Unwanted Bangladesh Syndrome (UBS): Part I

Published : 18 Feb 2016, 06:10 AM
Updated : 18 Feb 2016, 06:10 AM

By all known metrics, today's Bangladesh is richer and more modern, connected and technology-savvy than it has ever been, thanks to the sustained increase in economic activity at home (especially RMG and crops) and wage remittance from abroad. The cumulative social achievements, such as poverty reduction, higher literacy rate, lower infant mortality, longer life expectancy, greater labor force participation by females et cetera, have also earned worldwide admiration. An introspective question is, however, whether today's Bangladesh is better in a more comprehensive and desired sense than the one we started with in 1971. Arguably and mournfully it is not.

"Mukti Juddher Chetona" (MJC) is advocated by many as the overarching set of values that define the Bangladesh we wanted and fought for in 1971. MJC started with an emphasis on Bangali (ethnic/cultural) nationalism, freedom of expression (democratic norms), and egalitarian/equitable economy (economic freedom, socialism in the then parlance), but secularism was soon explicitly added with the cherished goal of a communally tolerant society.

Bangali Nationalism

Over the last 44+ years, there has been enormous progress on the linguistic side of our Bangali nationalism, in terms of spoken and written Bangla, print and electronic literature and media, dramas and lyrics, and official use of Bangla. Sadly however, the nation has veered off the desired track of Bangali culture in numerous other dimensions such as wearables, dining, music, ceremonies, cultural events, and so on.

Compare the proportion now to the early 1970s (not the absolute number of people and not whether it has become a majority now), clearly a lesser proportion of Bangladeshis now prefer to wear Lungi (at home), Dhuti and Sharee, and listen to Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti, and a greater proportion prefers meat to fish, bread/roti to rice, non-Bangali (like pizza and fried chicken) to Bangali (Khashi Biryani, Morogh Polao) eat-outs and desserts (cream cakes instead of Doi and Roshogolla), and Non-Bangla (Hindi, English) to Bangla movies/music audios and videos/TV drama serials.

In wedding and other such ceremonies, increasingly we wear Indian and Western costumes, and have replaced the Bangali instruments (like Shanai) and recitation of Manpatra with band performance and dancing to Hindi music. Much more often our Ministers and Government officials (even at lower levels) are choosing to be in suit and tie. Our youth celebrate Valentine's Day and English New Year with no less vigour and pomp than Puja, Eid, and Bangla New Year, and they are becoming less discreet with their romantic affairs.

It seems that while we have achieved much (e.g., cricket, Nobel Prize) as Bangladeshi nationals, we have regressed overall as members of the ethnic Bangali nation. Continuation on this trajectory could in future lead to irreversible loss of our Bangali being and a Bangladesh we did not want, at least in 1971.

Freedom of Expression (Democracy)

Bangladesh has clearly progressed in terms of the journalistic means available for freedom of expression (newspapers, TV channels, electronic and social media). Unfortunately, progress in the degree of freedom remains highly questionable and seems fairly modest at best. The supporting organs/institutions of democracy (such as law enforcement, justice system, Election Commission) appear highly politicised, compromised, and ineffective in practice. Widespread violations of human rights and governance failures, and unabated politically motivated violence and murders, suppression and stalemate have rendered the democratic deficit unbearably gross and there is no respite in site.

Graph 1

Graph 1 is a chart of the World Bank's Voice and Accountability Indicator ("… extent to which a country's citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media"); a higher value is preferred.

Despite some progress during 2004 to 2009, Bangladesh's situation has worsened from about half of the 215 countries below it in 1996 to about one-third below in 2014. Sri Lanka shares a similar worsening trend while India remained steady at a much higher level. This is clearly not a record Bangladeshis can be proud of or ever wanted.

Equitable (Shamyabadi) Economy

Sustained and globally acclaimed growth of the Bangladesh economy and average income did little to narrow the gap in living standards between the small proportion of "haves" and the large proportion of "have nots". Graph 2 is a chart of the World Bank's income inequality indicators for Bangladesh, namely, income share held by the top 20%, middle 20% and bottom 20% of population.

Graph 2

Similar to India and Sri Lanka, the income share of the rich (Top 20%) is around 50% while that of the middle class (Middle 20%) and the poor (Bottom 20%) are both below 25%. This inequitable pattern did not change much, if at all it worsened somewhat over the two decades (1990:2010).

True that, in absolute terms, all citizens are enjoying a better standard of living than ever before, in part due to the worldwide technological advances and economic prosperity. But the goals of economic freedom for the mass and the egalitarian society, that Bangabandhu and many other founding heroes cherished until they perished, remain largely unattained and very likely the situation is worse than it was at the time of liberation.

For example, it is still quite taxing/disastrous financially, if not impossible, for the poor and the vast majority of middle class to obtain treatment for life-threatening illnesses while a larger proportion, if not all, of the higher income class can now easily afford advanced and expensive treatment, going abroad if needed.

In another instance, it has become relatively much harder than before for the low and middle class students to obtain quality education (especially university) that would permit them competitive entry into civil service or the private sector professional market. The rich today, on the other hand, have a wider array of more expensive private sector choices at home and abroad, starting from the elementary level. Such a Bangladesh that is increasingly inhospitable to the lower segment of the economic ladder is not what we wanted.

Secular Society

When the worthy principle of secular governance was enshrined into our constitution shortly after liberation, there was nearly universal support for it. Over the next few decades, not only it practically became a political fault line and an electoral tactic, once the constitution was modified to include the dominant religion as the state religion, even the most progressive political forces now appear quite comfortable with this aberration, symbolic it may be.

Acts of communal intolerance, violence and suppression keep drawing merely temporary remedial attention of the governing regimes. The silence of indifference is alarmingly deafening and Bangladesh even recently experienced its first ever sectarian violence (against Shia Muslims). There is also little sustained efforts to counter the ominous trend of the communal minorities losing their properties, often devoured by force by the powerful allies of the governing regimes. Deplorably Bangladesh has managed to recede from the communally tolerant society that it had during the early post-liberation years. We possibly cannot want this to be our Bangladesh to leave to our future progenies.

To conclude, today's Bangladesh is economically more prosperous than ever before, and yet increasingly devoid of and detached from its raison d'etre, namely to become a shining abode of the Bangali way of life, a nation with unfettered freedom of expression and enviable democratic norms, a society most hospitable to its economically disadvantaged and a people exemplifying the virtue of communal tolerance. Alas, our future generations are about to inherit from us a crippling Unwanted Bangladesh Syndrome (UBS).