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The development versus democracy debate
The government should pay heed to David Camerons advice. They should combat the corruption along with terrorism with full strength. Development alone cannot bring prosperity to a country and make people happy
Abdul Gaffar Choudhury
David Cameron, the former Tory Prime Minister of Britain recently visited Bangladesh. He met our Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina and visited a ready-made garments factory in Tejgaon. He also participated in a round table conference arranged by International Growth Centre and exchanged opinions in a meeting with British-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce. In this meeting he revived the controversy whether develo
pment is possible without advanced democracy. He said, advanced democracy is essential for the development of a country and democracy means not only holding elections but establishing human rights, freedom of speech and rule of law. Election is a process but these are the foundations of real democracy. In a functional democracy uprooting corruption and combatting terrorism are must. He said that terrorism and corruption are the biggest challenges for the democracy of the future world. According to the former British PM the future world will have to fight to save democracy and to defeat terrorism.
Though David Cameron did not visit Bangladesh during his premiership, he visited Sheikh Hasina many times before and has a friendly relation with her. He praised the development of Bangladesh and said that those who criticize Hasina government by saying that the government could not use foreign aid properly, they should visit the country to see its excellent development. At the same time he warned Bangladesh that if they wanted to become a country of middle-income group by 2021 they should invest more in the sector of fuel, infrastructure, education and skills. He also said, that there is no short cut to establish democracy and the world would face challenge from anti-democratic forces and corruption. He said that corruption is like cancer which spreads all over the society and destroys its values and achievements. And for corruption people may get vexed with politics and politicians.
David Cameron warned his listeners that some people think development can be speedy under a dictatorship or autocratic government, but this is a wrong idea. Only democracy which means rule of law, human rights, fundamental rights and justice can ensure real democracy. Without these democracy cannot flourish and without democracy good governance cannot be established and without good governance the creation of an environment for good business and development is not possible. The greatest challenge of human society now is terrorism. It cannot be contained only by military action. Military action is necessary but there should be an ideological fight. People should be inspired with the vision of a free, tolerant and democratic society. The ex-British PM has spoken on different aspects of the present situation of the world at large. I am not going to discuss all the issues that David Cameron talked about in his speech but would focus on his comment about development and democracy.
Cameron said for development democracy is essential. He mentioned in his speech that there are some people who believe development can be speedier in autocracy than in democracy. Though some people still believe in this theory, it was propagated long ago by the tyrants and autocrats. More than 50 years ago Pakistans military dictator General Ayub Khan propagated a slogan, Development rather than democracy. He wanted to convince people that democracy is a hindrance to development and development should get priority over democracy. To prove his theory he demolished the democratic system and introduced a system called Basic Democracy according to Justice Kayani which was neither basic nor democracy. Under this system he limited peoples right to vote and allocated the basic democrats huge money for development. A petty government officer C. O (Dev. circle officer) of development was monitoring the development of BD members. There was no peoples participation in those development works and massive corruption engulfed Ayubs development plan which was aided by huge foreign help. Yet Ayub declared the decade of his reign as a decade of development. After the collapse of his regime it was found that his claim was not true.
There was some development in road construction and some improvement of rural economy, but there was no sustainable development. The huge amount of money was grabbed by the C. O (Dev) and the basic democrats working under him. But after Communist Revolution China has shown how they can develop their vast country with peoples participation and without any western aid. China is also ruled by a one-party system, but their inner democracy has a strong foundation which present western democracy lacks. We should agree with David Cameron that Bangladesh has achieved a remarkable development under Hasina government because it is a democratic government and because of the mass participation in its development work.
Under General Ershad or Khaleda Zias government there were some development but not a massive one, which has been achieved under present Hasina government. Bangladesh is also now facing a great challenge from terrorism and corruption. Hasina government is fighting terrorism with remarkable success but it could not fight the corruption successfully. This corruption is overshadowing governments success in development. Also democracy could not succeed properly facing the challenge of terrorism and corruption. Despite huge success of the government in the development sector people are still not fully satisfied with Awami League party.
The government should pay heed to David Camerons advice. They should combat the corruption along with terrorism with full strength. Development alone cannot bring prosperity to a country and make people happy. Government should emphasize on development with democracy. This would mean full participation of people in their developmental programme. The fruits of development should not be grabbed by a section of party leaders, MPs and ministers. The Prime Minister should be strong enough to fight these two challenges outside and inside her government and party.
Though Britain is not a well-governed country now, its former PM has given some advice to Bangladesh-perhaps, learnt from his own experience as a Prime minister. Bangladesh would be benefitted if it listens to his advice earnestly.
London, 5 May, Friday 2017
