The long-suffering people of Bangladesh have a history of participating in political movements against the authority. Sadly, their sacrifices have too often failed to result in any tangible benefits in the form of structural reforms which could result in a fairer society.
The people have never shown a lack of courage once the movement has gotten underway, but their lack of strategy has meant that they have seldom been able to enjoy the fruits of their sacrifice. Therefore, Bangladesh remains a country which moves from crisis to crisis, with the underlying structural issues remaining unsolved, as the popular movements almost never address them head-on.
The latest crisis to arise was the protests by private university students against a 7.5% VAT which the government had planned to apply to private university fees. The students blockaded the streets, bringing the capital to a stand-still, until the government relented and shelved its plan. In many ways, the protest was a defining moment for private university students, as well as students who belong to the English-medium stream of education.
Long thought to be pampered, rich children who did not care about the country, the popular opinion is that, through this protest, they proved that they do, in fact, care about the rest of the country. Leaving aside the fact that their protest was to avoid paying more for their own tuition, and that this does not constitute concern for the nation as a whole, the entire protest movement and the self-congratulatory chatter after its victory misses out on a few very important points.
The people are happy that the tax has been shelved, for now. Many see it as a triumph of the people against the government. They are wrong. The government attempted to impose the extra tax to offset an increase in government expenditures, caused mainly due to their doubling of the salaries of public servants. The salary increase caused expenditures to increase by around Tk23,000cr. The tax on public universities was just one of the different measures the government took to balance the budget.
The tax on private universities may have been abolished, but the expenditures remain at their new, increased level. The government will recover the revenues through other means. It may impose taxes on other sectors or raise tax rates, in which case, the public shall bear the additional tax burden through increased cost of products and services. In case the government does not, or cannot, raise tax rates elsewhere, inflation will increase and the entire citizenry of Bangladesh will have to bear the burden of increased prices.
The movement should have aimed at the root of the problem, which is wasteful and extravagant government expenditure. The bureaucracy is bloated, wasteful, and inefficient. The practice of hiring based on quotas further ensures that it will never be efficient. Government jobs have become a way for the government to bribe a part of the populace to take their side.
The people should be protesting for reform of the bureaucracy. They should be protesting for cutting down waste, for more efficient management of public institutions. They should remember the many wasteful government projects which have been in the red for years -- such as the Doel laptop initiative, the national carrier Biman, and many others.
The people of Bangladesh have, for too long, protested against the symptoms of the malaise that affects the nation, rather than the root cause. This has resulted in a national political culture that lurches from crisis to crisis, without any actual progress being made. It is time for the people to choose a different approach. It will be very difficult, but a process of honest introspection, combined with a bit of cynicism, along with a formal process of education and learning from the experiences of others, can ensure that the political culture of our nation is reformed and transformed, and that the people can solve the root problems which face the nation through their activism.
