Eminent economist Prof Rehman Sobhan yesterday emphasised the formidable challenges facing Dr Muhammad Yunus-led interim government in executing its ambitious reform agenda within the limited timeframe of 18 months to two years, as pledged for transferring power to an elected administration.
"Implementing such a highly ambitious agenda would require the government to remain in office for a significantly longer period, potentially four or five years," Prof Sobhan stated delivering a lecture titled Constructing a More Just Society in Bangladesh in memory of Nahreen Khan, a former student of East West University (EWU) and daughter of former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan on Wednesday (27 November).
Prof Sobhan pointed out that even reforms initiated by the interim government would necessitate the support of the succeeding elected administration.
"However, given the interim government’s commitment to hand over power within 18 months or two years, the scope for accomplishing most of these reforms will be constrained," he said.
"The commitment and capacity of such a party must be evaluated in relation to its social and political support as well as its track record, if it has previously held office," he added.
The distinguished academic outlined pervasive inequalities in four key areas: Market injustice, inequitable social opportunity, political injustice, and state injustice.
Regarding market injustice, Prof Sobhan highlighted unequal labour markets, where securing employment is treated as a social privilege rather than an economic right.
On inequitable social opportunity, he criticised Bangladesh’s educational system as inherently unjust, noting its failure to deliver quality education, especially for lower-income groups reliant on public schools.
"Despite quantitative expansion, the low budget allocation for education—lagging even by South Asian standards—has compromised quality, particularly in public institutions," he observed.
He recommended raising public investment in education to at least five percent of GDP over the next decade to address disparities and prevent the system from perpetuating social injustice.
On political injustice, Prof Sobhan lamented the erosion of electoral democracy, which, even under a non-partisan caretaker government, suffered from systemic flaws.
"It has increasingly become a rich man’s game, with escalating monetary influence in politics, the use of politics for business interests, and vice versa," he said.
Successive parliaments, he argued, had morphed into chambers of commerce for "crony" capitalists, prioritising personal business gains over public accountability. Meanwhile, the opposition’s role in holding the government accountable had largely diminished.
He extended his critique to local governance, where ruling party officials monopolised business opportunities through public expenditures. This nexus of politics and business has criminalised Bangladesh’s politics, he asserted.
"Lower-income groups remain excluded, as our representative institutions are undemocratic and prohibitively expensive for the majority. This exclusionary environment has progressively criminalised politics," Prof Sobhan added.
He further criticised the state for becoming a patron of criminal activity, with loan defaulters gaining parliamentary immunity.
"Candidates with defaulted loans are technically barred from elections, but finance ministers repeatedly relax these provisions before polls, enabling defaulters to dominate elective bodies and thwart efforts to address loan defaults," he remarked.
Such policies reflect broader systemic biases, with state institutions perpetuating injustice in revenue collection, public spending, and macroeconomic policies, Prof Sobhan said.
A just society, according to Prof Sobhan, requires empowering Bangladesh’s poor to leverage their demographic and electoral majority.
"Bangladesh’s poor survive as disempowered individuals. Building institutions that enable them to rediscover their collective identity is crucial," he asserted.
He urged political leadership to embrace this majority by including underprivileged individuals in party organisations and nominating them for both local and parliamentary elections.
"Realising a more just society is a long-term project but can be expedited if political leaders commit sincerely to creating a non-discriminatory, egalitarian, and socially just society," he concluded.
The event also featured EWU Chief Adviser Mohammed Farashuddin, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Shams Rahman, and Prof Fakrul Alam, former professor at Dhaka University’s English department, among others.
