To many politicians and amla, few are more welcome than the DSA. If they do anything amiss and its reported in the media- social or pro, they can be sued under the DSA, followed by arrest, remand and jail till bail is given. Of course it’s good to have the police on one’s side. All this is fine but while it protects the complainant, the court case doesn’t deal with the basic problem haunting Bangladesh, it’s not very efficient.
DSA has many uses and its focus is online and social media. The old fashioned libel laws and acts no longer interest people so this is the quick fix law. It’s used for many reasons including against cyber bullying and revenge porn. However, its most well-known use is around comments made on social media followed by media reports at the local level. In the last case under DSA as reported by the media, a complaint was made, police did the arresting, asked for remand but the learned judge granted the journos bail.
The case was filed by Dr. Nadirul Aziz, Superintendent of the Thakurgaon Sadar Moden Hospital. Tanvir Hasan Tonu of Jago News was the main accused in the complaint while Abdul Latif Litu of Bangladesh Protidin and Abdur Rahim Shuvo of Newsbangla 24.Com was also accused.
The subject reported was on low quality food being supplied to the patients. Media picked up the news and the Supdt sued. His position was that it’s not a regular affair so his and that of the hospital’s image was tarnished.
However, the issue is not about the DSA and the case filed but hospital food quality. Had this been limited to Thakurgaon, it would be one thing but it’s about the general supply of inadequate quality of food in such institutions. This is happening all over Bangladesh and it just so happened that this got reported.
The fact that several top national media outfits were involved means that there was a very reportable problem and it is a chronic one which has not been dealt with. And filing cases may shut down a report for a while but will happen elsewhere. DSA cases may increase but it will only mean that the problem has increased too.
The governance structure needs competition to achieve efficiency. Right now it’s too protected and they feel no desire to perform. As they are also linked to connections, they are more loyal to it than performance. This is the big problem.
Corruption is not as big a problem and if in return for payment they function efficiently, that should be accepted given today’s reality. While the ruling class has been able to find a way of making the administration more reliable, they haven’t found a way of making it more efficient. While the state has already started to move beyond political identity, many GOB officers are still interpreting it this way hence such cases. It’s not the DSA that deserves attention but efficiency management does and that plan has not yet been made public.
Inefficiency is a bigger problem than either corruption or the DSA .
