With the rendition of Nur Hossain from India, the media is abuzz with every minute detail, from his handover to his appearance before court in Narayanganj. It was expected, since he is the principal accused in the gruesome seven-murder case in the river port city.
The close relatives of the slain and several people, mainly journalists and political commentators, who have been following events since that fatal day in April of last year, are raising many questions, and pertinent questions they are too. I guess the law will take its course.
However, only a few days ago, another landmark judgment was made -- the death penalty for young Oishee, who confessed to killing her parents. With due respect to the courts, my personal opinion is that it may prove counter-productive in this case.
This was not a run-of-the-mill case of cold-blooded murder -- it was the murder of progenitors by the progeny. Someone killing her parents is the rarest of events, especially someone as young as Oishee.
There are instances of people murdering a parent or parents or a sibling from avarice -- their removal may ease the way to inherit a property of value. Such vile crimes do happen in our society. It definitely was not the motive behind the gruesome actions of Oishee.
It seems very plausible that Oishee, a drug-addled spoiled kid, on the verge of adulthood, had deep-rooted psychological problems.
She should have been given psychiatric help, an attempt at rehabilitation. She also needs better representation in the higher courts, since she had already complained of coercion and torture during the process of obtaining her confessional statement and the question of being still officially underage during questioning, persists.
This case also leaves room for introspection into the state of our social conscience.
It was reported that Oishee was provided unlimited pocket money by her police officer father, some reports put the figure as high as Tk50,000 a month. Now, how does a police officer afford such lavish spending? The corruption and hypocrisy that have seeped into every tier of the administration and a certain section of society are giving rise to monsters.
The memory is still fresh of the rich drunken kid who ran over a number of rickshaws, grievously injuring some people in the process. We see an honorable MP shooting a village boy in the legs and then getting out on bail, garlands around his “honourable” neck.
There are, and will be, many such instances. When a boy or a girl realises the wealth of his/her parents are ill-gotten or inconsistent with their professions, he/she will no longer remain under the circle of control that parents should have over their kids up to a certain age. How can corrupt parents give lessons in morality to their children? They can only help open the doors of arrogance, apathy, and wanton behaviour for their kids.
Such reckless living has already given rise to a generation of young people who live a life of extremes, in their lifestyles as well as in their behaviour pattern, which is wholly devoid of any respect for the rights of others.
This generation is quite often into drug and alcohol abuse at a massive scale, depravity is a cornerstone of the structure of it, and it naturally leads to disillusionment about life and ultimate ruination.
Worse still, once adults, these spoilt brats will continue the cycle of immorality and eventually cause the death of conscience of the society, if that conscience is still breathing.
Sending Oishee to the gallows means we are just sweeping the dirt under the carpet.
Oishee is just a manifestation of the disease that plagues our society, and such harsh judgment in one case will not deter others from leading their lives unconcerned about the accepted civilised norms of social behaviour, and they will remain disrespectful to the law of the land -- a notion will persist that money and power can buy all.
The judgment on Oishee is like giving strong medicine to subside a fever, no attempts are made at locating and attacking the disease that’s causing the fever, the disease will go merrily along.
In his satirical play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Berthold Brecht, the playwright, tried to show the rise of Adolf Hitler, in allegory, by chronicling a Chicago mobster, Arturo Ui, trying to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition.
At the fall of the monster, Brecht warned: “Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.”