I was flabbergasted to read the headline of the daily newspaper. "The fisherman works as a surgeon; he drives a drill machine to make a hole in the bone of the patient. Anesthesia is administered by the owner of the clinic who is a school dropout," ran the caption. Every reader will be appalled to look at the headline. More appalling is the fact that the outrageous incident occurred in a building adjacent to the national orthopedic hospital, Dhaka. For the benefit of the reader let me quote the highlight of the news item: "Ratan Krishna who used to sell hilsha fish in a Khulna market is now an orthopedic surgeon. He drives a drilling machine through the bones of the patient. A school dropout Ratan has been doing this for a long time. Paik Babu, a secondary school certificate-holder, is the owner of the clinic. He administers anesthesia on the patients."(Bangladesh Pratidin, April 13, 2014)
It is a sad tale that at last we see the emergence of a fake surgeon in the sophisticated field of orthopedics. Both print and electronic media are replete with news about adulterated food, medicine, fake materials and impostors of all sorts. Traditionally adulteration was limited to staple food and other comestibles. Since our childhood we have heard about adulterated milk, fish, meat, edible oil, sugar, fruits and vegetables. We have heard of impurities in gold ornaments. The goldsmith blends impurities even in the ornaments of his mother, goes the aphorism. The level of impurities is, however, so negligible that the people ignored it by and large. Unfortunately, we have of late come across a terrible incident. The gold crests handed over to our foreign friends for their contribution to liberation war were replete with staggering 80 per cent impurities. We are ashamed to death at this lowliest offence by the concerned people of the ministry and the trading house. We have created a verisimilitude with the state award, a feat of vulgarisation not to be condoned by any civilised person. The incident deserved completion of a preliminary inquiry within one week to bring the culprits to book. The punishment meted to them should have been exemplary and visible. So far things have not moved in the right direction with right speed. Perhaps we will not see a crest of pure gold in near future. The most disastrous fallout of this will be the indelible stigma attached to our beloved country.
We are disturbed to see a spate of fake documents, impersonation and artificial degrees. Many private universities have mutated their main objectives into selling certificates for financial gains. Civil society leaders, academics and enlightened employers tend to believe that degree-holders from these universities are abjectly deficient in their field of study. They doubt whether these youngsters were at all participants in the academic programmes of the universities. Experts present in the viva boards of competitive examinations for the BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) cadres will readily endorse the above view. The degrees or the certificates of the universities are supposed to be the authentic proof of the academic achievement of the students. If these documents cannot be relied upon to distinguish among different sets of students then the country is led to a hopeless state of confusion. Recently the daily newspapers ran stories about how a young teacher of a public university clinched the job by submitting fake documents of his academic achievement. When the case against him was proved beyond doubt, he tendered resignation and fled away. Another teacher of a reputed public university was sacked for having produced a plagiarised PhD thesis.
We have heard about fake freedom fighters and the spurious certificates to support their case. Individuals drew lot of benefits, including getting jobs, using these certificates. An unholy rat race started when superannuation age for the freedom fighters was increased by two years. Senior officers, including secretaries, reportedly managed to procure fake certificates meant for freedom fighters. Every new government takes a programme to cancel a portion of old certificates and issue sizable number of new certificates. This practice paves the way for issuing fake certificates. If secretaries and joint secretaries could stoop so low to get two years' extension of service then one can only be shocked at the plunge of social values to the nadir.
Largest fake documents are parked in the transport sector. Some would say that as high as 50 per cent driving license are forged. If such a large percentage of drivers can ply their vehicles with fake licenses then the law-abiding ones will lose the incentive to collect valid license going through the rigmarole of arduous formalities. Why should the authority devise and use such procedures as would allow 50 per cent drivers to get away by using fake license? Same phenomenon is observed in case of fitness certificate and road tax. This area is also replete with fake documents.
Fake documents and forgery have almost been institutionalised in the Directorate of Immigration and Passport. Head-superimposed ('Gola kata') passport is an oft repeated shibboleth in the precinct of passport office. Interestingly - or better, unfortunately - issuing of fake passport received implied support of the state on the pretext of creating foreign employment. It merits a catechisation if such unethical stance yielded any positive dividend to the state in the long run. We now hear that fake national ID cards are also freely circulating in the market. If the rumour is true it will spell disaster for the country because the premises of identification system for the citizens will be disarrayed in the process. We will encounter great hazards in our quotidian transactions.
Abduction of citizens by individuals posing as members of the law-enforcement agencies has assumed an alarming proportion in the last few years. These criminal elements introduce themselves as members of RAB or DB police, behave in a similar fashion, sometimes use similar vehicles and uniform to pick up citizens from their home or other place. Very few of them are released unhurt; others are either untraceable or found dead later on. The live returnees often manage their release at a huge ransom. They keep mum on return and do not provide any meaningful information. The most dangerous problem is that the criminals successfully impersonate as members of law-enforcement agencies. This stands to exacerbate the law and order situation while society is pushed to near anarchy. The image of the law-enforcement agencies is stigmatised; trust in the agencies is drastically eroded. Such a position is not tenable. It has now become incumbent on the government and the law-enforcement agencies to haul these criminals over the coal forthwith without any hesitation or compassion.
It may be relevant here to refer to anarchic situation prevailing inside the jails of the country. A national daily revealed that an ill-reputed inmate was caught with Indian Rs 300,000 in his cell. It appeared that the news was true. The question became compelling: have the jails also turned into fake ones? Can these be called jails in the true sense of the term? Have our institutions by and large degenerated into sad parodies of their original selves? Are they imitating any role model perched in higher stratum?
The all-pervasive adulteration, forgery and impersonation are not acceptable. They eat into our vitals and destroy the fabrics of society. Criminals involved in the process must be punished. If the government and citizens act in concert to suppress the gangs, their crime can be brought down to tolerable level. Circulation of high denomination counterfeit currency has been markedly reduced through determined action of the Bangladesh Bank. Similar measures may be useful for curbing adulteration, forgery and impersonation. There is no substitute for courage and commitment.
Dr. Saadat Husain is former Chairman of the Public Service Commission. saadathusain@yahoo.com
Curbing adulteration, forgery, impersonation
Saadat Husain | Published: June 03, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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