Breaking Bangladesh’s anti-reform coalition key to new political settlement: Debapriya
Debapriya said designing reforms is comparatively easy, but implementing them is among the most difficult tasks. “There is no shortcut,” he said.
Bangladesh must now confront how to dismantle an entrenched anti-reform coalition if it is to move towards a new political settlement, economist Debapriya Bhattacharya has said.
Speaking at a "Speed Talk" session during the Bay of Bengal Conversation organised by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) at a Dhaka hotel today (22 November), he said the coalition—comprising politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats—had resisted competition and accountability for more than a decade.
Debapriya said Bangladesh currently faces three essential national objectives: justice, reforms and elections. Reform, he noted, sits at the centre, connecting the other two and shaping the path forward.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
He said the intellectual foundation for the current reform demand drew heavily from the recently published White Paper, which he led in drafting. Its findings, he explained, showed that what had been called "development" over the past decade and a half had taken the shape of "performance without accountability".
According to him, this created three powerful groups—political, business and bureaucratic actors—who operated above competition. "This system produced authoritarian tendencies and what I describe as the rise of oligarchs," he said.
He added that these oligarchs had captured major parts of the economy and state mechanisms, including banking, the power sector and export regimes.
As the country looks towards a new political settlement, he said the pressing question is how to break this coalition that consistently resisted reforms. Reflecting on lessons from Bangladesh's own experience, Debapriya said reforms do not always require a heavy-handed approach or overly complex measures.
Periods of transition, he noted, can themselves create openings for meaningful reform. However, for reforms to succeed, he stressed three essentials: a clear vision, a credible programme and cooperation among all stakeholders.
Transparency in both short- and medium-term outcomes is also critical, he said. He added that reforms must maintain a strong political connection, while citizens should act as engaged observers, holding the process to account.
Debapriya said designing reforms is comparatively easy, but implementing them is among the most difficult tasks. "There is no shortcut," he said.
He emphasised that reforms are a continuous process that does not begin or end with a single government. "Governments change, but the country remains. The people remain.
The stakeholders remain," he said, noting the need to maintain momentum and avoid slipping back into inertia. After working intensely on reform issues for the past year and a half, he likened the situation to the plot of Tom Cruise's latest Mission: Impossible film.
"This is mission impossible," he said, adding that the film's title—The Final Reckoning—echoes the ultimate challenge for any economist: delivering successful reform.
