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CROSS TALK

Elite force or force for the elite?

MOHAMMAD Badrul Ahsan
THE Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) is getting its house in order. Last Monday, a spokesman for the force announced that it would no longer set up checkpoints to carry out stop and search since it falls outside its duty roster. He also said, amongst other things, Rab men will no longer even patrol our streets.Two days later, the state minister for home confirmed that these moves are strategic. But the smart
alecks are suspicious. They have a feeling that the elite force is having its wings clipped, at least for the time being.
It may have been a collateral damage or sheer coincidence that the government also decided last week to cancel allocation of land where Rab-10 was supposed to build its office. The wider public is seeing these as telltale signs that Rab is under pressure. Their question is whether this pressure is coming from inside because it wants to shape
up, or is it coming from outside forcing the force to take responsibility for the crimes of others.
That reminds us of the moral story about a monkey, who ate the farmer’s lunch and wiped his hands on the goat's mouth. When the farmer found his lunchbox empty, he was furious to see that the goat's face was smeared with curry and the monkey's hands looked clean. He beat the daylight out of the goat, while the monkey smiled sitting on the tree.
No doubt, the seven murders in Narayanganj have put Rab in a spot. Three of its officers have been thrown in jail. The families of the victims clamour that these uniformed men have killed their loved ones for money. In industrial terms, those men are believed to have picked up and transported the merchandise. They may have also processed the goods by tying and gagging them, and then served them to the choice of their clients including torture, strangling and disposal of bodies.
End to end, it could have been an epitome of excellence in the service industry were it not a case of contractual killing. Yes, the three Rab men may be the hired hands smeared with blood. But there must be others on the other side of the transaction, who had commissioned the job. These men are the monkeys in our story, who have thrived
on scapegoating others.
It can be surmised that the motive of those Rab men charged with Narayanganj killing was money. But those who paid that money are the premeditated murderers and their motive was killing. This is where the investigation started off on the wrong foot. It ganged up too much on the contractors while their clients slid into hiding behind a smokescreen.
This smokescreen is created by our misplaced emphasis, which is designed to promote a legal legerdemain so that the goats can be sacrificed to save the monkeys. The fall guys take the hit while the foul guys walk free. Laws have become hostage to outlaws in the travesty of justice. Right and wrong have been reduced to a matter of sheer political expediency.
The ruling party leaders have pointed out that the principal accused in the Narayanganj nightmare is a former opposition loyalist. They have also claimed that he worked as an implant for the sole purpose of ruining their name. If that has to be the case, the government should have tried it on the double to catch that man. It's all the more reason why it should have brought him to justice and exposed him for his double-crossing game.
Instead, we're watching the dog and pony show, and Don Quixote is fighting the windmills. It has been the
same story over and over again. Politicians and criminals have divided the moral universe into crime and cover up, conscience slipping through the crack.
The latest developmentsin Narayanganj are disturbing indeed. An attractive female commissioner is being dragged to court. A telegenic godfather has impressed many with his television appearance, his articulate statements peppered with a few words of immaculate English. The father-in-law of one of the victims recently recanted his story, vouching at a press briefing that this godfather's hands are clean. The commercial breaks are squeezing the show. We’re losing the sight of the forest for the trees.
Why has Rab chosen this time for spring cleaning? To many people, that looks like admission of guilt. It should have rather concentrated on the dilemma facing it today: Should it be an elite force or a force in the hands of the elite?
This seminal question also applies to the rest of us. Should we be our own force, or a force in the hands of others? Readers often ask me who'll bell the cat. That's a divisive question for an evasive answer, because Rab, readers and writers are all into this together.
The writer is Editor, First News, and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
Email: badrull51@yahoo.com