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Missing the opportunity to free theRoyal Bengal Tiger

Mo. Anisur Rahman
ON l /11, the country was saved from being torn apart by the savage pull of opposing power and wealth-hungry political forces by the calling of emergency and formation of a new caretaker government with the backing of the armed forces.
The new CTG is trying to install good governance by its bold campaign against some big
corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, and is preparing the ground for impartial national elections by overhaul of the Election Commission. Among other measures, a great step has been to set free the judicial system as an independent state organ.
If all ends well according to the plans of this government (i.e. if a new elected government comes into power through a decent election and if peace
prevails in the country thereafter), the elite of the country whose vocal leadership is being given by the so-called "shushil shamaj” and also, perhaps, the ordinary middle class of the society, may thereby enjoy a better life, and a congenial climate for expansion of industry and trade by both national and foreign entrepreneurs may also reign.
But it is uncertain how much these reforms will benefit the
downtrodden of the country struggling to live with dignity, those whom I shall call "dukhi manush" in the language of the architect of our national struggle for self-determination, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
If these reforms are successful and if peace reigns in the country for an extended period, some kind of "development" will advance in the country, giving certainly some "trickle-down" benefits to some of the dukhi manush.
But such development will also increase economic and social inequalities -- the kind of development that the nation has experienced since its independence. Such development may also reduce the proportion of people below the poverty line drawn by the dollar-a-day type of count, but a large proportion of such people will remain deprived of the benefits of this kind of development, and many will even roll downwards by the sweep of such development.
The country has actually been experiencing this kind of development since its independence at various rates, at the same time that millions of its dukhi manush are ending their lives remaining dukhis, and many, many are becoming dukhi anew.
[For the full version of this article, please read this month's Forum, available with The Daily Star on Monday, March 3.)
Prof Md Anisur Rahman is Member, first Planning Commission.