WHEN all the initiatives to stop corruption seems to be a futile and fruitless exercise, at this time a group of cartoonists have come forward to portray the extent and impact of corruption through their artworks. Their creative works are now on display at an exhibition at the Zainul Gallery-1 of Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University, which will end today. The seven-day group exhibition titled ’14th Anti-Corruption Cartoon Exhibition’ was organised by Transparency International Bangladesh marking the International Anti-Corruption Day. This is not the first time — TIB has been organising such exhibition since 2006. What’s significant is that the age of cartoonists who ranged from 13 to 25 years and were divided into two groups submitted 478 cartoons where each and everyone was a poster of bold protest demanding punishment of the corrupt ones.
Bangladesh is a corruption-prone country. Here the corrupt are often protected by the ruling government. In fact, the vested quarters that keep close links with the government high-ups are mainly making illegal money through big-scale corruption. They are everywhere — from footpath extortion to swallowing big amount of bank loans and running the drug business to grabbing river banks. Nobody dares to touch them. They can loot billions of taka from the share market and they have the power to hike the prices of onion at an absurd level to cut the pockets of commoners. Recently, a drama was played in the name of conducting a war against drugs and corruption, but no big drug lord or big corrupt individual has been captured.
We know that cartoons are a powerful tool for creating awareness. But apart from the cartoonists, other segments of art, culture and literature should also come forward to create consciousness among the people against this epidemic.
We need to be honest to fight corruption. We see all over the world examples of prosecuting Presidents and Prime Ministers as part of the meaningful fight to stop corruption.
In our country powerful ones are worshiped and they are the main source of corruption. Our Anti-Corruption Commission plays safe but shouts big.
