Build inclusive society to ensure sustainable dev

Eminent economist Prof Rehman Sobhan has called for building an inclusive society to ensure long term sustainable development which in turn will provide the strongest protection against extra-democratic usurpation and “extremist challenges”.

He also underscored the need for “democratisation” of both political and economic opportunity to materialise the inclusive society.

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Prof Sobhan, chairman of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), was delivering the first lecture of “Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series” at the Senate Building of Dhaka University yesterday.

The title of his lecture was “Bangladesh's Permanent Liberation Struggle: Constructing an Inclusive Democratic Society”.

On the upcoming national election, he said all the parties and the voters could hope for a “somewhat more credible and less partisan Election Commission (EC) to organise the polls”.

“How far the EC will be permitted to neutralise the pervasive influence of an incumbent regime in office for a decade, presiding over a partisanised administration which manages election at ground level, remains to be seen,” he said.

State policy has supported entrepreneurial effort but much more should be done, he said, adding "The primary task of the state should be to minimise rent extraction from our entrepreneurs, recognise their contributions at all levels and build upon their gains".

Prof Sobhan said malfunctioning democracies, manifested through dysfunctional representative institutions, contribute to malgovernance through excessively weak accountability of public institutions.

"Accountability is further weakened in the absence of competitive elections," he said, adding that such unaccountable governance encourages corruption and perpetuates inefficiency.

The noted economist suggested introducing provisions for The Right to Recall (RTR) for lawmakers who do not honour their electoral pledges and engage in malfeasance. RTR is a law that allows citizens to replace public servants holding key posts in the government.

He also underscored the need for media freedom, ensuring accountability of public servants and total transperancy.

"Through websites the public should have ready access to the bank accounts and tax records of all ministers, MPs, local representatives, public servants, private entrepreneurs receiving benefits from public institutions via bank loans, loan rescheduling, public subsidies and other such supportive interventions involving the use of public resources," he said.

While commemorating Abdur Razzaq, he said politicians like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tajuddin Ahmad and Ataur Rahman have all been inspired by his ideas and looked on him with affection and respect.

Founder and Chairman of Brac Sir Fazle Hasan Abed said though there are many unfinished agendas, the country has made excellent progress in reducing child mortality and increasing life expectancy in the last 45 years.

He hoped that the foundation will turn out a centre of excellence in future.

Among others, Pro-vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Dr Nasreen Ahmed, Chairperson of Bengal Foundation Abul Khair, Director General of Razzaq Foundation Ahrar Ahmad, Senior Fellow of Center for Policy Dialogue Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya also spoke.