Let us listen to respected teacher economist Nurul Islam

It gave us immense pleasure to read his point- blank remarks on the current state of affairs in Bangladesh that appeared in print media on November 16- 17, 2014. Instantly the period when we were students in Dhaka University Economics Department from 1957 to 196161 and residents of S M Hall, came back to mind. We learnt about advanced economic theory in MA final class, from just listening to his impressive lectures. I remember how he taught us circular flow of economy in 1st year Honours class. He who used to call me grand student, as his student was my teacher at Comilla Victoria College. He was in Rangoon University before joining Dhaka University.
We went on an education tour to Pakistan through India by train under the leadership of Dr Mazharul Haq, it was full of joy and excitement. Visiting places with classmates, including Yunus who won Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, was a memorable occasion.  The impression left by those four years was further enriched by other teachers like Dr. M N Huda who was Head of the Department.
Obviously we came out of the university in high spirits and tried to contribute to every position we held in later life. We were enlivened by spirit of Bangalee nationalism and worked for continued progress and socio-economic emancipation of the people. Our friends in the then Pakistan Institute of Development Economics shifted to Dhaka and set up Bangladesh Institute, which is now known as Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). But their dreams did not materialise as my batch mate Dr Gafur, its Research Director, expressed concern at the then scenario pervaded by narrow political outlook and politicisation. Universities are not producing students who have the will and ability to become researchers.
A politico-administrative nexus now rules the government, semi-government and autonomous sectors. Director Personnel of erstwhile Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) once lamented over its bifurcation in 1972 by Khandaker Mushtaq for personal gains, instead of concentrating on  development, research and rehabilitation of the war ravaged projects and increasing overhead costs. It set a bad precedent, which was followed by splitting the erstwhile East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (EPIDC) into various sector corporations, and thus making profitable entities into losing concerns. Manipulation of statistics, preparing projects with fictitious information, hiring consultants at will to favour own/party men, became a valid practice. It is an open secret now that consultancy is an area of corruption shared by people at upper level.
The ever increasing number of research, policy and planning outfits under government and NGOs emerged as a new phenomenon in Bangladesh who did very little to enrich our development base. They are only busy in holding and attending seminars at home and abroad to justify foreign funds. In seminars at home, they mostly invite ministers of the government as chief guest to remain in their good book. Of late, National Board of Revenue has asked for information about research bodies, to bring those under tax net who evade taxes on the pretext of being voluntary and non-profit making organisations.          
Let us see what our favourite Professor has to say in this respect. He expressed his doubts about the reliability of national statistics. He emphasized  the urgency for developing human resources as well as strengthening research institutes in order to remove the dearth of quality data. As regards government's plan to export rice and state of country's agricultural development, he found that adequate and reliable data for comparing various parameters with those of India and Thailand, which are rice exporters, were lacking. There is a lack of proper information on manufacturing sector, especially in case of SMEs and ready -made garment industry. He doubted the accuracy and quality of data on the basis of which all national statistics on GDP, poverty etc are calculated and major decisions are taken.
He focused on the quality of country's higher education. He regretted that most of the teachers remain busy in consultancy rather than imparting higher quality education. Sir, look at Bangladesh national dailies of November 21, 2014 report on first pages about closure sine die of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet following a student's death in a clash between two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL). It left 17 others injured. It is a commonplace event countrywide in universities/colleges since 1973. But political parties and civil societies which have 'teacher- leaders' as their office-bearers do not stand against it for obvious reasons. Prof. Jafar Iqbal of SUST stood against leakage of question paper and was supported by all. But he was the lone fighter from the university. He wrote an article in dailies entitled 'amader sharthaparata' (our selfishness) depicting the scenario, but nobody, including his colleagues, responded. The root cause is teacher-students partisan politics. There is no democratic practice of holding regular annual elections of the Students' Union. But, different teachers' elections by partisan groups are always held regularly and annually.
Planning Minister who attended as Chief Guest in a seminar and former high officials, economists and researchers who attended it, understood the message, which calls for self-examination by everybody to march ahead. He said in an interview, there should be no compromise on credible and quality data. He said, trust on data stems from accountability and transparency.
It appears that policy makers are unaware, uninformed, or perhaps uninterested about the quality of data. We are far behind India. All researchers feel frustrated when Bangladesh lacks reliable, adequate and up-to-date data on many key issues. As such, mere separate research fund in next five year plan will not do, unless high quality staff could be made available, the responsibility of which lies on university teachers to provide high quality education.  
Professor Nurul Islam is our source of inspiration and we pray for his long life.

The writer is an economist, advocate and columnist.  
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