Lack of justice and freedom affects development negatively and if the government ensures the two (justice and freedom), development will happen automatically, said a renowned professor of development economics on Thursday.
Dr SR Osmani, professor of development economics at the University of Ulster of United Kingdom said justice, freedom and development all are important concurrently and can't be traded off with each other.
But, in his keynote speech at the inaugural session of the Annual BIDS Conference on Development (ABCD) 2023, he said if one or two of the three is pursued they must prioritise justice and freedom and keep development for later.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) organised the conference in a city hotel.
In his speech titled 'Development, Justice, and Freedom," Professor Osmani said the government or supreme leader of any government does not deliver development it happens by efforts and intellect of the individuals or group of individuals or people in general.
"Development is an activity that occurs in the private domain," he said adding that, on the other hand, justice and freedom must be ensured by societal level.
He said justice and freedom cannot be established at the private domain rather it must reside in public domain.
"If government takes care of justice and freedom, people will or development itself will take of care of development," he said.
Explaining three objects, he said development is commonly understood as a matter of people's economic condition, improvement in their material and economic standard of living while justice is a matter of ethics, closely related to the notion of fairness and rights and freedom-like freedom of speech, freedom of expression and many other of kinds of it seems to be a political concept.
He said these three objects do not run in parallel rather they cross each other at many points and each of them affects the other.
"Each of them would be seriously affected if not supported by other two," he said.
He said one cannot take one of them separately; otherwise "We shall fall short of achieving our aim of development".
"If we are trying to advance the cause of development, which most governments do including our own, then we cannot ignore the demands of justice of freedom."
He further said justice and freedom significantly contribute to development, that's why if one wants development, they must also want justice and freedom.
"If infrastructure supports development so does justice and freedom," he said adding that the lack of justice and freedom hinders development.
The professor of development economics said if resources are distributed unjustly in development process, only a small group get be benefitted, thus lack of justice negatively affects the path of development.
He said inequality in distribution results in asymmetry in the credit market.
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