Terrorism draws its strength from undisclosed fund Moazzem Hossain 8/27/2005             The Gresham's Law -- 'bad money drives good money out of circulation' -- holds true for Bangladesh in all its multi-diensional aspects. It stretches beyond the arcane domain of its economy to the perplexing gridlock of its polity, ever-spreading activities of its 'underworld' dons and, lately, to the emerging menace of terrorism in the mundane day-to-day life of its citizens. Indeed, this law has a unique relevance to the situation that now prevails in Bangladesh, much to the chagrin of the common people. The 17/8 episode -- the ugliest incident in the country's post-Independence period -- and the subsequent developments relating to the arrests of the 'suspects' and their interrogation and investigation -- as print and electronic media have reported the same so far -- to 'unearth' those responsible for the countrywide series of simultaneous bombings on that day, could testify to that. One of the 'accused' (?) -- and arrested persons in connection with that incident -- happens to be a former key functionary of Islamic Foundation, a solely government-run body. He was 'reported' to have been involved personally in financial transactions worth Tk 170 million during three days, immediately preceding the August 17 incident. And his connections with the operatives of all sorts, on the surface, and dealings with the hybrid elements, both endogenous and exogenous, are, if the media reports about the same are factual, quite revealing. He is certainly not the lone man responsible for executing such an elaborate and well-designed scheme, for whatever reasons. In the absence of an elaborate official statement coming yet from the government side, it will, in all fairness, not be fair to put the blame onto him. This is more so because of the undeniable facts about so many hidebound characters and chameleons ruling the roost and calling the shots, overtly or covertly, in the anachronistic polity of Bangladesh. Here, the ball-game is played by the parties and their cohorts or mentors across the divide with the avowed purpose of getting the upperhand over the 'rivals' by foul, not fair, means. 'Unearthing' the subversive elements or 'forces' who have masterminded the scheme and executed it with undoubted detexerity -- and that too to the credence of the people at large -- will depend on many things. The prime factor here will, of course, be the real intention and will of the government that exercises the executive power of the Republic. But one thing is incontestable here. Terrorist finance, its sources and modus operandi have assumed wider dimensions than what are perceived to be the case. These do also involve more complexities than before. The muscles of such finance have continued to grow strong, giving a damn to the long arms of law. This has become so -- in tandem with the dimension, scale and size of the underworld economy. Rather, both are now enmeshed in the same dragnet. The provisions of the so-called 'Anti-Money Laundering Act' are not enough to deal with the menace of such funds. Neither are the taxation officials competent and efficient enough to trace and monitor the origin of such funds, their size and magnitude and to do the needful to curb the menace. The mushrooming of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with their funds largely coming from abroad and the absence of accountability of many such NGOs with regard to their expenditures have compounded the problems. The malfunctioning NGO Affairs Bureau -- a governmental outfit that is meant for supervising and monitoring the activities of the NGO of hybrid nature within a transparent framework -- has kept many holes open for diversion of such external funds from supporting and strengthening poverty alleviation efforts for the poor at the grassroots, to lots of grey -- questionable and dubious -- areas. In the process, the NGOs that have otherwise been doing a commendable job are being disadvantaged. Their activities in areas of poverty alleviation, formation of social capital among the disadvantaged rural and urban communities, spread of education, literacy and health coverage, women's empowerment and many other well-targeted and well-meant programmes for expansion of social safety-nets and employment opportunities through extended micro-credit operations in support of production-oriented activities have widely been acclaimed at home and abroad. But they subjected to an unsavoury situation. The Gresham's law is operating here -- well-functioning NGOs are encountering difficulties in carrying out their activities because of the bad ones having ulterior motives, political or otherwise, of their top functionaries, to serve. In this context, the findings of a recent study by the World Bank (WB), as reported Friday by the daily 'Ittefaq' in one of its front-page new item, about the activities of the NGOs in Bangladesh merit attention. The daily reported that the WB made last year a detailed survey of the activities of the NGOs in Bangladesh in different areas, particularly the rural ones, covering the social sectors. The WB which is otherwise strongly supportive of the government-NGO partnership for strengthening poverty alleviation efforts has found through its study that a number of NGOs have been doing a "commendable" job in their assigned areas of activities -- by providing effective social services and also by expanding simultaneously their commercial activities to help augment their resources to further strengthen their operations. But the notable part of the findings of this WB study, as mentioned in the report of the daily, relates to the 'mushrooming' of NGOs at the grassroots in Bangladesh, raising questions about transparency of their activities and causing concern for different reason. Furthermore, the contributions or donations that some of the local NGOs receive from the vested interests within the country in pursuit of their 'obscurantist' agenda are also questionable for many reasons. The government has for long been lackadaisical about it. Its indifference and indolence, if not indulgence and acquiescence, have provided the operational leeway for their wheeling and dealing -- not excluding perverted political ones -- with such funds. That has been the case for long. It will not be out of place to recall here that the late revered former finance minister of the previous government, SMA Kibria -- who was himself a victim to a tragic bomb blast incident earlier this year in his own home district Habiganj -- once hinted at, while being in power, brining the incomes -- real or hidden -- of 'peers' (so-called religious leaders) and the like within the taxation network. He had some reasons for that. The 'income' earnings of such leaders and their 'life-style' and 'philanthropy' with the covert self-seeking purposes are no inconsequential matters under the given politico-economic situation in the country. In the aftermath of the August 17 horrifying incident that has impaired the image of the country -- apart from its adverse economic fallouts as have rightly been noted by the country's business leaders -- the urgency for actions on the part of the government to deal with the intricacies and complexities of 'terrorist finance' is now stronger than before to help avoid the repetition of the same in the future. This finance is part of the black economy. Addressing the problems of this 'black economy' requires two-pronged actions: Establishment of a separate agency with competent manpower to deal with all sorts of financial crimes and strengthening the efficiency of the taxation officials to clip the wings of the black-moneywallahs of all sorts, with probity and integrity. The continuation of the tax amnesty for those having undisclosed money and the fiscal provision for whitening their 'black money' with a nominal rate of tax do not provide here the right signals. Rather, the scrapping of such facilities -- tax amnesty and opportunities for whitening 'black money' -- will now be considered a befitting response to the changed situation. The government has slashed duties on 3352 products in less than two months time following the approval of the national budget, for obtaining funds from the World Bank under the development support credit (DSC). In this situation, why can't it change its fiscal stance on black money and take hard actions to deal with the problems of 'terrorist finance (which is an inseparable part of the black economy) to demonstrate its seriousness about countering the menace of 'terrorists', following the incident.   Quelle "Terrorism draws its strength from undisclosed fund" : Yahoo_News Main page for "Terrorism draws its strength from undisclosed fund"