Papers of paradise revealed here!

When the Panama Papers were revealed in 2016, I was overwhelmed and also thrilled to some extent to learn about the hidden mechanism of tax evasion and off-shore investments of the super rich and powerful. And when the media became abuzz with the Paradise papers last week, it appeared, it was only an added list of eye-popping and jaw-dropping new names -- sportsmen, tech-giants monarchs.
The wealth transfer mechanism followed by numerable corporate houses and individuals are not new any longer. Transferring huge amounts of private wealth to off-shore accounts through legal and non-legal channels was always there and will remain in the days ahead, but the-after effects of these revelations have actually caused a global impact. For instance in Pakistan, anti-Sharif elements used Panama leaks to make it a national issue and bring him down from power. Iceland's prime minister had resigned, a billionaire of the 29 officially declared billionaires went on the offensive, a Ukrainian politician had called for the impeachment of its president and etc.
Now the question is, however, is tax evasion and wealth transfer by the super rich and the globally renowned corporate houses on the fall?
The influential ones who had suffered the economic and reputational set-backs in the Panama leaks had drawn their lessons. And the ones who are and will suffer the repercussions of the Paradise leak will get even -- meaning they would invent newer avenues to evade and secure their personal wealth.
Now the question shifts -- since tax havens, low tax zones, rooms for investing in lucrative ventures thousands of miles away have not been shut down, what would be the 'other options ' for the super rich and powerful'? And it is exactly right on this point, where tax and financial analysts will have to put their extra-ordinary effort -- if they want to stop the rampant playing with private wealth.
Honestly penning, I was quite astonished when I learnt that one of my Squash partners at Dhaka Club made his name in the Panama Papers; there were names of other Bangladesh businessmen too. However, the point in here is that the shocking revelations, either about the Panama or the Paradise, haven't created any impact here. Hopefully, more Bangladeshi names would surface and in that case it's more than important for our banking and monetary regulators to tighten the noose of illegal capital flight.   
Can the Bangladesh Bank anyhow guarantee that money laundering hasn't significantly reduced in Bangladesh in the wake of all these thrilling revelations? News reports suggest, on average, some USD 6.16 billion was siphoned out of Bangladesh every year between 2005 and 2014. Where did that money go? That's over USD 55 billion in less than a decade. There must be some clue about the capital out-flows from Bangladesh in these revelations.
Whatever, it would be foolish to think that big-scale tax evaders, international or local, haven't thought of innovative loopholes in advance by now.
Metaphorically, the god was too busy monitoring the world and his subjects when a bunch of unruly angels decided to leak the papers through the hands of a group of fearless and gutsy investigative journalists in this world. Otherwise, had he known what was happening with the wealth of paradise - he would have stopped them.
Now that the papers have seen the light of the day, the god almighty expects us to see -- how sincerely and how efficiently we deal with the proven wealth manipulators; whether we can put an end to the unethical financial practices of the worldly billionaires and corporate houses, just in the likes of punishing, testing and then reinstating Adam and Eve in heaven once more.
If we can stop these powerful, super wealthy people from playing with their petty monetary interests - we would succeed to re-establish a global financial discipline or else, a handful of individuals and organisations will continue to get rich and richer and play with trillions of dollars -- both cleverly and illegally. Rather intriguingly, the huge amount of hidden wealth that's being serially revealed through upbeat and risky investigative journalism is not being anyhow confiscated, seized or being frozen, only information about owners and their hidden amounts and deceptive ventures are coming into the light.
As if, it's only the wealth of paradise being revealed here.

The writer is Assistant Editor,
the Daily Observer