The 150 million people of Bangladesh -- struggling to earn a decent living and survive in a ruthless world -- have shown, time and again, their dynamic and powerful presence, expressing in no uncertain terms that they are the masters of their destiny. The people created East Pakistan in 1947, fought an armed struggle to create Bangladesh in 1971, rejected the rule of the Awami League in 1975, overthrew Ershad's autocracy in 1991, discarded the rule of the BNP in 1996, evicted the AL from power in 2001, and rejected both the AL and BNP in 2007. All these events show that whoever neglects the people of Bangladesh in the equation of political power does so at his or her peril.

In spite of the heroic and relentless struggle of the people the country has not been able to make any breakthrough in its economic and social development. Compared to East Asian countries, or even our next door neighbour, Bangladesh is nowhere near the rapidly developing economies of the world. The main task facing the leaders and people of Bangladesh is to break the vicious grip of poverty and develop the country. One is forced to ask: What is the main obstacle, the chief impediment, holding back the country? Why has the country not been able to make the breakthroughs made by other comparable nations?

The current drive against corrupt politicians may lead one to think that it is the dishonest elected representatives that are the main obstruction to the county's development. This conclusion is rather superficial since the corrupt politicians are part of a larger problem. In all cases of ill gotten gain, the corrupt politicians have been able to loot the country's wealth only with the active collusion and cooperation of corrupt bureaucrats. Corrupt politicians and corrupt bureaucrats are two faces of the same coin and form a combine that acts to reinforce and enrich each other.

Failures of BNP and AL
The explanation of the current situation lies in the social foundations of the political parties as well as in the changing landscape of economics and politics of Bangladesh and of the world.

One needs to understand why the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and the AL (Awami League) could not agree upon any working relation, in spite of both professing to be "democratic" parties; why did the AL resort to relentless violence and confrontation as its choice method for "negotiating" with the BNP; why did the BNP totally fail the nation in spite of holding an absolute two-third majority in the last parliament; why did the BNP indulge in senseless and mindless plunder and looting of the public assets in spite of the fact that good governance on their part would have virtually guaranteed them an almost permanent hold on political power; why did the BNP leadership completely abdicate leading the nation for the last five years, and instead focused only on looting.

The Bangladeshi psyche has entrenched in it short term thinking and ad hoc expediency as a response to the centuries old instability of the deltaic plain -- where entire villages can be washed out within decades by rain and river. Short term thinking has led to a rampant "Get Rich Quick" thinking in all political parties including the AL and BNP; this partly explains why, in collusion with corrupt officials, the BNP leadership went into a frenzy of looting and stealing of the public's wealth that reached its peak in 2006. It was as if there was no tomorrow.

The AL's violent and confrontational approach to politics can be understood as reflecting it's largely rural political composition, whereas the composition of BNP is more urban based.

Neither the BNP nor the AL understand nor believe in the politics of democracy, which needs pluralism and tolerance of differing views. Democracy needs a shared vision of the country that is common to all parties, something quite alien to the AL and BNP.

Instead of relying on the democratic process to stay in power, both the BNP and AL have resorted to palace intrigues and manipulation of the political system. Corrupting and politicizing the nation's institutions and relying on thugs and gangsters to stay in power, both these parties have made a mockery of democracy.

Awami League
The birth of state capital in its present form starts with the nationalization of all industries carried out by the AL in 1972. The wholesale nationalization was the brain child of those who till date continue to oppose the growth of private capital. The rule of the AL culminated in the formation of Baksal in 1975, in which all political forces were fused with the bureaucracy to impose the rule of state capital on the entire country.

The AL provided proof of their allegiance to, and alliance with, state capital in the agitations of 1996. The janatar moncho of 1996 was an open expression of the nexus of the AL with the bureaucrats. Many top bureaucrats openly violated the rules of service against participation in politics, by coming out openly to support the AL.

The methods of agitation used by the AL provide further evidence of their pro-state capital stance. For example, in 1996 the blockage of Chittagong port and the non-stop month long hartal brought the economy to its knees. If one examines the economic losses one comes to a rather surprising conclusion. The entire brunt of all the economic losses was borne by the private sector, the job holders and the ordinary people. For the corrupt bureaucrats, the social disruption by the AL was a source of windfall gains since in all public sector industries corrupt bureaucrats siphoned off enormous amounts of wealth by conveniently blaming oborodhs and non-stop hartals for the so called losses.

The two most visible business deals done by AL during its tenure of 1996-2001 was in collusion with the bureaucracy, namely buying obsolete Migs and a frigate for over Tk 1,500 crores, with the actual value of these purchases being estimated to be a negligible fraction of the amount paid out.

The fact that AL is the political expression of state capital was again manifested in the disturbances from October 2006 to January 2007; all the agitation of the AL was targeted at disrupting the private sector economy and the ordinary people. The blockage of the Chittagong port, the oborodh to block all communications from and to Dhaka, and that too at the peak season for the garment industries, caused thousands of crores worth of damage -- clearly documented by BGMEA and other business organizations.

The AL was completely unmoved by the protestations of the private sector, or by the enormous damage to private capital that it was causing, showing that private capital is not one of its political constituency. In fact, taking cover of the social disturbances, one can be sure that corrupt bureaucrats must have swindled the country of thousands of crores.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
The BNP is a party formed by Ziaur Rahman on the ideological basis of Bangladeshi nationalism. In 1975 Ziaur Rahman introduced private industrial capital in Bangladesh by providing credit to aspiring industrialists. The reasons for doing so were never spelt out but one can guess that, faced with large unemployment, it was natural to look to the private sector for generating employment.

After the Ershad interregnum, it has became clear that the BNP in power, both in the 1991-1996 period and the 2001-2006 period had completely failed to lead the private sector towards rapid economic growth. Instead, the main focus of BNP was in accumulating wealth for its leaders, and hence it went for all out collusion with state capital to loot the country's wealth.

Why did the BNP fail in its historical role of leading the private sector? Why did it abdicate the leadership role that it should have assumed in promoting Bangladeshi nationalism? The answer to both questions lies in the fact that the BNP was formed by Ziaur Rahman using state power to recruit those people who were willing to collaborate with Zia's military rule. The manner in which the BNP was formed resulted in the BNP leadership being composed mostly out of retired bureaucrats, professional politicians and some businessmen. During the first tenure of BNP in 1991-1996 the motley group of persons who composed BNP were amateurs at using political power to make money.

Given the nascent state of private capital none of the leaders of BNP understood the nature of productive private capital, which needs a lot of entrepreneurial energy and a gestation period before one can start to make profit. Instead, the BNP surrendered to the "Get Rich Quick" mentality -- colluding with corrupt bureaucrats to make money -- and hence succumbed to the power of state capital. Due to their incompetence the BNP was slowly but surely absorbed and annexed by state capital.

In its next tenure (2001-2006) the BNP found a booming and dynamic private sector making steady growth and earning huge amounts of revenue. Instead of giving leadership to the country's development and facilitating the growth of the economy, due to the "Get Rich Quick" mentality, all thoughts of good governance was thrown to the winds by BNP. Nationalism -- whatever small amounts that may have existed -- was replaced in the BNP by a culture of shameless looting, greed and expediency. No attempt was made to make state capital accountable; no attempt was made to win grass root support for the BNP. No policies were formulated to foster the growth of the private sector. Instead, like all exploiters, the BNP became the political representative of state capital and the looter section of private capital.

The political degeneration of BNP has led to it's rejection by the ever politically conscious people of Bangladesh -- just like the people had earlier, in 2001, rejected the AL.

Bureaucrat capital
All countries need a state machine to administer and run the country's affairs. The administration of the country, run by bureaucrats, need not necessarily be corrupt. A clean and efficient administration is possible if the country's political leadership is itself is clean and efficient and exercises control over the bureaucracy by making it accountable. One may ask whether it is possible for a bureaucracy to be corrupt but at the same time be efficient. This may be possible, in principle, but requires a powerful private sector that demands efficiency and a political system that keeps the bureaucrats in line. In Bangladesh, the social and economic conditions for a corrupt, but efficient, bureaucracy does not exist.

Due to incompetent and corrupt political leadership the bureaucrats have become a power independent of any accountability and of any control by the people and its representatives. The authority vested in the bureaucrats by the state is abused by them for their personal and private gain and they exercise effective control over state capital with the purpose of enriching themselves.

There are of course some honest and efficient bureaucrats in Bangladesh; but these honest bureaucrats are powerless to stop the rampant corruption at all levels of the government due to the collusion of corrupt politicians with corrupt officials. Anyone who has any dealings with government officials know that endless red tape and outdated and non-transparent laws provide avenues for corrupt officials to extort money from all sectors of the population. It is no surprise that Bangladesh has time and again been assessed by various international bodies as one of the most corrupt nations of the world.

Corrupt political groups and parties are active participants in colluding with corrupt bureaucrats and corrupt businessmen in cheating the public, stealing the country's wealth and siphoning off money from all public sector undertakings and public sector enterprises.

All large scale looting of public assets by politicians is only possible with the active participation and connivance of corrupt bureaucrats. The Ershad dictatorship was the direct rule of bureaucracy, as indeed are all military dictatorships since they represent the naked rule by professional 'civil servants', be they the civilian or military bureaucrats.

If one examines the political history of Bangladesh since 1971 it becomes clear that a corrupt alliance consisting of a combination of corrupt bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and corrupt businessmen have been using the government machinery and state capital to loot the country's wealth. The capital under the control of the state is in practice and in effect under the control of the corrupt alliance. Hence state capital should be more accurately termed as bureaucrat capital. The reason the term bureaucrat capital is appropriate is because, like all forms of capital, the corrupt alliance exercises virtual ownership over all the assets of the state by using the government machinery and which in turn is used for enriching the members of this corrupt alliance. The JP, AL, and BNP are all the political representatives of bureaucrat capital.

Bureaucrat capital controls more than 90% of all capital assets in Bangladesh, which includes the infrastructure, public corporations such as Petrobangla, BJMC, PDB, Biman, BSC, Sugar Corporation, Titas Gas and other industries and assets, large tracts of valuable land, the nationalized banks and so on. All public sector industries are making colossal losses every year due to relentless and unpunished looting by bureaucrat capital. Bureaucrat capital, far from giving any reasonable returns on the assets they hold, are all massively losing concerns draining the public exchequer of thousands of crores every year and are creating a financial catastrophe for the country. They should either be sold off or shut down, but, instead, are allowed to endlessly hemorrhage due to the political rule of bureaucrat capital.

The obstruction to economic growth created by bureaucrat capital is a consequence of the fact that bureaucrat capital is inefficient, focused on looting and hence unable and unfit to expand its asset base. The only expansion of bureaucrat capital has been due to infusion of foreign 'aid' money, disbursed primarily to maintain the hegemony of foreign capital.

Bureaucrats capital is by far the most retrogressive and reactionary force in the country and the main obstacle to the country's development. The corruption of the politicians, which has been widely recognized by one and all, is only possible because of the connivance of the corrupt bureaucrats.

Criminal underclass
The riots and killings that the political thugs carried out in October 2006 were chilling to say the least. A clear message was sent to the population at large: the political parties can engage in day light murder with impunity because they can mobilize a large mob of its supporters. If one examines exactly who comprises this mob of thugs and killers one finds that it is the city poor, the lumpen unemployed rabble, the floating parasitic population that can be made into the tools of the AL and BNP and hence serves the aims of bureaucrat capital.

Poverty and scarcity create this criminal underclass that lives mostly at the edge of society, and which can be organized into a murderous mob by the system of patronage and politics of violence that the AL and BNP has resorted to in the past, and is resorting to now, for going to power. The political thugs are the armed wing of the corrupt bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and looter private capital.

Private capital
The birth of private capital can be traced to 1975 when the government of Ziaur Rahman deregulated all industries, broke the monopoly of the public sector on the economy and provided banking finance for the private sector to set up private industries. Private capital has two components, namely private national capital that is progressive and productive and another section that is looter and criminal. Looter private capital is suffering from the "Get Rich Quick" disease and belongs to the corrupt alliance that forms bureaucrat capital.

In spite of endless bureaucratic red tape as well as hartals and other political disruptions, during the last 30 years the private sector has shown phenomenal growth. For example, in 2006 the private sector employed almost 3 million workers and exports from only the garments industry amounted to almost $7 billion. Productive private capital is the main engine of economic growth in Bangladesh today and should be strongly supported in an all round manner. The private sector is the only force worldwide that can take risk, create new enterprises and in doing so expand the economy -- something that can never take place if bureaucrat capital holds sway.

A deformed and sub-optimum growth of the private sector has been the result of the failure of the political parties in giving leadership to the expansion of the private sector and has resulted in looter private capital getting the upper hand over productive private capital. Furthermore, far from facilitating economic growth bureaucrat capital has been an obstructionist and extortionist force penalizing productive private capital and colluding with dishonest looter private capital.

Productive private national capital is a crucial ingredient in the expansion of a Bangladesh's economy. One needs to recognize that the world over, including in China and Vietnam, the private sector has played a crucial role to play in developing the country. In Bangladesh, unlike many countries in East Asia, the private sector has not been allowed to create an economic boom because bureaucrat capital has stifled its growth with red tape, corruption and extortion.

Conclusions
The nationalist and progressive forces of the country need to organize themselves under a patriotic and competent leadership.

The most pressing need for Bangladesh today is for a visionary leadership to remove the chief force obstructing the country's development, namely bureaucrat capital. It is high time that the power of bureaucrat capital and its political rule was brought to an end. Reforming the government machinery will create an efficient and clean bureaucracy that will carry out the much needed policies for developing the country.

A leadership that can reform bureaucrat capital will go down in history as great patriots and heroes of the people of Bangladesh. Any political leadership that does not remove the power of bureaucrat capital will end being undermined and corrupted by it.

The caretaker government should focus on corruption at every level of the government and should target corrupt officials as well as corrupt politicians and corrupt businessmen. If the current drive of the caretaker government is to have any lasting value, they need to take the first steps in reforming the government's system of administration by addressing the roots of bureaucratic corruption and lay the basis for a relatively transparent system of governance.