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Radicals-run bodies fetch Tk 12 billion a year
| The religion game as big business... |
 Organisations in Bangladesh run by Muslim fundamentalists make a yearly net profit of around Tk 12 billion, said a leading economist yesterday based on a heuristic study. At least 10 percent of the profit the fundamentalist forces use for organisational purposes like carrying out regular party activities, providing remuneration and allowances for party cadres, and running military training centres, said Abul Barakat, a professor of economics at Dhaka University (DU). With this money the fundamentalists have the ability to, and they do, maintain about 500,000 party cadres, said Barakat, also general secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), in a memorial speech titled 'The Economy of Fundamentalism in Bangladesh'. "They are well aware of their political goal, which is to grab the state power through implementing their economic model," he noted.
| I wonder what the "maintenance" of a half million party cadres entails. I doubt the muscle's all salaried... |
The Samaj, Arthonity o Rashtra (society, economy and state), a research journal, organised the lecture in memory of former BEA president Dr Abdul Gafur at the DU Business Studies Faculty auditorium. The profit was calculated in heuristic method, which according to dictionaries is a method of study using reasoning and past experience -- in this case, opinions of experts in sectors concerned, Barakat explained, adding it's an approximate figure, the real one might be a bit more or less. He also mentioned that, "In many cases, audit reports of the institutions run by fundamentalists were found to be either incomplete or false."
| In other words, they're actually guessing... |
The study found the economy of fundamentalists to have grown by 7.5 to 9 percent a year compared to the 4.5 percent national economic growth. Barakat said of the Tk 12 billion annual net profit financial institutions account for about 27 percent, or Tk 3.25 billion, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) controlled by fundamentalists about 21 percent, or Tk 2.5 billion. Apart from financial institutions and NGOs, the fundamentalist forces have businesses in at least a dozen sectors including pharmaceuticals, diagnostic centres, education, transport, real estate and media. He however did not name the fundamentalist organisations linked with the business and NGO bodies. "All of these bodies are not profit-oriented. So, the fundamentalists give cross-subsidy to the non-profit organisations," the professor of economics said.
Posted by: Fred 2005-04-23 |
