Corruption plagues battle against pandemic

Frauds by Mohammad Shahed and Dr. Sabrina are just a tip of iceberg of corruption during Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh (Photo: tbsnews.net)

With more than 14.7 million infections and 610,000 deaths in over seven months, COVID-19 could well be a catalyst for social, political and economic changes for good in the world.

Sadly, it has done little to nothing to trigger any positive outcome by eliminating social evils like corruption, both individual and institutional, in the national and global orders heavily dominated by extreme globalization and crony-capitalism.

Corruption costs a staggering US$3.6 trillion each year, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said in 2018. Corruption in global health sectors is estimated at $455 billion annually, the highest, according to Berlin-based Transparency International.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, corruption has emerged in diverse and innovative forms at the expense of human lives.

Somalia, currently the world's most corrupt country, has seen medical equipment being stolen from hospitals and sold in markets openly.

Zimbabwe sacked its health minister for the purchase of low-quality testing kits. Greek police are investigating a hospital for releasing elderly patients before they had recovered from COVID-19 so that it could admit new patients for more income.

In March, police in London arrested a man for selling counterfeit testing kits. Recently, a hospital in Amritsar, India, has been accused of issuing fake COVID-19 positive certificates to healthy people to earn big money.

However, Bangladesh has moved extra miles in innovative and massive corruption. From buying substandard medical equipment to the distribution of food and cash aid to poor people, corruption has engulfed the entire COVID-19 response system in this South Asian country.

A dispassionate farewell to a solemn year in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party, the Awami League, have become intolerant of criticism since winning their third straight election in 2018. (Photo by Prakash Singh/AFP)

Every time users log into Facebook they are prompted to post “what’s on your mind” or “what have you been up to.”

Christmas is only a few days away and the year is diminishing fast so it is a good time to reflect on what Bangladesh, and the Church in particular, have encountered in 2019 and what 2020 might have in store.

A bad example doesn’t make a bad religion

Recently, I picked a war of words with one of my close friends over his derogatory remarks on Islam. “Not all Muslims are bad people, but Islam is a religion with wrong principles,” he said to my utter disgust.

We were talking about widespread corruption and other social vices in Bangladesh and trying to find out their socio-historic roots. One of the discussion topics was the recent attack on a Buddhist community here, by an angry Muslim mob.

Hundreds of years ago lower caste Hindus converted to Islam en masse, largely to escape injustice and torture by the upper class in a society heavily based on social caste system. My friend says the decision to embrace Islam was wrong.

“No religion is inherently bad, because every religion teaches people to be good,” I said, but he didn’t change his stance. He countered by saying he had read Qu’ran and found its teaching ‘unacceptable’.

I tried to find some practical reasons behind his prejudice and misconceptions.

My friend has been a non-practicing Catholic for a long time, since even before we met four years ago; he was born in a Catholic parish to a Catholic father and Protestant mother. The family moved to a predominantly Muslim area due to his father’s job and he grew up in that area.

There was no Catholic church nearby, only a small evangelical Protestant church with about a hundred believers. Most of the children he knew were Muslims and some of them treated him like a crow among peacocks. So, he grew into adulthood hating Muslim, but also with ignorance about his own religious faith.

Then, a few months ago, his world came crashing down when a bad road accident left his right leg smashed. Most people didn’t think he would walk again, and he didn’t think so either, but he made it within six months. It was around then that he started believing ‘God does exist’!

But the more he turned to the Church, the more critical he became about Islam and Muslims.
While my friend’s case has unique aspects, most Christians in the country share the same views on Islam.

Taking sporadic cases of injustice and torture by opportunist Muslims, most Christians vilify the whole Muslim world. Is that fair?

Original Post: A bad example doesn’t make a bad religion

Corruption knows no bounds

The people of Bangladesh have something to be slightly cheerful about. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, a worldwide survey by Transparency International, Bangladesh is ranked 120th.
It’s not great, but when you consider that Bangladesh was placed bottom of the survey for five years in a row – 2001 to 2005 – it’s clearly an improvement.
I used to be concerned about having anything to do with any government institution because of the bribery that was everywhere in them and often in the headlines. Now, like many citizens, I feel that things have changed a bit but there’s a long way to go.
We look at Sri Lanka and India and think we should be doing as much as them to curb corruption. But on my recent trips to both those countries, my perceptions were slightly battered.
I was in India last month on a very short trip. To cross the border, our bus had to wait two to three hours at the checkpoint. It took next to no time in the other direction.

Passing the immigration desk was easy but it was an awful experience to go through the customs check. The officers searched us and demanded money from every traveler. Being afraid of the consequences, we all gave what they asked for – 100 taka (US$ 1.2) in my case. It was my first trip to India and I was also cheated by some conmen who fooled me into giving them some money.

I thought my trip to Sri Lanka was going to be different and it was mostly excellent.

To get permission to enter and to pass through immigration took just five minutes and, when I got there, I was enthralled by this beautiful and orderly country. But my departure was unexpectedly upsetting.

After I’d collected my boarding pass, two Sri Lankan customs officers spotted me. They asked if I was an Indian and how much money I had on me. I had US$ 20, more than 300 Sri Lanka rupees and some Bangladesh money, all of which I declared. I’d kept some rupees to buy a snack before the flight.

They said, over and over, that I was not allowed to take the Sri Lanka money or the dollars out of the country. One of them even said that, as a tourist, I should make them happy by offering money so they could have a drink!

I refused to hand over the dollars but they forced me to give them the rupees, so there were no snacks for me.
We dream of a corruption-free world where we can live happily. Will it ever happen?

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