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Officers of the armed forces in Bangladesh are deemed a privileged and dominant group, both in the arena of public service and in society. Everywhere they consume the best of what the state can provide, although it's hard for the taxpayers to figure out what they get in return.
The armed forces are proud of their so-called discipline within the cantonments where they reside. They boast that their soldiers are upright in serving the nation and abiding by the laws of the land. To the officers of the armed forces, all other professionals are engaged in corruption and destroying the country.
Bangladeshi people do recall, however, that the same forces were responsible for coups followed by assassinations of two former presidents, Sheikh Muzibur Rahman and General Ziaur Rahman, as well as the removal of another elected president, Justice Abdus Sattar. All of this transpired within a decade after the country gained independence in 1971. This indeed shows the level of discipline of the armed forces, as well as their loyalty.
A friend of this writer, a senior manager in an insurance company based in Dhaka, has shared his professional difficulties during the state of emergency. In the first 10 months of 2006 his company's premiums in the division he headed were worth 20 million taka (US$294,000). For the current year the company had a target of 30 million taka for the same period. However, rather than expanding, business had declined to 13 million taka ($190,000) by the end of October.
The company had other problems in addition to declining sales. One fine morning in July, an army colonel called up a managing director of the insurance company and asked him to come to his office. The manager was confused, but agreed to visit the officer. As soon as he arrived in the office the colonel told the manager, "I will send a man to your office for a job tomorrow. You must pay him at least 10,000 taka per month." The manager had no alternative but to agree.
True to the colonel's words, a man went to the office of the insurance company the following morning, received 10,000 taka from the managing director, and left the office. Every month the man appears at the office, sits for awhile, receives the money and leaves the office.
This is just one of hundreds of such stories that companies have to tell since the state of emergency came into force. They remain worried about further harassment despite making such payments and responding in many other ways to orders from soldiers.
The only difference from the past is that such extortion by politicians and miscreants used to be uncovered and exposed in the media from time to time. Now all information about this type of dealings committed by the armed forces is suppressed.
This is why members of the armed forces are fully enjoying themselves under the state of emergency, while others suffer. Such behavior badly tarnishes the humanity of the military.
The same forces have shouldered the work of almost every department of the government during the state of emergency. They present themselves as saviors of the nation, and claim to be leading a crusade against tyranny. However, the nation is paying a heavy price for this "salvation." Nobody knows how long the despised civilians will be forced to pay the costs of nourishing the "holy soldiers."
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender living in Sylhet in Bangladesh, who has been working on human rights issues in the country for more than a decade and who was a journalist in Bangladesh in the 1990s.)
