Bangladesh's image and the PM

The PM complained that while Bangladesh is being lauded everywhere for being a moderate and democratic country, a vested quarter is carrying out propaganda at home and abroad to put the country and its people in jeopardy. The seeming hypocrisy here is that the PM raised the spectre of a public discourse and debate on our country's image (for which she has been rebuking the opposition leader for a while now) on foreign soil.

It is important to know that no one can tarnish the image of a country by spreading lies and falsehoods at home and abroad, simply because propaganda has no half-life. In the Internet era important news sprinkles out like an inverted pyramid. No sooner do incidents worthy of news emerge, but almost instantaneously they crop up either on our personal computer or television screen. The Internet acts almost like a borderless global media in which anyone with a personal computer and a connection becomes his or her media spotlight.

Bangladesh is certainly a democratic country and the media enjoys a certain degree of freedom. However, Freedom House's 2005 annual press freedom survey of 192 countries and territories rated Bangladesh "Not Free."

On the issues of Civil Power and Electoral Politics, Bangladesh ranked "Partly Free." The world has been putting pressure on the ruling 4-party alliance government for good governance along to crack down against repression of minorities. The alliance has been in power for the last four years, and in each of these years the country has been bruised by being designated the most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International.

Obviously, corruption was not brought by the alliance government. During the fag end of AL rule, the country also was designated the most corrupt country. The alliance won a landslide victory in the national election of 2002 with the promise of eradicating corruption and rescuing the citizens from the nightmares of gangsters and terror groups. After taking over the government, the promises were left in the back burner and precious time was lost while the maladies of corruption and the weak enforcement of the rule of law proliferated.

During a press briefing (after the EU ambassadors meeting in Dhaka on July 13), the British High Commissioner stated that the EU programme for Bangladesh would be promoting rights of minorities, press freedom, streamlining legal system, setting up of a human rights commission, etc.

These issues the ambassadors have articulated are no different than those being voiced by the opposition leaders and the media. The difference is that the opposition leaders and the media are screaming too loud and the people are listening. The EU ambassadors also observed that the responsibility for holding a free and fair election lies with the government and the people of Bangladesh, not outsiders.

Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman's shocking admission that corruption with its all-pervasive sting has been engulfing "all the ministries, with the National Board of Revenue being among the top" was long overdue. This assertion was further reinforced by government ministers and MPs when their recent meeting about the development of coastal areas turned into a forum of discussions about widespread bureaucratic corruption. The outgoing State Minister of Energy, who was widely believed to be the architect of the sale out of country's interest in the infamous Kafco deal, asserted that all the officials of Petrobangla are corrupt to their teeth. Are these insiders of the government conspiring to tarnish the image of the country?

The CPI score is not a product of any conspiracy; it is a reflection of the experiences the people of Bangladesh go through every day. Economic growth theories taught us that lack of rule of law and inefficiency holds back the pace of progress in poverty alleviation. Yes, of course, the country has made progress in many sectors, but not to the point of calling for celebration with champagne and caviar. Some people have become very rich. Almost half the population is still under the poverty line. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened beyond proportion and is still widening by the day. One does not need to be part of a conspiracy to talk about the discriminating oddities of the economic and political conditions prevailing in Bangladesh.

There are several indirect social and economic factors which contribute to a country's well-being. These are: (a) level of democracy, (b) rule of law, (c) corruption, (d) free media, (e) ethnic fractionalisation, (f) years of schooling, (g) population density, (h) value of work, (i) trust and investment, (j) health care, and (k) production and consumption of energy.

Eyeballing these vital statistics indicate that a country with everything similar to Bangladesh except rule of law, corruption, and trust and investment achieves a much higher GDP per capita than Bangladesh. Not surprisingly, all three factors fall within the purview of the rule of law, which Bangladesh lacks miserably.

A collection of factors which potentially raise a country's image in the community of nations are:

(a) democratic principles and institutions, (b) rule of law and governance, (c) quality of export goods produced, (d) freedom of the media, (e) intellectual activities, (f) literacy, and (g) freedom of religion.

Being poor is not a crime, but being corrupt is. Failing to follow the democratic principles of governance in letter and spirit is not a crime, but violation of the constitution by letting the rule of law to become the rule of the ruling party and other political functionaries (the same holds when AL was in power) is a crime. Failing to protect the minorities and repressing the ethnic groups is an international crime. Allowing black money to incubate year after year and then legalising it in the economic stream simply magnifies the lack of rule of law.

The PM is absolutely right when she rebukes the opposing parties for not participating in the parliamentary proceedings (seems like payback for what BNP did when it was in opposition). To cut down such abstentions, retention parliamentary seat should be conditioned on not missing two consecutive sessions absent compelling reasons.

This should be negotiated in any caretaker government reform initiatives. No political party should have any excuse to perennially boycott parliamentary if they fail to win the majority to form a government after the ensuing election.

For now, will the Honourable Prime Minister pick up her phone to reach out to the opposition leader and invite to her office, or better yet, tell her: "I am coming to your house for a cup of tea, to see if we both can thrash out some of our major differences on one-to-one basis."

By giving an inch, the PM can win a foot, and the country wins a mile. By such a gesture, the PM wins more; the display of her astute political maturity, the heart of the people and the prestige which the PM desperately needs at home and abroad. To save democracy and the country's honour, our leaders must set examples as never happened before in our traditions.

Now that the reform proposals for the care-taker government have been made, the government must not disparage them with acrimonious remarks. The reforms must be based on consensus having absolutely no kernel of advantage to any political party, and the final product must be adhered to in letter and spirit.

The world is watching Bangladesh through the magnifying lenses of their embassies and the censorship-insulated media of the Internet. It is unheard of that the media and opposition leaders of a country have ever conspired against their own people against its sovereignty and independence.

Who can be more patriotic to the country than the current PM, widow of the former freedom fighter and President, and the current opposition leader, also a former PM, and daughter of the beloved Bangabandhu, the father of the nation?

The opposition leaders and the media not only want to preserve our evolving democracy, freedom of the media, and rule of law, they want to perfect them. A smear campaign against the media and the opposition parties (or against the government) is an outmoded relic of the former Pakistan military junta.

Unfortunately, much to our dismay, there exist reams of compelling evidence against the ruling government (and the erstwhile AL government) for why the country's image may have been tarnished.

The good image of a nation cannot be fabricated by exaggerating facts and distorting stories, nor can it be diminished by a false smear campaign against the government. It can, however, be transformed from bad to good, and vice versa, only by the policies and actions of the party in power.

The authors are, respectively, Professor of Economics, Eastern Michigan University and former Secretary to the Government of Bangladesh.