Tue 26 Feb 2008
Army golf club (Photo: Munem Wasif)
A law suit has been filed against AL leader Shaikh Hasina for accepting a donation of three crore taka for the Bangabandhu Trust and allegedly giving undue favour to Summit corporation for a power plant. Fair enough. If this can be proven, this should be punished. If the the former prime minister has created a situation where the business men had no choice but to give this donation to get the business, that is unwarranted. There is a bit of conflict of interest there. But we will let the court decide who is guilty and who is not.
But get this. A few weeks ago, a commenter had this to say in a thread in this blog
Despite Sidr, rising food prices, the army has been able to ‘collect’ 25 crore for a new club house for the Army Golf Club (Kurmitola). This has been possible due to multiple ‘donors’. I attended their lavish party for this ironic cause. The reality at the party was that the donors had to donate.
The country is in an economic standstill and the Army feels like spending 25 CRORE, for their golf facilities!!
DU had to struggle for a 10 crore donation for 3 years, and finally found a non-government donor for their research center. But the Army wants to play golf.
Summit Group made a 3 crore donation to Sheikh Mujib foundation and are involved in a legal lawsuit for this. But it is suddenly not illegal to donate to the Army nowdays. How convenient.
We did not have the confirmation of this news until two papers decided to break it recently. Lo and behold, one of them is Prothom Alo.
The details of the “donation” has now become clear. It is coming from 29 commercial banks. After the army golf club wrote to these banks asking for the “donation”, all 29 of them agreed and are now in the process of passing a special resolution in their board to approve this donation of 30 lakh taka each which accounts to almost 9 crores of taka.
Who is accountable for this donation?
What sort of conflict of interest is in question?
DId the banks have a choice of not giving the donation?
More importantly when the rest of Bangladesh suffers in economic crisis, how is it making a club house gets such a high priority?
Now the next time, one of them comes to you and lectures you on morality and transparency, please ask him this question. Oh no, dare you not say that. Shhhh….after all there is a state of emergency in the country now. You can do everything but ask questions. You can also play golf too and pretend that nothing is happening. Check here for timings.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Just recently this government tried to give away Shuhrawardy Udyan for golfing purpose only. Here is a post with some interesting info on the membership fees of cantonment golf club.
http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/land-grabbing_elite-style/
February 27th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
After a quick look at other fancy golf clubs to make sure that I’m up on international golf attire standards, I still stand by my initial reaction that the Kurmitola Golf Club’s (discussed in this post) dress code (http://www.kgc-bd.com/index.php?page_id=324) makes for an interesting read regarding when, where, and what kind of Bangladeshi and foreign attire is considered appropriate among the elite. At least for a non-Bangladeshi like myself, it’s just another bit of information to file away when considering what elements of privilege and culture inform how and why people present themselves in a certain way.
On the golf course, women are only allowed to wear “tucked-in” shirts, an implicit prohibition against salwar-kameez. In the club restaurant, saris and salwar-kameez are permitted. Now, admittedly, I’ve never played golf in a salwar suit. I’ve never played golf at all. So maybe this is done with female players’ best interests in mind.
There are further rules for the “Inauguration and Prize Distribution” ceremonies held at night: “Ladies are requested to put on Salwar & Kamiz or Shari with / without ardigan or shawl during winter. Foreign ladies may wear formal dress or their national dress.” [sic].
During the club’s New Years Eve party, “pajama-panjabi with shawl and slippers” are not allowed. Women can “put on cardigan or shawl over Shari.”
During the Pahela Boishak party, “Casual dress appropriate to our culture and tradition may be worn. Sherwani…Pajama and punjabi may be worn with slippers or sandal. But lunghi or dhuti are not accepted. Ladies may put on shari or Salwar & Kamiz.”
I suppose the prohibition on the lunghi and dhoti is akin to the prohibition of jeans on some fancy American golf courses. I wonder if jeans would be allowed at Kurmitola, given their potential status as a signifier of hip, globalized style. But why the ban on panjabis on New Years Eve? And are Bangladeshi women not allowed to wear western dress at the special events, given the absence of approval for anything other than a sari and salwar-kameez?
Anyway, this is obviously all tangential to the main point, which is the mind-numbing, stomach-wrenching hypocrisy of the ease with which piles of taka were collected so that elites may play a sport known worldwide as a signifier of wealth and leisure. Thanks UV for bringing this up.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:05 am
I dont see a problem with army, or any other govt ministry, planning for the best use of their allocated govt land. Golf, fishing, whatever - thats their property for them to decide how they best use it, USING THEIR OWN FUNDS.
However, if army used their powers to twist the banks’ arms for donation (for golf) - then there’s a MAJOR conflict of interest.
This is against current CTG anti-corruption drive.
If this story is completely true -
then a) army must return every Taka back to each donor,
and b) the officers who carried this exercise must be disciplined.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
# 3 KGazi
Well spoken. But who will be do gooder this time to ensure this happens ?
Farhad
February 29th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Farhad Mahmud,
The govt has already taken major do-gooder steps like anti-money-laundering regulations (coming soon), and will take more similar steps, to prevent public scams.
The steps for this blog’s specific issue are:
1. Verify that the story is true
2. Report this donation-soliciting OFFICIALLY to ACC.
3. Let ACC report to army AND the banks, for their own internal tribunals to straighten their people, and take corrective actions.
4. long-term correction will be to establish STRICT govt REGULATIONS and policies for charities and donations thru public, private, NGOS, “non-profits” etc.
(which should have been done in Shongshod years ago).
February 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
K Gazi,
I will continue in your thread since finally we seem to be going somewhere.
You have a good point that this should be independently submitted to ACC for investigation.
Here is my question, who will have the guts to report this to ACC when the power of people they would be complaining against is unaccounted for.
Second question is have you seen any recent example where transparent investigation has happened when one of the party involved is anyone from the military.
I should refer you two high profile examples. Because this should suffice to say that if the high profile cases are unresolved, you can tell what happens to the unreported ones.
1. Chalesh Richil — investigation committee formed but the result not published. The enquiry was thorough and I know a lot of our partner organizations in Dhaka testified.
2. DU university case: report has still not been published. We have had trials and investigations of every thing that happened post Aug21st. However, nothing has been said about the original incident that triggered it — when an army officer manhandled the student.
What are the odds of any of these other cases to get resolved you think?
This is what we have been trying to say all along. When you replace one set of feudal lords with another one and this time a much more organized one, abuse of power is bound to happen. It happened every time miltary government came to power in any country. There is no reason to believe Bangladesh will be any different this time. We wish it would be different. But human nature is just plain different.
March 1st, 2008 at 7:48 am
Asif S #6,
This issue is different from the Richil and university riot cases, because those are circumstantial army-civilian issues, which, like the millions of US army-Iraq abuse incidents, almost impossible to challenge.
Those issues I will not even touch - even in a blog.
But the army-bank golf-donation issue is much simpler, and directly involves financial corruption (if the story is true).
This case I wont mind appealing personally to ACC, after I am convinced that army’s powers were abused in banks, and not banks’ illegal lobbying with army.
So, story needs to be verified first.
The KEY is to approach BD army as friends to our nation, and not foe, and appeal to them that financial mis-management must be defined, so that their activities are in line with CTG’s national anti-corruption campaign.
Misjudgements and errors will happen with army (even newspapers make errors!), and we have to notify, appeal and point-out those GOVT errors either directly or through other authorities - so that they are not repeated.
But the large-scale PERVASIVE abuse of power, compared to previous govts, are certainly not happenning in current army or CTG.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:07 am
What? We need to verify something that is reported in Prothom Alo? Surely something reported in Prothom Alo is the gospel truth - remember all those stories about corrupt politicians reported in Prothom Alo? I didn’t see anyone questioning the accuaracy of those stories. Prothom Alo said so-and-so is corrupt and we were ready to forget due process and presumption of innocence. Now we need to verify things, eh?
March 1st, 2008 at 7:52 pm
#8
Political corruption were not NEW discoveries made by Prothom Alo. Werent they well-known existing facts all along, which Prothom Alo never had courage to publish before 1/11?
But if there is an anomaly in govt or army activity today (like posted in papers), then people must have an avenue to notify this - thru CTG, army or ACC - to avoid repeat.
If anyone has such contacts please post them here - and I (and others) will directly report them.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Shh, Jyoti Bhai. People who don’t believe Prothom Alo reports disappear at the dead of the night, and are never heard from again. Apparently a young boy once saw his sister abducted this way. When he grew up, he became an FBI agent and devoted his life to solving this mystery. So…. careful.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I think its time. When the rest of the country is suffering from the price rise, people are dieing of hunger, our army has decided to go to play Golf. Bravo! Should they not be out there helping the government! At least thats what the Army chief claims! May be a ride on his horse (gift from India) around the country would help him and his colleagues clear their head.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
A new group emerged and replaced BNP-AWAMILEAGUE cadre in bangladesh. I heard Joint force, Army, Rab all are engaged in “Ghus Banijjo”. Nothing can get done unless Area Commanding officer or Joint foce get some “Najrana”. Also, Joint force goes to market place and ask for “Chanda” from each shopowner. If someone try to protest, they treated as criminal and treated accordingly!!!
(taken from firsthand experience of a person, who recently visited bangladesh and victim of abuse)
sO, THIS IS THE TRUE COLOR OF PRESENT MILITARY GOVERNMENT, WHO IS FIGHTING VIGOROUSLY AGAINST CORRUPTION!!!!