Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque and Dr. M Abul Kashem Mozumder :
Reports are plenty mentioning the tremendous growth of tycoons. This is not a good sign. It goes against resilient economic growth. There must be realistic public policy to maintain a modicum of balance. This is what policy makers want. Yet malfeasance in financial management with influential pulling the string from behind the scene creates conditions conducive for the unscrupulous persons to make money. Many critics pointed finger at governing elites creating a chunk of opportunities for self-seeking and fortune seeking snobs to become multi millionaire. According to very recent news reports:
Bangladesh has topped the list of countries that saw the quickest growth in the number of ultra-wealthy people between 2012 and 2017, according to a new report from New York-based research firm Wealth-X.The number of ultra-high net-worth (UHNW) individuals in Bangladesh rose by 17.3 percent during the period, the World Ultra Wealth Report 2018 shows. UHNW individuals are defined as people with investable assets of at least $30 million, usually excluding personal assets and property such as a primary residence, collectibles and consumer durables
Some comments about the report deserve mention:
—It is the people who are related to govt. procurement along with involvement in contractual works with govt. and semi govt. organization. Because getting rich faster in any business like manufacturing,service or trading , it is very difficult to be so in Bangladesh now.
—unlikely the Wealth-X is made a report and displays the chart thus very obscured and has hard to make sense that some people are becoming wealthy in Bangladesh. Poor is getting $2,00 per day by all labor hour without pension scheme and certain age after the poor persons may die with no eating and no care of medication because saving is harder for them due to devaluing the local currency each year with upward. Few people may exploit them because there no law for rich and no law for poor. If someone cheat millions and millions by exploiting 20 cents from per person of labor day then there could be easy to find that the some people become rich and then displacing fund to foreign land.
—Very interesting news. Can we expect more number of philanthropic works by thse achievers in the human resource development.
—-This is also an indication that Bangladesh is the fastest growing country in uneven distribution of wealth
News Today reports that:
Bangladesh ranked the fastest growing country in the world in terms of its increasing rich population, reports UNB. According to the latest World Ultra Wealth Report 2018 by WEALTH-X, the ultra-high net worth (UHNW) population in Bangladesh posted a 17.3 percent growth over the last six years (2012-17) surpassing all other countries of the world. UHNW refers to individuals with a net worth of 30 million USD or more. US-based WEALTH-X provides intelligence and market research on UHNW. In its latest report released on September 5, WEALTH- X found only five countries in the world which have posted double digit growth in rise of their riches’ numbers and these countries are: Bangladesh (17.3 percent), China (13.4), Vietnam (12.7), Kenya (11.7) and India (10.7). The report states, “Looking at a broader range of nations, China – perhaps surprisingly – is not the global leader. That status lies with Bangladesh, which has registered compound annual growth in its UHNW population of 17.3 % since 2012. Double-digit increases have also been posted by Vietnam, Kenya and India, illustrating the significant opportunities for wealth creation across the emerging world.” The five other countries which made it to the top 10 in terms of higher rise of the rich population are: Hong Kong (9.3 percent), Ireland (9.1), Israel (8.6), Pakistan (8.4) and United States (8.1). The report says number of rich (UHNW) rose by 12.9 percent globally to 255,810 people, a sharp acceleration from a year earlier. Their combined wealth surged by 16.3 percent to $31.5 trillion, implying healthy gains in average net worth. In terms of richest concentration of rich people, the top 10 countries are: United States (79,595 UHNW population), Japan (17,915), China (16,875), Germany (15,080), Canada (10,840), France (10,120), Hong Kong (10,010), United Kingdom (9,370), Switzerland (6,400) and Italy (5,960).
The reasons for this perhaps are not far to seek Opportunities for money making are not fairly provided by the state. Manipulation has crept into the distributional profile. Manipulation appears to be function of the governing elites. The contemporary scenario of corruption in the wake of fuzzy governance is a manipulation by the dominant interest group-the coalition of interests among “governing elites,” “fortune seeking political entrepreneurs” and privileged groups . This seems to e a function of connectivity. Governing elites include both political leadership and bureaucracy. It is seen that governing elites expand various opportunities for economic concentration including rent-seeking ones. It ultimately aggravates the poverty situation threatening the legitimacy of the regime and increasing the probability of regime turn over.
Manipulation has of late degenerated into criminalization. Bangladesh syndrome of criminalization has diverse manifestations like rampant politicization and partisanization, toll extortion, forced occupation of land, commercialization of politics and criminalization of business and syndication. Criminalization started to mushroom in Bangladesh when things stumbled onto misgovernance with state failing to stem the rot.
The propensity to corruption is inherent in misgovernance. Corruption has acquired a pervasive character devouring economy as a whole. This problematic scenario continues to hold tenuously on extremely fragile and soft state. . The consequence is likely to be the generation of catastrophic conditions as well as humanitarian crisis. Corruption in terms of massive societal degeneration put severe strains on the implementation of public policy on various sectors and sub-sectors. Despite effectiveness of the economic policy strategy in rising GDP at a reasonable rate and raising remittance flows corruption has brought into being a set of interrelated and potentially explosive problems. This is reflected in the fast deterioration of material conditions and rising structural tension bedeviling the lives of the vulnerable especially in the countryside. Quddusi (2010) has succinctly analyzed recent trends in criminalization and corruption in a state with military preponderance. It is clear from his study that corruption thrives in the midst of criminalization of politics.
Corrupt practice in various forms continue to engulfs all strategic institutions undermining governance. It is so deeply in field level extensions departments for rural development with the reinforcement of criminalization and syndication that it seems impossible to break its vicious chain. The environment around bureaucracy and political arena has become inordinately vitiated to give way to institutionalization of corruption.
A true dinosaur of corruption has reigned supreme under the manipulative design of fortune seeking rural leaders to weaken political stability and economic resilience. Local touts active in rural politics have been immensely benefited from Machiavellian syndrome of politicization while the honest has been sidelined.
“For decades, the story of Bangladesh has been a cycle of poverty, natural disaster, political violence and corruption.”. A policy of patrimonialism followed by successive government in Bangladesh has facilitated corruption (Khan, 1998). Patrimonialism is a system in which the politicians national wealth and resources to enrich themselves creating an affluent class subservient to them through the massive transfer of public wealth to private hands.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Retired Professor and Dr. M Abul Kashem Mozumder, Pro-VC, BUP)
