Recently we are going through some drives against extremely hyped scandalous anti-social activities involving several media personalities. Allegedly, these so-called celebrities earned a fortune by trading narcotics or using narcotics and prostitution to lure the people who can bring them huge fortune. Blackmailing, pornography and arms trade also came out as by-products. But all these trades could not be managed or controlled by these weak front-liners. There are mammoth fishes behind them and hence, if these campaigns need to succeed, then those emperors must be brought under justice. Otherwise, it will remain only a campaign of change of faces.
We have seen several media personalities arrested during the last few days. Television presenter, anchor, chairman of JoyJatra IPTV, singer, businesswoman and politician Helena Jahangir was arrested on July 29. On August 1, a model and infamous party arranger Faria Mahbub Piasha was arrested from her luxurious residence. Based on her information, another model cum party arranger Mariam Akter Mou was also arrested on the same night. One of country's top film actresses Pori Moni and her partner in crime, renowned film producer Nazrul Islam were arrested on August 4.
Huge narcotics were found from all their residences. The narcotics included liquor, yaba, ice, LSD, sheesha etc Except for Helena Jahangir, the arrested ones are accused of trading and using these drugs to lure the rich and important people in their private and later blackmailing them to get different works done. Top-notch prostitution was another aspect of these criminals which helped them to get many things done like snatching big government contracts, conducting corporate intelligence or simply grasping money.
All these criminals were presented to court and taken into remand. The investigators are repeatedly saying that they are receiving important information, names of many big fishes etc. by interrogating them. But we are afraid that those information or names will remain hidden like many previous instances and the people of Bangladesh will have to remain happy with a finger nail of a giant dinosaur.
People like Pori Moni or Piasha have no proper education and mostly hail from needy families. But luxury falls under their feet due to their natural charm under the patronization of notorious godfathers. Piasha posted a picture with Uzi machine gun at her hand in her social media page. It was extreme audacity even for a highly professional criminal. But Piasha's patronization was so strong that she did not care.
Pori Moni also seemed to have very good relations with the law enforcers as different news are coming out now. We can also understand her strong patronization from the way she was calling different big shots from her cell on facebook live while RAB was at her gates. We need to trace out these patrons - especially those who actually brought them in these illicit businesses, not those who are to support them due to being blackmailed.
Women were used to serve illicit interests for a long time in Bangladesh. Most of the large corporate houses of our country use women to get their works done. Now not only large corporate houses but many medium sized businesses also take shelter of women to increase their business. It has nothing to do with women empowerment or the mammoth role women are playing in our society today. It has everything to do with the huge corruption at every sector of our country. Women have become a material of bribe today. Our decayed morality has polluted our country to such a level that it is almost impossible to come out of this dirt.
Women are shown as a matter of lust and matter of enjoyment by our politicians too. Sadly, our demised former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad started this trend. Many scandals of him surrounding him came out during her presidency. He was known as very fond of women and was even termed as 'characterless. His son Saad Ershad also once tried to kidnap a teen girl and he is now preparing himself to become active in Bangladeshi politics. The trend that President Ershad set has continued and taken a vicious form. Without political patronization it was impossible for people like Pori Moni to rise this far. Along with politicians, top government officials have also dived in the same river. The spread of drugs in society today is also contributed by such patronization.
Many says that, the high society of our country is following western culture which is leading towards consumption of alcohol, indecent parties, drug abuse, extramarital affairs, abuse of women and children etc. But western countries, which according to many do not care about such issues much, are setting examples which we are far apart. Like; US President Joe Biden recently asked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign after he was alleged for sexually harassing several women. Though such or close to similar events are occurring randomly in our country, we do not see such actions.
During the last few decades, drug abuse has become one of the greatest troubles of our country. Astonishingly not only the youth but also many established personalities of our society are accustomed to drug abuse now-a-days. This is leading towards increase of crimes like; murder, rape, eve teasing, molestation, women and child abuse and many things else as drugs can fog our conscience and spread of narcotics is completely due to the heavy corruption in Bangladesh.
When Pori Moni or Piasha or Mou was arrested, we have seen how rigorously our media covered those incidents. But that was not the same with the arrest of Raz. Our media is also sensationalizing the arrest of those women. But they are destroying the values of many in that process and their actions will directly cause violent crimes at different part of the country. Sensible behaviour seems to be the last we can expect from our media. They must act responsible and need to know how much to expose especially when their coverage can instigate further sexual offences. Our law enforcers should not allow such coverage of their raids especially in the cases of alleged women.
Today, our society has reached such a horrific state that, we must include ethics and values as a subject in the curriculum of our children. The subject should include topics like bad impact of narcotics, safe handling of digital devices, respecting social norms, respecting women, valuing family etc. They must pass that subject in school. Otherwise, in this era of digitalization and social media, it will be very difficult to protect our future.
As we have said, it is very important to trace out the main players of syndicated crimes in Bangladesh. Drug, prostitution, blackmailing, pornography, money laundering, casino along with government or corporate tender manipulation - everything is controlled by certain syndicates. Many top-level government employees, politicians, lobbyists are involved with these crimes. Hence, the government must consider ethical or moral performance of someone during placement at certain roles or giving awards. We must not provide any award to someone corrupt or characterless or addicted to any form of narcotics. Same must happen when we promote or issue posting to someone for important roles.
Most importantly, the crimes that were mentioned were born due to illegal money. Some uses these crimes to make illegal earnings and some spend their illegal income to take advantage of these crimes. If only the government employees and politicians can be restrained from having illegal income, then most of these crimes will elope from our country.
We feel very happy that few sensational celebrities were arrested though their capture will bring no success at all. Their places will be filled very soon with better candidates. Today our artists, cultural activists, sportsmen, journalists along with our political leaders, government employees, businessmen - all are under the grasp of narcotics and other illicit matters. Though Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched war on drugs and corruption years back, not much progress was made as these have spread at every tier of our administration. Only if we can hit at the source of the crimes, we might find some success.
We just hope that the drive against these anti-social activities will not end at the tails. We still believe, the good will win. The writer is Chief Editor at Mohammadi News Agency (MNA), Editor at Kishore Bangla and Chief Patron, Bangabandhu Shishu Kishore Mela
