Reforming law to root out syndicates

General consumers of Bangladesh, especially members of the Muslim community,  had resigned to accepting it more or less as a fact of life that essential commodity prices would go out of their  reach before every Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, and Eid.  Because, all government efforts in the past, however strict and bold those might appear on the face of it, would invariably end on a whimper and the all-powerful syndicates who controlled the market had the last laugh. In fact, the so-called syndicates always remained invisible and, as such, beyond the reach of the law.  Why such non-market entities called syndicates could wield so much power to distort the normal functioning of the kitchen as well as other commodities markets in Bangladesh had often been a serious bone of contention in the country. Under the circumstances, all kinds of guesswork and hypotheses were flying around to understand and then find appropriate remedy for the ill in the form of syndicate that the market has been suffering from. 

In effect, all such efforts were but as good as  beating about the bush for the simple reason that those could not  get to the heart of the issue. To be fair, all the attention was focused on finding where those syndicates were hiding rather than on who was actually protecting them. Whatever the  case, it has become an imperative to destroy those syndicates as those were not only distorting the essential commodity market during important religious and social events, but they were also creating roadblocks in the path of doing business with ease.  So, homing in on the exact clue to the forces that distort normal functioning of the market  and take measures as required to address those is also important for encouraging investors both local and overseas.  

The special envoy to the interim government's Chief Adviser (CA) on international affairs, Lutfey Siddiqi, who, reportedly,  attended a recent discussion event in the city did shed new light on the issue of the so-called market syndicates,  the reports further go. What he pointed out is notable in that, in his view, the problem has in effect been institutionalised as it is embedded in the very regulatory framework by design. So it is no surprise that all previous attempts by successive governments in the past to fight this gremlin of 'market syndicate' in the system produced little result. The legal framework to fight it was itself faulty in that anti-competitive clauses were purposefully inserted in it. So, to all appearances, the clue was missing in all previous attempts at both identifying then to spearhead the course of action against  the lurking evil force in the market.   

 Reassuringly, the special envoy to the CA further informed that the interim government was actively working to wrest the market that should function naturally free from the clutches of the nexus of syndicates and thereby make doing business easier. Reportedly, the interim government is working to bring about necessary reforms to the regulatory framework so that all-powerful 'nexus of syndicates' could be removed from the commodity market once and for all. But while doing so, those in the interim government, which has but a limited mandate in power, would do well to keep in mind that all the previous governments, elected or otherwise, would prove to either be a willing or unwilling  accessory in rendering the anti-syndicate provisions in the law ineffective. In that case, the reform should advisably be made fail-safe so that the future governments might not have the scope to revert the process of related reforms under any excuse.