Armies in developing countries invariably behave like parasites after usurping civilian power. Their minions invade every nook and cranny of civilian institutions transform, often irretrievably, their culture and ethos.


Much ink has flowed, or been wasted (if you are as frustrated as many of us become) in finding ways of preventing such infections or recovering from them. The prescriptions are naturally based on human models, as these are the best-known. Having largely failed, perhaps it would help to seek guidance from animals. This can only happen if we overcome our superiority complex in thinking about these ’lowly’ beings.

Humans can learn some valuable lessons on how to rid oneself of life-sucking parasites from the smart sea cucumber. This creative animal – not a vegetable as its name suggests – succeeds in living and coping brilliantly in the presence of serious predators, which are not repelled by its poisonous skin secretions.

While you may be quite keen to travel in a Jumbo at 10,000 meters, it is quite another thing being a similar distance below the ocean surface in the Pacific. At this depth almost no living creatures are to be found – except sea cucumbers. At 4000 meter depth they form half of the living organisms. They also thrive in shallower waters like the corals off the west coast of Mexico. Here some of the species have developed a useful trick of self-decimation or fission. If a predator lays its paws on a sea cucumber, it constricts itself at certain points along its length and breaks into several pieces. If the middle or posterior section, now in separate bits is eaten, the front end with the mouth can regenerate into a full new cuke without too much ado.

External predators clearly do not cause the cuke to lose much sleep. The pain comes mainly from within when parasites attack by chewing up its inners. The thought of being eaten up from inside can give the reader the creeps, but this phenomenon is not uncommon in nature.

Such an indignity is inflicted on the cuke by the pearlfish, a needle-thin species of cod. This fish invades the cuke and begins to feed partially on its internal organs. Seeking variety like any good gourmet, it ventures back and forth through the cuke’s anus.

Realizing the pain and the insult the cuke tightens its sphincter in an effort to deny entry but to no avail. The fish inserts first its pointy tail, and then torques itself in through the clenched hole in a backward corkscrew motion. Such can be the nature of rape in the animal kingdom!

A cousin of the pearlfish inhabits the tributaries of the Amazon, where it is called the candiru, a parasitic catfish and is known to attack humans. The candiru is needle-like, no more than two inches in length, with sharp teeth. It is also equipped with small spines angled rearwards from the side of its jaws, which serve like the barbs on an arrowhead or a fishhook. Once lodged in position within the victim the candiru has the strong grip of an over-zealous lover. Mainly it attacks larger fish whose gill openings it enters.

This may not trouble your thoughts too much except that the candiru has been known to follow the trail of urine in water and enter the foolish human’s orifice who guilty of urinating while bathing in candiru-infested waters. The very thought of making such a mistake makes one wince -- clearly the great South American river isn’t the safest place to attend to nature’s call.

But what of the sea cuke which has to cope with such deadly invaders routinely. It has evolved a stunningly inventive way or getting rid of them. The cuke turns itself inside out expelling its own internal organs through the anus and with it the invader. A case where it is good to throw the baby out with the bathwater! In a little over a week the organs are regenerated to begin life again without the voracious pest. Meanwhile the expelled pearl fish remains puzzled at such a violent expulsion.

So much for the amazing biological inventiveness and ability to survive under adverse conditions. Since 1947, despite attempts, our societies and countries have not learnt to eviscerate themselves of parasites as successfully as the cuke. In 1971 when Pakistan split, the Bengalis had hoped that the West Pakistani military, which was the tool for their suppression, would vanish and they could develop into a democratic state. Clearly the pearlfish that entered into Pakistan with the first military coup in 1958 had bred successfully in both parts of the country. New Bengali faces in uniform took over when not long after Mujeeb ur Rahman declared ’independence’. We continue to suffer from the infection.

There are influential groups of civilians who have come to support such an infection as it suits their interests. Some genuinely feel that the damage is so deep that we must not extricate ourselves from the pearlfish infection lest the whole structure collapses. They claim that democracy cannot bring great benefits in our current state of malaise in developing countries, pointing to the more democratic India which seems unmanageable. China is however projected as providing the best model for developing countries – it has progressed remarkable because of authoritarian rule. The pundits would like those living under authoritarian rule to be patient and let the pearlfish help us get better. When the time comes, they say, it will leave on it own free will and we will then be free to work our democracy.

Biology and history both show that such infections do not just disappear. They need to be expelled. Given that our countries and other developing countries under military rule do not have the wonderful property of cukes, what’s the remedy?

The cure is simple, albeit difficult. The citizenry with the help of its enlightened leaders, doers and thinkers need to galvanize themselves into a force worth reckoning with. For this street power can only be a short-term remedy – often known to fail in the long term. What is needed is the development of strong civil society institutions that can push out the pearlfish that infest us. If one were to choose one institution to begin with it would be the judiciary. Much would change for the better if this vital instrument of the state and the savior of people’s rights were to be made totally fair. Let readers suggest other medicines – the goal remains clear: get rid of parasites!