Retired army men receive govt funds for their welfare
But govt officials get almost nothing: BBC documentary
The government provide special facility to army by allocating huge funds and property for welfare of its retired officials whereas retired government officers receive almost nothing, said a BBC radio documentary yesterday.
The sixth episode of the nine-part documentary titled "Fouji Banijjo" (Military in business) said the largest part of investment made by businesses involving army comes from the government.
While the government did not invest in any project for welfare of the retired government officials, the documentary said.
“You will get a sad picture if you compare what the government do for army welfare with what government employees receive from the government through their welfare society. The government has allocated only Tk 2 crore for retired government officials welfare society this year,” said M Hafizuddin Khan, president of the society.
The government investment in military businesses lacks transparency, he added.
Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, an eminent expert on military affairs and writer of the book “Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy”, told BBC the effort of army to accumulate its own property indicates that it is only a matter of time when its financial interest would turn into political interest.
Army is so much involved in businesses in Bangladesh that it commercially runs projects to produce things required for the force.
The documentary mentioned the name of a military dairy farm in Savar as an example, which was established following the logic that milk is needed for army officers regularly and bringing it from outside involves the risk of poisoning by enemies.
According to the documentary, M Idris Ali, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on defence ministry, however, sees nothing wrong with army doing business but recommended for doing it in a “limited” manner.
Chief of Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Securities Studies Maj Gen (retd) M Moniruzzaman, however, termed the concept of backward supply linkage of the army as old and said that even the USA army do not produce necessary requirements on their own.
He also mentioned that involvement of army in business might change their military characteristics.
Ayesha Siddiqa also explained that taking special facilities from the political governments are not only evident in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Rather the model these two countries have adopted is a mixture of models introduced in China, Indonesia and Turkey.
Indonesia, however, can be taken as an example of army doing business in the name of its retired officials' welfare with an unpleasant effect on the state, said the documentary quoting a recent report of Human Rights Watch on Indonesian army.
“Out of commercial greed army got involved in corruption, violation of human rights and offensive activities, prompting parliament to form a law in 2004 under which it ordered army to withdraw from all businesses in five years,” the report said.
Writer of the report Lisa told BBC what was done in five years was formation of a committee to monitor army businesses in future.
Nothing could be done with regards to stopping army business in Indonesia, as a quarter does not want to bring a process to an end that earns them money, Lisa said.
Lack of political wills is another reason while political parties do not want to make a powerful institution like army angry against them, Lisa added.
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