Self-reliant Bangladesh: Concept and reality

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Muhammad Abdul Mazid | Published: March 26, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

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Bangladesh was born out of a war for freedom, democracy, social justice and self-reliance, what Andre Malraux once termed as "the last noble cause." Since independence in 1971, our densely-populated nation at the head of the Bay of Bengal has swung between hope and despair, and between mass apathy and violence in the streets. Many economic growth-oriented development models, which create both gross and net happiness for the elites, are yet to bring genuine and lasting happiness for the majority of the people. That is why it becomes necessary to formulate and build the premise of a self-reliant social development model for Bangladesh, a country whose population always maintains the spirit of rejuvenation for political, economic and social emancipation. A self-reliant development effort must be measured not only on the basis of economic efficiency and productivity but also on the basis of social proficiency and happiness.   
Among the development prerequisites and aspects and prospects of development, problems of population and resources, present and desired development structure, country's needs and the status of Bangladesh within new international economic order, are very crucial for studies.  Bangladesh has sufficient or abundant human resources, both skilled and unskilled, and a good soil for agricultural raw materials. But its climatic conditions are not always favourable. It has no important minerals like iron ore and coal but has natural gas and, probably, oil in the Bay of Bengal. Primitive agricultural tools and farming system; second-grade technology and equipment in a few industries; worn-out railways; insufficient road, inland and sea-borne transport system; a poor airways system; and indecisive and inconclusive mixed relations of public and private ownership in the industrial sector dominate our economy. These factors, both positive and negative, adequate and inadequate, form the basis of territorial or decentralized planning in which territorial needs are to shape the goals of planning and the course of action.
What Bangladesh needs is a combination of self-help development process and coordinating development means. By self-help development is meant development by and for the people. Without a horizontal model and process of development with vertical complementation of necessary means, Bangladesh cannot realize a much needed balanced and equitable social development. Dependence of people on land in Bangladesh has increased more than their dependence on other economic sectors. Due to a higher rate of population growth in the rural than the urban areas, a lower rate of growth in land reclamation and the addition of new land to agriculture, and a relatively lower rate of increase in agricultural and industrial  productivity than in the population growth rate.
The term self-reliance was coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson in a similarly titled essay published in 1841 which stressed the need for trust in one's present thoughts, skills, originality, belief in own capabilities and genius and living from within. A famous quote from this essay is: "Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide". Translated to communities, this philosophical concept takes a slightly different path emphasising the power of independence, creativity, originality and belief in strength and resilience. It also rejects the need for external support and glorifies the importance of self-application, e.g. tilling of the land to get the "kernel of nourishing corn". Mahatma Gandhi expanded this concept to incorporate a simple life-style asserting that nature produces enough for our wants, and if only everybody took enough for him/herself and nothing more, there would be no people dying of starvation in this world). Rabindranath Tagore, as a social thinker, made pioneering experiments to promote collective grass-root initiatives in rural Bengal in the mid-20th century. His philosophy of the human being, national independence and development anticipated later-day thinking on self-reliant, participatory development.
 In 1971, Bangladesh had 75.0 million people and its per capita annual income was $100. In 43 years, its population has increased to 156 million and per capita income to $986. Since 1991, its average annual growth rate has improved at the rate of 5.4 per cent. Irrespective of this achievement, the average income still remains at $1.90 per day. Bangladesh was a self-reliant country in the past in the sense that it depended entirely on the efforts of its own people but the introduction of the Green revolution in the 1960s caused a sharp change in its self-reliance stance. It introduced dependence on outside aid which is a well-known phenomenon that slows down the pace to attain sustainability. Schumacher (1973), for example, stressed that foreign aid is able to play only a limited role in bringing about sustained economic development.
A country that makes development plans which utterly depend on the receipt of substantial foreign aid may largely damage the spirit of self-respect and self-reliance of its people. Even in the narrowest economic sense, its loss is greater than its gains. Resources, particularly money, are not value free. They bring certain baggage with them, depending on their origin and culture. They will not be available to you in the future, they have significant disadvantages that outweigh their advantages. Carmen also notes that development aid is tied to the power of money and the power of money is identified with the right of interventions. Such interventions generally impact negatively on traditional systems within society causing a breakdown in its integrity. While foreign funding becomes precarious, there  are some occasions when the reverse may happen. Foreign funding does not build local support and supporters are thrown into sharp contrast to promote self reliance.
The concept of living in a state of self-reliant sustainability involves a natural simple lifestyle with enough of basic needs. It does not encourage ill health, famine, illiteracy or inadequate living standards. Self-reliant living is a viable means of caring for nature and other human beings, and hence, for sustainability. The example of Bangladesh shows that there is opportunity for making changes and creating culturally appreciated alternatives. The diverse development endeavours of the current era have shown mixed signs of sustainable development so far. In some cases, they have contributed to the depletion of natural resources. The current 156 million population of Bangladesh has a much smaller impact compared to countries, such as Australia or USA, where consumption and waste per capita are 10 times higher than those of Bangladesh people.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Former Secretary and
Chairman NBR, is Chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange. mazid.muhammad@gmail.com