August 15, 1975 Tragedy
Dream for financial equality shattered
Say leading economists
Shattering Bangabandhu's dream for financial equality, the subsequent regimes drove the country back to the grip of Pakistan-styled elite group against which the great leader fought until his assassination, said eminent economist Rehman Sobhan.
Dr Mohammad Farashuddin and Dr Atiur Rahman also voiced the same and termed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the pioneer of long-term financial plan for inclusive growth.
Prof Rehman Sobhan served the provisional government of Bangladesh as Envoy Extraordinary with special responsibility for economic affairs during the War of Liberation in 1971.
Dr Mohammad Farashuddin was the private secretary to Bangabandhu until his brutal killing on August 15.
Dr Atiur Rahman has a special interest in Bangabandhu as he does about Rabindranath Tagore.
Talking to BSS on the financial ideology and the strategy of the Father of the Nation, the three leading economists shared similar views about the ingenuity of the thinking of Bangabandhu to base the country on its own resources.
They were in the opinion that Bangabandhu was a cautious observer of all happenings around him but he gave his vision and tasks the final touch with his own thinking, based on own resources.
“His election manifesto and the election campaign give us a clear idea about his economic goal,” said Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the leading think-tank, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Dr Farashuddin, former Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor, referred to the historic March 7 address where the great leader put economic emancipation next to the independence of the country.
Dr Atiur, BB governor, cited from the speeches of Bangabandhu where he strongly advocated inclusive growth for establishing financial equality.
Pointing to the expanding economic disparity, Prof Sobhan was critical of the regimes, which repatriated the pro-elite economic policy followed in the country before independence.
“Bangabandhu was against this trend and wanted an end to the elite dominance on the economy to ensure equal rights on national wealth,” he said.
He noted with dissatisfaction that the subsequent governments backtracked from the pro-people policy only to patronise an elite section similar to the on present during pre-liberation period.
The economist, also an advocate of social equity and justice, said Bangabandhu brought us independence and then began fighting against the divide and rule system. This system aided a selected group of society to help accumulate wealth by endlessly depriving mass people of their rights.
“He (Bangabandhu) planned compulsory cooperative system and introduced long term plan to bring an end to this disparity,” Prof Sobhan said.
He added that society had been driven to different directions since the August killing, effectively retrieving the financial approach of re-establishing a Pakistan-styled unequal society.
He believes Bangabandhu's unaccomplished economic direction should be implemented for ensuring the rights of the people.
Dr Farashuddin said people were misled about the compulsory cooperative system.
“The system was for sharing production and yield, not the ownership of land,” he explained and observed that crop productions would be much more with ensured proper distribution if the system was implemented.
He said Maulana Bhasani was very pleased about the planned cooperative system but unfortunately Bangabandhu did not get the time to materialise his vision for social equity.
Dr Farashuddin disagreed with the argument that the idea of the cooperative system was borrowed from overseas. “There are some similarities, but the base of the cooperative was rooted into the needs of this country,” he said.
Quoting from the landmark March 7 address, he said the financial emancipation came next to independence when Bangabandhu delivered the historic speech.
Besides, he said Bangabandhu occasionally gave specific directions for employment generation and poverty eradication.
“He introduced monolingual education policy so that everyone could access similar opportunity in education and employment,” he said.
Referring to the first five-year plan, which has now proved indispensable for sustainable development, he said Bangabandhu pioneered coordinated drive against poverty with this plan.
“Empowering women was also among his economic agenda,” Dr Farashudin said and added that Bangabandhu founded Children Foundation to ensure necessary support for future generations.
Dr Atiur, who has long been endeavouring ceaseless efforts for inclusive growth, said Bangabandhu took the idea because he knew economic growth could not sustain without ensuring participation from the majority.
“Not only this, he (Bangabandhu) put agriculture in the centre-point of his economic emancipation,” he said.
He said Bangabandhu was also a good economic manager with unparallel business negotiation skill.
For instance, Dr Atiur referred to the agreement with Shell undertaken by Bangabandhu. “This is the milestone towards achieving energy security, also a prerequisite to economic growth,” he observed.
He said Bangabandhu also wanted to diminish dependency on foreign aid and grant, which were initially vital to re-building the war ravaged country.
“Once achieved, he started using as much domestic resources as he could in the rebuilding process,” Dr Atiur said. He referred to an occasion when Bangabandhu directed power department to use bamboo bars as electric poles instead of waiting for proper ones to arrive from abroad.
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