I sit and hear Professor Ha Joon
Chang and Peter Nolan explaining the virtue of State led development. Cambridge
development studies has always been known as the citadel of heterodox thinking
challenging the mainstream neoliberal view that market can solve all our
problems and that we don’t need an intrusive state. I hear them talk about how
Japan, Taiwan and South Korea became a first world country in less than half
century due to strong political leadership and state interventionist industry,
trade and technology policies. I never knew that South Korean government pushed
many industrialists to enter specific sectors which they wouldn’t have entered
otherwise. For instance banning LG from entering its desired textile industry
and was forced to enter the electric cable industry which later became the
foundation of its electronics business, for which LG is currently world-famous.
I didn’t know French government owned sizable share of Renault and the German
Government in Volkswagan. US government used import tariff toof 40% from 1820s
till the 1930s to protect their infant industries and was dubbed the “bastion
of protectionism”. Then we hear how the French government used strong
industrial policy to upgrade its economy post World War II to catch up with Britain.
This is the message that I get
from my professors that not a single developed economy could have achieved what
they are now without the help of a strong State. With strong leadership and
shared long term vision, any nation can catch up and become a developed
economy. The message is so simple, so persuasive that it brings joy to my heart
only to be squashed and crushed by the rude reality I see in my country. Our leaders are too busy scoring points than
thinking about their country. The phone call between the two leaders was
shameful; the tone and the content of the discussion were beneath any level of
decorum and etiquette. It is even more frightening to contemplate the kind of
mentality who would make the political calculation that leaking this audio
would actually be politically beneficial.
The effect of hartal is so patently
bad that one has to be literally senile to think the parties have “our”
interest in their mind. The 160 million people of this country have been taken
hostage by these two pseudo dynastic powers that have simply lost touch with
the ground reality. This is not a medieval times when leaders can do whatever
they feel like and people under their ‘dominion’ suffer with no recourse. We
are falling behind, why should we have to suffer, why should our children have
to give exams at midnight, why should our auto-rickshaws and cars get burned,
why should we get burned and die when we get out for office! Why should we care
that our two leaders who seemed to be so self centered that they put their
pride over national interest, that they consider compromise at the time of
national crisis less important than the potential of being looked at as weak.
We have lost the GSP facility, our economic growth has slowed down, our
garments industry on which our export earning depends is in a critical juncture
and fragile. Yet our two parties are engaged in street battle, one proudly
stating that they will bring the country to a halt and the other saying come
what may they will have an election with our without the major opposition
party.
With this mindset, how are we
going to catch up with the developed world that is already years ahead of us?
We rejoice at our achievement in reducing poverty and reaching MDGs, Is this
our target to be barely above the poverty line and surviving? South Korea and
Singapore have no mineral resources and in the 1960s had the same per capita
income as Ghana and was a LDC by today’s standard. In less than 40 years both
South Korea and Singapore have become first world countries. Can we not dream
such dream, will we have to sacrifice our true potential because of our
quibbling dynastic incompetent leaders and politicians. So far Bangladesh has
largely progressed inspite of our politicians but for how long and more
importantly why should we. We want a functioning democracy, we want a strong
state that will guarantee stability, rule of law and protect our lives and
property. Is this too much to ask? I implore our leaders for once for the sake
of our country and its 160 million people, to leave aside their party politics
and rise to the occasion and lead this country out of the mess that we are in
and the black hole we are being sucked in to.
