AP News, June 3rd, 2007
The jails of this crowded, sweltering city are getting crowded, and not with your typical prisoners.
There's the previous prime minister's son. There's the disgraced deputy planning minister, a one-time economics professor from a prominent intellectual family. There's the chief forest conservator, who police say became a minor timber baron. When they raided his house, they found nearly $150,000 in cash, most sewn inside sofa pillows.
Nearly every morning, Bangladesh wakes up to reports of more politicians jailed overnight, and more stories of their bank accounts, mansions and fleets of SUVs.
After years of rampant graft, Bangladesh's military-backed government is trying to crush corruption in one of the world's most corrupt nations _ and weaken the two powerful politicians whose bitter rivalry has brought this poverty-battered country to the edge of political anarchy.
The campaign is wildly popular, despite suspicions that some top soldiers are using it to vault themselves into politics. In a country where corruption is epidemic, the military is one of the few powerful institutions seen as relatively clean.
"I'd say 80-85 percent of politicians would be corrupt _ stinking corrupt," said Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, a widely respected retired lieutenant general who runs the government's Anti-Corruption Commission.
About 170 politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats have been charged since the commission's courts were set up in January _ "just making a dent" in the problem, Chowdhury said.
Corruption is everywhere in Bangladesh, from million-dollar bribes for government contracts to everyday transactions.
Want to register a land purchase? That will cost about $60 in bribes, according to a survey by the Berlin-based anti-corruption group, Transparency International. Lab tests back from the hospital? $6. Need your pension check? $15.
This in a country where some 60 million people live on less than $1 a day.
While Bangladesh's economy has improved significantly in recent years, largely because of its booming textile industry, the country remains brutally poor, battered by regular floods, and desperately crowded. There are about 147 million people _ nearly half the U.S. population _ in an area the size of Iowa.
Meanwhile, 2-3 percent of its economy, or around $1.5 billion annually, is estimated lost to corruption.
For five straight years, Transparency International rated Bangladesh the most corrupt place on Earth. Last year, its status improved _ to third-most corrupt.
"For a long time, it seemed corruption wasn't a punishable offense," said Iftekhar Zaman, head of Transparency's Bangladesh office. "So this drive by the government should be a strong symbol."
But there is one problem. "We hoped it would happen in a democratic system," he said.
In January, amid street violence ahead of planned elections, a state of emergency was declared with the backing of Bangladesh's powerful military. The elections were canceled and most political activity banned.
If it wasn't technically a coup, it was close. While a technocrat-led interim government officially runs the country, most real power lies with a small group of generals.
Those generals, according to local journalists and political leaders, have been courting politicians from both major parties in hopes of forging a third party and slipping into the political mainstream.
The soldiers deny this, and insist elections will be held next year. But they have been increasingly vocal about political corruption, often sounding like campaigning candidates.
"Our politicians do not understand anything beyond their self-interest," Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed, the army chief and most visible military leader, said in a recent speech. "The nation needs competent political leadership," he added, a clear reference to the leaders of the two battling political dynasties who have dominated Bangladesh since 1991: Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's first prime minister, who was assassinated by army officers in 1975. Zia's husband, Gen. Ziaur Rahman, then became president, ruling until he was killed by soldiers in 1981.
Their political platforms are similar, and their followings are large. In 1991, Zia was elected prime minister. Hasina followed in 1996, and Zia returned from 2001 to last year.
But each time one took office, the other party would launch protests that repeatedly shut down the country.
Around them, meanwhile, a coterie of associates grew rich.
Officials from both parties now face corruption charges. Among those arrested was Tarique Rahman, Zia's son, whose alleged rapaciousness had become legend. He was charged with extortion, accused of demanding a businessman pay him about $150,000, though investigators say that's a tiny portion of his wealth.
If bribery is the anti-corruption campaign's focus, it is also clearly designed to weaken the "the two ladies," as they're often called here, and open the political landscape to new leadership.
There are signs the campaign is succeeding. Zia has spoken openly about her declining health, and Hasina has grown increasingly isolated, with many close aides jailed.
Still, the interim government already tried to force both women into exile and failed. And, despite investigations into their finances, neither has been charged by the corruption court.
(This version CORRECTS that Tarique Rahman was charged with extortion, not demanding a bribe.)
