It’s not often that I write good things about Bangladesh – its politics and economics. You see, the news cycle turn on the following dictum: “if it bleeds it leads.” I regret to admit that political analysis, commentary, is no different. Blood runs thicker with blood spilt. So I write analyses of terrible things, sometimes hopeless things that should not be the heart of anyone’s day.
Today, tonight, I hope to contribute something a bit different: some goods news about Bangladesh. Some thoughts on its politics and, more importantly, its people. Please note that you will not find below comparative judgments of the current government’s politics and policies set against assessments of previous government’s moves. Moreover, though there’s quite a lot of bad policy-making going on in Dhaka, you will also not find assessments of those bad policies to counterweigh the good. Whatever the merits of the move, for once I want to highlight the good and let this business rest. For one day at least.
Bangladesh’s politics is on stable ground. The sitting government seems to be well-liked by the silent and voting majority. In no small measure this is due to the current Prime Minister’s shrewd politicking. She seems to know that maintaining power requires that the military remain on her side. By co-opting the brass, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has helped ensure that the military remain in the barracks. The government’s politics seem moderate and sustainable. Whether politically motivated or otherwise, the war crimes trial under her watch promises to finally turn a hard corner away from the epoch-making events of 1971. The ghosts of wars forty years past might well be readying to finish up their business on still wounded streets.
Bangladesh remains a moderate Muslim state that bears a close resemblance to the secular socialist state of its founding. It has puts its politics to a series of straight contests between democracy and dictatorship. It seems that democracy has won out. The country and its successive governments seem to have figured out a way to make Islam work with that hard-won democracy. No easy feat, as demonstrated in much of hte Middle-east, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Indeed, though the fact has gone unnoticed, Bangladesh serves as a model for anyone who might seek to work through democracy and religion in public life.
Bangladesh has a burgeoning capitalist, market based asset allocation mechanism that seems to have enriched many hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and service providers over the last few decades. Though income inequality is rising, it is not rising at an unsustainable level. Bangladesh remains one of the most equal countries in the world. Unhappily, it is the equality of shared, public poverty.
Bangladesh’s foreign politics and macro-economics seems well considered. Bangladesh has reached out to different, important countries and has expertly sought out a triangulating strategy with India and China and has successfully leveraged deals that potentially pits one country, one agreement against the other.
The IMF has nothing but good things to say about Bangladesh’s handling of the 2008 global economic downturn. Manufacturing is picking up. Inflation is under control, while non-food prices are moderating. Bangladesh’s foreign reserves are holding steady. Its debts are manageable. Short term interests rates are low and private credit growth is getting stronger. Public revenue, always a measly thing and unreported, has begun to crawl up, principally through government moves to publicize tax schemes, obligations and payouts.
Bangladesh is doing immeasurably better on almost every measure than its former western compatriot, just across India. After all there is a reason both India and China want to trade with and work with the infrastructure of Bangladesh. Whatever the share of the costs and benefits of those stronger, and therefore, newer relationships , the people of Bangladesh stand to fare quite well.
Though workers have stopped looking for jobs in foreign lands, with reasonably well-expected consequences on remittance payments, progressive education policy is being spurred on. Bangladesh’s literacy rate hovers just above 50%. There is a huge schism between the literacy rates of boy and girls. In a population of 160 million, where the median age of men and women is around 23, any positive marginal improvement that directly impacts those young people can be directly consequential to the people welfare, the country’s economic and social development.
Hence female education indices are being targeted for attention, whilst policy-makers are also taking heed of the match between the performance of boys and girls in school. There is still positive movement on lowering the cost of secondary education–especially for girls– while standardizing requirements and establishing more conventionally progressive expectations in education outcomes. In the meantime the government has invested in intelligent information technology for primary school age children. Using pen tablets and other devices, the government hopes to make play of education, make learning interactive and practical and that, at the earliest age possible.
That new idea–education, standardized and made practical for the youngest age cohorts is the best news that anyone can hope to deliver when discussing the politics and sociology of so young a country with so much untapped talent and potential. As I’ve already noted, remittances have gone down recently, but only because young Bangladeshi’s are loathe to travel to other countries to look to work, only to be laid off and quickly repatriated. The sunken costs in that move are too high for some. But seeking jobs abroad remains a sanguine move for many and many host countries are happy to invite Bangladeshi foreign labor. Why? Because Bangladeshis are a highly trained lot, capable and hungry to learn on the job and excel.
So look out for Bangladesh and Bangladeshis in ten years time. A highly skilled and immensely capable people, Bangladeshis are the best news about Bangladesh. As the current government enacts major education policy reform, women and the very young will enjoy different experiences that some might think badly fit older social structures. However that cuts, Bangladeshis are becoming members of an international brotherhood, whose sole function is to produce and facilitate greater and more flexible wage and investment contracts.
I strongly endorse these moves. I hope you, my interested readers, have the opportunity to see for yourself these momentous changes, either in Dhaka proper or in the person of your work colleague, the woman who has only recently taken up a post at your job. Talk to these young people and note how wonderful it is to suppose that there are hundreds of thousands of such charismatic and characteristically hard working people in every corner of the world. Then, in the next moment, transpose that kind sentiment to the thought that finally the government of Bangladesh is taking itself and its people seriously.
