This past week, a city neighbourhood witnessed a violent turf war for control of the illicit drug trade. Several people sustained gunshot wounds, though, fortunately, no one was killed.
An initial probe found politically-linked drug dealers behind the violence, with the clashes apparently driven entirely by the desire to secure territory under a new political settlement.
Only a couple of weeks ago, this paper ran a report detailing how trucks carrying fruit to the city’s prime trading hub were caught in a web of extortion. Truck drivers at Dhaka’s Badamtoli riverfront wholesale fruit market face systematic extortion by an illegal syndicate that uses government-authorized parking arrangements as a front.
Operators are charged more than 20 times the official parking fee simply to access the area, with a local ruling-party leader accused of directing the unauthorized collections.
Meanwhile, Shahed Sharif, a teenager, created a website named “ghush.site” late last month to protest the constant demands for bribes he faced while trying to withdraw his late schoolteacher mother’s pension.
Numerous citizens have since shared their own grievances on the platform. Up until the afternoon of September 1, a total of 11,666 complaints had been submitted to Shahed’s bribe-tracking site, with the total amount demanded reaching more than Tk357 crore.
In addition, recent surprise visits by high-ranking government officials to hospitals and land offices have revealed the dismal state of public services, with too many staff members remaining willfully absent.
All these examples speak poorly of the state of affairs in post-Monsoon Revolution Bangladesh. Aspirations were high -- not only to get rid of an authoritarian regime but also to witness a qualitative change in the country. Yet, if nothing changes, then nothing changes.
Though currently in a very difficult position, citizens can still endure the energy crisis if they receive a credible assurance from the government that efforts are underway to provide respite from gas shortages and electricity load-shedding.
These are not systemic failures per se; they can be addressed with the right steps. But when it comes to the quality of public life, certain things matter far more.
If your neighbourhood is not yet safe for your sons and daughters to move around in, and if dens of drug dealers remain operational, what change are we talking about?
If fruit vendors charge you more for every apple you buy on the “genuine” excuse that political elements have inflated prices through illicit extortion, what change are we talking about?
If institution after institution remains infested with bribery rackets, what public services can citizens expect from a “changed Bangladesh?”
In some recent heinous crime cases, law enforcers managed to apprehend the “criminals” very promptly. But when public suspicion runs high over the authenticity of those “captures,” it speaks volumes about the growing distrust of state institutions.
This is not a sign of a healthy democracy. It is a testament to the fact that, long after the changeover, we still have not managed to rebuild institutions that have long lacked transparency and accountability.
One no longer needs Transparency International or other social barometers to publish annual corruption reports on Bangladesh; citizens are literally living through graft in their daily lives.
Shahed Sharif’s website is just one glaring example of how corruption has become all-pervasive in a society where public offices are not yet held accountable.
At the level of state governance, it is well understood that until an aggressive catalyst alters legislative, electoral, or structural inputs, systemic inertia keeps public policies, economic trajectories, and institutional cultures stagnant.
Regime change by default does not make a substantive difference unless the political leadership embodies that change.
Over the years, the political system has been structured in a way that blurs the line between the government and the ruling party.
Power elites quickly become preoccupied with appeasing a large number of beneficiaries who manage to secure positions on one party front or another.
Consequently, undue advantages in work contracts, illicit toll collections, and the drug trade become inherent to the system.
With every change of guard, one group of politicians and their sidekicks simply replaces the old beneficiaries, while ordinary people -- the main stakeholders -- are forced to take a back seat.
As a result, citizens rarely see a tangible difference in their everyday lives. They still have to navigate the open trade of illicit drugs in their neighbourhoods, unsafe roads, illegal tolls in marketplaces, and bribery for every service they are entitled to as citizens of Bangladesh.
Governments often become trapped in cycles of compounding stagnation and the status quo because their primary motivation is catering to a narrow constituency: Party leaders and cadres.
In the process, they become oblivious to the everyday challenges faced by the wider population in a democracy.
When institutions remain weak and public offices fail to provide due services, entrenched special interest groups, lobbyists, and party cadres optimize their profits from the entire state system.
Reaz Ahmad is Editor, Dhaka Tribune.