Bangladesh: Elections Postponed Indefinitely: A Capitalist Coup?

by Sophia Barkat

On Feb 28, 2007, Interim President Fakruddin Ahmed announced that elections would be postponed indefinitely in the nation until "the influence of the 3Ms -- money, muscle and misuse of authority” was resolved (http://news.yahoo.com/). Fakruddin Ahmed’s government came to power after Iajuddin Ahmed stepped down from his interim President responsibilities last year. The new government also has military backing. Was it a coup?

We Mean Law Enforcement

To show that the government meant business, it has ordered the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to round up 50 high-level politicians and government employees suspected of corrupt. The first assets seized were a luxury car worth U.S. $290,000 belonging to outgoing Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's political secretary Haris Chowdhury. But, this is by no means a singling out of BNP politicians (http://news.yahoo.com/). According to Shafiq Alam of AFP, a total of seven politicians have been apprehended by RAB. Mosharraf Hossain, an aviation minister in the 1996-2001 Awami League government, also made the list, as did outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Mirza Abbas, and two of its ex-lawmakers, Hafiz Ibrahim and Mohammad Ghiasuddin, a top power ministry bureaucrat, A.N.H. Akhter Hossain, influential city council commissioner Abdul Kaiyum and the BNP chief of the northeastern city of Sylhet, Ariful Haq Chowdhury (http://news.yahoo.com/). This may be a measure of true corruption in the public sector, but it does tell the whole story of what is really going on while the interim government remains in power.

A Capitalist Coup?

In the last decade, following the advice of the World Bank, the public sector of Bangladesh has been undergoing massive privatization—mainly to foreign players. According to February 6^th 2007 article by Indo Asian News, state-owned Rupali Bank was recently sold in entirety to Prince Bander of Saudi Arabia. Apparently, the previously elected government of Khaleda Zia had allowed a 67% sale only. Since Khaleda Zia was forced to step down last year, and an interim government appointed, the interim government has sold the rest of the bank to Prince Bander—at a total cost of $473 million. A similar $ 3 billion bid from the Indian Tata Corporation in the fertilizer/natural gas sectors was however blocked by Khaleda and it remains to be seen if the interim government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed will alter this position also.

All this begs the question: does privatization have anything to do with the present chaos in Bangladesh?  Tata’s bid on the fertilizer/natural gas sector has been stalled since Khaleda Zia came to power in 2001. On Feb. 17, 2007, Tata also announced that it would re-open talks with the Bangladesh government (http://news.yahoo.com/). In fact, early in February 2007, Fakruddin’s government okayed another US $160 million deal with India’s state-run power producer Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

What’s really going on, Fakruddin Ahmed? Care to comment?

Political
Social
Economics
Religious
Science