Bangladesh begins a new journey

For the people of Bangladesh the destination is the same now, as it was in 1947 and in 1971 e.g. freedom, democracy, inclusionary development and social harmony. The experience under Pakistan was one of disillusionment over the achievement of hopes and aspirations in respect of the destination adumbrated above. Bangladeshis in Pakistan were marginalised politically and exploited economically. From one colonial rule they were made to live under another one. The only exception was that for the freedom from the second colonial rule millions had to pay their lives in a war of liberation.
In 1971, Bangladesh made a new journey, beginning as an independent sovereign country. But in spite of being the master of their own destiny, Bangladeshis did not see their hopes and aspirations fulfilled. Civil and military autocracy was the order of the day from 1972 to 1991. Then after a brief interregnum from 1991 to 2001, a more vicious autocracy asphyxiated the nation under its stranglehold. It required a mass uprising of more than a month to topple the oppressive and sanguinary regime that had politicised every institution of the state to perpetuate its rule.
The interim government that came to hold the helm of affairs has been wise enough to realise that its task was not only to hold a free and fair election but also to carry out reforms or lay the basis for reforms that prevent emergence of future autocracy. Furthermore, it saw in its wisdom that reforms were necessary to institutionalise economic and social justice to benefit all Bangladeshis irrespective of their gender, race, class, creed and religion. So, as many as six commissions were constituted, tasked with the formulation and recommendations of reforms. Unfortunately, except the one on women, all the other commissions were concerned with politics and governance. On the vital matter of social harmony addressing race and religious amity there was no commission. In respect of the most the crucial issue of inclusionary economic development, two one- man study were commissioned one of which had the narrow terms of reference to find out the economic wrongdoings of the autocratic regime. None of the two economic studies has shown a pathway to better economic management based on a new strategy.
In the above backdrop, Bangladesh will make a fresh start next week when a new elected government takes over. Unlike other previous governments, it will have a dual role i.e that of running day to day governance and carrying out reforms in all the crucial sectors that touch the life of people. The encouraging fact is that the party that is going to form government has its own agenda for reforms. It can, therefore, integrate its reform agenda with the recommendations of the six reform commissions. In fact, it is already obligated to implement those reforms in July Charter on which it had unanimity. The discouraging thought is that the newly installed government will become so much pre-occupied with ongoing activities and routine tasks of running the government from day one that it will have little time to give to reforms. To avoid this eventuality the new government should have a cabinet committee headed by the prime minister himself to oversee the implementation of reforms. To give urgency to this, the agenda of every cabinet meeting should have an item on reforms and in the meeting the progress in implementing reforms should be reviewed against benchmarks. With these general observations an outline of what is expected of the new government in respect of the politics and governance, economy and external affairs is given below:
Politics and governance: The government is expected to shun politics of revenge that has marred the performance of almost all previous governments. In this respect it is heartening that the prime minister- designate has already called upon his party men and leaders to bury their hatchets. To ensure this, grassroots level leaders should be given the responsibility to monitor situation and submit report to head office every month. On the part of the government this policy requires that no spurious legal cases are instituted against opposition party leaders to harass them. With similar urgency, the party in power should rein in their members and leaders in respect of rent-seeking or chandabazi. In the past all parties in power have allowed their cadres to ‘live off the land’ which, besides antagonising businesses and firms, has contributed to increase in prices of commodities. Thirdly and most importantly, the new government should allow opposition parties adequate space to carry out legitimate political activities like holding meetings, bringing out processions, and criticising its policies outside parliament. An agreement should be reached in this respect providing for such activities in a manner that does not affect the free movement of public or impinge on their welfare through hartals, oborodh etc. To achieve political amity, the party in power and ministers should promote social relation with opposition party leaders by inviting to tea and calling upon each other over phone. The prime minister may invite heads of all parties to tea once or twice a year as public relations gestures. The thrust of all these overtures is to breakdown the traditional adversarial relations that has not only created so much bitterness but also thwarted flourishing of a democratic culture in the country. Since parliamentary election has been a bone of contention, the provision of caretaker government in the constitution should be restored. Finally, all parties registered by election commission should be allowed to take part in election.
Regarding governance, priority should be given for eradication of corruption. Life style of all government functionaries and their acquisition of wealth should be closely monitored by the Anti- corruption Commission (ACC) for which a vigilance team should be formed with members drawn from different ministries by rotation. On the enquiry and prosecution side, the existing ACC should be broken up into six entities each of which should be assigned ten ministries and departments under them. This is urgent as one centralised ACC cannot handle the burgeoning cases of corruption. Time limit should be on the disposal of each cases and applications at each level of governance and actions should be taken against unjustified delays. To foster austerity in meetings only tea and biscuits should be served. The cabinet meetings should not be any exception. The past practice of embellishing government offices extravagantly and buying expensive vehicles should be done away with.
Economic: By all accounts, the economy is in a state of animated suspension. For over one year there has been no significant investment because of political uncertainty. On the other hand, crony capitalists and businessmen either being arrested or on the run, have created a vacuum in the economy that has not been filled up by new entrants. As a result of these two things, productivity in almost all sectors has sharply declined taking a toll on employment. Giving incentives for new investment and assurances for truant erstwhile businessmen and entrepreneurs that they will not be discriminated or punished on the ground of their being beneficiaries of the old regime, unless they are guilty of cognizable offences, may end the prevailing doldrums. In the industrial sector, the light engineering industries should be the focus of the new government as it has tremendous export potentials, besides their role in backward linkages for domestic large and medium scale industries. The IT- based tech industries should be promoted not only for software but also in consideration of its potential in cutting-edge AI robotics.
For long, agriculture has been the Cinderella sector in the economy, almost left to fend for itself. As a result, the country has become a net importer of rice, wheat, pulses, onions and many other items for which at least self-sufficiency could be achieved with appropriate policy incentives. Agriculture is the only sector where nominal investment by government can yield benefits in the short term. Price incentives alone can do the miracles here overnight. A task force to make agriculture a thrust sector can be constituted for making time-bound policy prescriptions.
On the financial side, the Bangladesh Bank has been successful in merging eight near-bankrupt banks and de-regulating foreign exchange rate. Its handling of monetary policy at a time of crisis has been adequate and satisfactory. Much of the credit for this goes to the present governor whose services should be retained by the next government. In any case, the practice of appointing governors of the central bank from among civil servants should be discontinued. The focus of the new government should be on bringing back discipline to the ailing banking sector and on raising revenue collection from its present abysmally low tax-GDP ratio.
For economic policy making, the prime minister may constitute a council of economic advisors with members drawn from universities and private sectors, irrespective of their political affiliations, to advise him on economic issues from time to time.
External affairs: In external affairs, the interim government has not shown mature response and initiative. Everyone agrees that India took more advantage of Bangladesh in terms of concessions during Hasina’s autocratic rule but did not reciprocate with a single concession. It does not mean that we have to antagonise India by making threats. The interim government did that by mentioning ‘seven sisters’ and ‘chicken neck’ time and again and openly flaunting a tilt towards Pakistan. To assert independence in foreign policy and a relation with India based on equality and dignity such a belligerent attitude was not necessary. In short, the interim governoment failed to show diplomatic finesse in its relation with India. It is expected that the new government will show greater maturity in its handling of the biggest neighbour.
Bangladesh occupies a strategic place in the geo-politics of south Asia. Many countries are interested to bring it within their spheres of influence. The new government is expected to show sagacity and objectivity in its foreign policy steering clear of the pushes and pulls. It was heartening to hear from the prime minister-designate that ‘Bangladesh First’ would be at the centre of his government’s foreign policy.
Conclusion: After several false and erroneous starts in the past, Bangladesh has now embarked on a new journey with great hope, confidence and promises. It cannot afford to fail or falter this time around. The experiences of the past are its cautionary tales to learn from. The hopes and support of its men and women is spur to move on. The blood spilt by men, women and children at various stages of its history cry out for fulfilment of the promise for a peaceful, harmonious and progressive Bangladesh. The new government cannot, should not and will not fail.

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