February 27, 2005

Abdul Awal Mintoo believes that Bangladesh needs to revamp its national policies and political and social environment to make them conducive to the growth and prosperity of the people

People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.

— George Santayana

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is only a vision. But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day, for it is life, the very life of life.

— The Sanskrit Literature

THE main issue facing Bangladesh today is how, given its problems of disorder, we can reverse chaotic tendencies and act before the crisis deepens further. The nation cannot afford any more drift, dereliction and degeneration.

The first stage of economic development can only take place if a nation has the organizational ability to mobilize its resources and civil society, maintain peace and social order. America of the 19th century had peace and abundant resources but not enough workers, so labour was imported from abroad to develop the economy. Other countries, with plenty of labour and a stable society but fewer resources, like China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have increased their savings rate and mobilized capital to invest in plants and equipment. Once labour and capital were fully mobilized, productivity increased, and these countries achieved economic success. In fact, economic and political stability has been the key to East Asia’s ability to attract the FDI which has fuelled their economic growth.

Given the interaction between formidable problems and complex underlying forces, our political leaders must have the courage to clarify to the nation what we can truly hope, expect and realistically accomplish. Lying to people year after year and raising false hopes will neither bring peace in society nor wealth to the nation. On the contrary, it will only push society into greater chaos and from disorder to destruction. In fact, Bangladesh’s potential is not constrained by lack of opportunity or natural and mineral resources but by a lack of ideas, will, imagination, mission, vision and good sense.

Though the link is not apparent, it is an established fact that entrepreneurship and economic growth of any nation are closely linked with the growth of social organization. This combination usually allows a society to organize itself in order to create an environment conducive to effectively applying new technologies and new concepts for active commercial exploitation by individuals. These are the individuals who generate wealth for the society and create employment for workers. Their creativity acts as the engine of economic growth, but creativity does not flourish when it has to challenge authority, push the government, fight the opposition parties or run into redoubtable circles in a desperate search for basic services. Sadly enough, entrepreneurship and creativity are freely molested in our society today. When that happens, it is not only the entrepreneurs and the creative energy that decline, but also society itself.

Of course, in a new democracy or in a society in transition such as ours, some chaos, disorder, confusion and dissension are always to be expected. In fact, some degree of chaos and confusion allows creativity to flourish provided, at the same time, some degree of order and basic political principles are also in place.

Therefore, politicians should realize that empty promises can keep society and its people confused for a limited time only. Ultimately they must be accountable and answerable for their misdeeds and wrongdoing — or indeed for doing nothing at all! They must realize before it is too late that missionary and visionary speeches on the street alone will not satisfy the appetite of our poverty-stricken society. Our political leaders must respect the imagination and expectation of our nation and shape, educate, activate and inspire its citizens to act and participate in a shared polity. They must not allow ordinary citizens to be alienated from society. Therefore, the time has come for our political leaders to prove their ability so that our nation can overcome obstacles, leaving behind the vicious cycle of low economic growth and implementing various carefully chosen policy choices.

Weak social organization leads to a weak political process. A weak process in turn leads to weak governance, and weak governance leads only to a makeshift policy-making by default and not by choice. A weak political process produces only ignorant bureaucrats and arrogant politicians who develop the habit of pointing to “external factors” and concealing their weaknesses.

This is what we have been witnessing in Bangladesh — our legitimate rights are being sacrificed at the alter of dictates issued by the World Bank, ADB, IMF and donor countries. Our leaders have even forgotten that these agencies and states “do not donate”; they give loans which we must pay back. History teaches us that only those polities and socio-political organizations that come up with superior economic performance survive and flourish, supplanting those with low performance.

Sometimes I wonder, how can a nation which courageously resisted colonialism, fought to preserve its language, culture, and tradition, recognized for its legitimate struggles by the world community, won independence through one of the world’s bloodiest independence struggles, which did not allow military rule to take root in society and which time and again has had to fight against natural calamities and disasters in a resilient manner, has failed so ignominiously in developing its economy. Only a conscious person conversant with historical backgrounds knows that the nation which fails to promote the economic uplift of the people becomes the victim of internal disorder and subjugation of the external power.

So how can we complain when the British high commissioner or US ambassador speaks out about our social or economic ills? If we don’t speak up ourselves, they will. That is the stark reality.

To advance socially, politically and economically, a society and its entrepreneurs need the right environment. There must be the right mix of disorder and order, chaos and discipline, respect for law and condemnation of lawlessness, challenges and opportunities, economic growth and income distribution, high employment and inflation, fiscal policy and monetary policy, conflict and friendship, aggression and wisdom, security and peace, emotions and perceptions, conscionable civil society and contending social organizations.

Too much order does not work, too much disorder does not work either. Finding the right blend is a complicated and complex business. To be successful, a society must create and manage the tensile dynamics of two opposing forces, without letting either get out of hand. Progress can be made and society improved when the preferences of some, perhaps the majority, can be satisfied without making the rest of the people (minority) worse off and disaffected.

All endeavours, whether economic, cultural, geographical or intellectual, need social support. Columbus could not have discovered America without the support of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and the economy of Great Britain could not have taken off without consistent state support for creativity of British entrepreneurs.

Inventive ideas would not have seen the light of the day if social organizations had not supported them. The Internet would not have been established in the United States without three decades of government financial support and sustained intellectual support from civil society. I must be candid here: the existing social and political situation in our country is far more likely to produce criminals and smugglers than painters, industrialists or thinkers.

Economic development is slippery stuff. It is a process of creative destruction. The new destroys the old. Both creation and destruction are essential to drive economic development forward. Yet the pains and losses endured by the newest generation of entrepreneurs and pioneers are mocked to an even more painful degree when one sees wrongdoers challenging good citizens, the corrupt challenging integrity and morality, looters and squanderers of national wealth showing down and insulting those creating wealth, and the uneducated cornering the enlightened. Politicians, politics, society and social organizations all must discharge the responsibility that falls upon them to ensure that the right socio-political environment exists in which entrepreneurs can create wealth and new ideas can stimulate faster economic development.

Powerful vested interests must be broken. They do not willingly fade away from the pages of history. They will fight back. Similarly, existing political and bureaucratic structures will not take on the job of reforming themselves. Therefore, they must be changed by outside forces — society must brush them aside, whether their minions are found in politics, bureaucracy, or the social or intellectual arena.

To succeed, our society must be willing to take the risk of destroying old vested interests to make room for something new, something different, which would be bigger, better, stronger and more useful for future social and economic development. The new usually does not adapt to the old. The old adopts the new and then adapts to it. Society will not have entrepreneurs unless the society itself is willing to change. History shows us that it has always been easy to keep entrepreneurs away from new ideas because vested interests have found it too risky. New ideas and creative impulses are frustrated if society is not receptive to them. In Bangladesh this is exactly what is happening.

Excerpted with permission from

Bangladesh: Anatomy of Change

By Abdul Awal Mintoo

The University Press, Dhaka For info log on to

www.uplbooks.com

Email: upl@bangla.net

Available with Telstar Book Agency, Karachi

Tel: 021-4538953

Email: myochit42@yahoo.com

ISBN 984-05-1686-8466pp. Rs525

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