Time to change the course

Perhaps the Almighty sees to it that the corrupt and the arrogant are cut down to size. In Bangladesh it seems God did what electorates couldn't. Many of our top politicians share blame for creating the limbo that Bangladesh finds itself in today.
Some say politics of pandering populism gave them long enough rope and they bound themselves very easily. Others think our legal systems are not developed enough to check the misuse of power by politicians. For example, in Great Britain, judicial review is specialised remedy in public law and it is the means by which High Court supervises the way government ministers, government departments, local authorities and other public bodies exercise their powers and carry out their duties. In this way, courts can keep public authorities within their remit and check the improper exercise of public power.
In Bangladesh, perhaps most of the judges regard the use of precedent as a foundation upon which to decide what is law and its application to individual cases. But in the Western liberal democracies, the judges are beginning to recognise that too rigid adherence to precedent may lead to injustice in a particular case and also unduly restrict the proper development of law. People expect that our judges, "the guardians of our constitution," will throw off some of their self-imposed limitations and demonstrate a purposive assertion of power to punish the corrupt politicians who indiscriminately looted state's assets. Does the average Bangladeshi understand that corrupt politicians enjoy luxury on the misery of the people?
Begum Zia apparently manipulated Election Commission, reshuffled the Supreme Court and amended the constitution in her forlorn attempt to stay in power. Both Begum Zia and Sheikh Hasina not only strangled democracy by their political rivalries, but also made our political system incapable of guaranteeing smooth and legitimate transfer of power. Rampant corruption, politics of parochialism and disruptive election cycles made the democracy more like burdens than blessings for the people of this country. Tragically, politicians of Bangladesh so far failed to appreciate the virtues of democracy. After so many years of broken promises and unending poverty, people of this country have become frustrated and fed-up with politics and politicians.
The events of 2006 provoke a fundamental question: can we entrust our democracy to the corrupt politicians once again? Most political analysts think that the greatest enemy of democracy in Bangladesh today is not the illiteracy of masses but the so-called educated class itself. Our illiterate class at least hold on to their old faith, but the rising new class seldom has faith in anything. It takes faith to found a democracy. We have corruption in government, corruption in civil service and our political leadership is also rife with corruption. This is not corruption by illiterates, but by our so-called educated class.
Many among our intelligentsia also think in terms of their own petty interest. Bizarrely, students' movement in Bangladesh always has been a complete reflection of the political parties. Teachers' associations and student organisations of our public universities and other state supported educational institutions are split exactly as the political parties are split. Such organisations are mere appendages of their respective political parties and their support for the parties appears to be unconscious.
In the industrialised countries, university professors and scholars take the lead in say, spinning off new high technology firms and help technology transfer from university laboratories to private firms. Studying the history of development of the classic innovative hot spots reveals that in the United States most of the innovative hot spots developed in proximity to prestigious universities. The research oriented universities with engineering and basic science focus allow state-of-the-art technology to be developed. MIT and Stanford meet these criteria. Berkley and Harvard are very strong in social science and business studies.
It is hardly a coincidence that all the high-tech commercial firms have top-ranked business schools nearby. This combination of business acumen and scientific excellence appears to be necessary for innovation. The ability to intermix with the preeminent university in one's field offers major technological advantages for American and European high-tech companies. Engineering, computer science and biomedicine are all highly applied university fields. Professors are increasingly engaged in helping entrepreneurial activities. They help commercial firms to exploit the advances in basic knowledge that are made by university scholars.
The late Professor FE Terman, then of Standford University, emphasised that universities are more than places of learning. They are major economic influences in the nation's industrial life. Even some of the universities of India are setting global standard and working at the cutting edge of science and technology.
Our public universities are in woeful shape. Grim irony is that, in our country "campus politics" appears to be a "growth industry" and many of our scholars and professors, instead of fostering educational research, are found practicing party politics. Bangladesh needs to reform its politicised public universities. Educational barriers such as poor quality of many educational institutions, shortage of science and engineering teachers at all levels and the deteriorating quality of higher education must be prime target of both public and private sectors. We are losing our best science and engineering graduates to companies in other countries.
Government should advise the public universities to integrate their research and development activities and lure research and development leaders to help establish industrial research parks in our country. Such parks will surely attract science based industries like pharmaceuticals and electronics. These industries will provide consulting, research and new venture opportunities to our universities and by this way, universities can retain employable engineering talents and hire high priced scientists to help the rapid transfer of technology to industry. Population growth does not add to prosperity, unless young people are educated and new jobs are created.
Once a poor Third World country, China has grown at an annual rate of 9.7 percent to become the forth largest economy in the world, overtaking the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Chinese made stuff are filling up the shop floors of the most supermarkets in the world. China now accounts for two thirds of all the shoes produced in the world and 85 percent of world's toys. Industries like garments, toys and leather goods are closely related sectors. If we can outperform many big countries in garment export, surely we can greatly increase our world market share of toys and leather goods. If our government invites local and foreign private investment to develop physical infrastructure in terms of roads and highways. Access to ports, airports and plentiful supply of technical, managerial and assembly labour are major requirement for the growth of such industries.
With vast pool of cheap labour and unemployed people in the countryside and with our substantial known natural gas reserves, we can really transform Bangladesh into one of Asia's important manufacturing hub.
In this new era of global economics, government should adopt more market oriented strategies to make Bangladesh more attractive to foreign investors. Unless international rating agencies raise the country's sovereign rating from speculative to investment grade, Bangladesh will not be able to attract much needed investments into highways, ports, education and health care. Ratings on Bangladesh may remain constrained because of our weak fiscal profile. We must address our fiscal vulnerabilities structurally.
Our politicians must come to terns with the truth that the institutions that could lay the foundations of genuine grassroots democracy can never be fully developed by pursuing pandering populism. I think democracy's continued weakness in Bangladesh is the supremacy of personalities over institutions. Now it is time to change the course.
Anam A Choudhury is a former investment banker.