Published: 07:55 AM, 02 December 2025
Humanism Collapses While Economy Gets Baffled
It is categorically narrated in James Robinson's acclaimed book "Why Nations Fail" that when a country gets baffled to uphold humanitarian values and becomes unable to fight political vengeance and injustice, the ultimate result is total disasters in economic fields which drives a country towards a traumatic, catastrophic, slow and painful devastation.
I cannot say for sure how many people belonging to the ruling hierarchy have read the above book but the current socio-political scenario across Bangladesh during last 16 months bears fearsome indications of deadly calamities looming large for us in days to come. A lot of hope and dreams arose in the minds of people all over Bangladesh following the July Uprising in 2024 when the immediate past authoritarian government was overthrown by means of an enormous countrywide upheaval. However, the interim government led by Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus has come under blazing questions, debates, suspicion, critical feedback and smokescreens since taking oath on 8 August 2024.
It sounds unfortunate but it must be admitted that the present shattered rule of law and reign of terror, egregious extortions throughout Bangladesh since August last year have turned our dreams into horrendous nightmares. Mob outfits have launched attacks on various parts of the country over and over again, assaulted political opponents, vandalized shrines, pulled out dead bodies from graves and burned the corpses, cracked down on minstrels (Bauls) and cultural activists, assailed minorities, humiliated academic scholars, gang-raped girls frequently while the law and order forces for the most part played the role of mere onlookers like ordinary civilians standing idle. This does not look like the Bangladesh for which thousands of youngsters and demonstrators laid down their life during July 2024. It appears to be the fact that a new visage of fascism has jumped on the band wagon after the previous fascist regime was unseated.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as investment from local entrepreneurs has undergone a drastic nosedive due to the widespread lawless situations prevailing everywhere in Bangladesh for more than one year. Socioeconomic justice, equal rights and economic wheels cannot be speeded up in the middle of violence, political revenge, declining GDP growth, absence of freedom of expression and total loss of good governance.
A paper presented by Policy Research Institute (PRI) illustrated a couple of days ago how the country's exports, financial backbone and banking system became almost paralyzed since August 2024. Ashikur Rahman, Principal Economist of PRI said during the seminar that at least 16 banks have become totally unfit to disburse new loans. At the same time the scheduled banks absolutely failed to show any sign of success in the recovery of non-performing loans (NPLs). Excluding a few exceptions, most of the owners of large business conglomerates have been trapped in false police cases. This has led to the closure of more than 200 factories in Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, Chittagong, Ashulia etcetera. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs for the same reason.
Due to random shutdown of readymade garments (RMG) factories, trepidations have sprung up that a dreadful outburst of class conflict can get unleashed in Bangladesh at any moment. Terminated furious workers are blocking roads every week in Dhaka and in some other parts of the country demanding their unpaid dues and arrears. Another point has come up which shows that nearly 85% workers in Bangladesh's garments industry are women. Through the continuous shutdown of factories in RMG as well as in other sectors, women employees in Bangladesh are now undergoing a critically fearsome situation by losing jobs. Thus the country's endeavours for women empowerment have come to a standstill abruptly.
Teachers, students, physicians, rickshaw pullers, even government employees are demonstrating against different authorities and regulators which never happened in Bangladesh before. Media professionals have been subjected to harassment and regimentation too during the reign of the present government. Freedom of press, which is the fourth pillar of democracy, has become strangulated as well.
Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) President Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez said on 27 November 2025 that the country's economy is bleeding but the interim government is not paying any heed to the business community. He further said that nearly 50 percent of the small enterprises have been laid off. Defaulted loans around two years ago were 17 percent of the total distributed credits but it has mounted to 35 percent within a matter of just one year. These are ominous, scary and tremendously worsening signs of an economic aggravation which puts the whole country's potentialities under severe threats. Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has very recently commented that insurmountable shocks and quakes are most likely to hit Bangladesh hard. Most of the financial experts in the PRI seminar underscored the point that Bangladesh's economy is going through one of the most difficult turmoils in the country's history. Noted financial analyst Mustafa K Mujeri has commented that Bangladesh's economy is going through the most troublesome period in the country's history.
First Post has reported that 1.4 million people in Bangladesh have lost their jobs during last 15 months.
Pessimism and pangs have gripped the nation. It must be noted that if Bangladesh's political and economic portfolios fall into abysmal ditches, the interim government cannot avoid its liability. We know about some countries which made impressive progress but afterwards these nations' economy was destroyed by wrong decisions, poor governing system and restless political circumstances. Lebanon and Zimbabwe are glaring examples in this regard. Lebanon was so beautiful and prosperous a country once upon a time that it was called the world's finest garden. But Lebanon officially became bankrupt in 2018 due to the rise of fanatical groups, bad financial administration and disorder in the law and order situation. The same thing happened to Zimbabwe. One Zimbabwe dollar was more expensive than one US dollar during 1987 but from 2017 Zimbabwe became impoverished and dysfunctional and everything fell apart due to unskilled and corrupt ruling authorities and lack of visionary leadership.
William Shakespeare once said "All's well that ends well". This dialogue sounds very much pertinent in light of the present political and economic circumferences in Bangladesh. Elections are supposed to be held in February 2026 while elections schedule is supposed to be announced in the middle of December 2025. Let's wait and watch. We have to hope for the best while preparing for the worst and the same reminder should be taken into very serious consideration by the interim government so that people in upcoming days don't condemn Dr. Muhammad Yunus and his cabinet colleagues for miserable failures in streamlining state organs.
Timeless Afro-American leader Martin Luther King once said "Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Injustice cannot eliminate injustice. Only justice can do that". These words are right now crucial underpinnings for the rulers of Bangladesh to follow. Civil society members who were highly vociferous during the immediate past regime should not keep mute at the present time either.
We have just entered the momentous month of December. Bangladesh came off victorious in the Liberation War on 16 December 1971. Christmas is celebrated worldwide on 25 December every year with the message of peace, fraternity and love. Year 2026 is just round the corner and all stakeholders should work in full unity and with firm integrity to bring about a prosperous new year for Bangladesh.
While concluding it's our appeal to the international community like the US State Department, Human Rights Watch, UN Human Rights Office, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the foreign diplomatic missions located in Dhaka to play their role dexterously without biases for the sake of the prevalence of smooth democratic transition and restoring peace and stability across Bangladesh without delay.
Shoeb Chowdhury is an author, poet, sports organizer and Chairman, Editorial Board of The Asian Age.
