On June 30th 2013, the Bangladesh Parliament passed the national budget of Taka 2,225 billion for the 2013-14 financial year. After the budget was proposed on June 6 by the Finance Minister, there were no discussions by the political parties in the parliament about the economic policies and strategies for development or sources of revenues and areas of expenditures. Rather these parties passed the sessions in the parliament making accusations of personal scandals against each other, totally bypassing the interests of the Ummah.
Comment:
In all budgets under the capitalist system, sources of revenue, in other words, money taken from the people is a process of zulm (oppression) while the allocation of resources is a source of corruption, without giving any priority to the people’s needs. Especially, the national budget in Bangladesh has become a tool of deception, lies and empty promises. Ruling Awami League in its election manifesto in 2008 explicitly mentioned that number of poor population will be reduced from 65 million to 45 million by 2013 and number of unemployed will be reduced from 28 million to 24 million by 2013. This is the year 2013 and the Finance Minister conveniently forgot the number of poor and unemployed in his budget speech. Hiding behind statistics, he barely mentioned that the poverty ratio declined by 10 percent compared to 2005, quoting a survey of 2010. Regarding employment, he hid behind another statistic – ‘man-months’ instead of the number of unemployed people.
To eliminate poverty, which is again defined and changed as the World Bank wishes, the government undertakes various social safety programs. Last year, the allocated amount was Taka 1,384 million and proposed amount for the next year is Taka 2,275 million. In a recent survey by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), it was revealed that the target poor populace for these programmes, which represents 40 percent of the total population, ended up receiving only 55 percent of the benefits. The rest 45 percent of social safety net benefits ended up with the richer 60 percent, who do not fall in the poorest or most vulnerable category. So, basically all these so called social safety net programs are a source of corruption and often the resources of these programs are used as political tools by the local political thugs.
Another priority election pledge by the Awami League was declaration of a target for power generation. The government vowed in its election manifesto that power generation will be increased to 7,000MW by 2013, which in any case is very low from the existing demand point of view. On June 30, 2013, maximum power generation was 6,041MW, even after looting public money in the name of quick rentals. The zalim government has also looted money from the people by increasing the price of electricity six times in the last four and half years following the dictates of the IMF. The whole country is now boiling under the heat of summer while load shedding is happening every hour in the cities and for hours on in the rural areas. Along with the power projects, the Hasina government presented the nation with massive corruptions in the capital market, Padma Bridge and other infrastructure projects, banking sector and multi-level-marketing (MLM) companies.
The Ummah is betrayed again and again by the rulers with various words and statistics. Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (ra) narrated that Allah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
أَلَا إِنَّ لِكُلِّ غَادِرٍ لِوَاءً يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ بِقَدْرِ غَدْرَتِهِ أَلَا وَلَا غَدْرَ أَعْظَمُ مِنْ إِمَامِ عَامَّةٍ
“Everyone who had betrayed a trust would have a banner on the Day of Resurrection to the extent of his betrayal in the world, and that no betrayal was greater than that of the ruler of the common people, whose banner would be fixed onto his posterior.” (Tirmidhi)
Allah سبحانه وتعالى has given us a system which solves the problems of people instead of deceiving them. Islam has defined the basic needs of human beings and the Khaleefah, the ruler of the Islamic State, is bound to deliver the basic necessities to the citizens. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said,
«من أصبح معافى في بدنه آمنا في سربه عنده قوت يومه فقد حيزت له الدنيا، يا ابن آدم، يكفيك ما سد جوعتك ووارى عورتك، فإن كان بيت يواريك فذاك، وإن كانت دابة تركبها فبخ، فإن الخبز وماء الجر وما فوق الإزار حساب عليك»
“The son of Adam has no better right than that he would have a house wherein he may live and a piece of cloth whereby he may hide his nakedness and a piece of bread and some water.” (Al-Bayhaki)
Accordingly, Hizb ut-Tahrir, in its draft constitution, states in the Article 125:
‘Every individual must have all his basic needs provided for completely by the State.’
The draft constitution also states in Article 153:
‘The State should provide employment for all subjects holding citizenship of the State.’
It also mentions in the Article 156:
‘The State is to guarantee the living expenses of the one who has no money, no work and no relatives responsible for his financial maintenance.’
In the Islamic State, GDP and its growth will not be the target; rather the satisfying individual’s basic needs will be the focus of the state. Khilafah will generate employment by putting priority on agriculture and industrial sector as well as the military. Utilizing energy resources will be the driver behind industrialization in the Khilafah state. Islam does not allow privatization of electricity. Electricity generation energy like gas, oil, coal etc are public resources. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
الْمُسْلِمُونَ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ فِي الْمَاءِ وَالْكَلَإِ وَالنَّارِ وَثَمَنُهُ حَرَامٌ
“The Muslims are partners in three things: waters, feeding pastures and fire.” (Ahmad).
So, Khilafah government will not make profit, rather it will ensure benefits of electricity and energy to mass people at an affordable price.
In the Islamic ruling system the Khaleefah is accountable to the people for all his actions. He will set economic policies of the state according to Islam as he is bound to rule people on the basis of Qur’an and Sunnah. Khaleefah takes responsibility to solve people’s problems. So, people must abandon the capitalist system and come forward to establish the Khilafah system, the only ruling system that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has given us.
Muhammad Raiyan Hasan
Member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Wilayah Bangladesh