Shuttering Bangabandhu's dream for financial equality, the subsequent regimes drove the country back to the grip of Pakistan- styled elite group against which the great leader fought until his assassination, said eminent economist Professor Rehman Sobhan. Dr Mohammad Farashuddin and Dr Atiur Rahman also voiced the same and termed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the pioneer of long term financial plan for inclusive growth. Professor Rehman Sobhan served the provisional government of Bangladesh as Envoy Extraordinary with special responsibility for economic affairs during the liberation war in 1971. Dr Mohammad Farashuddin was the private secretary to Bangabandhu until his brutal killing on August 15. Dr Atiur Rahman has a special interest in Bangabandhu as he does about Rabindranath Tagore. Talking to BSS on the financial ideology and the strategy of the Father of the Nation, the three economists shared similar views about the ingenuity of the thinking of Bangabandhu to base the country on its own resources. They were in the opinion that Bangabandhu was a cautious observer of all happenings around him, but he gave his vision and tasks the final touch with his own thinking, based on own resources. "His election manifesto and the election campaign give us a clear idea about his economic goal," Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of the leading think-tank, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said. Dr Farashuddin, a former Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor and adviser to the caretaker government, referred to the historic 7th March address where the great leader put the economic emancipation next to the independence of the country. Dr Atiur Rahman, BB governor, cited from the speeches of Bangabandhu where he strongly advocated inclusive growth for establishing financial equality. Pointing to the expanding economic disparity, Professor Sobhan was critical of the regimes, which repatriated the pro-elite economic policy used to be followed in this country before independence. "Bangabandhu was against this trend and wanted an end to the elite dominance on the economy to ensure equal rights on national wealth," he said and noted with dissatisfaction that the subsequent governments back-tracked from the pro-people policy only to patronize an elite section similar to that one of pre-liberation period. The economist, also an advocate of social equity and justice, said Bangabandhu brought us independence and than began fighting against the divide and rule system, which privileged a select group of society to help accumulate wealth by endlessly depriving mass people of their rights. "He [Bangabandhu] planned compulsory cooperative system and introduced long term plan to bring end to this disparity," Professor Sobhan said. But, he said the society had been driven to different directions since August killing, effectively retrieving the financial approach to re-establish Pakistan-styled wide unequal society. He believes Bangabandhu's economic direction should be implemented for ensuring the rights of the people, also the unaccomplished dream of the nation's founder. Dr Farashuddin, who had the opportunity to observe Bangabandhu's every day schedule and work, said people were miss-leaded about the compulsory cooperative system. "The system was for sharing production and yield, not the ownership of the land," he explained and observed that crop productions would be much more and the proper distributions would be ensured should the system implemented. He said Moulana Bhasani was very pleased about the planned cooperative system, but unfortunately Bangabandhu did not get the time to materialize his vision for social equity. Dr Farashuddin disagreed with the argument that the idea of the cooperative system was borrowed from overseas. "There are some similarities, but the base of the cooperative was rooted into the needs of this country," he said. Quoting from the landmark 7th March address, he said the financial emancipation came next to the independence when Bangabandhu delivered the historic speech. Besides, he said Bangabandhu occasionally gave specific directions for employment generation and poverty eradication. "He introduced monolingual education policy so everyone should get the similar opportunity in education and employment", the economist said. Referring to the first five year plan, which has now been proved indispensable for sustainable development, he said Bangabandhu with this plan pioneered coordinated drive against poverty. "Empowering women was also among his economic agenda," Dr Farashudin said and added that he founded Children Foundation to ensure necessary supports to the future generation. Dr Atiur, who has long been endeavouring ceaseless efforts for inclusive growth, said Bangabandhu furthered the idea because he knew economic growth would not sustain without ensuring participation from the majority and benefit to them. Bangladesh Bank, which is now supporting agriculture most under Atiur's leadership, was reorganized by Bangabandhu. "Not only this, he [Bangabandhu] put agriculture in the centre-point of his economic emancipation," the governor said. He said Bangabandhu was also a good economic manager with unparallel business negotiation skill. For instance, Dr Atiur referred to the agreement with Shell done by Bangabandhu. "This is the milestone towards achieving energy security, also a prerequisite to economic growth," he observed. The governor said Bangabandhu also wanted diminishing dependency on foreign aid and grant, which were initially vital to re-built war ravaged country. "Achieving this target, he started using as much domestic resources as he can in the rebuilding process," Dr Atiur said and referred to an occasion when Bangabandhu directed power department to use bamboo bars as electric poles instead of awaiting proper ones arriving from abroad. Click This Link