NOTHING works like social media when it comes to spreading news as it shows regularly in everyday life. Scandals, sports religion or bed bug spray are all now dependent on social media. If it is not there, it is nowhere. And, this is increasingly becoming clear that while the official, formal and state-inspired agencies, including mainstream professional media, can be reined in when needed, social media has taken over this sector more than one would like to admit.
The kind of image the ruling powers would like people to think they have is shattered or was shattered long back and no one is pretending that it does. One can be in denial about it, but the fact remains that it will be very difficult to sell the idea to the people 鈥� read: social media consumers 鈥� that officials and power players whether police chiefs or members of parliament or senior officials are clean. There are far too many videos of bribe-consuming officials and their way of life on social media to argue otherwise.
What, of course, saves them is the fact that nobody really thought otherwise and, so, the exposure of corruption on social media has considerable interest, but more of the entertainment type rather than content on the state of governance?
Which is why the question is longer about the size of goats, resorts and so on but why such a deluge of news right now? Why suddenly this rush to expose and the felling of the biggest trees that makes regimes feel safe, secure and well-resourced? Who is responsible?
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Social media, status and the wealthy
THE latest episode centred around one Iffat, the son of Matiur, a very senior revenue board official now famous for his wealth and able to carry on, no matter who accuses him of what. Iffat boasted on a social media posting of the large high-pedigree goat that he had bought during Eid-ul-Azha.
As is bound to happen when any post goes viral, people began to dig into his background and the family connection with the government official was made. Matiur was son of a senior official and not exactly an unknown content. Soon, many other details began to pop up. But the clincher came from Matiur himself when he denied that Iffat was his son. And the proverbial shit hit the ceiling.
Within hours, it had become one of the biggest social media sensations with everyone pitching in. Even Awami League politicians said that both were father and son. And then came the deluge of information on the kind of riches Matiur had managed to accumulate in his working years. It ran into hundreds of crores.
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The riches, his own and that of others
THE list is huge and multifarious with landed property, resorts, parks, buildings, business establishments and on and on. Suddenly, he was threatening to take over Benazir in terms of accumulation. Unlike the former inspector general of police, he had not been accused of promoting 鈥榚ncounter鈥� death and had the US breathing down his neck but he seems to have been a facilitator of wealth making, his own and that of others.
In a Desh TV talk-show, a senior official remarked that when he was transferred, in 2007, senior army officials including CMLA Moin U Ahmed asked for his transfer order to be rescinded. When the head of a military government makes such a request, it shows the status. The range of his clout was obvious and that is why his fall is more than a simple act of getting tough on corruption.
Somewhere some wheels may also be moving but there is no doubt that social media has become a new factor even in politics, a new pressure space which cannot be ignored even if one wants to.
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Is a crackdown on?
THAT some kind of whipping and leashing is on has become a growing speculation. Several police officials have been targeted and Benazir, Asad and others are being named on social media and none is saying whether they are in or out of the country.
Such pieces of news are making it to mainstream media which means official endorsement is there of such media distribution. That these people were into money making is no secret but nothing was ever done against them. Matiur had four major charges and investigations and he escaped each time with the proverbial 鈥榥o evidence found鈥� tag every time. Then, why did he stumble?
A few years back, a crackdown was launched against politicians centred on gambling, including casinos. Several politicians were hauled in and they spent time in jail and hospital beds, awaiting trial, which never came. However, there was one prominent 鈥榓ccused鈥� GK Shamim but he was not a serious politician and still remains inside as sort of warning to others one guesses. Gambling of many forms are back naturally nor many ways of making money.
Given the number of civilian bigwigs of the bureaucracy variety who are being held or chased, is it a similar campaign to let the bureaucracy know that the leash is ultimately in the hands of the powers that be? No one can say as none knows, but there is no question that social media is something none can ignore.
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Afsan Chowdhury is a researcher and journalist.