Our beloved motherland is now split in two faces. One is fair and resilient, while the other is dark and depressing. Our farmers overcome many a odd and sweat to feed the country's 140 million mouths raising the grains output to the brink of self-sufficiency; our migrant brothers live in dismal condition sans families bending their backs in foreign lands and the remittances they send home bring smiles not only in their families but also in the government; and our poor workers at home, especially the young women, toil in mills to raise the industrial production. So the government feels comfortable and tells the nation the economy is doing well and on track to achieve 5.5 percent growth rate, a target it had set for the fiscal year 2003-2004 that is due to end next month. The trends that the economy has displayed in past nine months -- during July 2003 to March 2004 -- are encouraging, says Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed the other day after emerging from a board meeting. He says the foodgrains production is projected to cross 28 million metric tons, up by about 5.3 percent than that achieved last year. Industrial production involving jute, cotton, apparel and leather is picked up with 7.2 percent growth rate in six months until December. Money sent by millions of Bangladeshis working abroad has increased by more than 11 percent swelling the foreign currency reserve to more than US$ 2.5 billion.
The country's politics -- as tumultuous as ever -- has failed to match the economic success, according to the donors. This face of Bangladesh, they say, is dull and disappointing. As World Bank Country Director Christine Wallich told reporters ahead of next month's meeting of the donors to review Bangladesh's economic performances and new aid requirement: "We want less confrontational politics and more development." "Law and order is essential for the development of any country, not just Bangladesh. And confrontational politics is not good for any country."
The World Bank official is right. However, the question of law and order concerns more the government than those in opposition politics. It is up to the government and its law enforcement machinery to make sure that all the citizens -- not just a few who have recently been provided with gunmen -- deserve to live, work and sleep in peace. The right to security is a fundamental constitutional right in Bangladesh. Let the government prove its worth in this regard. There is no point in shifting the blame on others. Better is to confront the challenge and try to solve it with courage and foresight. Rare is a case in Bangladesh when those in power have really tried to involve their opponents in dealing with national issues such as growing crime and violence that have clouded the success stories written by the ordinary people -- our farmers and workers.
No external force can really help much in resolving the political stand-off that many say has held back the economic progress. However strange it may seem to many at home and abroad, our two main political parties -- the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- are in no mood of living in peace. They seem to thrive more in confrontation than in harmony. That's how their workers and supporters are tuned. The political feuding here has a pattern and it is usually marked by hartals (strike) and demonstrations. And hartals -- general strikes that normally shut down shops and educational institutions -- are what annoy most Bangladeshis and their foreign donors. This has become so common a form of protest in Bangladesh that alternatives are difficult to find.
Unless the parties concerned are willing to make compromises we seem to be destined to suffer. Until then the two faces will go apart farther.
Whether we like it or not it our afflictions are likely to go on until we have the courage to turn the table on those who make us to suffer.