A roadmap for Bangladesh

As we observe the 40th anniversary of the shahadat of the father of our nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, several thoughts crowd our mind.  No doubt in these years, the country has moved forward. But in many aspects of our national life, we have regressed. Historians will be able to delineate the contours correctly in the future. But those of us who lived through the war that led to the birth of this great nation can assess how we fared and where we faulted. A dispassionate study of the fault lines may help us in the future.

Bangabandhu was an overarching figure. It is he who taught the Bangalis to dream. It is again he who urged us to excel where we failed in the past. He inspired us to be an independent nation. The shackles are just constraints that we need to break through. We should be self effacing yet self confident at the same time. Slowly and surely, we are becoming so.

We have been independent for 43 years now. There are many areas where we have succeeded. But we have detractors who point out our many failures.  We must not ignore their markers. We must strive to overcome these setbacks in the near future.

Among our greatest failure is achieving a satisfactory system of a peaceful changeover of government. Every five years, when the term of an elected government ends, the nation is kept guessing whether it can elect a new government freely and fairly. Although our two major political parties almost always come to power alternately, we are still kept guessing about what trouble will grip the nation until an acceptable government comes to power. This disrupts progress and interferes with governance – a prime challenge for the country.

There is also the need to clear the backlog of judicial cases pending in various courts of the country if we want to see improved governance. While many might consider this to be a common incident in many countries around the world, in the case of Bangladesh the backlog often affects ordinary citizens who are stymied in their efforts to break free from this paralysis and make things work. Two aspects need to be looked into. First, how to reduce the numerous steps of the judicial process before a case can be determined. The other, is how to ensure that the judicial system quickly discerns the chaff from the kernel. Unnecessary delay in determining a case could lead to infraction of delivery of justice and could perpetrate malfeasance. The judiciary is a highly competent corpus but our system is in many ways outdated. Alternate dispute resolution is the only way out, perhaps. Rapid computerisation of the judiciary is another way out. Singapore has successfully adopted modern methods to curb wastage of time and money. We need to rethink and introduce better and quicker procedures as well.

The third aspect of our national life that needs to be addressed is corruption. Unfortunately, it prevails in high offices as well as in lower echelons of governance and other sectors. It's commonly seen that those who are corrupt can get away easily with malfeasance. Recently, several agencies of the government have been computerised. This has improved several areas of governance. Yet in many major areas, corruption continues to be a way of doing business. What we need is to institute a broad and deep sense of accountability. No public servant - be it a minister of the government or a policymaker - should be allowed to get away with law-breaking. Even politicians and public leaders should be accountable to the national conscience for their words and deeds. No one - be it in the public or private sector - has the right to play with honest and good citizenship. We are yet to accept the fact that an honest and patriotic citizen is superior to fellow citizens who are deviant and proven dishonest. Why should corrupt functionaries of the government and the private sector be made to feel that they have the right to be corrupt? A free and honest society is more valuable than a corruption ridden polity.

A major challenge before Bangladesh in the coming decade is how to quickly modernise the nation to become a science-based society. It's true that in the last five years Bangladesh has catapulted into the digital age. But is this enough? With rapid digitalisation, we are on track to be a savvy society. This is in keeping with a rapidly growing young population. We can use existing talent and modern technology to save time and money. This is gradually happening in the agricultural sector. Tractors and machines are increasingly being used in our farms with greater impact.

When a population of 165 million turns tech-savvy and is able to be innovative and use technology in all spheres of life and living, how much more can we achieve in less time and with little resources? This will catapult us ahead of all nations. We, Bangladeshis, are rich in culture and in the arts. Imagine how affluent and resourceful a nation we can be if we use science in our daily lives. Digital Bangladesh has enabled us to dream again. The nation is rising again. Let us shift gears and surge ahead.

Rabindranath Tagore, a Bangali, conceived the concept of microcredit. Dr. Yunus, a Bangladeshi and another Nobel Prize winner, used microcredit to uplift the poor, the hungry and the hopeless, and taught them how to create wealth where there was none. Let us rethink our life's assumptions, let us change the parameters of our limitations. We deserve to be better.

The writer is a former Ambassador and a commentator on
current affairs.
E-mail: [email protected]