We have a bright future lying ahead!

What makes these achievements intriguing is the fact that Bangladesh made all these possible with so little resources. A tiny country with a population of half of the US, it is indeed a great achievement when one considers the fact that we do not have an abundant supply of any natural resource (some say that Bangladesh is floating on natural gas, but how far that is true remains to be seen, and in any case, resources lying under the ground are of no value until they are put to any economic use).It is true that a lot remains to be done to ensure a decent life for everyone. In the impoverished country of ours, people still die from hunger (the recent monga in North Bengal is a cruel reminder of the challenges before us). There are still malnourished children without an opportunity to go to schools (the story of Masum as Dr. Saad Andaleeb put in his article in the DS on January 1, 2004 is a harsh reality for many children of our country). Still there are people without proper clothes and shelter to save them from dying in cold (the cold spells that we have are mild in terms of any standard; dying from such mild cold only speaks of the dreadful helplessness of the poor people).

It is an irony that while Dhaka glitters with posh shopping malls and fancy cars (number of BMWs and Mercedes is growing at an amazing rate on Dhaka streets), the far-flung areas of Bangladesh remain crippled with poverty and illiteracy. The last time I visited a remote corner of Bangladesh was in 2002 when I went to the southern island of Bhola. I had the opportunity (or maybe the misfortune) to observe the strained smile in the face of a poor farmer who still struggles to produce a good crop so that his family does not go hungry. We hear about the tremendous progress in rural electrification that is working wonders for the rural people of Bangladesh, but the poor farmer of Bhola could not afford to get electricity connection although the electricity poles went past his household. When asked as to why he was not getting the connection, the reply that I heard simply shocked me. The poor farmer could not afford to pay the minimum monthly payment of Tk 60 for the electricity bills (for the affluent Bangladeshis -- it is less than a dollar per month)! Such is the harsh facts of lives for many people in the country.

Economists say that we have to attain a GDP growth of at least 8 per cent every year if we are to remove poverty and make real changes in the lives of the poor farmers like that of Bhola. So far, we have not been able to achieve the 6 per cent mark. Experts say that two factors are holding back our true economic potential -- corruption and the law and order situation.

It may be true that we do not deserve to be branded the most corrupt nation in the world for three consecutive years. However, we cannot deny the fact that corruption is a growing menace to our national development. Someone living here in US who has just come back from Bangladesh tells me that he has seen the latest 7-series BMW running on Dhaka streets. With the high import duties in Bangladesh, that car would cost more than Taka one crore in Dhaka. There are many people in Bangladesh rich enough to afford such expensive cars. Given the lack of consumer credit facilities in Bangladesh, one can assume that the rich people are paying cash for such cars. One cannot but wonder how much wealth they have, and more importantly, how much income tax they pay every year. If the wealthy people of Bangladesh diligently paid their due share of taxes, then I guess our government did not have to go the donors to finance almost half of its total budget every year. An evil nexus of corrupt tax officials and wealthy businesspeople deprives the national exchequer millions of dollars of tax revenues. Not paying proper amount of taxes is a form of corruption that we often do not pay much attention to. Saying anything about the other forms of corruption like the bribery of public officials or the bending of laws by the influential people would only be a futile exercise.

As for the law and order situation, if we could somehow stop the political patronage of the toll-seekers, then I guess we could have eradicated such problem long ago. Unfortunately, the toll collection goes unabated with its ever-increasing affinity with political quarters. What is more alarming is that not following the rules seems to have become the norm. One simple example could be our total disregard to the traffic rules on the streets of Dhaka. For the poor rickshaw-puller, it could be due to his ignorance about traffic rules, but many of us who are relatively educated (and supposed to be enlightened), it is due to our complete disrespect to the rules of law.

Few months back I wrote a letter in the DS on our general tendency of not following the rules. Another reader had a rebuttal that the common people are not to be blamed for such disrespect to the rules. If the people in the upper echelon did not follow the rules, what incentives the common people have in respecting the laws, he argued. It is rather a convincing argument. When the common people observe the influential people getting away with breaking the laws and the upper echelon of the society accumulating wealth through unfair practices and corrupt means, the common people surely do not feel motivated to abide by the laws. The question then arises, who is to make sure that the system enforce laws equally to everybody irrespective of social class or economic power? Maybe a truly dedicated and a passionate leader with a real vision and genuine love for this country could be up for the task. Maybe someone like Dr. Mahathir of Malaysia could do the wonders for us.

What is incomprehensible is that the two major political parties are busy mud-slinging at each other on such futile arguments as to who had a larger role in our war of independence. For the common masses, particularly to people like me who were born after the war of independence, such arguments are irrelevant and frivolous that only speaks of the immaturity of our current political leaders. We are proud of our independence war and we surely can pay due respect to everybody who played his or her due role in our struggle for freedom. Our national parliament, which is supposed to be the centre-front for debating and resolving issues of national importance, has turned into an ineffective institution with the opposition boycotts and the lack of interest by the government to let opposition play its due role. While this goes on, we the common people keep waiting for a true and dedicated leader to emerge to guide us towards enhanced pace of economic development so that the poor farmer of Bhola can get the illumination in his life.

Despite the current shortcomings of our democratic system however, we have hopes for a brighter future. We have reasons to believe that with every successive general election, political leaders will come to ever-increasing realisation of the true power of the common masses that they can exercise through their voting rights. With every general election that is free and fair, we increase the chances of a better government that would be more responsive to the needs of the common people. With the growing voice of a conscious civil society, we hope to achieve better governance. Maybe over time, we will see democracy practiced in the rank and files of the political parties themselves who will elect their own party leaders based on individual qualities and not based on family connections. With every smooth transition of government, we are in fact progressing one-step closer economic emancipation for all. We only need to continue to nurture our democratic system of government.

If we had a true visionary leader, we could have done wonders and caught up with Malaysia or outperform India and earn the respect and envy of the rest of the world. Even if that miracle of a visionary leader does not materialise, we are still on the right track for a better future. We should be proud of what we achieved and should not lose our confidence in the system. We surely have a bright future lying ahead.

Zubair Sadeque is at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania