Bangladesh was war-torn after getting the independence by involving in a blood-shedder war against occupying Pakistani army in 1971. From that situation, The father of The Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dreamed to build a Bengal of gold. The newly-independent country was marked as one of the poorest countries in the world. Then, it was very had to feed the seven crore people of the country and the authority had to urged the rich countries to give them aid. However, contrary to the initial period, Bangladesh, now, has become the synonym of development and prosperity. The world is marking Bangladesh as a role model in various aspects of development. However, even after passing of more than half-a-century, Bangladesh has been lagging behind in establishing good governance within itself.
Overcoming the tragic incident of 1975, military rule one after another, and constitutional crisis, Bangladesh has been creating wonders in last 10 years. Already, it had been transitioned from least developed country to developing one. They have constructed Padma Bridge with self-finance. In terms of ensuring education health, drinkable water, sanitation for the mass people, it’s ahead of other countries in South Asia. In addition, they’ve become self-sufficient in food production, expanded the health service, and got success in reducing poverty and unemployment. The achievement in sports sector, especially in cricket, is undoubtedly praiseworthy. Bangladesh is now having dreams of becoming donor country by turning huge manpower into skillful human resources. In terms of the size of the economy, Bangladesh is 41st in the world, and according to purchasing power its 30th. According to the estimation of Pricewater Cooper House, Bangladesh will be 28th largest economy within 2030 and within 2050, it will be 23rd.
Dr. Abul Kalam Azad has been teaching political science in various European universities for a long time. He told The Bangladesh Pratidin, "In addition to our hundreds of achievements, we also have shortcomings." Needless to say, freedom-seeking people had a dream - we will be freed from injustice and discrimination in independent Bangladesh. As a prosperous, happy and democratic country, our journey will be smooth. From that point of view, there is room to see where Bangladesh stands today, especially in terms of tolerance to dissent, freedom of expression and political coexistence. Sad but true, corruption and abuse of power is on the rise here. In many cases, the lack of good governance is evident; many have become seriously inactive trees in the last few decades. There is no discipline among financial institutions. Bank is looted by all governments. Constitutional institutions are not able to face it trial because they too have no discipline. Analysts say that ensuring good governance is the biggest challenge of Bangladesh. This good governance is not limited to law and order. In the absence of overall good governance, institutional and financial discipline has not yet arrived. As a result, the benefits of development are not reaching everyone.
For this reason, the disparity between the rich and the poor and the high and the low are still increasing. According to the Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh states, there was the promise of establishing of an exploitation-free socialist society in a democratic system where the rule of law, basic human rights and political, economic and social equality, freedom and justice will be ensured for all citizens. The World Bank's index has gained the most importance in the world on the issue of good governance. The World Bank's Good Governance Index incorporates data from 40 sources on freedom of expression and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government capacity, and quality of regulatory frameworks, rule of law and control of corruption. Since 1996, the World Bank has been publishing this index as a determinant of the comparative position of different countries. According to the World Bank index, Bangladesh has the highest deterioration in terms of freedom of speech and accountability. In this case, Bangladesh's score has dropped from 50 to 26.57. In terms of political stability and lack of violence or terrorism, Bangladesh has also experienced a major decline. In this regard, the score of Bangladesh has deteriorated from 26.60 to 16.04 in the last 24 years. Bangladesh also declined in its scores on government capacity, quality of regulatory frameworks, and anti-corruption performance, although the declines were relatively small.”
Professor Nurul Islam, who worked on planning in Bangabandhu's government and was the first vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Planning Commission, said, “It is true that poverty is decreasing now. But still the gap between rich and poor is huge and it is increasing day by day. Apart from this, there is a lot of discrimination between men and women.”
In a keynote paper presented at the BIDS conference on the Golden Jubilee of Independence, the economist said the gap between rural and urban areas in Bangladesh is widening. Because of this, people all over the country want to live in cities. The rich save less, take more loans. From that loan, money is siphoned off to abroad. One of the main reasons for increasing inequality is money laundering. The owners of this money are not paying tax on that money made in the country. Instead of investing in the country, it is being sent abroad. And if you can invest at home and abroad without any tax, why would you have money in the country?
Professor Nurul Islam said overall, bank loans are not being properly distributed among all levels of the population. The village people are not getting the amount of loan that the banks are collecting from the village. If it can be done equally, there will be equal development in city and village. But a certain group is taking advantage of bank loans. It increases inequality. Due to these reasons, inequality is enhancing and the number of super-rich is increasing rapidly day by day. Measures should be taken now to prevent this. For this, balanced economic distribution management is needed.
Professor Nurul Islam said, “Discrimination is basically a political problem. Having independent, accurate and unbiased information is very important in formulating economic policies. Economic policy formulation is impossible without accurate information. Today the creation of information in political interference seems justified, but tomorrow they will be blamed for this failure.”
@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on March 26 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
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