Muhammad Quamrul Islam :
It gave us immense pleasure to read point- blank remarks of teacher economist Nurul Islam on the current state of affairs in Bangladesh in the light of his long experiences at home and abroad, reported in print media on November 16- 17, 2014. Instantly the period we were students in Dhaka University Economics Department from 1957-61 as residents of S M Hall appeared in the mind. The lectures he imparted on advanced economic theory in M A final class, we learnt at ease listening his impressive lectures. Right now it came to vision Hari Har Dhar taught us circular flow of economy in 1st year Honours class who used to call me grand student, as his student was my teacher at Comilla Victoria College. He was in Rangoon University before joining Dhaka University. Dr Mazharul Haq led our education tour to Pakistan through India by train which was full of exuberance visiting different places with classmates, including Yunus who won Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. That four years left good moral impressions on our psyche and career that was enabled by our teachers and Dr. M N Huda was Head of the Department.
Prof. Nurul Islam expressed doubt about quality of national statistics. He highlighted urgency for developing human resources as well as strengthening research institutes in order to remove the dearth of quality data. As regards government’s plan to export rice and state of country’s agricultural development, he found the lack of adequate and reliable data to compare various parameters with those of next door neighbour, and Thailand, which are exporting rice to the world market. There is lack of proper information on manufacturing sector, especially in the case of SMEs and ready-made garment industry.
He doubted the accuracy and quality of data on the basis of which all national statistics on GDP, poverty, etc are calculated and major decisions are taken.
There is no reliable data on savings after so many years. Most countries have data on private savings, public savings and corporate savings; but Bangladesh lacks, it is not being measured properly. He was critical of the investment estimates following the old practice of early 1970s, which has not been changed.
He focused on the quality of country’s higher education. He regretted that most of the teachers remain busy in consultancy rather than imparting higher quality education. Sir, look at Bangladesh national dailies November 21, 2014 report in first page with photo Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet closed sine die following a student’s death in a clash between Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) factions for supremacy in the University. It left 17 others injured. It is the intermittent deadly scene countrywide in Universities/Colleges since 1973 but political parties and civil societies which contain ‘teacher- leaders’ as office bearers do not stand against it for obvious selfish reasons.
There is no concern for session jam, campus crisis, sexual assaults, etc, which involve heavy financial and social costs. At the root cause is teacher-students partisan politics. There is no democratic practice of holding regular annual elections to the Students Union, which was up to 1960s. But, different teachers’ elections by partisan colour are always regular, and annual.
It is known to everybody that in every stage of education policy and administration in the country there are corruptions, be it public or private, MPO listed education institutions etc from appointments, transfers and postings to what not, reported and commented in national media regularly but to no effect. Coaching centers abound. On the shoulder of guardians education expenses have gone up several times, wage earners’ families meet up by remittances received, which statistics are not kept in public domain, which should be in the light of observation of Sir.
Of late question paper leakage becoming an established fact but Minister shows no concern but conceals in favour of vested quarters. Conscious Prof Jafar Iqbal has stood against leakage of question papers. He is supported by all strata of society; but a lone fighter from University! Now he is fighting against question paper leakage at primary final examination level sending appeal not to destroy the country by making the children tolerant to corruptions, involving guardians to pay extra exacted by Coaching Centers. Education Minister, as usual is denying the leakage and smelling conspiracy in it! There is no use of primary and junior certificates examinations, which breed corruption and burden the children, the devoted teachers point out and urge to scrap the system without further delay. The controversial government of last 5 January elections is taking the country to the brink, citizens lament. Then what?
Obviously we were in high spirits to apply the knowledge we gained in practical life after coming out of University in 1961. We did in the posts we held led to emergence of Bangladesh in erstwhile East Pakistan 1971 in the spirit of Bengali Nationalism and looked for continued progress in post Bangladesh period and socio-economic emancipation of the people.
More so when our friends in the then Pakistan Institute of Development Economics shifted to sovereign Bangladesh and raised Bangladesh Institute which is now Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies(BIDS). But that did not materialise as my batch mate Dr. Gafur its Research Director, expressed concern at the pitiable economic and administrative scenario by biased political outlook and politicisation. Universities are not producing students with that vent of mind and ability to become researchers.
In the Govt., semi-Govt. and Autonomous sector politico-administrative nexus broke discipline and made personnel management ‘personal’; Director Personnel of erstwhile WAPDA lamented seeing its bifurcation in 1972 by Minister Khandaker Mushtaq for personal aggrandizements, instead of carrying development, research and planning for rehabilitation of war ravaged projects; increasing overhead posts/ expenditures but no project benefits.
It set bad precedence and breaking erstwhile EPIDC into various sector corporations, making profitable entities into losing enterprises. Manipulation of planning and statistics, preparing projects giving fictitious justifications, hire consultants at will to favour own/party men became a practice. It is open secret that consultancy is an area of corruption shared by powerful at upper level.
The ever increasing number of Research, Policy and Planning outfits under Govt. and NGOs, emerged as a new phenomenon in post Bangladesh, didn’t provide viable base for development, except regular seminars or so, to justify foreign funds received, in the auditoriums sprawling in the capital.
They mostly invite Ministers of the day as think- tanks to remain in their good grace. Of late National Board of Revenue has asked for information about research bodies, to bring those under taxes net who are evading tax under various pretexts as being voluntary organizations, non-profit making.
Prof. Nurul Islam said there should be no compromise on credible and quality data. There should be transparency on some basic economic data that will be trusted by everybody. All democratic governments which have legitimacy should ensure transparency on some economic data. He said trust on the data stems from accountability and transparency.
It is to be kept above suspicion keeping data on major indicators in public domain. It appears that policy makers are unaware, uninformed, or perhaps uninterested about the quality of data. We are far behind India. He and many other researchers feel frustrated when Bangladesh lacks reliable, adequate and up-to-date data on many key sectors.
As such, separate research fund in next five year plan as said by Planning Minister will not do unless high quality staff could be made available, which responsibility vests on University teachers to provide high quality education imparting knowledge, honesty and integrity. Towards that a responsible government is the need of the hour.
(The writer is an economist, advocate and columnist. (E-mail:[email protected]))
