Democratise political, economic processes for sustainable dev

Speakers at an event in the capital on Monday emphasised the need for democratising political and economic processes, as well as ensuring good governance for sustainable development.

Also, they said unless a sound democracy was there and the elected representatives were made accountable, development would not sustain.

They were speaking at the closing session of the Annual BIDS Conference on Democracy and Development held at the conference hall of the Parjatan Bhaban.

Eminent economist Professor Rehman Sobhan said, "Unless we can democratise our political process, and also the economic process, we are not really going to be exposed to any very significant changes in the system."

He said for the last so many years, and particularly in recent times, there was no functioning democratic process in the country.

Mr Sobhan said one of the big problems of Bangladesh's developmental crisis was mal-governance.

In fact, the many problems Bangladesh faced arose from the fact that there was never a parliament where the incumbent government was held accountable for their mal-governance, their policies, and their failures, he noted.

"When we, therefore, talk about democracy and development, we are talking about our lived experience because we have not really been exposed to a functioning democracy, where the development agenda can be dissected and debated," he said.

Mr Sobhan also said unless the nature of electoral contestation, where people from all social backgrounds and with limited resources could actually contest and hope to win elections, could be democratised, only a particular class of people would occupy the legislature.

"But at the end of the day, unless you change the quality of the parliamentarians, unless you ensure that these are people who come from all backgrounds representing all constituencies, you are going to get a possibility of an elite-dominated democratic system, which has been the source of many of our problems," he added.

Speaking at the session as a panellist, Governor of the Bangladesh Bank Dr Ahsan H Mansur underscored the need for ensuring accountability at every stage of society.

He said voters would have to elect good people to parliament.

"Do we really care for democracy or pick the right people, who will uphold the democratic process?"

He also said Bangladeshi voters went by the election symbol, not the candidate.

"In a democratic process, we have to respect the people, the candidates, their views, their integrity, and so on."

Mr Mansur criticised the intellectual group for the derailment of the democratic process as they were sold out in the past to the political powers.

"Unless the institutions are developed, accountability does not come," he said, criticising the public offices that failed to resist orders from the political governments, which went against the interests of the people.

Dr Monzur Hossain, a member of the General Economics Division at the Planning Commission, said development was not possible without good governance.

"Unless quality democracy is there, development will take place at a certain level, but sustainable and inclusive development will not come," he said.

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Director General Prof AK Enamul Haque moderated the session.

Its former director general KAS Murshid and Professional Fellow of BRAC University Sultan Hafeez Rahman also attended as panellists.

syful-islam@outlook.com