Why is Pakistan ahead of Bangladesh in the index made by civil society?

Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy. The country's foreign exchange reserves are now a little over three billion dollars. The country can meet only three weeks of import expenses with that. Pakistan's foreign debt is 274 billion dollars. Inflation is over 24 percent. In such an extreme situation, the country sought emergency loan assistance of 7.5 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund. But the IMF has only agreed to lend up to $110 billion with several conditions. To fulfill these conditions Pakistan's economy is facing even more challenges. A joke has become quite popular in Pakistan amid this hardship. Journalists in Pakistan are saying, why take loan from IMF when they can take loan from Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari? According to Reuters, these three former governments of Pakistan have looted assets worth of 200 billion dollars from the head of state. Their looted money is lying idle in UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia. While there was a lot of criticism and discussion about this Pakistan, Transparency International brought good news for the country. On that day, Transparency International released the Corruption Perceptions Index Report 2022. In this list of 180 countries, Pakistan has been recognized as a less corrupt country than Bangladesh and Afghanistan. By getting 25 points, the position of Bangladesh is 147th in the list. Where, Pakistan has got two points (27) more than Bangladesh and is seven steps ahead (140th). The Pakistanis should have been very happy with this but istead they are quite surprised and shocked. An economist called Transparency International's report the best joke of the year on Dunia News' popular programme 'Duniya Kamran Khan Ke Saath'. He sarcastically said that, ‘Pakistan government surely sent some really valuable present so Pakistan is placed above Bangladesh. The economist said, 'The state-sponsored looting in Pakistan is unprecedented in the world. The corruption in Pakistan is uncomparable. If there is less corruption in Pakistan than Bangladesh, then why Bangladesh is so far ahead of Pakistan?’ Discussions over Bangladesh have taken a quite strong place among the people of Pakistan since last few days. There is now open self-criticism about Bangladesh's progress, development etc. While there is hymn of Bangladesh among the Pakistan's media workers, intellectuals, economists, some Pakistan lovers in Bangladesh continues to love Pakistan no matter what. They want caretaker government like Pakistan. Supreme Court like Pakistan. Want to oppose India, like Pakistan. A top leader of the main opposition political party said, the people of this country were better off under Pakistan’s military regime. They must be very happy with TI's Corruption Index report. Pakistan is a country where politicians and the army celebrate plunder together. A country where development of Rs 126,000 crore is on paper but not in reality. A country where tenders are given for the construction of 42 bridges in Sindh, money is allocated, construction of the bridge is completed on paper, the contractor takes the money but after 5 years they discover that no bridge has actually been built. The money went directly from the government treasury to the contractor and the contractor distributed the money among politicians, generals. The IMF said about Pakistan that, the country lacks minimum accountability. The US Congress has alleged that Pakistani government officials looted flood relief aid. What did Transparency International prove by showing Pakistan as a less corrupt country than Bangladesh? 

Not only Pakistan, according to TI report Sri Lanka's corruption situation is also much better than Bangladesh. The country is now bankrupt due to the unprecedented corruption of the Rajapaksa family. Inflation is 95 percent. The New York Times report said, "A Ruling Family on the Run as Sri Lanka Plunges into Economic Ruin." The Washington Post report was titled "A Country Ruined by the Greed of a Family." That Sri Lanka is 46 places ahead of Bangladesh (101st) in TI's corruption index. Sri Lanka points 36. Despite passing the corruption test, Sri Lanka is bankrupt. 'Sri Lanka' is a big question in the credibility and transparency of Transparency International's report. Earlier this Berlin-based anti-corruption organization identified Bangladesh as a more corrupt country than Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The Corruption Perceptions Index portrays Bangladesh as a country steeped in rampant corruption. Pakistan and Sri Lanka did not have this situation then. But the picture of corruption within the two countries did not come up in the previous reports of Transparency. The real reason for the economic crisis of the two countries is now being revealed. The unlimited corruption and open looting of the two countries is horrifying. The corruption of these two countries cannot be compared with any other country. The fact that the TI report is half-truth, fabricated and politically expedient is clear from the evaluation of these two countries. Recently, Indian industrial group Adani has been in the limelight around the world. The Adani empire is crumbling after the publication of a research report by the US research institute Hindenburg. Hindenburg claimed that, ‘They are looting the country under Indian flag’. The amount of fraud and corruption allegations leveled against one Adani industrial group is equivalent to one year's national budget of Bangladesh. But India's position is 87th in TI's concept index. The world's largest democracy has a score of 40. Is there so much difference between the corruption of India and Bangladesh?

Not only the concept of corruption index, in any index, a trend can be observed to show Bangladesh miserable and failed. Last year, Reports Without Borders released the Media Freedom Index. Bangladesh's position is 162 in this. According to the report, Pakistan (157), Afghanistan (156) and Russia (155) have more independent media than Bangladesh. Quite weird right? This indicator is ridiculous, fictitious and without any relevant data. I would like to refer to an AFP report about Pakistan's media. The report said, "Pakistan's media is crushed under the sole of the boot." The media there is as independent as the army wants. The International Press Institute (IPI) released a report on media freedom in Pakistan on January 12 this year. IPI identified 38 serious rights violations in Pakistan in this report over the period April to September 2022. Among them, the sedition case against three journalists in April was important. I do not want to say anything new about the state of media in Russia. According to a report by Freedom House, "Russian media were better off under communist rule than they are today." Russian media is fully controlled and subject to 100% censorship. A Reuters report on media freedom in Afghanistan said, "Afghanistan is the most difficult and inaccessible place for media in the world." How is Bangladesh placed behind these scary countries for media? India is the largest democratic country in the world. Recently, a one-hour documentary titled 'India: The Modi Question' was released on BBC. Soon after its release, India took a hard line on the documentary. The documentary was ordered to be taken down from all social media including YouTube. India prohibits all forms of exhibition of the documentary. It needs to be said that 'The Modi Question' is a biased documentary. The minimum standards of journalism were not followed. Anyone who sees the report will understand that there is a political motive behind it. Towards the end of the report, doubts and apprehensions are also expressed about media freedom in India. There are also allegations that opposition views are being suppressed. But still, in a free-thinking country like India, the banning of a documentary is definitely an uncomfortable event for the media. Compared to that, isn’t Bangladesh very liberal in terms of media freedom? Al-Jazeera also published a false baseless report titled 'All the Prime Minister's Men' against Bangladesh. But the Bangladesh government did not ban the report. This one sided, fabricated baseless report is still circulating freely on YouTube across all social media platforms. Not only that, YouTube, Facebook and social media are now running a hate festival. Some individuals are making baseless ugly attacks against the state, country, government and various individuals. People are freely watching these. Unbridled arbitrariness in social media is now a great disease. Not only on social media, but on television talk shows, the government is being torn apart and salted. A couple of mainstream media are spreading rumors in a planned way. The way in which two media outlets have been incompetent about Islami Bank is a form of treason. But the government has not imposed any censorship in this regard. There is no prohibition. Nobody was oppressed or intimidated because of this. People are enjoying freedom of expression freely. Media workers will certainly collect news from any source. Develop investigative journalism. But theft of government documents cannot be a means of gathering information. This is not only against journalistic principles but also against ethics. Theft is a punishable offence. However, some have been made heroes of media workers who stole government documents in Bangladesh. By awarding him various rewards, his true crime is being covered up. The attitude of some is that stealing documents is the real freedom. The country has Right to Information Act. Any media worker can seek information from any department of the government. If the information is not given, there is a system to complain to the commission in the law. But still why steal information? What is the purpose of condoning immoral acts? There is a lot of discussion about digital security laws. It is true that certain provisions of the Digital Security Act are objectionable. The journalist community has been demanding the cancellation of these clauses for a long time. The law minister has repeatedly assured that the inconsistencies in this law will be removed. But it has not been done so far. However, the misuse of this law has decreased in recent times and I refuse to accept that this law is the only barrier to independent journalism. Before this act, many journalists including Manik Chandra Saha (15 January 2004), Humayan Kabir Balu (27 June 2004) were killed while performing their professional duties. Their brutal murder stunned the media. What was the condition of media workers from 2001 to 2006? We are past that terrible time. Such cases are almost non-existent now. The government is being criticized freely in newspapers, electronic media, online media. Still, why Bangladesh is behind of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in the Media Freedom Index? For the same reason that Bangladesh is more corrupt than Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the TI index, Bangladesh is behind Pakistan and Afghanistan in the media freedom index. To understand the reason for this, we first need to know how international organizations such as Transparency International, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International create indexes. These organizations collect data for reports from Bangladesh. Take Transparency International for example. World Bank, IMF, ADB or various organizations conduct various surveys and researches on the financial issues of Bangladesh throughout the year and datas from these surveys and studies are the main data source for TI's Corruption Perceptions Index. This survey and research work is done by our civil intellectuals. They conduct surveys and research by talking to businessmen, various service users. Unfortunately, these civil servants of ours are evil in two ways. First, they think Bangladesh needs to be portrayed negatively in order to sustain their income. If all goes wellin Bangladesh, their value will decrease in the international intelligence market. Let's take the Rohingya problem of Bangladesh. If the Rohingyas go back to their country, then at the moment about 1000 small and big domestic and international development organizations will be closed or face financial crisis. So, it is their great responsibility to keep the Rohingya crisis alive at any cost. That is why they give various fabricated information on this issue. They incite the Rohingyas and make long arguments about their rights. Same goes for corruption. Corruption is decreasing in Bangladesh. Or that the government is trying to fight corruption - such a message would put many people's Pajero cars, air-conditioned offices at risk. As a result, it is important for their livelihood to inflate Bangladesh with corruption. No one will say that there is no corruption in Bangladesh. The rampant corruption by a group is engulfing the country's development. Money laundering is a deadly disease for Bangladesh. For generations to come, we must win the war against corruption to continue Bangladesh's development progress. There is no alternative. But no sane person will believe that Bangladesh is more corrupt than Pakistan, Sri Lanka. No country in the world can prevent corruption without citizen awareness. But a culture of scrutinizing and blaming will hide the corrupt.

Civil intellectuals in Bangladesh who conduct surveys and research on corruption, human rights and media have another problem. More specifically, they have a purpose. That is depoliticisation. A section of civil society in Bangladesh is anti-democratic. Every time an undemocratic force has seized power since 1975, this section of the civil society has been the beneficiary. They have prepared their own sugarcane under the undemocratic government. They are addicted to enjoying power without people's support. The aim of these leftist philanthropists is to endanger politics and the democratic process in any way possible. The last time they tasted power was on January 11, 2007. They have been hungry for a long time. Therefore, they want to injure democracy with words like corruption, human rights, good governance etc. That's why they conduct such surveys to reveal a faded image of Bangladesh. So that people distrust politics. Welcomes undemocratic rule. That's why these reports are given extra color. Bangladesh is shown to be much worse than the actual situation.

There is also another reason. There is also a reason. These white civil servants of ours are anti-Bangladesh and pro-Pakistan by descent. The love of Pakistan runs in their blood through their ancestors. They can't say it openly, but their hearts cry for Pakistan. So, they create data in such a way that it can be proven that Bangladesh is behind Pakistan. But this time, while showing love to Pakistan, their true face has come out. Making Bangladesh worse than Pakistan while making it look corrupt. Now, civil society should be ashamed. So what? This is how civil society continues. Even after all their predictions and projections are wrong, they continue to proudly say 'Bangladesh's future is bleak.' The more Bangladesh moves forward, the longer their sigh of despair grows.