You cannot but applaud, in the first place, BEZA's offer of every support to industrial units to be set up within one compound called 'economic zone'. One of its recent survey questions was: "How would economic zones contribute to make [sic] Bangladesh as [sic] a middle income country?"
Such a game-changing idea sounds ambitious, at the very least! There is no indication of entrepreneurs' high confidence in the current business climate. Investment has rather stagnated in a system of governance devoid of people’s participation.
This 'political' government has in fact provided bureaucratic impetus to attain its publicity goals of development through high sounding initiatives.
Accordingly, Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) has been assigned to commission the private sector’s industrial projects in around 100 such zones across the country. Its tasks involve ensuing national interests, and giving priority to job creation.
In the current mode of governance, we have seen a powerful minister failing to free Dhaka city’s Manik Miah Avenue from cars only for a day (Friday) a week. Mr. Obaidul Quader upheld the decision taken by eight government agencies and supported by 36 organisations on 22 September to mark the world car free day.
His ministry has made the Padma bridge visible with installation of one span. The day such visibility was publicised, the image used by an official agency showed an almost complete bridge over the mighty river! It was quietly removed from the site, however.
What is fake news, then? Maybe, that coinage is the patent of US president Donald Trump. His language skills of standard V or VI, as measured by linguists, cannot be ignored in any way. The Washington Post returned him his words of criticism of politicians during presidential campaign - “Trump administration is all talk, no action [emphasis mine] on Rohingya crisis” - in its headline.
We are familiar with more serious things than Trump’s reality show.
The BBC has recently published a feature on 'Seven old English words that deserve to make a comeback'. Kakistocracy is one which was coined, almost 200 years ago, by English author Thomas Love Peacock. It means “a state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens”.
Trump’s rhetorical “America first” approach is something which is being followed already by others. For Russia, China and India, economic national interests are a definitive priority when they pursue their Myanmar policy despite the Rohingya genocide. Bangladesh's fervent call for siding with her matters little to some ‘friends’ who are not ready to lose anything in Myanmar.
After all, this is a world where the external forces well read the value of domestically isolated leaders for easy bargains. This is the world where global condemnation, for not showing a human face to the Rohingya Muslims, hardly bothers Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Everybody is still not treated equally. When the leak of only one issue, Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email server, costs her the US presidency, rampant leaks of question papers in public examinations, admission test and recruitment test are not a big deal in our case.
Thanks to Mr Nurul Islam Nahid's regime, journalistic question should be put the other way round - which of the exams during his tenure was free from allegations of leakage?
Reports of mass malpractice or of a collective downfall no more unnerve the ones in the establishment.
The Dhaka city, according to global reports, has reached the dregs in terms of livability, security, conditions for women, and stress, albeit the citizens' concerns and urge for improvement.
Dhaka’s conditions showcase the overall state of governance in the country. The two mayors had in 2015 overrun the elections that they themselves could not claim to be free from foul play. That, too, exposed the state of contemporary democratic politics.
Leaders and diplomats of big powers and foreign investors interested in Bangladesh would definitely not remain ignorant of how Dhaka's office-bearers returned to power in 2014 and how far rule of law is applicable nowadays.
Only one sentence in the European Union’s latest review of Bangladesh’s rights situation suffices this. “In 2016 the country took on the cast of a one-party system with the opposition out of parliament with practically no, or very limited, influence on the political process."
What if this report was not written and published and what difference has it made through its publication? The report, let us admit, was not compiled in our immediate vicinity.
In “The Political Man”, an American political sociologist, Seymour Martin Lipset had elucidated his thoughts on the situation like ours:
“...if the conditions for perpetuating an effective opposition do not exist, the authority of the officials in power will steadily increase, and popular influence on policy will be at a minimum. This is the situation in all one-party states, and by general agreement, at least in the West, these are dictatorships."
* Khawaza Main Uddin is a journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]