The Chief Advisor of Bangladesh recently made probably one of the most candid statements as the head of the country when he called “Bangladesh as world champion in fraud.”
This came along with a litany of examples he cited in different areas ranging from forgery in documents, educational certificates, passports, and other ways where fake has become a norm for the country.
He adds that he does not want the country to be a “factory of fraud.”
There is much truth in what Professor Yunus has said. Is there a way for Bangladesh to move out of forgery, and replenish its tarnished image?
Is forgery only limited to fake property documents, education certificates, passports, or false identity papers?
There is forgery in every sector of the society you look at. All of our institutions, starting from politics through government, education, and other once-revered bodies are dominated by deceit and crookery.
Our youths watch and live this fraud as they grow up. Naturally, they also learn that the art of survival is living or compromising with this fraud.
There is no magic wand that will suddenly eradicate all the ills and failures that we face as a nation today.
We will probably be struggling with some of them even decades later, such as a burgeoning population (even if we grow minimally), and demands for consumption expand.
But there are actions that we can take to help us grow and sustain our hard-earned success.
I will name only a few.
First is education. In today's economy, where knowledge and skills rule, we cannot achieve success and compete with other countries with half of our adult population remaining illiterate.
We export a vast amount of manpower to other countries to perform low-level jobs because they have no superior skills that come with education and training.
We fail to attract foreign investors to our country because we have very little tradable human resources that have education and training.
We need more investment in education, teachers, and good training institutions.
Second is corruption. We seem to have been permanently clustered with the most corrupt countries of the world since the world index on corruption began to be tabulated.
It is ironic that despite corruption becoming a buzzword in Bangladesh aid circles, despite corruption being a central theme of a World Bank publication (Government That Works) many years ago, and despite corruption figuring as a major obstacle in the governance process of Bangladesh, we seem to make no headway in addressing it, let alone solve it.
Quite a few of the recent writings by a few of our thinking elites dealt with corruption, its cause, effects, and ways to tackle them.
Most of our people are aware of what causes corruption, where these are and some can even suggest how these can be tackled.
However, all this knowledge is meaningless if the political will to tackle corruption is lacking. This political will and determination is needed at all levels, starting from the top.
Third is establishing and sustaining good institutions. These are not merely educational institutions, but political and social as well.
We need good institutions in politics, administration, economic development, and to act as watch dogs over the actions or inactions of our leaders and bureaucrats.
We established an autonomous Anti-Corruption Commission many years ago that initially instilled some hope in people’s minds. However, instead of arming it further with power and authority, we are attempting to de-claw it by political use of this institution.
We need institutions free from political manipulation that people can have faith in and see results.
Building institutions must be separated from the periodic ups and downs of our political scene. Governments may come and go, but institutions must continue.
The CA spoke his mind, albeit toward the end of his interim government’s tenure. But the advice he gave does not come with a date of expiry. This is as valid today as for tomorrow as we hope to see a new government and a new leader in the country.
Sustaining the hard-earned independence and keeping the promise of people’s movement of 2024 will require that our future government get rid of all deceit and crookery that affect our society.
As we take stock today of our success and failures of the last five decades, we need to be fully cognizant that an alert and responsible political leadership is key to our future success.
We attained independence with the sacrifice of millions, in lives and property. Those who are gone are neither beneficiaries nor witnesses of our achievement; but the generations that live now and those that will come will benefit or suffer from our collective actions today.
I only hope that we learn from mistakes in the past and do our best to avoid them. We must forge ahead.
Ziauddin Choudhury has worked in the higher civil service of Bangladesh early in his career, and later for the World Bank in the US.
