Politicians in Bangladesh are getting nervous about their safety heading into election season after somebody shot Sharif Osman Hadi, who was running as an independent for Dhaka-8 and speaks for Inquilab Mancha. Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya from the Centre for Policy Dialogue mentioned at some conference that people are wondering if the Election Commission and government can actually keep candidates safe, and he said politicians are basically a vulnerable group at this point.
Reform expert Bhattacharya pointed out that elites made up of politicians, bureaucrats, and big business wrecked competitive politics and turned the economy into crony capitalism that eventually became predatory. He thinks reform efforts lost steam because transparency dropped off and the government stopped coordinating properly. Other speakers talked about corruption being everywhere across ministries, and someone mentioned nearly 60 percent of parliament members are business owners who create conflicts of interest, while banks are drowning in bad loans that hit around 6.3 trillion taka.
Reform expert Bhattacharya pointed out that elites made up of politicians, bureaucrats, and big business wrecked competitive politics and turned the economy into crony capitalism that eventually became predatory. He thinks reform efforts lost steam because transparency dropped off and the government stopped coordinating properly. Other speakers talked about corruption being everywhere across ministries, and someone mentioned nearly 60 percent of parliament members are business owners who create conflicts of interest, while banks are drowning in bad loans that hit around 6.3 trillion taka.
