The new government of Sheikh Hasina Wajed has increased the allocation for the military by six percent over last year´s budget. Defence expenditure now stands at more than 20 percent of Bangladesh´s national budget. What has astounded all, however, is that there is no line item description of expenditure.
When Finance Minister A.M.S. Kibria was questioned at the post-budget press conference on this sudden largesse for the military, he said that a strong army was necessary for maintaining the country´s security. Mr Kibria also said there was no need for the general public to know about the different heads of expenditure. Why? It could harm national security. As if that was not brazen enough, there was a press release from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) with the caveat that the public should abstain from discussing military matters.
Fortunately, the Bangladeshi press is energetic enough not to heed that advice. The ISPR was slammed on the front pages by the daily Bhorer Kagoz, incidentally, a day after the paper carried news on speculation in the Indian press on the Bangladesh army´s involvement in the Purulia arms dropping incident earlier this year. That story did have the army´s rebuttal but also criticised its public relations.
The armed forces of Bangladesh, as is true with some others in the region, are generally not used to being questioned. Raised under an atmosphere of great immunity from criticism and scrutiny of information-seeking civilians–including the legislature and the press–the generals live in a world apart. This is partly a legacy of the British and the Pakistanis. Almost everything about the army, both by practice and tradition, is a secret and the army uses a host of agencies to make sure that it stays that way. It has been successful till date, but whether the level of success will hold, only the future will tell.