A poor old man with torn clothes on and bearing marks of assault on his person looked for help in the capital on Tuesday. He was a pickpocket and badly beaten up by some people in Dhaka He was suspected of pick pocketing a bus passenger. It might be a peculiarity of ours that we are strong on the weak and servile to the strong. Those who are in power have sapped out the blood from the economy but there no shortage of sycophancy singing in praise of them.
The passengers said he was 70 and did not look like a criminal. What is not recognised is that many middle class people are in dire economic condition with no jobs and economic activities to earn a living.
One young man picked up courage to go to save him from torture. But he feared he would also be treated as a partner of the offence being punished. So he was careful not try hard.
Someone should have wanted to know why, as an old man, he tried to do the crime. We lack patience to be reasonable and to know the truth. We should have common human sympathy for the economic hardship that hit the middle class people hardest. They cannot openly beg but there is no systemic help from the government. There is no worry in the government about tragic fate of the people. The most lucrative money earner is corruption thieving public money.
The prices of essential food items are beyond the reach of the vast majority. Even in the richest countries prices of essential food items are surprisingly low for government’s policy. To look after the needy people is the basic responsibility of a government.
In our poor country the situation of highly infectious pandemic has made survival of many a daily crisis. Perhaps, if asked, the old man would have told a heart- broken story of family starvation
Let us not pretend to be angels and treat inhumanly the poor who, mostly because of grinding poverty, are compelled to do crimes for the need to live. The big thieves of billions of public money, know not which foreign countries are safe for keeping their funds stolen from us.
We do not say petty crimes are not crimes. But we must not forget how safe big crimes are. The young party workers being criminalised to remain as loyal mustangs. Bangladesh has earned the reputation of being a country of plunderers and human rights violators. Some bigwigs are known internationally. It will be followed by freezing of their bank accounts abroad.
It is essential that we should stand by the sufferings of the ordinary people for the wrongs of the few. Lies and corruption going hand in hand are making honest living impossible for others.
At a time of great economic distress it is not unusual that the general people are having a hard time. There is no justice for the poor and the widespread plundering by the powerful ones still continues. The businessmen are burdened with heavy tax and VAT making survival as difficult as possible. There is no planning and no system for the economy to grow. Corruption is growing. We can do nothing to stop them.
We should at least try to be kind and sympathetic to the victim poor ones. When we can be happy with big criminals we can at least show little understanding to the poor starving men, women and children. We should try to understand the pathetic situation of those whose children are crying for food but there is no food.
We hope someone will find the old man and help him.
We hope someone will find the old man and help him.
