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.