Stop bribery

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir dropped a bombshell at an event in the capital on Saturday. Citing a businessman, he said, “Only yesterday, I met a major businessman who told me that previously he used to pay Tk 1 lakh in bribes, now he has to pay Tk 5 lakh. I don’t know how you would view this.”

No matter which government comes to power in Bangladesh, bribery seems to be an inevitable fate of the nation. Nothing gets done without bribes. We have heard the talk of ending bribery during the tenures of various governments; but bribery has not stopped. Rather, it has increased. That it has increased is clearly proven by the remarks of Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

But who gives bribes? And who takes them? We know that both the giver and the receiver of bribes are equally guilty. Generally, bribery is most rampant in government offices. Nothing can be done without bribes. Of course, the bribe-giver is at fault; but if nothing can be done without bribing, what is he to do? Shut down his business and sit idle?

Due to bribery, many large institutions have lacked confidence to invest in Bangladesh. We had thought that after the popular uprising of July 2024 such social crimes would decline; but we saw the opposite. News of many in the administration and among the powerful being involved in bribery rackets is now frequently being published. Alongside this, extortion has also increased.

So many reform commissions were formed, we heard so much about state reform over the past year, and this is the result! The police, who were involved in various misdeeds during the past Awami League era, and who became controversial in various ways after the popular uprising – how is it that they are still involved in bribery?

This means the current government has in fact failed to properly carry out administrative activities. Many other failures of the government have also become evident, and now the issue of bribery rackets is coming to the fore in a big way; but what is the way out of this? Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir echoed an old sentiment, “We can’t change everything overnight. But at the same time, abandoning democratic practice for a long time in order to fix this is also not right. For this, we must very quickly move towards a democratic process. Through democratic means, we must send representatives of the people to parliament and bring about reform.”

This means he is talking about elections; but even if elections are held and an elected government comes to power, we are doubtful whether everything will change and bribery will stop. The people of Bangladesh are now like a cow that has been burned – frightened even at the sight of red clouds. Still, we want to remain hopeful that the current government itself will play an effective role in stopping bribery. We want the government to take a stricter stance on eradicating bribery.