Life Begins at 50!

A respected former senior diplomat:
East Pakistan was never a deficient part of the two wings. Our exports earning pre -1972 was higher than the West Wing. Before jute was replaced by synthetic fibres, it was known as the “golden fibre.” However, most of its foreign exchange was diverted for developing the infrastructure of the west wing. Before the quota system for civil service and armed forces, most employments were done from the western wing , especially.

Now after 1972, although we inherited a broken infrastructure and of course 1971 almost ruined the basic economic structure. The first 2 or 3 years were bad, we managed to stand on our legs, using our human resources both at home and abroad. Our readymade garment industries were a great employment booster and exports were great. The private sector gave a big booster to the economy. Family planning was a success. Micro-credit and women empowerment, etc., were two of the reasons and then we had a sort of steady and continuous government.

A veteran banker with a long view:
Success - Reason 1
A growing pride and confidence of Bangladeshis at home and abroad; Bengali language movement day celebrated on 21 February observed as International Mother Language Day recognised by UNESCO; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr Mohammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank; 2015 World Food Prize Laureate awarded to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC and selected as one of ‘The World’s Top 50 Leaders’ by Fortune Magazine 2017; award to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2015 as the Champion of the Earth (the highest environmental accolade of the UN) and the rise of Bangladesh in international cricket with early victories against Pakistan and India.

Success - Reason 2
A stable and forward looking government that has been the driving force behind Bangladesh’s economic growth and efforts to create a welfare state by initiatives to improve the lives of the poor through compulsory free education at primary level and extending free basic health coverage and housing as well as reducing the gender gap, encouragement of entrepreneurship, wider use of digital technologies, infrastructure development and displaying political will to fight climate change.

Success - Reason 3
Curbing Islamic fundamentalism that impacted on religious harmony, literacy, gender equality, and economic growth by government initiatives in education, women’s participation in politics, huge financial assistance for the upliftment of Qaumi madrasas, and according respectability to the highest Qaumi madrasa degree with the status of a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic.

Abiding problem of today:1
Dynasty politics and absence of an environment for free and fair end-of-term elections that were previously held under an independent caretaker government.

Abiding problem of today: 2
An electoral system that does not reflect a true representation of the voting intention of the electorate and strong credible opposition, a system inherited from the British colonial period and not a failing of Bangladesh only.

A diligent, tax-paying businessman who, in his youth, lived in Karachi, pre-1971:
It was perhaps accepted by and large that the eastern wing of Pakistan was a liability to Pakistan ostensibly due to it being an agrarian-based economy and industrialization was a farfetched goal due to lack of entrepreneurship of the local people.

The infrastructure development of the country was an absolute must for any economic activity and to give it a solid base for industrialization. The power sector and the communications sector got the highest priority which resulted in increased economic activity throughout the new nation. Now there is practically no power shortage in the country. The industrial sector is well on its way to prosperity.

Bangladesh, with a large population, had a substantially large workforce which was consistently under-utilized. The government rightly took the initiative to arrange sending the surplus workforce to friendly countries worldwide. This bore fruit and, as a result of which, the Bangladesh expat community in the Middle East, Far East, Europe, USA and other countries was remitting several billion dollars monthly to the country.

The political stability in the country is also a major factor in the economy being stable and economic activity being conducted in a stable environment which augers well for any developing country. The garment industry in Bangladesh, in spite of having to import the essential raw materials from India, Pakistan and China, stood its ground and proved to be highly competitive both in quality and cost. The industry became a major source of export earnings. It opened up employment opportunities for the female segment of the workforce.

Besides garment exports, the country has seen diversification of exports in various sectors. Pharmaceuticals, plastic products, crockery,etc. are now in high demand worldwide.

A cultured, refined lady who re-visits Bangladesh every year:
We are aware of what is happening and can see it on each visit. New generations of Bengalis have grown up and have not much idea of what it was prior to Independence. But the sad thing is that while history must document the good and the bad, politics does not give the freedom for people to speak the truth. We often have discussions on it but that has limited audiences.

The first thing you notice is education of the population. In every village and town, lots of schools have opened. Basic education is available to all. The two success stories are the Grameen Bank and introduction of the micro credit concept. This has changed the lives of lots of people. I see a lot of change and economic benefits for the majority of people who have used the concept and applied it to their lives.

The second improvement is about the setting up of garment factories. That has been a phenomenal success, giving jobs to many people.

I would say the female population has benefited considerably. These are the three major reasons for success - Education, Garments and the Grameen concept of micro credit. In fact, the micro-credit concept is popular worldwide now and has made Grameen Bank very famous.

The country having one language and one culture has also helped.

The negative factor has been politics. Opposition parties have not been able to evolve or been allowed to function in a fair way. This is true of many developing countries and the world generally is run by dictators and there is no such thing as Democracy which the West loves to talk about and finds it a reason to declare war and apply the divide-and-rule policy, which flourishes. But that is another subject!
I feel bad that the relationship with Pakistan is not very good and should be better. I wish there were no visa requirements.

Unfortunately Pakistan and Bangladesh are kept apart by our neighbours!

An eminent writer residing in Dhaka:
A story on Bangladesh now cannot be done without mentioning certain facts for readers to fully understand the situation. Bangladesh’s success story on social scenarios was being highlighted by the UN and a few other international agencies for the last two decades for which no government in particular can claim much credit. These are the results of a large number of very big NGOs (including BRAC, ASA and Grameen Bank (GB) and small NGOs playing the leading role to improve the basic situation and helping the poor to help themselves and, in the process, reduce poverty. Of course, with some financial support from outside.

At least a decade before Mr Modi launched his huge program to build a latrine in every house in rural India (which has yet to become a success), Bangladeshi NGOs and GB had completed it by motivating the people and advancing small funds (which were duly repaid - almost 98 percent of it!). There are many other such instances. But to their credit none of the governments in power or their henchmen in the villages (as they do now) had opposed such initiatives.

The economy is thriving no doubt, but economic disparities are widening; the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The Covid-19 pandemic has further worsened the situation. Except for a few economists, this reality is not being highlighted. At a seminar on February 13, top economists of the country opined that the country’s economy had progressed a lot in the past five decades in a multitude of ways but the rise in inequality has become a great challenge to kick it into high gear.

According to Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh created a class of reproducing capitalists who have captured the power of the state effectively. This capitalist class has now effectively reached a position of capturing the state power from being a dependent class during the early regimes of the country. He said: ‘Look at the composition of parliament.... now 75 per cent are acknowledged as businessmen’ and pointed out that the rest 25 per cent have now become businessmen too as they had been elected through the same process.

The Asian Economic Integration (ACI), Bangladesh is the second biggest source of online workers in Asia, followed by India. The 2021 ACI report said India, Bangladesh and Pakistan account for 52 per cent of the global workforce. The Philippines is the sixth. The report pointed out, from 2017 to 2020, the share of workers in creative and multimedia has increased by 34 per cent in Bangladesh and 40 per cent in Indonesia.... To date, it accounts for around 59 per cent of Bangladesh’s online workforce and 74 percent of Indonesia’s.

Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank recently in an article said: ‘If there ever was a challenging time for fiscal policy, this is it. The budgeting season for the government has started amidst a potential global health and economic crisis whose depth and duration are as uncertain today as when it started. The uncertainties are not likely to dissipate in the near future. Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to the public health and economic risks. There is limited fiscal space with deficits and public borrowing already on the rise for the past year and a half.... Business as usual in both the revised budget for fiscal 2019-20 and the new budget for fiscal 2020-21 will not do. Thinking out of the box is now at a premium.’

President of the Asian Development Bank (ADP) Takehiko Nakao while visiting Dhaka some time ago found Bangladesh’s economic growth not enough to become a higher-middle-income country (MIC) in the set timeline (2041) and thought inequality is a major problem. He said:” Today Bangladesh’s per capita GDP is about $1,500. But for higher MIC it may require $12,000. So if it maintains 7.0 percent-plus growth, in terms of per capita GDP, it is less than that (required) ... it will require Chinese-like per-capita-income growth. So, if Bangladesh can grow as much as China has expanded, it could achieve the target.”

The last point: Economic inequality in the rural areas was helped more by the millions of workers employed outside the country who regularly send remittances home for family maintenance than any sustained government efforts. In fact, such efforts handled by the bureaucracy and controlled by the ruling party’s local cadres mostly promote corruption and nepotism. Most of those working abroad are either uneducated or little educated and their families depend on them while the educated workforce hardly sends money home as they don’t need to. In fact, mostly they live abroad and try to sell their ancestral properties at home and manage to transfer the funds outside. (End of quotes from the Splendid Seven ).

Both the candour and the pride in the preceding 7 observations eloquently describe the success and the setbacks for a country and a people beloved to Pakistan, despite the conditions of our past rupture. We must work together to make the next 50 years even better for Banglades , and for Pakistan --- and for far better bilateral relations.