Last Friday evening, Hasib, a former journalist and an ex colleague, came with the grim news about the death of a veteran journalist, believed to be suicide.
Soon, posts about the person began appearing on social media -- the willing departure of a media person under what appeared to be a cloud of depression, is hard to digest.
Reportedly, he had always been a staunch leftist and a vocal advocate of a political party, currently outlawed.
Alluding to his last write-up, people have observed that while choosing to end life in dire circumstances is unfortunate, while alive, the veteran journalist had been blind and often blatant in his political allegiance to the level that even in his last letter, some of his observations seemed to be driven by political dogmatism.
For starters, I think it unsavoury to go into the political ideals of the person now that he has died. As it is, when someone is at wit’s end and finding life a burden, expecting rational thought is absurd.
In those moments, the mind is a whirlwind of emotions, with indignation at its peak.
Sadly, the truth remains, and the political dogma that he had fervently defended came to little consolation in the end.
The death of Bibhuranjan Sarkar, coming as a shock, is being deconstructed in several ways.
Some angles identified disillusionment with life while others tried to pinpoint the August 2024 political shift as a cause.
To cut to the chase, if he had enough money or assets, he would still be alive.
Irrespective of the epochal change in the political structure, a person with social security hardly loses hope.
At the risk of sounding a little mercenary, in the end, what matters is whether a person has the wherewithal to carry on with life even if the world outside is in turmoil.
This death underlines several flawed social outlooks that only add to the insecurity of the journalism profession.
Ideal based vs smart journalism
To define the two aspects of journalism, one needs to go back to the period from the late 60s to the late 80s when journalism attracted a large number of staunch socialists who actually came from middle- or upper middle-class families.
These young men, driven by the socialist zeal of the time and motivated by the Vietnam lesson, entered the profession not to earn a living but to serve a cause.
Most of them lived in individual homes owned or bequeathed by parents, and therefore, the financial hardship rarely became a harsh reality.
In the 90s, the profession underwent a seismic change with ideals-based journalism giving way to a more professional approach, where the industry, once driven by certain values, was propelled by a profit-oriented approach.
Many of the old school journalists survived because in an era of high-rise boom, the piece of inherited land, whether in the city or in the district, became gilt edged security.
In addition to this, some journalists always flaunted the political flag, serving a specific political ideology.
They shrewdly managed to obtain favours from the power in place, either through plot allotment, lucrative overseas postings, or by being key players in establishing the crony culture journalism on behalf of large conglomerates.
Those who struck a balance in pandering to the power in place are still established in society while those who possibly took the flag waving to be their life’s only motto often faced and carry on facing repercussions.
In between are countless journalists who neither allowed their political beliefs to overshadow their work nor did they seek to become labelled lackeys of a political force.
Instead, they honed certain skills and diversified their income source.
A Dhaka University younger brother, currently a TV sports journalist, has a moderate earning from his regular job but also provides analysis for other outlets and uses his connections to supplement his income.
There are also those who take classes at colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, those who are from Bangla medium earn a living by working as tutors at special institutes for Bangla broadcast media.
With links at international development bodies, journalists work as translators and interpreters, often providing professional support in writing special reports.
The point is, the possibilities are endless, provided one is astute enough to look for and utilize them.
Sadly, old school journalists may decide to call this approach unscrupulous.
This however is smart journalism, which allows a person to pursue his/her passion and ensure financial security.
I know a journalist, who, while coming back from overseas, often brings one or two mobile phones and sells them to pre-arranged buyers, making a respectable profit.
He has endured derision plus rebuke but I tell him: If it’s not breaking the law, put scruples aside.
Whether we want to accept it or not, the world has changed from the time when a person relied completely on one skill.
Doggedly clinging on to a set of beliefs from an outdated era only leads to misery and privation.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few journalists within the 60-75 age bracket, who might be feeling lost in an environment where ideals are cleverly blended with current day priorities.
A welfare trust for journalists
Reportedly, when Bibhuranjan sent his last article to be published, he specifically said this would be his last piece, obviously indicating the mental distress he was in.
We failed to detect the sorrow and the misery.
He may have wrongfully sided with a political force that had become absolutist but there should have been an attempt made to save him.
This brings us to the matter of a welfare trust for journalists that will offer loans, provide financial support for setting up small businesses, and arrange essential medicines for journalists over 60 at a subsidized rate.
This may sound difficult, but in reality, a few local pharmaceutical companies can easily form special corporate partnerships with media houses, offering journalists medicine at lower rates than usual.
For the welfare trust, large business conglomerates coming forward to create a common fund may be offered special tax benefits.
Too many international and national NGOs work for “social emancipation” and “poverty eradication,” perhaps a few may focus on professionals who are at most risk of insecurity later in life, like journalists, film extras, poets, and theatre workers.
The suicide of a journalist in the face of financial hardship is never acceptable but neither is the sacrifice of a life after unreasonably championing one political doctrine.
Like all of us, he was also a man with foibles and shortcomings.
At this moment, let’s remember him for the strident columns he wrote during the anti autocracy movement in the 80s, keeping Shakespeare in mind: “The evil that men do, lives after them; the good is often interred with the bones!”
Towheed Feroze is a former journalist.