Barrister Shah Ali Farhad, a special assistant of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has reacted to a New York Times article on Bangladesh and questioned the agenda of the newspaper in a Facebook comment.
“Bangladesh has reached such a stage in its development journey that she can easily do without one clickbait positive headline, even from an internationally renowned newspaper, if it is based on flawed premises and more importantly, a questionable agenda,” he wrote.
“An article titled ‘What can Biden’s plan do for poverty? Look to Bangladesh’, written by Mr. Nicholas Kristof for New York Times dated March 10, is a classic example.”
“While the said article lauded Bangladesh’s poverty reduction successes, it does so to the extent that the age old, time-tested, Western-backed narrative is preserved; that being, all good in the developing world is done by the NGOs,” he continued.
“While I have immense respect for organisations like BRAC and the work they have done and continue to do, to undercut the government’s role completely with statements like ‘Bangladesh hasn’t had great political leaders...’ not only exposes the gap in information possessed on the part of these western (one-expert-fits-all type) writers but smacks of a more sinister undertone.
“Execution of five-year-economic plans or twenty year perspective plans, the billions distributed as social safety net payments to millions of ultra poor for decades, free public education for girls, large infrastructure which propelled the economic growth, the laws and their enforcement for stopping women being married as children, nutrition and healthcare support for young women and mothers, one of the largest family planning programmes, govt-led world’s largest free public housing scheme for the homeless—- all of this was done by ‘not so great political leaders’ if Nicholas Kristof is to be believed.
“Micro-credit is credited with much of the success for women’s economic emancipation. There is no research to back this up. The first micro-credit programme was launched right after independence by the government of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“In recent years, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina de-prioritised micro-credit on the ground that no discernible evidence of its success can be conclusively established.
“Rather, many women seemed to be condemned to an endless cycle of poverty. Let us not forget the horror stories of women and men, poorest of poor, having their personal belongings (collateral for their microcredit) taken away for non-payment by local level officials of organisations like Grameen.
“Bangladesh is proud of the work being done by our NGOs like BRAC. But we are also proud of the work being done by our governments, our private sector, our entrepreneurs, and our resilient people.
“We need to credit the adoption of the right policies by political parties too. This combined effort is what made the difference in the first fifty years of our independence.
“If Bangladesh is to reach its true potential in the next fifty years and realise our dream of becoming a prosperous country, then we must have our perspectives clear, devoid of such orientalist patronising smokescreens. Even if such smokescreen originates from a globally renowned office in New York or London,” read the comment.