Healing societal blood cancer
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Qazi Azad
APPARENTLY, there are worries within the government and in the informed circles about the immediate prospect of the economy. The hints in this respect are coming from both the country's government leaders and bankers.
Law and Information Adviser Barrister Mainul Husein reportedly urged the business community while addressing a press briefing last Sunday to come forward and do everything necessary to stimulate the economy. Advising them not to worry about the anti-graft measures, he said, as far as he can assess mostly politicians would be on the next list of corruption suspects.
The adviser also reportedly said things are not changing in spite of the government assurances that business people would not be harassed and that they, instead, would be extended all-out support to ensure running of their businesses. According to reports, he further said the business people should not be anxious even if some of them had done anything wrong in the past. He regretted that prices of essentials remain high despite the relentless efforts of the government to bring them down.
The chief executive of local banks on the same day sought the intervention of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to check the rising loan defaults. They said many leading businesses are struggling to repay bank loans, as their owners, who mostly operate their bank accounts, are either being detained on charges of alleged corruption or on the run to evade arrest under the current anti-corruption drive.
Some bankers reportedly expressed their fear that the total bank loan defaults by companies owned by the arrested and fugitive persons might reach Tk 5.0 billion to Tk 6.0 billion within coming December. They hoped that the Ministry of Finance would soon issue a guideline on how to deal with the problem.
The BB governor reportedly advised the worried bankers to keep the profitable ones among the companies concerned afloat using the strength of their bank-client relations. What he obviously left untold is that the non-profitable ones may have to close down and their loan-giving banks would suffer the inevitable consequences of an increased burden of outstanding loans. However, the central bank's governor told them to consult lawyers under the situation to find a lawful way out.
He also called upon the bankers to increase lending to agriculture, housing and the small and medium enterprise sectors to help accelerate economic growth. The request coincided with reports that the private investment in the economy had markedly plummeted.
The unfolding awkward realities, as being faced by banks and the economy, are exposing that criminalisation of politics, which went on for long, has had its inevitable influence spread to the country's economic sphere. The muscles that advanced and upheld the confrontational politics also invaded and established themselves partly in businesses as some of the new entrepreneurs and traders. Like blood cancer spread through the veins all over the afflicted human body, criminality also spread its tentacles throughout the fabrics of the society using politics as the carrier. The levels of affliction may differ from sphere to sphere depending on their inherent individual resistance, like the requirement of an intellectual base in some spheres or good entrepreneurial skills in some others.
Blood cancer treatment through total blood replacement of an affected human being via transfusion is not possible. Neither is the treatment of societal blood cancer at one go is possible, as it would involve replacing many of the constituents of the society with a fresh batch of people in almost every major area of human activities -- politics, governance and the economy.
Replacement of some defective bone-marrow through grafting of pure bone-marrow of identical group in its place is necessary for successful treatment of blood cancer in human body. The society here also requires similar treatment for correction. Harsh punitive actions against several major offenders of each sphere would suffice to create a self-curative pathological condition of the society. It would send a firm message to all in the country that the era of self-correction has been drawn in. It would work as reliably as bone-marrow transplantation in human body in setting the society in order without imposing much pains and creating the possibility of major dislocations in the socio-economic ensemble.
In Thailand, after a year of tough rule following the military take-over, the economy is reportedly mired in uncertainty. According to analysts, the Thai economic growth has retarded to rank among the lowest in Southeast Asia as domestic demand and investment have plummeted due to persistent uncertainty. In Bangladesh, nobody would dispute that the change of the caretaker government on 1/11 and the subsequent proclamation of emergency were necessary to avert violent physical confrontations between major political groups and a civil war-type situation. While its history and the people of this country would give credit to the armed forces for standing firmly behind this civilian-led caretaker government to help avert that major crisis, those in authority should be careful now not to render the society over-strained with too much of correctional activities although it still has too many defective fabrics owing to the historical circumstances.
South Africa before its actual democratization with a majority rule was an extension of the hell under the racist rule. The white minority did all wrongs and inhuman things then to torment and extract undue benefits at the expense of the majority blacks. On establishing democracy, had President Mandela gone for total cleansing of the society there it would have definitely entered into a long spell of internal turmoil and gone down the hill. Instead, he went for the truth commission to make the guilty people publicly confess that they had perpetrated oppression and committed wrongs. He then allowed them to take up the responsibilities of citizenship.
In the said press briefing, the law and information adviser seems to have indicated that the government would adopt the better way of rebuilding the nation. It seems to have properly weighed the economic benefits to accrue to the nation from this approach against the likely fallouts of a thorough-cleansing operation.
This nation cannot indeed take the risk of the economy being on the present course of the Thai economy. With its advantageous geo-political setting in the global context, strategic location and the global attraction to its variegated tourism sector, Thailand can recover from any major economic reversal, as it did after the East Asian financial crisis of 1996. But we don't have similar advantages to support a rapid economic recovery on having suffered a slump. Management prudence is our best tool to preempt a slump and keep on recording good economic growth.
APPARENTLY, there are worries within the government and in the informed circles about the immediate prospect of the economy. The hints in this respect are coming from both the country's government leaders and bankers.
Law and Information Adviser Barrister Mainul Husein reportedly urged the business community while addressing a press briefing last Sunday to come forward and do everything necessary to stimulate the economy. Advising them not to worry about the anti-graft measures, he said, as far as he can assess mostly politicians would be on the next list of corruption suspects.
The adviser also reportedly said things are not changing in spite of the government assurances that business people would not be harassed and that they, instead, would be extended all-out support to ensure running of their businesses. According to reports, he further said the business people should not be anxious even if some of them had done anything wrong in the past. He regretted that prices of essentials remain high despite the relentless efforts of the government to bring them down.
The chief executive of local banks on the same day sought the intervention of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to check the rising loan defaults. They said many leading businesses are struggling to repay bank loans, as their owners, who mostly operate their bank accounts, are either being detained on charges of alleged corruption or on the run to evade arrest under the current anti-corruption drive.
Some bankers reportedly expressed their fear that the total bank loan defaults by companies owned by the arrested and fugitive persons might reach Tk 5.0 billion to Tk 6.0 billion within coming December. They hoped that the Ministry of Finance would soon issue a guideline on how to deal with the problem.
The BB governor reportedly advised the worried bankers to keep the profitable ones among the companies concerned afloat using the strength of their bank-client relations. What he obviously left untold is that the non-profitable ones may have to close down and their loan-giving banks would suffer the inevitable consequences of an increased burden of outstanding loans. However, the central bank's governor told them to consult lawyers under the situation to find a lawful way out.
He also called upon the bankers to increase lending to agriculture, housing and the small and medium enterprise sectors to help accelerate economic growth. The request coincided with reports that the private investment in the economy had markedly plummeted.
The unfolding awkward realities, as being faced by banks and the economy, are exposing that criminalisation of politics, which went on for long, has had its inevitable influence spread to the country's economic sphere. The muscles that advanced and upheld the confrontational politics also invaded and established themselves partly in businesses as some of the new entrepreneurs and traders. Like blood cancer spread through the veins all over the afflicted human body, criminality also spread its tentacles throughout the fabrics of the society using politics as the carrier. The levels of affliction may differ from sphere to sphere depending on their inherent individual resistance, like the requirement of an intellectual base in some spheres or good entrepreneurial skills in some others.
Blood cancer treatment through total blood replacement of an affected human being via transfusion is not possible. Neither is the treatment of societal blood cancer at one go is possible, as it would involve replacing many of the constituents of the society with a fresh batch of people in almost every major area of human activities -- politics, governance and the economy.
Replacement of some defective bone-marrow through grafting of pure bone-marrow of identical group in its place is necessary for successful treatment of blood cancer in human body. The society here also requires similar treatment for correction. Harsh punitive actions against several major offenders of each sphere would suffice to create a self-curative pathological condition of the society. It would send a firm message to all in the country that the era of self-correction has been drawn in. It would work as reliably as bone-marrow transplantation in human body in setting the society in order without imposing much pains and creating the possibility of major dislocations in the socio-economic ensemble.
In Thailand, after a year of tough rule following the military take-over, the economy is reportedly mired in uncertainty. According to analysts, the Thai economic growth has retarded to rank among the lowest in Southeast Asia as domestic demand and investment have plummeted due to persistent uncertainty. In Bangladesh, nobody would dispute that the change of the caretaker government on 1/11 and the subsequent proclamation of emergency were necessary to avert violent physical confrontations between major political groups and a civil war-type situation. While its history and the people of this country would give credit to the armed forces for standing firmly behind this civilian-led caretaker government to help avert that major crisis, those in authority should be careful now not to render the society over-strained with too much of correctional activities although it still has too many defective fabrics owing to the historical circumstances.
South Africa before its actual democratization with a majority rule was an extension of the hell under the racist rule. The white minority did all wrongs and inhuman things then to torment and extract undue benefits at the expense of the majority blacks. On establishing democracy, had President Mandela gone for total cleansing of the society there it would have definitely entered into a long spell of internal turmoil and gone down the hill. Instead, he went for the truth commission to make the guilty people publicly confess that they had perpetrated oppression and committed wrongs. He then allowed them to take up the responsibilities of citizenship.
In the said press briefing, the law and information adviser seems to have indicated that the government would adopt the better way of rebuilding the nation. It seems to have properly weighed the economic benefits to accrue to the nation from this approach against the likely fallouts of a thorough-cleansing operation.
This nation cannot indeed take the risk of the economy being on the present course of the Thai economy. With its advantageous geo-political setting in the global context, strategic location and the global attraction to its variegated tourism sector, Thailand can recover from any major economic reversal, as it did after the East Asian financial crisis of 1996. But we don't have similar advantages to support a rapid economic recovery on having suffered a slump. Management prudence is our best tool to preempt a slump and keep on recording good economic growth.