Coming home

Kumar Murshid For the first time in 30 years of living abroad, I am now seriously contemplating a return to Bangladesh, the land of my birth and the nation whose birth I took up arms for as a young teenager. The fascination with the West, that obsessed my generation of middle class youth in the post liberation period, is still as strong as ever and I can hardly think of a single family I know that does not have one or more of their children in the USA or Europe. One can write volumes about our preoccupation with all things western and our propensity for self loathing and the denigration of all things Bangladeshi. I have been witness to so much of this within both the Deshi elite as well as the Bengali diasporas that I view this attitudinal handicap best defined as a common malaise of the upstart Bangali. We still need and yearn for Western endorsement and affirmation at every level. We far too often, do not have the confidence nor the heart to praise each other and more importantly to be truthful about our own faults and shortcomings. We have not quite shaken off the colonial mantle and approve of ourselves only when allowed to do so by our pale skin 'superiors'. Having said this, much of the rationale for this love of the West is justified on the legitimate grounds of seeking to ensure a good education for our kids. I have a lot of sympathy with this but what about the rest of our kids who are reliant on what this country can offer? Should the mere accident of birth determine the right of a child to a decent education or an acceptable quality of life? Is this not the proud people that rose up as one in response to the clarion call of Bangabandhu in the days of 71 and established a new state at immeasurable cost and gave hope to us all? What has happened to that pride? That fearless state of mind? That exhilaration that comes from acting in the greater interest of people for its own sake and no other? As a freedom fighter at age 16, born into a family of free thinking personalities (who all made valuable contributions to our liberation struggle), I was immersed completely in the idealism and spirit of this historic period and that has endured within me and largely defined both my personality and my politics. 'You can get the boy out of Bangladesh but you can't get Bangladesh out of the boy' was a simple truth in my case. For some twenty five years I involved myself deeply in the race and class politics of Britain, moved initially by the desperate plight of the Bangladeshi community in London's East End and determined to make a difference. Before long I found myself characterized as a 'militant anti racist campaigner', a description I embraced in the realization that the acute injustice and discrimination that kept my community at the utter bottom of the British social ladder had everything to do with race and class. The depth of the problem of racism in British society; its pervasiveness, its long ignominious history, its institutionalization, its entry into the very fabric of the body politic is not understood or acknowledged either by the British or indeed by us Bangladeshis. Britain likes to think of itself as a post modern society in which race, class and gender issues have all been laid to rest. This is of course 'pie in the sky' wishful thinking but there is no doubt that the nature of oppression on these grounds has become more sophisticated and subtle over the years but without losing much of its lethality. The British state has a way of presenting itself as a benign force in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary and getting away with it; Britain always talks about how it was the first to outlaw slavery, making no mention of the fact that she began it! Consider its 'pomp and circumstance' exit from the sub continent after 200 years of mayhem and murder or its more recent exit from Hong Kong and its sudden interest in democracy there, months before China was to take over, having actively opposed any political liberalization for decades prior to that. Britain's hypocrisy across time and space and the disengenuity of its self presentation on its global role and history exposes a deep inability to acknowledge or take responsibility for disfiguring the world through colonialism and in more recent times by being America's poodle in chief. Britain's self appointment as global champion of democracy and human rights does not sit comfortably with its history of imperialism. In this game history is the main casualty as it always loses out to short term, contemporary, political expediency. So simply put there is a sense of national amnesia in the UK when it comes to colonialism and its devastating consequences. Critical as I am of British imperial history and current foreign policy, it has to be said that Britain can teach us a lot when it comes to institution building and creating structures to strengthen democratic processes and the rule of law. I am contemplating a return to this land of my birth because I see that change is possible here and some good things are happening that I could perhaps engage with. Over the last 30 years I have returned here many times but only for short periods, during holidays and the like. On this occasion I plan to be here for about six months and whilst here seek to create circumstances which will allow me (and my wife and son) to consider a more permanent return. Though the whole notion of permanence is somewhat misleading given the very transient nature of existence itself. After a long time I am experiencing the country, not as a tourist but as someone with a more profound stake in it and below I offer some random first thoughts. * It seems somewhat ironic that we well off city dwellers largely see poverty as a nuisance and a social irritant and have managed well the cocooning of our lives from its reality. Our only real interaction with the poor in our society is through our assortment of servants on whom we are totally dependent for most of our creature comforts. And how do we treat our servants? Only marginally better than the rest of the poor masses on whom we pour scorn on a daily basis without even realizing that we are doing anything wrong. We frequently patronize them, occasionally humiliate them and sometimes even abuse them. Have we ever thought, even for a moment that they are the same as us? That they have the same rights as us? Rights guaranteed in the constitution and bound to be upheld by any government worth its salt! I will not offer my thoughts on how servants should be treated or how we should relate to the poor, except to say that fairness and respect should not be alien words to use in a discourse which is essentially about the dignity of honest work. Domestic servants should be seen to be in a profession and be allowed to unionize and have defined work practices and benefits including holidays and be able to sue their less sympathetic mastersmistresses for abuse through state funded legal aid if necessary. In Bangladesh we need to even the odds a little and help create level playing fields wherever we can. This is a pre requisite for the true flourishing of democracy. ** Very few of those who consider themselves part of the 'elite' of our society ever use public transport or even walk the streets. They jog in exclusive parks, constantly complain about the traffic (which I admit is quite horrendous) but never think for a moment of their own culpability in perpetuating this problem. The number of cars on the streets of Dhaka appear to have grown exponentially over the years. There is at any given time, a very large number of cars making very short journeys, between Gulshan 1 and 2 for example, because our sahibs and mems simply can not imagine taking a few steps on the street. I know the streets are not what they used to be but I also know that if we effectively allow our streets to become 'no walk' areas for us, they will soon become no drive areas too. So, I say be the change you want to see. *** A number of issues emerge as the key barriers to our development, based on a random survey of informed opinion, which I will encapsulate below. A lack of good governance Deep rooted and systemic corruption pervading all levels of government and politics including the stock markets The absence of democracy within the main political parties consumed by a culture of sycophancy and impunity The loss of moral authority of a judiciary and criminal justice system that is riddled with corruption and party political bias and a fundamental failure to deliver justice and be the custodian of the constitution. Population growth and the stagnation of local democracy Let us consider some of these inter related matters a bit more specifically. The lack of democracy within the political parties essentially ensures concentration of power in a few hands and the disempowerment of ordinary members who turn to sycophancy as the only means of progression within the Party, run almost entirely on the basis of patronage. Consider for example the candidate selection process. Due to the total absence of any grassroots democratic process it is not the activists or members of a given constituency that are able to participate in the selection of their local MP candidate. All of that is centrally controlled and decided on the whims of a few individuals and often determined simply by how much money the potential candidate can put into the Party coffers or indeed the pockets of the leadership. Where does this leave democracy and what does it say about our MPs? Many of whom have simply bought their seats at a premium price and are quite determined to get a healthy return on their investment. The rationale for corruption thus established permeates every section of our society. A poor woman, to land the job of an ayah in government service, had to pay a bribe of 200 000 Takas. Police, customs and forest officers pay bribes according to a set scale depending on where they want to be transferred. Files do not move in most Government offices unless the machine is oiled by the lubricating Taka note. The procurement process right across the Public Sector is systemically corrupt and many say that the seepage of funds from contracts and development projects can be as high as fifty per cent. Ironically, the efficiency with which our system of bribery is managed clearly suggests that we can be rather good managers in the right circumstances. Add to this the fact that we have had long periods of rule based on an unspoken doctrine of total exclusion of the Opposition from all matters of policy and the unwillingness of the Party in power to concede defeat easily hence impeding the democratic rhythm of power transfer. This is still the tip of the iceberg and our problems of poverty, a lack of social justice and the abuse of human rights particularly the human rights of women and children, the lack of access to decent education and health, the arsenic contamination and depletion of much of our ground water, our vulnerability to the effects of climate change particularly for our coastline communities, our high rate of population growth etc., are all major and immediate concerns which require the full focus of the Government, the private and third sectors and civil society. It is only within a robust framework of grassroots democracy and empowerment that these major issues can be tackled effectively and the solutions made sustainable. To pretend anything else is disingenuous. The fact is that our national asset, apart from the God given fertility of our soil, is our people. It is the raw, exciting energy of ordinary Bengalis determined to improve their lives come hell or high water that constitutes the essential motor that drives the economy. The hard work of ordinary folk is what gives us our 6.0% growth rate in spite of the multitude of problems alluded to above. This is what gives me hope and that is why I feel confident about the future of this country. My appeal to the powers that be is to recognize this reality and genuinely empower people, establish grassroots democracy and have faith in the wisdom of the 'great unwashed'; they are a lot cleaner than you think! Establish a system of state funding of political parties and genuinely democratic candidate selection processes and take away the rationale for political corruption as a pre requisite for dealing with the cancer of bureaucratic corruption that is crippling the country. Now is the time for a renewal of that spirit of Liberation to ensure that Bangladesh is part of the regional economic upturn that promises to take China and India into the stratosphere. The writer is Development and Equality Expert; previously Councillor and Senior Adviser to the Mayor of London. He can be reached at e-mail: kumarmurshid@hotmail.co.uk