Shahid Islam
Once upon a time, an enticing young lady strolled past her savoured park, enjoyed the charm displayed by blossomed lilies and creeping crocodiles in the nearby lake. She never felt happier until someone robbed her wallet and raped her under a bushy orchard. She asked herself; without the wallet, and the money, and the chastity, how happy am I?
With erasing values, the nation of Bangladesh has been losing its chaste for a long time. Now the wallet and the money are being robbed too. In less than two years’ time, another great heist and a surreal swindling has come to the limelight about the country’s central bank, known as the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
Golden Bengal, golden heist
In February 2016, cyber heist of US$ 1 billion was snapped in the process after $101 million already got electronically robbed. This time, 24 karet gold got replaced by 18 karet cheaper metals at the BB’s central vault, and gold bar and ring weighing 3 kg 300 gram was found to have turned into mixed metal substance; according to an authentically composed media exposure.
Customs intelligence of National Board of Revenue (NBR) in an investigation has detected a severe mismatch both in quality and quantity of gold deposited to Bangladesh bank vault.
Bangladesh bank, however, on Tuesday rejected the investigationreport saying that the mismatch took place due to clerical mistakes and differences in measurement.
But the economist and businesspeople were shocked and demanded an immediate prove.
Well, these are happening in a country known historically as the golden Bengal. The heist and the swindling are of golden nature too.
These are unique, little heard of incidents that speak volumes about how Bangladesh’s focal institutions turned susceptible to vulnerabilities over the years. Upon being alerted in 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York succeeded in stopping the $1 billion heist; only after $20 million got transferred to an account in Sri Lanka, and another $81 million to the Philippines. The slated remaining thirty other transactions were successfully blocked by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but bulk of the stolen money is yet to be recovered.
Inside work
The gold swindling is obviously an inside work; so was the dollar heist incident which occurred after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received routine instruction from Dhaka’s central bank. The persons involved in the reserve dollar heist were bank staffers who had the security clearance to operate the computerized system and use password to activate the transaction. Following a global uproar, nothing much was heard later; except social media gossip that lingered for months to blame the ‘power that be’ as the main culprits.
What will happen to the gold swindling incident? Nothing much. Smokes may billow for days and weeks, but no fire will lit the horizon. In this benighted nation, traffic signals are still handled by police constables; physically using hand signals and whistling. No one follows street lane and none uses indicators to change lane. At the malls, no sales person can serve one customer peacefully; because four others shout from the side to be served simultaneously. It’s chaos everywhere, everyday. This colossal disorder is touted as the great order of a great nation.
Missing basics
In rarely seen walking pavements, one can be pushed, jostled, molested and shoved around to clear others’ path. Excepting the main streets of the nation’s capital and other major cities, all other streets are totally dilapidated, pot-holed, shattered and impassable. Instead of using standard zebra crossing to cross streets; children, elderlies and incapacitated are compelled to climb hundreds of stairs at foot-over bridges scatteredaround city’s major thoroughfares and intersections that are at times miles away.
These are scattered observations of things that are basic; like the food, drink and shelter of our daily lives. A system is defined by the existence of a structure and its successful operation. We have a nation on paper and in reality, but we couldn’t fix our fundamentals as yet. That means we could not develop a system of governance as yet. We still import the decorative ribbons of the quintessentially used lady garment called saree; despite being the second largest producer and importer of ready-made garments.
The garment production needs the skill and the craftsmanship of a tailor, nothing more. If asked why billions of dollars’ worth of vehicles are being imported from a neighbouring country instead of assembling them here to create local jobs, concerned authorities stare blank with an insipid, indigestible, irritating green.
The gold swindling is an exposed story now; of millions of unexposed ones that make merry go in every institutions of this country, every day. As well, an eerie quietnessmarks the status of the political horizon in an election year; because no one dares to say or do what is needed to prepare the nation for a fair, inclusive election. People learnt the lesson in 2014 when an election without voters produced so successful a government that it even managed to hoist a satellite to orbit around the celestial oblivion.
BB not alone
It’s not a secret that the country’s financial institutions, including the stock market, have been robbed and drenched away long ago by people whom the finance minister dubbed as ‘people beyond reproach.’The BB milking off isn’t a one off incident either. For years, the bureaucracy and the security forces have been politicized to the brink. And, in the process, the ethical mooring of the nation got washed away. You can steal, kill, rob and rupture the society with the blessing of the people in power. Sum up this nation as a one-party, one-person fiefdom. Yet, ask someone in power about the state of the nation, and, get an answer that everything is honkey dory. In reality, a wretched numbness has gripped this nation of about 165 million strong; something hours of stagnation on the street in mind-boggling traffic jam amply testifies.
Yet, more people are buying cars; because, early in the morning, one child takes one to the north to his private school while the other one goes south to his university, so to speak. The mom and dad move with two other cars to their offices and, the entire damn street is under their control; depriving millions of ordinary folks from public transport or other commutable means to go to work. Ask someone in power, are these ordinary people happy? The answer is positive, and, a claim of certainty that this nation has never been happier.
So, under the changed ambiance of a re-defined happiness, we can take the pain and exercise the patience to be numb, silent and inert until some foreign power takes us over in one moonless mid-night. The Bangladesh Bank had gone down the drain long ago. It’s the turn of Bangladesh itself to follow suit.
- Courtesy :Weekly Holiday/Jul 20, 2018
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