Perceptions
Legacies and Destroying Them
The past few weeks have seen a plethora of rather amusing statements by many government officials and prominent businessmen about the direction the country is taking and the direction it should take. For example, there was the finance minister reversing his own government's stand on a few issues while not making sense in any; there was the head of a youth based think tank saying how much the country needed to expand its value addition process in a certain export oriented industry; and then finally there was the head of the opposition who took her head out of the sand to comment on a few things and then put it back in. What struck me with all these statements is how utterly lost they became in all the noise. The level of noise is made worse by the sheer number of news outlets and reporters who know less and report more. There is a plethora of columnists like the aspiring thought leader of youth, and this writer, who have so many opinions and very little impact on society. The reason why our voices seem to have such minimal impact is because of the entrenched interests that have grown over the past three decades and have made the economic and political situation considerably worse.
The most interesting thing about these voices calling for change is that they belong to individuals who through their family or through their chosen profession are part of the problem. Bangladesh has been ranked as being among the most corrupt nations. Some of the corruption is overt whereby government employees and other employees of the state force victims to pay non-wage financial remuneration for doing work the government employees should be doing in the first place. Other areas where overt corruption has manifested have been in the justice system where so many, take some form of monetary or non-monetary reward to basically cripple the mechanism whereby they operate. What you don't see is the insidious forms of corruption spread throughout the entire system and has permeated politics, industry and media. This corruption takes many diverse forms. The central theme is the same – concentrated wealth and power. This is also becoming a trend with international corporations dominating the political process in powerful countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. In Bangladesh, the central points of the corruption are not corporations but families. These families either start out as political individuals or they manifest themselves as businessmen who anchor themselves to political families to enjoy the ride of easy public money.
In the beginning there was President Ershad, who said “Let there be money.” His method for control was to encourage corruption and political musclemen. The corruption was the mechanism by which pliant members of government and industry were rewarded for their loyalty to an illegitimate government. While governments previous to Ershad also had very corrupt members, it was Ershad who was the devil on the shoulder who made it feel ok to make money out of a corrupted political process. He planted the seeds that would flourish in the minds of the “elected” leaders that it was ok to reward oneself for the beatings, the harassment and the love they had to give to be elected. There are many who say that Ershad was not as corrupt as the past few governments, but that's only because the next governments have developed a wonderful model by which the level of corruption is amplified to absurd levels each time they are elected. Under normal circumstances, like in India, we would have many political thieves who would compete to steal the least and work the most so that they could be elected again to power. However, a bizarre and 'Byzantine' system has risen in Bangladesh whereby no matter who gets elected, the same group of individuals benefit from the system.
Two things have contributed to this system – semi-arranged marriages and pseudo corporate governance. There are many postings on Facebook which have highlighted political scions' family connections to each other across the political divide. This unity of opposing political philosophies would be so inspiring if it was not for the fact that this is not reflected in the general political arena. Considering these connections, the comments by many in the chattering circles ring hollow and cynical. Maybe comments and urges for change should also be integrated in dinner and coffee conversations rather than being printed here and in other media outlets. These family connections and other measures to consolidate power mean that there is no real stake of the senior leaders in either political party to initiate reforms and create real democracy within parties. This is a system where a poor, honest and dedicated party member at the ground level has a greater chance of dating Priyanka Chopra than of attaining a senior national position at the end of his or her political career under current circumstances. This trend of utter disregard for the welfare of those on whose shoulders our leaders have flourished continues in the Bangladeshi corporate arena.
In Bangladesh, money is politics is business. The board of directors of various banks and major corporations are a who's who of politics and corruption. The chain of money that flows where it should not be flowing becomes bigger every government when new political personalities join the ranks of nouveau-riche. These individuals get into business deals with each other again across political divides. These business deals and the flow of money outside the country through the informal channels mean that a significant amount of money is tied up when it should be in the hands of small businessmen. Small businessmen have to compromise their morality, integrity and values to go with the flow and get a piece of the pie. This means that no matter how many times opinion makers – real or perceived – hammer the notion that we should integrate greater value addition into the offerings, the Bangladesh garments industry will always be subject to the whims of the politically connected big players in the market. Under the current system, those players have the largest volume production and thus sell themselves as the cheapest group of labour hankering for work. This wholesale prostitution of our commercial sector may and will continue because the owners have a strong disconnect between their lives and the lives of their lowest employees.
In the end, one should follow the words of a prominent Bangladeshi who said something very simple – what future leaders? Leadership is today. Leadership is the mass and the youth. Thus, the youth of today should not listen to the older generation and the legacies they espouse of nepotism and political dynasties. They should destroy by simple acts of non-compromising integrity and love for their fellow man the legacy of political business. They should rise up against those who have disregarded the words of their own elders who have stated something even simpler – all this wealth, all this power and connections, are you going to take them to the grave? Or do you want to leave the world a truly better place than the one you entered into?
The writer is Lecturer, School of Business North South University.
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