Generous in criticism, miserly in praise

The title may be seen as a short-hand (some might say, standard) description of the overseas Bangladeshi's preferred mode of evaluation, especially in matters of politics, economy, and life in general of their homeland. This is almost a default position; anything else is just an exception.
In a recent tour of North America, I engaged overseas Bangladeshis to find out their thoughts on the developments of their motherland. I must confess my samples were non-representative. I talked to whoever wanted to share his or her opinions. The first reaction was collapse, "things are falling apart," "breakdown of the rule of law," "inflation," "incredibly slow services" at the airport, "uncontrolled power of the political cadres," and yes, "impossible traffic in Dhaka."
Scathingly critical of the leaders, they used superlatives to make their points. They used words like "inept" and "corrupt," and ended by saying, "we are run by the Sarah Palins" (Ms. Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and the unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate of the 2008 elections became a butt of political jokes and earned notoriety for her often uninformed and thoughtless comments. Needless to say, these are not always negative qualities in US politics). For me, the last remark was particularly hurtful.
Some criticisms -- minus the hyperbole -- were fair, others were plainly not.
The critics I engaged in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were highly qualified and successful professionals, ranging from university teachers, bankers, software company vice-presidents, doctors, researchers and so forth. Their points were well-made. One of them -- an economics professor -- singled out irresponsible opposition political parties as the main problem of the region. His examples included both West Bengal and Bangladesh. In order to ensure economic progress you need a responsible opposition.
I asked them what advice they might offer to the government of Bangladesh. I asked them what lessons they could bring from their own experiences of serving in big and successful corporations.
Two points were made repeatedly. One, improve services and stop talking about huge and costly projects. Set realistic goals. And make sure you achieve those goals. One of them said that it used to take six hours by express train from Dhaka to Chittagong several years ago, now it takes eight hours. (I have not fact checked, but it seems believable.) One would expect that if it took six hours fifteen years ago, it should take much less now -- not more.
Progress is increasing speed, not slowing down. Progress also means adding new services, not curtailing them. There used to be air-conditioned bus services between Uttara and Motijheel commercial area. Progress would mean expansion of such services connecting other parts of the city, not a decline.
My well-meaning friend, vice president of a software company, singled out his experience of adding Bangladesh to his itinerary during one of his recent trips to Bangalore where the French software company he manages has a large office. He had to wait for over an hour and a half for his luggage at Dhaka airport and it cost him another couple of hours to reach his residence braving Dhaka traffic.
Are services at the airport that bad? It took me exactly half hour to get my luggage in September and over forty-five minutes in June this year. In my book that's improvement. As I walked out of the plane to the immigration, I counted nearly a dozen counters operational. It took me less than half an hour to get through.
In New York's JFK airport I had to stand in line for nearly two hours for immigration control and missed my appointed limo service. The officers at JFK were highly efficient but the load of the passengers was overwhelming. I am spoilt by services where my luggage always waits for me by the time I come to the luggage carousel (yes, it happens in Singapore and Abu Dhabi).
Now, what about long-term goals for Bangladesh? Their point was "invest big money in science in a targeted way." One such area now is synthetic biology. Both China and India have joined the bandwagon of research on synthetic biology. Here you need a marriage of sophisticated software technology and biological sciences; you need to imitate the genetic codes to create new life forms.
I was given a lecture (along with helpful websites and internet resources) on synthetic biology and its enormous potential. I learned a lot in a short span of time on J. Craig Venter and his research. Can Bangladesh handle such high tech research? Why not? My friends have full confidence in the talents of Bangladeshi students and all they want is to see that more money is spent on research and more opportunities are created. Would they come to invest? Yes, replied my friend, "I want to help build a strong and prosperous Bangladesh."

Dr. Habibul Haque Khondker is Professor of Sociology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.