KM Masum Billah

Sunil Gangopadhyay wrote in his poem “Keu Katha Rakhinei” “Father put his hand on my shoulder and said, see one day we too, Father is blind today, but we have seen nothing”. To be honest we was shown a dream, we were shown a dream of changing days. But in tune with Sunil Gangopadhyay, one has to say “kau Katha Rakhenei”.We have always heard about the zero tolerance against corruption. Within just three days of the fall of the former government, we saw how my country’s money was laundered. We could have really changed the day with that amount of money. So who was the zero tolerance policy used against?

Although there are some visible mega projects, it is not necessary to say how transparent they have been. In the face of the student movement, the Awami government has fallen in a situation where the economy of Bangladesh is facing the most challenges. That is, when the interim government took over the responsibility of managing the country, they will face the big challenge of overcoming the crisis of reserves, high inflation, financial institutions that are washed by political influence or the multifaceted crisis of the overall economy! Perhaps the biggest challenge for the interim government will be to turn around the fragile economic situation.

Various financial institutions including banks are the main driving force of the economy. However, in the last sixteen years of the previous government, the financial sector, including banking, has become unstable day by day. Due to the political influence in financial institutions including various banks, economists are trying to deal with various negative aspects, but due to the lack of goodwill of the previous government, these institutions are failing. According to the December 2023 data of the Center for Policy Dialogue, at least 92 thousand 261 crore rupees have been looted in the bank sector in Bangladesh in 15 years.

But the image is terrible! Due to this looting, financial institutions have lost transparency and acceptability to common people. Conscious people are quite concerned about financial institutions. And the main reason for this looting is that entire banks and financial institutions become hostages to influential or political persons. The weak condition of several state-owned banks is also due to not being able to get out of this political situation. However, among the privately owned banks, while the Islamic banks previously gained the trust of the public, after the scandal in 2022, those banks also lost the trust of the public.

According to CPD report, S Alam Group is involved in loan irregularities of around 30 thousand crore rupees. Financial institutions have become hostages to some such institutions and individuals. Also, there are cases of smuggling abroad with large amount of loans under name and anonymity. Due to political influence, many people have deliberately become debtors, among them many of the MPs of the previous government, including those close to them.

Banks and financial institutions have lost their position from a strong position! Comparing the year 2024 with 2008, it will be seen that defaulted loans have increased by almost 8 times! In the banking sector in Bangladesh in 2008, the defaulted loans were about Tk 22 thousand crore, which has now increased to Tk 1 lakh 56 thousand crore. So for the interim government to restore transparency in these financial institutions, take action against willful defaulters, reduce non-performing loans, and above all free the financial institutions from the clutches of political influence, establish good governance and restore order.

The interim government faces several other challenges. The rule of the Awami League government for sixteen consecutive years was autocratic attitude, lack of absolute tolerance, attempts to suppress opposing views which created a lot of distance between the opposition parties and other parties. It has been running the Parliament with a puppet opposition party with their own connivance where a strong opposition party is needed for the state. The biggest issue is that the last three elections under the party government were contested in various ways. In the 2018 elections, 153 MPs were elected unopposed.

There are also allegations of “voting during the day at night”. So it can be said that the electoral system was thoroughly debated. It should be noted that the system of caretaker government introduced for free, fair and impartial elections through the Thirteenth Amendment was abolished by the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in the National Parliament on 30 June 2011. And the next three elections were held under the Awami League government.

The main demand of the political parties on the interim government is to organize the Election Commission, reduce the distance between the political parties and create a fair environment for the elections with all the political parties. But before that, political parties need to be reformed. Creating a true democratic culture by following the principles of avoiding autocratic attitudes, absolute tolerance, and the suppression of evil especially by learning from the previous government. Which will dream of a new Bangladesh. Besides the Election Commission, it is important to make various government departments including the Secretariat and even the police force free from corruption and establish good governance.

After the government fell as a result of the mass coup through the quota reform movement, the students called for reforms across the country. We all applaud that. However, education and health departments need to be given more importance on a priority basis. Especially the new government should think about the current education curriculum. The education sector has been made the guinea pig due to repeated changes in the education system.

Especially with the current education curriculum, there is extreme frustration and anger among teachers and parents. Where the co-curriculum is more emphasized than the core curriculum, electronic devices are integrated, it is natural to create disparity in education between urban and rural or between rich and poor.

Although there is a creative system up to the higher secondary level that has been going on for the past century, the higher education system is still going on in the same old way. In this way, after a similar education system up to the higher secondary level, the students are getting the traditional education system at the graduate and post-graduate level in higher education institutions. Our education system is full of such inconsistencies! Teachers were not adequately trained as new methods were introduced.

Therefore, considering everything, it is also a matter of seeing what the new government will think about the implementation of modern education curriculum, especially when the head of the interim government is a world-renowned educator, Professor Dr. Mo Yunus! So there is a lot of hope for him! In addition to the education system, the health sector must also be organized! This sector also needs to be reformed to prevent all corruption in the health sector.

We have seen zero tolerance against corruption only on paper, but it is important to restore confidence in people’s minds by implementing it. In particular, preventing money laundering is a big challenge and everyone involved in it should be brought under the protection of the law and, if possible, arrangements should be made to bring the country’s money back to the country. In the rise in commodity prices, the common people are in a state of despair. During the previous government, the common ambassador was “Syndicate”! Now is the right time to dismantle these syndicates that have political influence.

If the syndicate is broken, the market situation can return to normal. Also, the challenge of bringing inflation down to bearable levels remains. Besides, in the last 10 years, the per capita income has doubled, but no new pay scale has been given due to which salary inequality has been created. Currently, the reserve crisis has been a headache for a long time. A record amount of reserves (48 billion dollars) was raised even during the Corona epidemic, but currently the reserves are stuck at the bottomGross reserves as measured by the IMF formula were $21.8 billion at the end of June 2024, the S&P said. In such a situation, quick action must be taken because more pressure will increase on the reserves in the near future, as well as the value of money against the dollar may decrease further. To pay installments of foreign debt will increase the pressure on the reserves! In that case there is the challenge of taking the reserve to at least a credible place. Which is the biggest challenge considering the situation!

In the interim government there are prominent economists, academics, civil society, former bureaucrats, students and other sectors. So we can hope that those who have been chosen in a historical moment of the country will be able to use their talent and experience to solve these crises and make timely reforms. Especially the students who brought down the Awami government by protesting also have the main demand for the reform of the country. All the government offices including the country’s economy, education system, health system should be organized. Autonomous institutions should be freed from the influence of politics and given the opportunity to develop their own way. But the big question now is how much time they will get for everything.

The writer is a, Columnist, Officer, Janata Bank Plc, Chowrasta Branch, Patuakhali.