Businesses need enabling conditions
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Farid Ahmed
Bangladesh has been blessed with 'relative' political stability for nearly the last three years. Relative in the sense that business losses in the form of work days lost, production stoppages, snags in distribution processes, et cetera, that usually have a retarding impact on business, were few in number compared to the periods of political upheavals that the country witnessed many times in the past one and a half decades that left their deep scars on the economy in the form of underproductivity and underinvestment and hence the lingering of mass poverty.
The economic growth in Bangladesh leaves a lot desired. The fruits of growth are also not percolating down extensively to the grass roots to make the desired substantial dent into the poverty situation. Nonetheless, whatever growth that occurred, helped notably by political calm, aided countrymen from facing worst times in the economic sense. Inflation is rising, costs of living are troubling the poor and even middle class sections of the population, disparity in income between the rich and the poor is widening, new jobs are hard to come by and ones in jobs are losing such jobs in many cases. The law and order situation is not much conducive to supporting new investment activities. These are certainly reasons for dissatisfaction and people have a right to seek redress to the adverse economic situation.
The political mercury is likely to be heated up again, according to indications given by the leaders of the main opposition party through their recent public speeches. If such indications do finally come true, everybody in this country knows what such a warming up means : hartals or work stoppages in industries and services, disruption in the dispatch and receiving of raw materials and finished products, hazards in maintaining the normal level of export and import activities thereof, intolerable hardships in the life of daily wage earners and a lot more in inviting adversities on the economy.
This has been the feature of agitational politics in this country since long, barring some interruptions. If this again becomes the practice, the same cannot be waged in isolation from economic activities. Political actions leading to violence and paralysis of normal conditions (hartals) are certain to have their repercussions in the form of battering the economy. That is why political stability is such a desired state from the perspective of all stakeholders in such stability.
Many times in the past, from different forums, strong urgings were made to devise a system for good to compartmentalise the political steam, i.e. resolving political issues through the approved political process in a manner that leaves the economy unhurt. But the same has not been headed to. The only welcome development was that periodic elections, peaceful power transfers and again completion of their normal tenures by elected governments seemed to be getting accepted as ways and means of changes in political power in Bangladesh. The businesses in the country do need enabling conditions for getting on with their tasks smoothly which in turn pays off in the form of the economy making steady progress and all sections of people gaining from such pacific conditions in varying degrees, notwithstanding the lack of expert handling of the economy in different areas under different governments.
But this trend could be smashed, if there is a wave of fresh political upheaval. The tragedy will there be: the vulnerable Bangladesh economy would be hit not by a natural calamity over which nobody has any control but by persons and organisations deliberately to settle political scores regardless that the economy (which everyone should have a stake in saving) could be the most unwanted victim of their actions.
The economy would be subjected to shock- and- awe tactics to facilitate the designs of those opposed to the incumbents in power when, ironically, among other things, they say they have economy revitalising issues prominently in their calculations for seeking to destabilise the situation before the legitimate tenure of the elected government runs out. The contradiction between the goals and the reality is so transparent. How will the economy be revitalised when the effects of some weeks or months of political violence may leave it much weakened ? Every economy needs to consolidate its gains and move ahead. Even common sense dictates such a course.
The movement to destabilise the situation for an elected government to run its affairs before its tenure ends is not a healthy sign. If things go like this, unbearable hardships will descend on the lives of people. While the opposition may not be wrong in some of its charges against the government and the apathy of the latter to address the same, it does not seem that such unacceptable or unbearable conditions exist in Bangladesh for the opposition to bypass the constitution and engage in confrontational politics.
It should be high time for the civil society, business leaders and all others concerned to voice their opinion about the economic costs associated with confrontational powers. All concerned must not be content issuing statements in newspapers about the losses to their enterprises and the economy from a confrontational political course. They should be rather out in the field mobilising public opinion against the same. The political personalities do need to be impressed upon properly so that they refrain themselves from pursuing any self-defeating political course that clobbers the economy in the process.
Bangladesh has been blessed with 'relative' political stability for nearly the last three years. Relative in the sense that business losses in the form of work days lost, production stoppages, snags in distribution processes, et cetera, that usually have a retarding impact on business, were few in number compared to the periods of political upheavals that the country witnessed many times in the past one and a half decades that left their deep scars on the economy in the form of underproductivity and underinvestment and hence the lingering of mass poverty.
The economic growth in Bangladesh leaves a lot desired. The fruits of growth are also not percolating down extensively to the grass roots to make the desired substantial dent into the poverty situation. Nonetheless, whatever growth that occurred, helped notably by political calm, aided countrymen from facing worst times in the economic sense. Inflation is rising, costs of living are troubling the poor and even middle class sections of the population, disparity in income between the rich and the poor is widening, new jobs are hard to come by and ones in jobs are losing such jobs in many cases. The law and order situation is not much conducive to supporting new investment activities. These are certainly reasons for dissatisfaction and people have a right to seek redress to the adverse economic situation.
The political mercury is likely to be heated up again, according to indications given by the leaders of the main opposition party through their recent public speeches. If such indications do finally come true, everybody in this country knows what such a warming up means : hartals or work stoppages in industries and services, disruption in the dispatch and receiving of raw materials and finished products, hazards in maintaining the normal level of export and import activities thereof, intolerable hardships in the life of daily wage earners and a lot more in inviting adversities on the economy.
This has been the feature of agitational politics in this country since long, barring some interruptions. If this again becomes the practice, the same cannot be waged in isolation from economic activities. Political actions leading to violence and paralysis of normal conditions (hartals) are certain to have their repercussions in the form of battering the economy. That is why political stability is such a desired state from the perspective of all stakeholders in such stability.
Many times in the past, from different forums, strong urgings were made to devise a system for good to compartmentalise the political steam, i.e. resolving political issues through the approved political process in a manner that leaves the economy unhurt. But the same has not been headed to. The only welcome development was that periodic elections, peaceful power transfers and again completion of their normal tenures by elected governments seemed to be getting accepted as ways and means of changes in political power in Bangladesh. The businesses in the country do need enabling conditions for getting on with their tasks smoothly which in turn pays off in the form of the economy making steady progress and all sections of people gaining from such pacific conditions in varying degrees, notwithstanding the lack of expert handling of the economy in different areas under different governments.
But this trend could be smashed, if there is a wave of fresh political upheaval. The tragedy will there be: the vulnerable Bangladesh economy would be hit not by a natural calamity over which nobody has any control but by persons and organisations deliberately to settle political scores regardless that the economy (which everyone should have a stake in saving) could be the most unwanted victim of their actions.
The economy would be subjected to shock- and- awe tactics to facilitate the designs of those opposed to the incumbents in power when, ironically, among other things, they say they have economy revitalising issues prominently in their calculations for seeking to destabilise the situation before the legitimate tenure of the elected government runs out. The contradiction between the goals and the reality is so transparent. How will the economy be revitalised when the effects of some weeks or months of political violence may leave it much weakened ? Every economy needs to consolidate its gains and move ahead. Even common sense dictates such a course.
The movement to destabilise the situation for an elected government to run its affairs before its tenure ends is not a healthy sign. If things go like this, unbearable hardships will descend on the lives of people. While the opposition may not be wrong in some of its charges against the government and the apathy of the latter to address the same, it does not seem that such unacceptable or unbearable conditions exist in Bangladesh for the opposition to bypass the constitution and engage in confrontational politics.
It should be high time for the civil society, business leaders and all others concerned to voice their opinion about the economic costs associated with confrontational powers. All concerned must not be content issuing statements in newspapers about the losses to their enterprises and the economy from a confrontational political course. They should be rather out in the field mobilising public opinion against the same. The political personalities do need to be impressed upon properly so that they refrain themselves from pursuing any self-defeating political course that clobbers the economy in the process.