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CROSSTALK

Gapping the bridge
IF a bridge is meant to connect, the Padma Bridge will go down in history for making disconnects even before the work got started. The World Bank has refused to finance the project. Asian Development Bank followed suit by backing out of its earlier commitment. Japan International Cooperation Agency is likely to do the same thing. We have heard about bridging a gap before. This one time we are talking about gapping a bridge.
It's not so much the question of building the bridge. The bridge doesn't exist and we aren't going to be worse off if it doesn't get built. We will be better off if it gets done, because the flow of traffic could be smoother between two sides of the largest river in the country. People and goods will travel faster, bringing speed and economy to trade and commerce. Money is time and time is money.
Financial analysts have their own reasons to be worried. Commercial funding of the project would be much more expensive, which means the country will be saddled with roughly eight to nine times in interest payment. Besides, it may not be easy to find a commercial investor
who would like to invest in the largest project ever taken up in Bangladesh by the World Bank. Investors from Malaysia, Qatar and China have been hovering around like curious suitors, but none has yet made a conclusive offer. It's likely that they will think twice before they invest in a project already tainted by corruption charges.
Hiding in the thick of issues is a simple question: Is it worth picking a quarrel with foreign donors, sacrificing one of the major infrastructural initiatives that could hugely go to the credit of this government? The World Bank decision has been picked up by the media around the world, and the reputation loss of the country has been no less costly than its financial damage. It doesn't matter how much we blame Robert Zoellick or Jim Yong Kim, the fact remains that our government has failed to convince both of them.
There is an element of Don Quixotic delusion in this whole thing. We are trying to fight the windmills that we imagine to be giants. What are we fighting here, really? If the World Bank has smelled a rat in
the Padma Bridge project, so it did. We needed to turn a new page and move on instead of being so sensitive. We have reacted as if the Bank has put a drop of filth in our proverbial glass of milk.
Frankly, if the World Bank said it had found evidence of corruption, then it should have been all the more reason that we cooperated with an investigation. We shouldn't have gone into an ego hassle over an allegation that's as Bangladeshi as Jamdani. It was not the first time that the country has been blamed for corruption. Bangladesh had been the world's most corrupt nation for several years in a row.
As a matter of fact, Bangladesh did nothing to allay the concerns of the donors when the corruption
issue was raised. Instead, the prime minister threatened to find private investors to replace them. The Ant-Corruption Commission promptly cleared the project of any foul play. Then the finance minister was as vehement in his denial as he is today. There were telltale signs that the government in its reaction was circumventing the subject. In an exercise of tokenism, the then communication minister was punished
with a new cabinet posting.
It will be an insult to our intelligence to think that the World Bank came up with a false accusation. It not only made the accusation, but also followed it through to the end, a decision that has been defended by its past and present presidents. Other donor agencies are also convinced. ADB would not have gotten along simply because it wanted to jump into the fray.
If anything, the Padma Bridge fiasco has exposed us to the risk of Ostrich Maneuver. It's the state of people burying their heads to avoid any given situation, much like an ostrich covers its head to avoid danger. Who doesn't remember Saddam Hussein's information minister, nicknamed "Comical Ali," who stayed loyal to the last? When it came to the crunch, he ducked out through the back door, with a scarf around his head replacing his famous black beret.
There are "Comical Alis" in the government whose faces are turning blue from defending it. But one has to touch the truth through a membrane. People have been thrown in jail for defaming the prime minister. Yet one of her ministers doesn't get even so much as a rap on the knuckles for defaming the country.
The beleaguered bridge stretches imagination. How far does it go between one frontman and beyond?
The writer is Editor, First News, and an opinion writer of The Daily Star.
E-mail: badrull51@yahoo.com