Published in The Daily Star on Wednesday, 20 December 2017
Star Desk
Eminent economist Rehman Sobhan has said politics has now turned out to be an extended part of business and money paves the way for winning an election.
He was delivering Nurjahan Murshid and Professor Khan Sarwar Murshid Trust Fund lecture in the city yesterday.
He said weaknesses in democratic institutions were damaging the organisational discipline of the political parties. Besides, there were no signs of leadership from the new generation.
Politics has now become a game of the rich as money and muscle power have intruded into political parties, added Sobhan, also the chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, an independent thinktank.
A tendency of committing crimes has developed due to weak rule as well as for amassing wealth illegally, he told the programme.
“The defaulters of Motijheel [loan defaulters] receive support from political leaders which help them patronise criminals. These criminals help them take part in polls and even grab state properties,” said the former adviser to a caretaker government.
Harun ur Rashid, chairperson of Nurjahan Murshid and Prof Khan Sarwar Murshid Trust Fund, presided over the programme at the auditorium of Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
Download lecture by Professor Rehman Sobhan