Politics has become a major business initiative

Eminent economist Debapriya Bhattacharya yesterday said politics has become a major business initiative in Bangladesh, as an increasing number of businesspeople are signing up for politics.

“The presence of businessmen in the election has become more prominent than politicians. This means the business community now feels it's necessary to be involved in politics. Because, the privileges and benefits that they enjoy are not possible without state patronage,” said the distinguished fellow of research think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue.

“These are not universal benefits,” he said, referring to privileges such as tax holidays and licenses for new banks.

“For this reason, they want to get protection through politics by using the state system,” he said while talking to reporters at the launch of “The Least Developed Countries Report 2018” released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) unveiled the report at the Brac Centre Inn on behalf of Unctad. The local think-tank has been launching the Unctad LDC reports in Bangladesh since 2006.

Bhattacharya said some politicians are also getting involved in businesses. As a result, a collusive relationship is developing between politicians and businesses. And they are working in favour of each other, he added.

“Citizens cannot distinguish between who is a politician and who is a businessman. What becomes visible to them is that politics is the main business initiative in Bangladesh,” he said.

Bhattacharya said the role of entrepreneurs is important for structural transformation of the economy. But they are not prepared to take the economy in that direction, he said.

 To ensure their roles, a competitive economy is of utmost importance, he said, and added that the precondition for a competitive economy is competitive politics.

“Without competitive politics, it is futile to expect a competitive economic environment,” he said.

Bhattacharya said the business community is very strong here. Yet, they cannot protect their own class interests.

“Based on their relationship with the government, they play various types of roles. But they cannot reduce the cost of doing business; cannot create an effective banking system; or eliminate the inefficiency in the port. They cannot do these because they act more for individual or group interests than class interests,” he said.

He said a major reason behind this inability is the absence of competitive elections among entrepreneurs on many occasions.

 “In absence of competitive election, accountability among themselves remain weak and they cannot bargain strongly with the state to protect their class interest,” he said.

Bhattacharya, citing declarations made by election candidates about wealth and income ahead of national polls, said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) should examine candidates' wealth and tax statements.

“The NBR should scrutinise the affidavits of candidates on priority basis, and unveil its evaluation report to public. The Election Commission should take the report into consideration,” he said.

After election, he said, winners should disclose their business interests and register those.

“Then, we can get an of idea how much a person acts on principle and how much on self-interest while formulating a law,” he said.

“Unless this transparency is established among lawmakers, the privilege and distortion will continue.”

He said until entrepreneurs act independently, development of a flourishing entrepreneurial class will be difficult.

This will hinder the process of small firms becoming big and affect the structural transformation of Bangladesh, he said.

CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun said the next electoral manifesto should be non-discriminatory, and towards an employment-oriented economy.

CPD Distinguished Fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman said election manifestos of parties should reflect graduation issues of Bangladesh from the least developed country status.

Bangladesh is expected to graduate to a developing country during the tenure of the next government, and when its tenure ends, Bangladesh will have become a developing country, so it is very important, he said.