Fighting Corruption:Do We Have a Flawed Approach?

Mridul Chowdhury

Published in the Forum (May 2008 )

During the past year, there has been significant rejoicing over the capture of some corrupt government officials who have amassed huge amounts of wealth through manipulating loopholes in government procedures. The rejoicing is understandable, but what is sad to see is that there is so little talk about the very loopholes that have allowed these individuals to suck out money illegally from helpless citizens. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seems to have taken on a rather narrow-minded mission to strike at corrupt individuals, and has largely failed to bring to light the sources of these corruptions in the government.

 

Checks and Balances

Jalal Alamgir and Asif Saleh

Published in the Forum (May 2008 )

As the elections promised by the end of the year draw nearer, speculation about future political alignments continues to mount. Some ask: Will we see a gradual return to one-person rule over political parties? Will the parliament be able to actually discharge its duty of representing the people? Will the creation of new institutions simplify or complicate politics? And many wonder: What will help avoid a future political crisis like the one that precipitated 1/11?

 

How Will the Global Economic Slowdown Effect Bangladesh?

Jyoti Rahman

Published in the Forum (May 2008 )

These are difficult times for the global economy. Economic growth is weakening around the world, reflecting the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis and associated financial market turbulence. A recession appears to be imminent in the United States — the question now is about its severity and length. Other developed economies are also expected to slow. As are, to a lesser extent, major emerging economies in Asia. And the slowdown is happening in a period of significant inflationary pressure, complicating the job of macroeconomic policymakers.

What has caused the slowdown? What is the global economic outlook? What is the outlook for Bangladesh? If the global slowdown is much more protracted than the current forecasts, what would be the impacts on Bangladesh?

 

Not the people’s princess

Naeem Mohaiemen

Published in the Daily Star (14 mar 200

Death by assassination confers a saintly halo, especially on this subcontinent with a craving for dynasties, heroes, fathers and kings. Consider the hosannas for Benazir Bhutto in, of all places, the Bangla media. And now will that halo transfer to Zardari as the new emperor-king of the family business known as PPP.

The western Benazir fetish is comprehensible because she wore comforting markers (pitch-perfect English, British governess, convent schooling, Harvard/Oxford degree). A “kleptocrat in Hermes scarves,” but she was still “one of us.” But should we on this side of the border know the Bhutto legacy a little better?

 

Star Wars and Bangladesh

Jyoti Rahman

Published in the Daily Star (18 Mar 200

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Thus begins Star Wars, one of the highest grossing movie series in history that also provide powerful insights into political economy, insights that have tremendous relevance to our own time in a country very, very close to our hearts. “No” to a bureaucratic state or any council with extraordinary powers, “yes” to a decentralised democratic republic — that’s what we learn from Star Wars, and they apply very much to today’s Bangladesh.

Before proceeding, let’s remind ourselves about the series.

 

Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro and Bangladesh’s Declaration of Independence

Mashuqur Rahman and Mahbubur Rahman Jalal

Published in the Forum (Mar 200

Soon after the Pakistan army took over Dacca Betar Kendro in the early hours of March 26, 1971. The Pakistanis renamed the radio station “Radio Pakistan Dacca” and used it to announce martial law orders. The Pakistan army’s attempt at silencing the voice of the Bengalis had begun. Bengalis, however, fought back. The war of Bangladesh’s Liberation had begun.

On the evening of that same day a small radio station started broadcasting defiantly in the face of the Pakistan military’s bloody onslaught on the Bengalis. The clandestine radio station, located in Kalurghat, north of the city of Chittagong, declared to the world: “The Sheikh has declared the 75 million people of East Pakistan as citizens of the sovereign independent Bangla Desh.” The station called itself Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro.

 

Handle With Care

Mahmud Farooque

Published in the Forum (Mar 200

In late December, our progressive, chattering classes — in political addas, opinion pages and the blogosphere — recoiled almost instantaneously in disgust and disbelief upon learning that 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto was designated to succeed his assassinated mother at the helm of the Pakistan People’s Party, leaving the leadership of the party in the hands of the third successive generation of its founding family.

However, a comparable outrage by the same group was remarkably absent in considering the implications of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, which, if successful, would mean a Bush or a Clinton has been on the US presidential ballot for 28 years and counting. There is an internet site called Bush-Clinton Forever that charts a possible roadmap of keeping either a Bush or a Clinton in the White House till as far as 2057!

So why does the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency not raise as many eyebrows among our progressive opinion-makers as does the prospect of a Bilawal Bhutto prime ministership?

 

Democracy on Bishwa Road

Rumi Ahmed

Published in the New Age (9 February 200

During the last years of Ershad, a tide of road building projects went on throughout Dhaka. Bijoy Sarani, Panthapath and Malibagh Bishwa Road were all built during that time. Those beautifully paved roads were walled out from the neighbourhoods by ceramic brick and grilled walls. There was bougainvillea blossoming on steel-grilled structures in short intervals. They all really looked like parkways and malls rather than a city thoroughfare in a third world country.
Soon after Ershad’s fall, all the beautification vanished. Panthapath pavements and Bishwa Road footpaths turned into slums and fish markets. Those bougainvilleas were all gone in a very short time. The steel frames for bougainvilleas turned into structures holding the shanties. Some urban ‘bhodrolokes’ cited this as an example of how democracy had gone wrong and how we had been better off under Ershad.

 

The triple bottom line

Amer Ahmed

Published in the Forum (Feb 2008) 

The failure of communism in the twilight of the 20th century seemed to vindicate the champions of the free market — be they Chicago libertarians or Washington Consensus neoclassicists. However, even as command economies fell, the world came to witness new crises in the fledgling free markets. From the disastrous privatisation of Bolivia’s natural resources to the violent upheavals in the former Soviet Union, capitalism and the free market failed time and time again to provide sufficient conditions for sustainable growth. The promised virtuous cycle of economic and social development often did not come to pass.

 

Of food and fuel

Jyoti Rahman

Published in the Forum (Feb 200

Politically, Bangladesh stands at a cross-road in 2008, with credible elections and sustained democracy being a realistically attainable choice. Yet, it is an economic issue that can overshadow all socio-political developments. Rising food price inflation — agflation — is arguably the greatest problem facing the country today. And while there are domestic factors at play, the global nature of agflation makes it difficult for the policymakers to stem its rise.

Although agflation started picking up in 2003, it has gathered pace in the past few months (Chart 1). Food prices rose by 11.7 per cent during the 12 months to October 2007, to be over 50 per cent higher than their 2002 levels.

There are many reasons for high and rising agflation.