The hostage problem
Advocate Monser Fakir, Jamalpur Bar
If reports filed in various renowned dailies by their correspondents are true, a general hostage problem prevails in many parts of Bangladesh. It is usually reported on a daily basis that (1) WASA employees do not increase the diameter of a pipeline or give other services to their clients unless a handsome amount is given, (2) Cattle-dealers cannot bring their cattles into the markets without paying to 'law enforcers' and the local mastans, (3) Bawalis cannot collect leaves in the Sundarbans unless they bribe the forest department officials, (4) Char inhabitants cannot plough their lands, though legitimate, without satisfying local hooligans and goons, (5) Principals in many colleges are helpless to take independent decisions regarding admission of students as the unions collect large sums from ineligible admission seekers, (6) Day labourers are forced to give a share of their wages to local extortionists and contractors, (7) The thana police are helpless against local influential quarters and so cannot take cases like murder, rape, illegal arms possession and arson etc and finally 40,000 people of a certain village or locality, say, Boyar char, are being held as hostage by a certain 'Zakir bahini'.After giving the details of each of these cases, the reporters make a comment to the effect that the clients are being held hostage by the service providers. It is ironic to note on examination that the hostage, for example in the WASA case, surely works somewhere for his living, let us say in PDB, so he also holds his clients hostage when they come to him for receiving a service like installing a meter or having a connection. So the hostage turns into a captor and a captor turns into a hostage. A tahshildar or AC (land) collects huge kickback from the sellers and purchasers of land but while he goes to get his child admitted to a school has to give wads of notes to the school authority. Only those who are weak and honest are thus the losers while the others are gainers in the end. Can it not be possible for us to be equitably well-off by following the ideals of the Prophet (SM) who we boast of so much everyday?
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