The Crisis of Global Governance

The former British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair delivered a public lecture organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore on “The Crisis of Global Governance: Challenges and Solutions”. According to him, the world is opening up and becoming more interdependent on each other. Each country is concerned about the other and we cannot afford to overlook the situation in the continent of Africa. Africa should be included in the development process. Due to the process of globalization, opportunities are far greater for people today than ever before.

He pointed out some of the basic challenged that world is facing today - economic challenges like poverty and exclusion, environmental crisis and climate change, energy crisis, crisis related to the movement of people (migration) and the humanitarian and economic crisis in the continent of Africa.

According to him, the solutions to these problems do not depend on any one country, but all. The solution today is not protectionism but opening up. The effort in this direction needs to be multilateral. For example, the USA would not sign the agreement on climate change without taking China and China would not sign if it obstructs the growth of the country. He pointed out three basic strategies to solve the crisis of governance in world today - (1) building strong alliances, (2) reforming multilateral institutions, and (3) empowering the civic society.

In his concluding remarks, he mentioned that the solutions to terrorism do not come from governments but from peoples’ of different faith at the grassroots. Democracy, freedom and Justice are the global values that should be respected and upheld by the people for peace and prosperity in the world.

Impossible is Nothing !!

Impossible Is Just a Big Word
Thrown Around By Small Men
Who Find It Easier
To Live In a World
They Have Been Given
Than To Explore the Power
They Have To Change It.

Impossible Is Not A Fact.
It Is An Opinion.
Impossible Is Not A Declaration.
It Is A Dare.
Impossible Is Potential.
Impossible Is Temporary.

Hotel Karalafonia

Onthe road to Trivandrum

Coconutoil in my hair

Warm smell of avial

Risingup through the air

Upahead in the distance

Isaw a bright pink tube-light

Mytummy rumbled, I felt weak and thin

Ihad to stop for a bite

Therehe stood in the doorway

Flickedhis mundu in style

AndI was thinking to myself

Idon't like the look of his sinister smile

Thenhe lit up a petromax

Muttering'No power today'

MoreMallus down the corridor

Ithought I heard them say

Welcometo the Hotel Kerala-fonia

Sucha lousy place,

Sucha lousy place (background)

Sucha sad disgrace,

Plentyof bugs at the Hotel Kerala-fonia

Anytime of year

Anytime of year (background)

It'sinfested here

It'sinfested here

Hisfinger's stuck up his nostril

He'sgot a big, thick mustache

Hemakes an ugly, ugly noise

Butthat's just his laugh

Buxomgirls clad in pavada

Eatingbanana chips

Someroll their eyes, and

Someroll their hips

Isaid to the manager

Myroom's full of mice

Hesaid,

Don'tworry, saar,I sending you

meenkarri, brandy and ice

Andstill those voices were crying from far away

Wakeyou up in the middle of the night

Justto hear them pray

Saveus from the Hotel Kerala-fonia

Sucha lousy place,

Sucha lousy place (background)

Sucha sad disgrace

Tryingto live at the Hotel Kerala-fonia

Itis no surprise

Itis no surprise (background)

Thatit swarms with flies

The blind man was pouring

Stale sambar on rice

And he said

Weare all just actors here

In Silk Smitha-disguise

Andin the dining chamber

We gathered for the feast

Westab it with our steely knives

But we just can't cut that beef

Last thing I remember

Iwas writhing on the floor

That cockroach in my appam-stew was the culprit,

Iam sure

Relax,said the watchman

This enema will make you well

Andhis friends laughed as they held me down

God's Own Country?

Oh, Hell!

㏕he Yeagles

THEMATHIAS"

Developing a Development Mindset

The panelists in the forum on “Bangladesh and Singapore: Developing a Development Mindset” touched upon various aspects of development in both societies. The panel on Singapore began with Mr. S. Dhanabalan who pointed out about three things that resulted in the success of Singapore - (1) political leadership – moral authority, (2) concrete action – pragmatism over ideology, and (3) structure of society. He also agreed with Prof. Yunus’s inaugural talk on defiance and argued that Singapore’s model of growth and development has defied the conventional western methodology. Public housing has not degenerated into slums; trade unions instead of becoming confrontational towards management have become partners of growth and profit.

Dr. Akbar Ali Khan pointed out that both Singapore and Bangladesh have gone through similar process of independence which he expressed through talak, talak, talak – Singapore first from the British and then from Malaysia; Bangladesh from India and then from Pakistan. Singapore followed outward looking globalization policy where as Bangladesh followed inward looking imports substitution policies of economic development. Singapore strictly denied socialist policies where as Bangladesh followed a socialist model of development whose ghost is still haunting it in three basic ways – (1) confrontational trade union, (2) inefficient public sector, and (3) incapability of public sector to provide incentives. He concluded by saying that “God has not made Bangladesh poor. Poverty in Bangladesh is man-made because it could not create institutions and run institutions”.

Speaking about the civil society movement in Bangladesh Ms. Farida Akhtar argued that there are 20000 NGOs in Bangladesh who covers 78 per cent of the villages. Poor people survive neither because of the public sector nor because of the civil society but in their own capacity. Bangladesh has a large NGO sector and constitutes a strong civil society movement in South Asia. However, it should be noted that the NGOs are not homogeneous. They are diverse in nature and are doing diverse things.

According to Ms. Euleen Goh, Bangladesh has demographic or human resources advantage which is required for development of a country and wished Singapore had more. According to her, the reason of Singapore’s success is that it has been able to create an open, competitive environment ease for doing business. It is ranked as the world’s 7th competitive country and ranked 1 in Asia. It has an efficient system, developed infrastructure, secure and welcoming environment, great education system and legal certainty – all of which are conducive for business. Shell Oil established its refinery in 1961 which is now the third largest. Though SingTel began as a government owned company, it is now fully privatized and 50 per cent of its share comes from overseas.

Syed Manzur Elahi spoke about the economic environment in Bangladesh. According to him, the primary reason of Bangladesh’s separation from Pakistan was economic because most of the commerce and industries were located in west-Pakistan. Though the first Bangladeshi government was pro-private in its manifesto, it followed a socialist pattern of development. Public sector could have done better in Bangladesh if the trade unions were not so politicized and if the political parties were not interfering in trade unions. There is an urgent need of transparency and accountability in Bangladesh’s public sector because the private sector needs quick decision-making in this globalised age. The government has to provide an “enabling environment”. It is happening today that all the agricultural land is getting transformed into industrial land which Bangladesh has also to think about. If Bangladesh has failed today, it is because of its “political leadership”.

Dr. Shapan Adnan spoke about the relationship between culture and corruption in society. According to him corruption occurs in that society where immorality becomes a part of society’s culture and where illegality and ethicality no longer is treated as a shame. Corruption is transaction between the bribe payer and the bribe taker. Poverty is not the cause of corruption because most of the corruption happens among high classes. Corruption has remained as a recurrent theme because of utilization of thugs by the political leadership to manipulate ballot for political office. Bureaucrats and tax collectors collect tax not for revenue maximization for state but personal profit maximization. Corruption is not individual but systemic or institutional and leads to unproductive accumulation.

Mahfuz Anam spoke about the mindset and leadership. He began by saying that Singapore has utilized its geography and demography to achieve its success where as Bangladesh has neglected these resources. Bangladesh has 5th largest reserve of sweet water in the world. Its population has turned to a liability from an asset. The government did not educate its people and did not give them hope. The reason of corruption and underdevelopment lies in its confrontational politics that began in 1991 through democratic system. It has two aspects – one, an arrogant government that tries to oppress the opposition, and two, an opposition that is irresponsible. This confrontational politics is fought at the street level through strikes and to oppress the strikes the government hires criminals. The ruling parties pay to gangsters to beat the opposition which has resulted in a strong nexus between politics and crime. Thus good politics in Bangladesh today is not about how to run a country but about how to control streets. As a consequence, a “culture of impunity” has evolved. The ways out for Bangladesh is thus to make a shift from personality based politics to a politics that emphasizes on institutions building.

Defying the System

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy along with Institute of South Asian Studies organized a forum on “Bangladesh and Singapore: Developing a Development Mindset” on 2 November 2007. The inaugural address was delivered by Prof. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Laureate. According to him, the problems our societies facing today cannot be solved by the existing system because it is the same system which has created these problems. The solution to these problems lies in “defiance”. If we challenge the existing system and explore alternative methods, the objective will surely be achieved.

According to him, he started Grameen Bank with a total capital of $ 27. He faced many problems from the formal system and existing institutions. Grameen Bank declared two things – (1) financial system is wrong because it rejects the poor and helps the rich, and (2) banking system is wrong because rejects the women. However, he also faced similar problems. Even though he wanted to help the women and bring them into business, they were very apprehensive. According to him, this denial or “no” is not her voice; it is the voice of history and when the women will say “let me try” that would be the success for Grameen Bank. It took 6 years for Grameen Bank to achieve this success. Though Grameen bank’s policy was 50:50 male-female proportion, in borrowing pattern it observed that money going to the family through women has tremendous impact than money going through men. The obvious question then was why 50:50? Grameen Bank extended itself to reach out to more women and today out of 7.5 million borrowers of Grameen Bank 97 per cent are women.

As policy, Bank tries to implement its 16 decisions in the grassroots through women. Some of them are sending children to school, stop giving and receiving dowry, etc. Today almost 100 percent of Grameen children are in school and 18,000 Grameen student are having access to Bank’s educational loan and pursuing higher education degrees in medicine, engineering and other fields.

He also mentioned that the world is going through tremendous transformation and the world is not going to be as it is today. The next generation would speak different languages and behave differently. Sometimes we may like it, sometimes we may not. This change in relationship will change the society and this change is happening in exponential way. What took Grameen Bank 20 years to achieve may now take 5 or 10 years to achieve the same.

Grameen Bank’s effort has been extraordinary. Today of the 150 million people in Bangladesh, almost everyone has a cell phone. The information technology will change our lives and this is only the beginning. He also mentioned about their success in solar energy among the rural population in Bangladesh.

Answering the questions he pointed out that human being is not a machine for making profit. They are not selfish individuals involved in economic business for profit. They are also involved in what he calls “social business” where personal profit takes a back seat and profit for the people or public profit becomes important; where individual think about common public good and try to include others in the process of development. This development will establish a humane world. This social business cannot thrive on “charity” because in charity you always have to look for funds but in social business you generate money from the initial capital not for personal profit but to be reinvested for common public good. In this case the concept of micro-credit becomes important.

He distinguished between micro-credit and money-lending. According to him, many of the organizations are imposing high rate of interest and still calling themselves as micro-credit programme. He divided micro credit into three categories – (1) green zone where the interest rate below 10 per cent; (2) yellow zone where the interest rate between 10 and 15 per cent; and (3) red zone where the interest rate goes beyond 15 percent. And anyone involved in the social business and charging more than 15 per cent interest are not in micro credit but in money lending process. The primary objective of Grameen Bank was to oppose the high rate of interest and help the rural poor have access to capital with lower interest rate. This will not only remove the poverty in rural areas but also develop entrepreneurship among them and help creating a more humane world. Micro-credit thus has become a tool to defy the conventional wisdom which indeed is the conventional stupidity.