World traveller vs bureaucracy

A report on the ordeal of a 63-year-old Bangladesh-born Canadian citizen carried in a leading Bangla contemporary on Friday gives an insight into the country's bureaucracy. Freedom fighter Abdus Sattar, an accountant by profession, was on a world tour with his car, a Mitsubishi Outlander on August 2, 2009 from Toronto. He came to Bangladesh in May 2010 on completion of his journey of Europe, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.

It is in the land of his birth that he had to experience the most outrageous and protracted logjam of bureaucracy. For long six years he fought against the impervious officialdom to get his vehicle out of the Chittagong Port. On its first leg, the car was ferried to Britain across the Atlantic. The amateur traveller did not face any such trouble to get his car released in England. But booked on board a ship from Karachi port for release from Chittagong port, the car had to wait for about six years before its release.

His co-traveller, also a Bangladesh-born Canadian returned to Canada a few days later but the man with the credential of a freedom fighter was adamant to see to the end of the bureaucratic tangle. He resolved not to return to Canada without resolving the issue. Finally on May 4 last he could overcome the red tape to take his car out of the port, courtesy of the finance minister. The bureaucracy did not budge an inch. Knowing about his ordeal from a newspaper report, the finance minister exempted all the duties and rent accumulated over the past six years. The finance minister used his discretionary power to exempt all such dues.  

When he set out on his journey he was 57, now he is 63 years old. During his six-year stay here Abdus Sattar had to move to ministries of finance, commerce and shipping, National Board of Revenue (NBR), Chittagong Customs office, Chittagong port and various other departments hundreds of times (244 times in total, according to his notebook). He has known how mindless the administration here can be. One wonders if the finance minister did not happen to come across the news!

Travellers of his kind enjoy special treatment all over the world. It is because of this, he did not encounter problems in the many countries he visited in Europe and even in Iran and Pakistan. But it was the land of his origin, for the liberation of which he took up arms in his youth, that administered him a raw deal, thanks to its bureaucracy. A country where luxurious cars are left on the street on account of their illegal import and lawmakers take advantage of duty-free import of pricey cars only to sell later on, this bureaucratic vehemence does not quite look consistent.

The man had to abruptly postpone his world tour. But he was still determined to continue his unfinished journey. But the car was not in a sound health because of its idle stay at the port shed. The NBR granted him 15 days to complete the repair work and another five days to stay here. This means he had to leave by May 24 or 25. Has he been able to get out of this country by now? Wish him godspeed.