How non-residents can help

To my knowledge, today, December 27, is the first time ever that the country is hosting a 3-day conference of non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) scholars in Dhaka on a near grandiose scale. There will be seminars and meeting of the minds of the scholars of Bangladesh, wherever they come from -- home or abroad.
Make no mistake, I'm neither a spokesman nor a designated promoter of the conference -- simply an onlooker from a distance, if you will -- but, of course, a staunch well wisher for sure. I was on the look-out for a topic for my column and guess what -- I found one when I learned that six of my friends, NRB conference bound, had already left for Dhaka.
In this entourage of six is Senator Hansen Clark (Michigan State Senate). Although Hansen isn't a son of the soil, he thinks like a son of the soil, spoiled by his association with nearly 20,000 sons of the soil living in Detroit, Michigan. This is his first ever trip to Bangladesh. Hansen has also planned a visit Sylhet -- his father's birthplace.
Others in the entourage are Dr. Aziz Khandker, Dr. Farruk Moshen, Dr. Safiul Hasan, Ehsan Taqbeem, and Kawser Jamal.
There's no lack of prescience among the conference participants, which our motherland needs. Bluntly speaking -- the country needs politicians who are enlightened and altruistic. The country needs technically skilled personnel.
Politicians are brought into this discourse because politics is everywhere -- where there are Bengalis there's politics.
There's no reason to believe that the conference organisers would ever allow intrusion of any politics in the evolving institution of the NRB. Given our culture of bringing politics into everything -- there should be vigilance against incursion of elements with partisan political affiliation.
An organisation is always has good intentions at birth. As it grows and expands undesirable elements masquerading as desirables intrude and bring with them their self-aggrandising and self promoting baggage and brewing conflict -- to the detriment of the organisation.
Overzealous political cohorts almost always create a wedge among the NRBs, culminating in multiple Bangladesh associations in the same city -- in all big cities in the US. There is dissension and discord on any given issue, which drives the professionals, especially the scholarly ones, away from the organisations.
This happens mostly because of the penetration of dirty homegrown partisan politics and intolerance of dissenting views.
Another issue that has often haunted me is about our top leaders visiting Washington DC, New York, and other big cities. There's no known initiative by these leaders to meet the NRB scholars and intellectuals for a discourse; instead, they meet their party affiliated NRBs for a home-style vociferous welcome amid the festivities of party line self-fulfilling catchphrases. By avoiding any meeting with them the leaders adeptly bypass many issues, such as:
* Why is there a constitutional provision that bars NRB's (who took citizenship abroad) from assuming any advisory or other high level positions in the government, including contesting in local and national elections?
* Is it because the NRB scholars, if allowed to serve in various capacities as experts, might work as foreign agents to the detriment of their countrymen with whom they share an eternal bond?
* Why isn't the government considering the creation of an "NRB investment zone" similar to the EPZ to attract direct investment by the NRBs?
* Why isn't the government taking concrete initiatives to develop the much-needed base for producing skilled workers in the area of IT, computer technology, and in all other areas of technology-intensive industrial growth?
* What is the government thinking of when allowing mushroom escalation of universities and madrasas instead of encouraging and investing in institutions of technical expertise? Expatriate remittances of over $7 billion realised this year alone could have possibly doubled if that was planned only a few years ago.
Our neighbouring country is transforming by leaps and bounds into a major economic power, growing at such a pace that other countries are racing to invest there. Indian indigenous technological know-how, the trained labour, and computer experts are sought after everywhere.
For its emergence as a global destination for technocrats, India has lured many non-resident Indians (NRIs) to return to their country of birth, giving the country a brain gain.
India has opened multiple investment opportunities for her NRIs in high-tech industries, real estate, and savings and deposits instruments. Legal provision of home loan and other financing schemes have made the investment environment friendly and convenient for the NRIs.
At the inauguration of the 3rd Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Mumbai on January 7, 2005, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh declared: "I am happy to announce that we have decided to extend the facility of dual citizenship to all overseas Indians who migrated from India after 26th January 1950, as long as their home countries allow dual citizenship under their local laws."
The government has created a new and separate Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to function as a "one-stop-shop" on all matters pertaining to overseas and non-resident Indians. The NRI model is a big deal, and a stunning success.
It's not known how deeply the government is behind today's NRB conference and its future initiatives, or whether this undertaking is essentially a private effort. It may be noted that the NRI-encompassing effort was initiated by overseas Indian residents passionately supported by the Indian government.
It's obvious that without the domestic government's enthusiasm, and wide participation of the NRBs living in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, EU and Middle-Eastern countries, Bangladesh will be deprived of the positive fallout from potential NRB driven economic and intellectual activities.
All erstwhile governments gave an impression that they wanted the NRBs' money, but not their expertise and inputs in the countries affairs.
John F. Kennedy once said: "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
We harbour no pent-up grievances to ask for remedies -- simply asking our country to tell us how can we help -- and are pleading for creation of a bureaucracy free "one-stop-shop" for our initiatives -- similar to the NRI model, even if on a smaller scale.
Dr. Abdullah A. Dewan is Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University.