus.
In point of fact one of the primary reasons for this type of creepy behavior relates to what the Prime Minister herself had to remind the law enforcement people; i.e. “Remember, we're public servants as our wages and allowances come from people's pockets.” Rather most of them come to believe they are masters of the people, not their servants. And yet more significantly they begin to believe they’ll remain in office forever and a day.
All the above observations are recorded much more from a sense of sadness that a hopeful nation’s vitals are being eroded from the inside, mainly, due the myopic and tunnel vision of those who have their hands on the levers of power, and are willing to cave in to the cravings of the crass to perpetuate themselves in power. This in turn is offering rogue elements the opportunities to rush after their thirst for material benefits at any cost not only to others but to themselves too even if they refuse to realize the latter fact now.
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