2019年经济学人 伊斯兰银行:政变之后(1)

 

"It's like the Midas effect in reverse," says Badiul Majumdar of shujan, an anti-corruption pressure group.

“就像是倒放的米达斯效应一样，”反腐败压力群体shujan的Badiul Majumdar说到。

"Everything the government touches turns not to gold, but rather from gold to dust."

“政府碰过的一切事物都没变成金子，而是由金子变成了土。”

He is talking about Islami Bank Bangladesh, which was rocked in 2017 when the government

他说的是孟加拉国伊斯兰银行，2017年该银行受到震动，当时政府

sent military-intelligence operatives to force out senior executives and board members, and replaced them with figures more to its liking¹.

排除了军事情报特工把银行高管、董事会成员赶了出去，并将更符合政府偏好的人换了进去。

Fears that the boardroom coup² would drag down a comparatively well-managed institution

通过政治干预和任人唯亲制度，部门内部形成了相对管理良好的制度，

in a sector³ marred⁴ by political meddling⁵ and cronyism⁶ now appear to have been justified⁷.

人们对这一制度会被拖垮的担心，现在看来也是有道理的。

Established in 1983 as Bangladesh's first bank run on Islamic principles,

伊斯兰银行建于1983年，是孟加拉国首个依据伊斯兰原则运营的银行，

Islami thrived by handling a large share of remittances⁸ from emigrant⁹ workers and by lending to the booming garment industry.

通过处理大量移民工人的汇款以及向繁荣的服装行业借贷，该银行蓬勃发展。

Its troubles stem from its links with Jamaat-eIslami, Bangladesh's largest Islamist party,

它的麻烦源自它和孟加拉国最大伊斯兰政党伊斯兰大会党的关联，

which allied¹⁰ with Pakistan during the war of succession of 1971. One of the first acts of the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed,

在1971年独立战争中，该政党与巴基斯坦结盟。现任总理谢赫·哈西娜·瓦吉德在2009年就职后

after taking office in 2009 was to set up a court to try war crimes. Leading figures from the Jamaat were sentenced to imprisonment¹¹ or hanging.

的首项举措之一就是设立法庭审判战犯。来自扎马特组织的主要人物被判处监禁和绞刑。

If anything, it is surprising it took Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League eight years to go after Islami—

尽管如此，谢赫·哈西娜和她的人民联盟竟花了八年时间追击伊斯兰银行—

especially given allegations, including from America's government, that it was linked to terrorist organisations.

尤其是鉴于包括来自美国政府在内的指控称它和恐怖组织有联系。

(The bank has denied the accusations¹² and an official investigation¹³ launched in 2017 has yet to publish anything.)

（该银行否认了这些指控并且2017年发起的一项官方调查仍未发表任何声明。）

A second purge¹⁴ last year replaced more suspected Jamaat sympathisers with government allies.

去年的第二次清洗将更多疑似扎马特的支持者换成了政府盟友。

Bangladesh's state-owned banks have always had government men on their boards and in management, who lend to their allies.

孟加拉国国有银行的董事会和管理层中一直有政府的人，他们会向他们的盟友借款。

"But now this is happening in private banks like Islami Bank, too,"

“但现在像伊斯兰银行这样的私营银行也在发生同样的事情，”

says Fahmida Khatun, the director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a think-tank in Dhaka.

达卡智囊团政策对话中心主任法赫米达·卡敦说到。

According to a report by Bangladesh's central bank, many of the loans Islami has granted have breached¹⁵ financial regulations.

根据孟加拉国中央银行的一份报告，伊斯兰银行批准的很多贷款都违反了财务条例。

The report highlighted loans to six companies belonging to Nassa Group, a giant of the garment industry,

该报告强调了贷给六家从属服装业巨头Nassa集团的贷款，

which it says were granted without taking the required collateral¹⁶ and ignoring the fact that there were several Nassa subsidiaries that had defaulted in the past.

报告表示这些贷款都没有收取必须的抵押物并且还忽视了一个事实—有几家Nassa子公司在过去存在违约行为。

1 liking   

n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢

参考例句：

• The word palate also means taste or liking.Palate这个词也有“口味”或“嗜好”的意思。
• I must admit I have no liking for exaggeration.我必须承认我不喜欢夸大其词。

2 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

4 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

5 meddling   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denounced all "meddling" attempts to promote a negotiation. 他斥责了一切“干预”促成谈判的企图。 来自辞典例句
• They liked this field because it was never visited by meddling strangers. 她们喜欢这块田野，因为好事的陌生人从来不到那里去。 来自辞典例句

6 cronyism   

n.任人唯亲，对好朋友的偏袒

参考例句：

• Many small town mayor and city official practice cronyism.许多小镇的市长和大城市的官员都有任人唯亲的行为。
• Bringing business people into politics can also produce corruption and cronyism.商人从政也容易带来腐败和任人唯亲。

7 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

8 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

9 emigrant   

adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民

参考例句：

• He is a British emigrant to Australia.他是个移居澳大利亚的英国人。
• I always think area like this is unsuited for human beings,but it is also unpractical to emigrant in a large scale.我一直觉得，像这样的地方是不适宜人类居住的，可大规模的移民又是不现实的。

10 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

11 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

12 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

14 purge   

n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁

参考例句：

• The new president carried out a purge of disloyal army officers.新总统对不忠诚的军官进行了清洗。
• The mayoral candidate has promised to purge the police department.市长候选人答应清洗警察部门。

15 breached   

攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
• Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。

16 collateral   

adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品

参考例句：

• Many people use personal assets as collateral for small business loans.很多人把个人财产用作小额商业贷款的抵押品。
• Most people here cannot borrow from banks because they lack collateral.由于拿不出东西作为抵押，这里大部分人无法从银行贷款。