Various sections of the society have blasted the Transparency International’s report of its corruption perception survey, Global Corruption Barometer -12, which branded political parties, police, judiciary and legislature as the leading corrupt institutes in Bangladesh.
“Actually, all perception studies are biased; these are not scientific research at all. The sample choice in such studies are made in the ways that will establish its findings. So, TIB’s study is not a genuine study at all,” said economist Salimullah Khan.
“Organisations like the TI or TIB are created to secure the interests of some specific groups; they are not independent at all despite such claims,” he said.
In its observation, the survey referred that 60% of the respondents perceive that the extent of corruption had gone up. The survey also inferred 88% of the respondents interviewed termed the legislature corrupt, not referring to any specific reference of corruption in the Jatiya Sangsad.
The economist and sociologist said the report branded the political parties the most corrupt and the legislature fourth corrupt institutions as the quarters TI or TIB serves prefer some undemocratic forces for their convenience.
Khan, however, said we should not brush aside the corruption in the political parties on the ground that it was a TIB finding. “We have to give it serious thought.”
Economist Prof Anu Muhammad said percentages do not always reflect the “true” picture and that it varies on interaction with people and information they come across. “An unhindered flow of information on an issue can change people’s ideas.”
He pointed out people had little information about the military or religious bodies. “So, the people may think these are the least corrupt.”
“But if we asked the same respondents what was the level of corruption during General Ershad’s rule or the regime of the military-led caretaker government, they would give a different answer,” he said adding the perception would also change in case of Mawlana Mannan.
Anu Muhammad said the people branded political parties as “most corrupt” as they see political leaders maintain nexus with contractors, businessmen and other vested groups.
The inspector general of police, Hassan Mahmood Khandker, termed the TIB corruption perception study “controversial” and said they would officially react to the report after a close study.
Supreme Court Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam also wanted to go through the report in detail before reacting.
However, the TIB executive director, Iftekharuzzaman, when asked to explain claims of corruption by the legislature mentioned in the study sidelined the question: “Parliament is dysfunctional; the opposition has boycotted the legislature. Thus, it has failed to discharge its role of making the government accountable.”
He also parried the following question about whether parliamentary failures and parliamentary corruption were the same.