City of Hope

One of the perks of my job is that I get to attend fancy dinner parties in various cities in Asia. At one such recent "who's who" event in Singapore, I ran into a friend who happens to be a prominent corporate lawyer in Asia. Upon seeing me, the first thing my friend said to me was: "I just came back from your city of gloom." The city of gloom he was referring to was none other than my birthplace, Dhaka.

My friend went on to relate how the curfew last week had made his and his colleagues' lives miserable while he was in Dhaka for a "due diligence" trip (to evaluate a company on behalf of a foreign investor who was interested in making an investment). Over the course of the evening, several other lawyers and bankers at the gathering informed me that, given the current situation, they know potential investors are now thinking about holding back from investing in Bangladesh.

After hearing one negative point after another, the final insult was the comparison with Calcutta (a number of them had recently returned from business trips in Calcutta). "You both are Bengalis, why is that Calcutta is booming and filled with prospects while Dhaka is so gloomy and morbid …what is happening, when will you guys get your act together?"

Sitting miles from Bangladesh, I try to distance myself from the country's internal politics. I rationalise it by saying: I don't live there so I can't comment on the situation. However, this hands-off attitude does not work well given the profession I am in and the fact that I am seen in many situations as a "representative" of my country. So, whether I like it or not, I am forced to look at the situation and judge the merits of it.

In this case, when I was asked what was happening, sadly, I had no answer.


We had hope
I have had the chance to visit Bangladesh several times since the beginning of the year. The sense of euphoria that was in the country in January now seems like a distance past. In the past 8 months I have witnessed the country go from the peaks of excitement and expectation to the valleys of despair, in a cycle that has been repeated every time a new regime has come to power in Bangladesh.

This feeling did not contain itself in the country alone. The rest of the world has been waiting to see if the current government will be able to validate Goldman Sachs's prediction that Bangladesh will be in the next group of economic tigers. Everybody was ready to cheer from the sidelines, but unfortunately, the parade never got started -- at least not yet.


In the name of corruption
This government was going to root out corruption, and we all were ecstatic about it. (Trust me, it is no joy to hear over and over again that Bangladesh has had the misfortune of getting the top position in Transparency International's list of most corrupt governments several times).

However, we all knew that rooting out a disease which has become a part of our system would not be easy. In the last few months, it seems as though the fight against corruption has taken over everything.

The time we are supposed to spend in building back the country became a time to pull each other down. All I heard from people and read in the paper was who was corrupt, who should be arrested, who is having a hearing, which building will be torn down, etc etc.

I did not hear my countrymen, women, or leaders say: We will fight corruption but we will also build the nation. We will make every Bangladeshi, here and overseas, play a role in building the nation.

When I watched on television the Rangs building being torn down piece by piece, all I could think about was that they could have taken the windows out, the air conditioners out, all the fixtures out first, and sold them and used the money to rebuild some schools.

Instead, the whole scene was one of raw passion and raw anger taken out on people and infrastructure. I thought we learned from history that such raw anger needs to be directed to more positive endeavours.

I full heartedly agree that the fight against corruption is extremely important, and the government should be applauded for its courage in this battle. I hope the government will prove its cases against the worst offenders with clear evidence in an open process that will leave no doubt that justice was done. But, while cutting out the disease of corruption, the government must also look forward to building a prosperous, hopeful society.


Running a country is tough but ...
Running a country is tough, and I do not envy anyone who has to do it. However, I cannot help myself from drawing some over-arching parallels between running a country and running a company. In my humble opinion (albeit biased by years of running companies), to run either (company or country) one needs to: keep the customer (the citizens) happy, make money (promote economic growth), and keep the employees (the business community and citizens) motivated.

Keeping this three-pronged approach in mind, one can and needs to move forward. Now what is the plan?

Keeping customers (citizens) happy:
Remember, the customer is king, which means the citizen is king (we Bengalis of course know this well). This means you have to listen to the customer. She may have issues, concerns, and passionate views about your product (policies) -- which you may or may not agree with, but you have to listen to her. Make her feel important and make her opinion count (give the citizen a voice, let her vote, encourage a free and independent media).

Make money (economic growth):
You have to put the right sales strategies (economic policies) in place to make money. Have a sales culture (promote entrepreneurship). Let your sales people have a say in the company (bring the business community into decision making -- not in the way of the past where politicians granted favours in return for bribes, but by listening to legitimate concerns of businessmen) and make them the most important part of your company's organizational structure.

Keep employees (business community and citizens) motivated:
This means encouraging your employees (citizens/business people) to take risks for the company (country) and not be reprimanded for it. You may not like some things they do, but that does not mean you take away their office desk (stop nationwide mobile phone operations) or stop their salary (impose curfews). Difficult and annoying as it may be, talk to them. Get them to see your way, the company's (country's) way. Give them a sense of ownership.


City of Hope
The key is communication. We need to listen to each other, we need to believe in each other, we need to trust each other and we need to tell the international community the great things we have to offer to the world and back that up with actions.

So, let us stop burning buses and cars, stop shooting at each other, stop mid night arrests, stop curfews and stop the interrogations. Let us start building up businesses, schools, creating job opportunities, encourage community building and celebrate our achievements.

Over the last several decades even after being beaten up, crushed and taken advantage of, we Bangladeshis have not given up hope. So, let us now turn this hope into action. Let us say: "We will think big, we will build this country and we will all do it together."

I do hope, for my country's sake, in next few months our City of Gloom turns into the City of Hope, and we measure up to any of our neighbouring cities. Whatever they can do, we can do it better -- I know we can. We now need our leaders to believe in us and guide us to that success.

End Note: I wrote this piece last week. In the intervening days, I was delighted to hear Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed address many of these issues in his speech on September 9. I applaud this as a move in the right direction for the country and a first step in putting citizens' concerns at ease. We need to see more such communication as well as tangible action towards rebuilding a strong, prosperous, democratic nation.

Durreen Shahnaz is managing director of a regional media company based in Singapore.

This article was published in Daily Star on Sep 12, 2007