Ali Baba and Forty Thieves

Were Ali Baba and his forty accomplices (forty thieves) only the mythical characters and are not found in our real life, in our present history? Do the acts of looting by the politicians, civil and military bureaucracy and many people in the business field not typify the characters of Ali Baba and his 40 comrades in the Arabic book ‘Alf Lailah’ (Thousand and One Night)? Of course there is a difference in behavior and nature of them. The acts of thefts and killings by the fictional characters we read in the ‘Alf Lailah’ started accidently and were happenstances. They had not lost the qualities of fellow feelings and humanness. But the live characters, we experience, are merciless and tyrannous. They are grasping, opportunists, selfish and uncompassionate. Plundering the national resources and making money through every means is a part of their greedy nature. Field of the politics is their choice because they find it the best way for exploitation and manipulation. They have many faces but alike in their evil nature. They always remain hands in gloves with each other to protect the interests of each other.

Hardly a single Muslim state is without these thugs. They hold sway over entire political, social and economic system of their countries. They change their appearance and cloaks, bearing different names. They may belong to different families, ideologically they may apart from each other and their political loyalties may disparate but ugly features of their character remain the same. They are heavily tainted with forgeries, lies and beguiling. A word of truthfulness takes decades to get uttered from their lips and when this happens it is not out of expediency and vested interests. They are in habit of deliberately keeping their statements ambiguously worded. Their stance on different issues in the evening goes different from that which they stand for in the morning.

Ali Baba-ism nowadays has become considerably a sophisticated and revamped job. Under a big Ali Baba there are dozens of subordinates. If the chief Ali Baba is in the White House in Washington, his lackeys in different capitals of the Muslim countries carry out the task assigned to them there. Each of these dozens of Ali Babas has his own group of 40 accomplices. Amplitude of this job has taken it from the caves and jungles to the power centers of the world, in prime minister and president houses. Insulated by many layers, it has now covers of different departments working under the auspices of the ministries. The looted wealth is kept not in caves as the traditional Ali Baba and his 40 thieves used to, but in Swiss and famous banks in London and other capitals of Europe. Currently Dubai is also a safe place for this purpose. Ali Baba and his 40 collaborates of the Arabian Nights used to keep their wealth in gold coins but the modern Ali Babas invest in the real estate, make plazas, buy costly plots in big cities and own palace like houses in London, Paris and Dubai.

Gone are the days when desultory cases of looting used to happen with involvement of only a few people. Now the methods have been invented to grab the income of millions of the people within minutes. For example cohorts of Ali Baba are the owners of flour or sugar mills. All of a sudden the stock of these basic needs is hoarded, necessities of life disappear from the stores and the people are taken in by an artificial scarcity of the flour and sugar in the markets. Prices swiftly go up and pockets of the buyers are picked within moments. Ali Baba is sitting in any prime minister or president house and 40 thieves of the cabinet make billions within a week through this dirty game keeping the huge share of big Ali Baba safe for him. The same is the case of IT field as we saw it happening in India very recently.

We very often find carrion eater animals pouncing on each other while gnawing the carrion. The case of Ali Babas and their thieves is exactly the same. When a difference occurs in distributing the catches and their interests clash they harshly quarrel with each other. They are indulged in mudslinging and disgracing each other which the real Ali Baba and his 40 thieves of the One Alf Lailah never did. They have their masters abroad who very foxily use them for their evil designs. With the beck and call of their masters abroad or backers in the establishment within their countries they are sometimes out to vex each other. Having their loyalties always kept for sale at a good rate, particularly saving themselves from getting their noose tighten they are not ashamed to change their parties and groups. True that in spite of their evil deeds, Ali Baba of the One Alf Lailah and his 40 thieves were hundred times better than those whom we experience in our lives.